Bio
John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner is a Republican American politician who is currently serving as the House Minority Leader in the 111th Congress. He serves as a U.S. Representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district, which includes several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton and a small portion of Dayton itself.
David Cook
David Cook is Senior Editor and Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor. He oversees the Monitor's 9-person bureau in the nation's capital, hosts the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts, and writes for csmonitor.com.
For over 40 years, Monitor breakfasts have brought journalists together with key public officials to talk about the issues of the day in a candid, in-depth fashion. Since their start in 1966, four US presidents, five vice presidents, and countless cabinet and congressional officials have been guests at the 3,600 breakfasts the Monitor has hosted.
When Monitor correspondent Jill Carroll was held captive in Iraq for 82 days in 2006, Cook served as the Monitor's spokesperson and appeared on numerous national broadcasts including "Today," "Nightline," "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," and "ABC World News Tonight."
From August 1994 through July 2001, Cook served as editor of The Christian Science Monitor. During his term, the Monitor's print edition was redesigned, csmonitor.com was launched, and the paper won numerous awards including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.
Previously Cook was editor of Monitor Broadcasting which produced daily radio news programs heard on 200 public radio stations. He also served as managing editor of the Monitor's Emmy award-winning nightly television news program "World Monitor."
His current assignment is Cook's third tour in Washington. During two previous postings in the nation's capital he covered economic policy. He also has been a Detroit-based correspondent for Business Week.
Cook was awarded a Bagehot Fellowship in Business and Economic Journalism by Columbia University. He is a graduate of Principia College, attended the Advanced Management Program at Michigan State University, and served in the U.S. Army. He is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization, and the father of three grown sons.
Encyclopædia Britannica Articles
- Congress of the United States
Legislature of the U.S., separated structurally from the executive and judicial (see judiciary) branches of government. Established by the Constitution of the United States, it succeeded the unicameral congress created by the Articles of Confederation (1781). It consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Representation in the Senate is fixed at two senators per state. Until passage of the 17th Amendment (1913), senators were appointed by the state legislatures; since then they have been elected directly. In the House, representation is proportional to each state's population; total membership is restricted (since 1912) to 435 members (the total rose temporarily to 437 following the admission of Hawaii and Alaska as states in 1959). Congressional business is processed by committees: bills are debated in committees in both houses, and reconciliation of the two resulting versions takes place in a conference committee. A presidential veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority in each house. Congress's constitutional powers include the setting and collecting of taxes, borrowing money on credit, regulating commerce, coining money, declaring war, raising and supporting armies, and making all laws necessary for the execution of its powers. All finance-related legislation must originate in the House; powers exclusive to the Senate include approval of presidential nominations, ratification of treaties, and adjudication of impeachments. See also bicameral system.
- Congress of the United States on britannica.com
- Republican Party
One of two major U.S. political parties. It was formed in 1854 by former members of the Whig, Democratic, and Free Soil parties who chose the party's name to recall the Jeffersonian Republicans' concern with the national interest above sectional interests and states' rights. The new party opposed slavery and its extension into the territories, as provided by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Its first presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, won 11 states in 1856; its second, Abraham Lincoln, won the 1860 election by carrying 18 states. Its association with the Union victory in the American Civil War allowed it a long period of dominance nationally, though it was uncompetitive in the South for more than a century after the war. Republican candidates won 14 of 18 presidential elections between 1860 and 1932, through support from an alliance of Northern and Midwestern farmers and big-business interests. In 1912 the party split between a progressive wing led by Theodore Roosevelt and a conservative wing led by Pres. William Howard Taft; the rift enabled the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, to win that year's election. The Republican Party's inability to counter the impact of the Great Depression led to its ouster from power in 1933; in 1953 the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower brought a moderate wing of the party to prominence. The party's platform remained conservative, emphasizing anticommunism, reduced government regulation of the economy, and lower taxes; many members also opposed civil rights legislation. In the 1950s the GOP gained new support from middle-class suburbanites and white Southerners disturbed by the integrationist policies of the national Democratic Party. Richard Nixon, who narrowly lost the 1960 presidential race, won narrowly in 1968 and by a landslide in 1972, but he was forced to resign in 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal. Ronald Reagan, who had assumed the leadership of the conservative wing of the Republican Party after Barry Goldwater's defeat in the presidential election of 1964, won the presidency in 1980 and 1984; he introduced deep tax cuts and launched a massive buildup of U.S. military forces. Reagan's vice president, George Bush, was elected in 1988 and enjoyed enormous popularity after success in the Persian Gulf War, but an anemic economy led to his defeat in 1992 by Democrat Bill Clinton. The defeat was offset in 1994, when the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. In 2000 George W. Bush narrowly won the presidency in one of the closest and most controversial elections in U.S. history. In 2004 he won reelection. In part because of growing opposition to the Iraq War, Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate following the 2006 midterm elections. In the 2008 presidential election Republican nominee John McCain was defeated by Democrat Barack Obama, and the Democrats increased their majorities in both the House and the Senate. The Republican Party continues to emphasize tax cuts, traditional social values, and a strong national defense.
- Republican Party on britannica.com
© 2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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