Ohio: Congress

Boehner, a West Chester Republican, posted his suggestion a little more than a week ago: that the Obama administration support a requirement that all bills in Congress be made public for review for at least 72 hours before a floor vote. As of Friday morning, it was the clear leader in the "making government operations more open" category, with 784 votes in favor and 103 against.

"If the administration chose to support such a review and follow through on its own promise to allow for five days of public comment on all bills before signing, it would represent a good first step toward greater transparency and accountability in government spending," Boehner wrote.

Joining other GOP state chairmen in Washington for a meeting sponsored by the Republican National Committee, DeWine will vote no on a scheduled resolution calling on Democrats to rename their party the "Democrat Socialist Party."

"That sort of noise is unproductive; it is not helpful," DeWine said.

To Democrats, the re-branding resolution symbolizes the plight of a party stuck in the past and searching for a leader, its rebirth stunted by divisive voices filling the void, namely former Vice President Dick Cheney and talk radio's Rush Limbaugh.

"They've got to start offering real solutions," said Sherrod Brown, Ohio's Democratic senator. "Name-calling, telling the Democrats to change their name, it just hurts them.

One is a measure co-written by Republican Voinovich and Democrat Brown. It authorizes $1.8
billion nationally over five years to help communities pay for federally mandated repairs to sewer
systems. The communities would have to bear 75 percent of the cost. Many Ohio communities face
billions of dollars worth of such mandated improvements.

Another is a measure co-written by Voinovich and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and co-sponsored
by Brown. It authorizes Congress to send out up to $1.8 billion in federal grants to help modernize
sewer systems that often overflow into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water.

Both proposals were

included in a broader funding bill for water infrastructure that was approved Thursday by the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, on which Voinovich serves.

"Our legislation holds

the federal government responsible for paying its

fair share for the nation's pressing water- and wastewater-infrastructure needs," Voinovich
said.

Presidents wake up every day wondering whether terrorists will attack Americans and whether they will be judged to have failed to protect the homeland if that happens.

Presidents make decisions.

Members of Congress make speeches.

Is that unfair? Perhaps a little. Presidents can hem and haw and speechify with the best of them, and lawmakers sometimes take courageous, politically unpopular stands and cast votes that could cost them their jobs come the next election.

But being president has to be, no contest, the loneliest job in the world -- just look at the way they age (see the before and after photos of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as recent examples) during their time in the White House.