KC Buzz Blog

Remember the first day of kindergarten?

   Apparently that's kind of like the seating chart for a president's State of the Union speech. A wild scramble ensued last night and seniority does have its perks.(Apparently the "good" aisle seats to be able to glad-hand on national teeevee the president as he walks in and out of the House Chambers require staking 'em out 12 hours or so beforehand.)

   One of those on the aisle was Sen. Kit Bond, who was next to Penn. Sen. Arlen Specter on the Republican side. His bipartisan display was a blue paisley tie.

  On the Democratic aisle side no, that wasn't Congresman Emanuel Cleaver mauling President Bush last night and saying he was going to pray for him. That was his near twin, Rep. Sanford Bishop.

   A spokesman for Cleaver said Cleaver sat dead center in the Democratic side of the House chambers. Cleaver grabbed a salad beforehand and got to the chambers early. He said he couldn't imagine the pressure the president faced last night.

   Afterward, as Cleaver was on the telephone doing an interview with KCUR-FM, he waved at Sen. Claire McCaskill as she prepared to do an interview with KMBC.

   During the speech, McCaskill was several rows back from Sen. Hillary Clinton, which got her on television a bit. But apparently even closer to her and thus getting more camera time was Congressman Dennis Moore, who is today on The New York Times Web site thanks to this picture.

  He may be in the minority now, but Rep. Roy Blunt was one of the first to make his way to Bush after the speech. Cameras caught him broadly smiling his accolades to Bush. Right behind Blunt, but not seeking Bush out for any back slapping would be Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, who blamed Bush in part for him losing the title of majority leader. Lott was smiling jovially to everyone else on his way out.

   Getting the biggest post-speech interview from our neck of the woods was McCaskill who charmed MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. (Check it out here). She was rewarded with almost 10 minutes of airtime, a lifetime by teevee standards. The best part of the interview was when she joked about the difficulties in knowing when to stand and clap and when to sit stoically.

   "It's a mess!" she joked, adding it was "silly" the whole "game" about when to stand up.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Moore opposes Iraq surge

   It took less than a day for U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Lenexa Democrat, to go from just being cautiously concerned about the president's new strategy for Iraq to open opponent.

   Contacted after the president spoke Wednesday night, Moore said he was concerned about the implications of a troop escalation. That ambiguity disappeared today.

   This afternoon a statement was issued entitled, "Moore opposes troop escalation."

   "The president's troop escalation plan will not create a stable Iraq," Moore said. "I was hopeful that President Bush would understand that the American people are ready for a new direction with our involvement in Iraq. Unfortunately,
the president's new strategy is more of the same."

Posted by Jim Sullinger

One-size-fits-all suit of woven bullfeathers

   While his Democratic colleagues are talking about Iraq buzz saws, Republican heads in the sand, American soldiers as targets, this is the statement we get from the honorable Dennis Moore, U.S. representative for Kansas -- best read with a Col. Blimp accent.

    “I am concerned about the implications of a troop escalation and look forward to an open, honest discussion about all options regarding the United States’ presence in Iraq, including full, aggressive congressional oversight of the Administration’s overall Iraq policy.”

   Geez, fire the ghost writer, will ya?

Posted by Darryl Levings

Ah, civility

     Congressman Emanuel Cleaver has been pushing for more civility on the House floor since last year. The previous Republican-led Congress was notable for how it trashed House protocols, like sending bills to the floor without hearings and holding votes open long past deadlines to allow GOP leaders more time to twist arms to get their measures passed.

    Cleaver actually has several proposals to change the tone in the House and got two of them included in the ethics reform package passed today. One bars the practice of holding open votes. The other requires conference committees to offer adequate notice of their meetings. It also guarantees that information about the bills being decided is available to all members, and that reports on legislation won't be changed after everyone has agreed to them.

    "These may sound like small, common sense changes, and frankly they are," Cleaver, a Democrat said in a statement. "However, compared to the way the Congress has been run in the last decade, these measures represent a sea change in the respect given to the minority party."

    Democrat Dennis Moore of Kansas got his two cents into the ethics reform bill with a measure requiring full disclosure of all earmarks. These are projects tucked into bills without review and without attribution to the member who submitted them. They are usually for parochial programs, but all taxpayers pay for them.

Posted by David Goldstein 

A marriage of necessity?

    The shift in power on Capitol Hill will probably produce more invitations like the one Rep. Dennis Moore of Kansas got today. He and several other leading fiscally conservative Democrats sat down for an hour with President Bush - at his invitation - to talk about how they could help each other.

     "When he was governor of Texas, I heard that he reached out to the Democratic legislature and was able to accomplish some things," Moore said. "He hasn't had to do that because Congress was of his party and he could do pretty much what he wanted. I think we're going to see something different now, for obvious political reasons, because he's going to need some votes."

    Moore is the co-chair for policy of the Blue Dog Coalition, formed by moderate and conservative Democrats in 1995 after the Republican takeover. They were looking for a middle ground between both parties' extremes.

    Moore said the lawmakers and Bush mentioned some issues, like energy and the estate tax, but no specific legislative goals. After the president spoke, and then each member spoke, there wasn't a whole of time left, he said. But the Kansas Democrat said just the very fact that the meeting took place at all was a break from the past and - hopefully - emblematic of a new political tone.

    During his one-minute allotment of speaking time, Moore said he squeezed in a gentle chiding about the ballooning national debt - up $2.8 trillion since Bush was elected in 2000.

    "I have seven grandchildren," Moore told him. "We are placing our children and our grandchildren and all the children in the country at risk. We are mortgaging their future. That's not fair to them."

     The president didn't respond. But as the Democrats were leaving, Moore said Bush told them, "I think we'll be able to work with Democrats on a lot of issues."

Posted by David Goldstein 

Angry Moore weeps in The Onion

People Always Hate Politicians Until They Need One

   Kansas Rep. Dennis Moore seems a little angry in this guest column in The Onion - America's Finest News Source. "I swear, sometimes the electorate at large just makes me sick."

   (Remember, The Onion is a satirical newspaper.)

Posted by Mark Morris

Labor unions to Dennis Moore: Our threats are meaningless

    In cleaning off its desk this afternoon, KC Buzz Blog came across a threatening letter sent in July 2005 by 20 union presidents to House Democratic leaders.

   The leaders vowed that any House Democrat who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement would see their union support dry up: They specifically named Rep. Dennis Moore of Kansas in the letter.

   "There must be real and measurable consequences for opposing labor on this issue...we cannot and will not give any Democrat a pass on CAFTA," the unions heads thundered.

   Moore voted for CAFTA anyway.

   And here we are, a little over a year later. And since then, Moore has raked in $13,500 from four unions whose leaders signed the letter: $5,000 each from AFSCME and the Electrical Workers; $2,500 from the American Federation of Teachers; and $1,000 from the Transportation-Communications Union.

   Another object lesson in the decline of the American union?

Posted by Matt Stearns

Moore backs Bush on terrorism vote

   Rep. Dennis Moore of Kansas was one of just 34 House Democrats who voted today to give the White House authority to interrogate and prosecute detainees suspected of terrorism.

     "This legislation provides a framework through which our military can bring enemy combatants to justice," Moore said in a statement. "It represents a comprehensive approach that takes into account the concerns of the Supreme Court, intelligence officers and military lawyers."

   The bill passed 253-168, and now goes to the Senate. Seven Republicans opposed the measure, including Moore's Kansas colleague, Rep. Jerry Moran.

   Missouri lawmakers voted along party lines.

Posted by David Goldstein

Dennis Moore's father dies

   Warner Moore, father of Kansas Congressman Dennis Moore, died Sunday morning.

   A lawyer, Warner Moore was elected three times as Sedgwick County attorney in the 1950s.

   The congressman will be missing votes in Washington this week to spend time with his family and his campaign has been put on temporary hold.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Ahner nabs Dole as honorary chair

   Chuck Ahner, Kansas' 3rd District Republican nominee for Congress, has announced Bob Dole as his campaign's honorary chairman.

   Dole's thinking? In a statement, he said Ahner has a "positive message for the future. He will protect our seniors, improve education for our children and oppose tax increases."

   Ahner's opponent is Democratic incumbent Dennis Moore.

Posted by Steve Kraske