Claire McCaskill

Senatus reports today that Sen. Claire McCaskill will lead the committee looking into four impeachment articles against Judge Thomas Porteous, who serves on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.  The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved the four articles of impeachment last week, which accuse Porteous of "taking money, expensive meals and other gifts from lawyers and a bail bond company with business before him and of making false statements in a personal bankruptcy filing."

The Times-Picayune has more.

The U.S. Senate passed a $17.6 billion jobs bill today by a 68-29 vote, sending it to the White House for the President's signature. "The bill includes a payroll tax break for small businesses and highway funding designed to spur job growth," according to Politico.

A proposal to freeze earmark spending for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 was defeated in the Senate yesterday by a 68-29 vote. Sen. Kit Bond voted to kill the proposal, Sen. Claire McCaskill supported the moratorium.

Twenty-four Republicans voted for the measure, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), and 15 GOP senators voted against it.  Just four Democrats, including McCaskill, voted with DeMint for temporary ban.

Via Show Me Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the Climate Protection Action Fund have a cool new ad campaign featuring video messages submitted by Missourians calling for meaningful clean energy and green jobs legislation.   Here's one of several ads:

From Wednesday's Daily Show:

Pretty snazzy:

Today on CNN Sunday morning, Sen. Claire McCaskill said it's "nuts" for Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to hold up the confirmation of a Transportation Security Administration chief over concerns about letting employees join a union.  As noted by Politico, "DeMint has been blocking the confirmation of Erroll Southers...because he fears the nominee will let workers bargain collectively. Southers has the approval of two bipartisan committees."

Speaking this morning on CBS’ “The Early Show,” Sen. Claire McCaskill called out Republican senators for their work to slow down and kill health care reform efforts.  The Senate GOP has steadfastly refused to produce a real plan for reducing health care costs and expanding access, but has produced a comprehensive plan for slowing down the health care debate.   Watch it:

Public Policy Polling released the second part of their recent Missouri poll today. Regarding Gov. Nixon:

It's been a pretty successful first year for the state's new Governor. 42% of voters approve of the job he's doing to 25% disapproving. In a time when the popularity of many chief executives across the country is tanking, those are very solid numbers. Nixon is one of only four Governors PPP has polled on all year with a disapproval rating under 30% (the others being Jack Markell of Delaware, Mike Beebe of Arkansas, and Pat Quinn of Illinois.) The 33% of voters with no opinion of him is unusually high though, an indication that he may need to do more to step up his visibility across the state.

In the same poll, Sen. Bond's approval rating is 41/34, and Sen. McCaskill's is 42/45.

Via JohnCombest.com, National Geographic has a pretty cool new project featuring 'state maps' as drawn by U.S. Senators. Senators were asked to to "draw a map of their home state from memory and to label at least three important places." Here's Sen. McCaskill's:

Sen. Claire McCaskill talked health care with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week."

In today's Post-Dispatch:

Ethical handling, though, hardly has been the hallmark of the some in reverse mortgage lending industry. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who brought [Peter H. Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association] to University City for that hearing last summer, deserves credit for bringing these issues to light.

Mortgage lenders’ and brokers’ good intentions alone cannot be trusted, especially when it comes to senior citizens ripe for the picking. Americans age 65 and older will number nearly 55 million by 2020. Many own their homes and hold an equity honey pot, which, according to the reverse mortgage industry’s own estimates, amounts to $4 trillion.

Heard On The Hill:

The rolling prank war between hallmates Sens. Claire McCaskill and Ben Nelson is back on, with McCaskill pulling a stunt this morning to taunt her colleague ahead of tonight’s football game between the University of Nebraska and the University of Missouri.

The Missouri Democrat snuck into Nelson’s office (well, she did get the OK from his staffers, who promised not to tip off the boss) and hung doctored photos of Nelson wearing Missouri hats, ties and football helmets. One even shows the Nebraska Democrat fishing, but instead of a fish on the end of his line, there is the Missouri mascot, a tiger.