Calm — and sunshine — before the storm

By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Washington — Washington last week felt a little like a college campus in those final August days before classes resume for the year.

The weather was unseasonably nice, with temperatures kicking up almost to 70. Staffers were sneaking breaks outside the Capitol. People wore flip-flops. Some days, it was sunnier than Las Vegas.

Under the Capitol dome, usually harried aides strolled the halls in jeans. People had time to chat. Desks were getting cleared.

The breezy scene defied the head-spinning up north in New Hampshire and later in the week in Nevada as the presidential primary season consumed the national debate, helping to set the tone for the year ahead.

This week opens a new year in Congress that promises trenchant partisanship. If you thought 2007 was a bad, wait until you see 2008.

To kick it off, Democrats are planning a mid-January vote to override President Bush’s veto of a bill to provide health insurance to children of working-class families.

Bush twice vetoed the bill, which is widely supported by Americans. With another override vote, Democrats are ensuring that Republican holdouts, such as Rep. Dean Heller of Nevada, will again be forced to explain why they don’t want to raise taxes on cigarettes to pay for health care for kids a tough sell in a campaign year.

Politics, rather than policy, may dominate the year as both parties define themselves with rhetoric on the economy, energy policy and the Iraq war. The Iraq debate this spring when war funding runs dry and Gen. David Petraeus returns for a briefing could help determine whether Republicans wiggle out from under an unpopular war or whether Democrats further strengthen their position as the party the public increasingly looks to on national security.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Nevada’s Republican Sen. John Ensign will be central players in the Hill drama. Reid will be positioning Democrats to expand their majority in Congress, and Ensign, as head of the committee working to elect Republicans to the Senate, will be working to stop that from happening.

Somewhere in the mix, Nevada’s House members will try to shoehorn their local issues onto the agenda. In civics classes you learn that lawmakers respond to issues with legislation. But unlike local governments, which operate from a fairly predictable agenda week to week, the congressional schedule rolls with the mood. As recession worries heat up, so does talk of an economic stimulus package. If fighting in Iraq flares or recedes, expect bills in response.

Finding a route into the debate can be especially frustrating for mid-level representatives like Nevada Democrat Shelley Berkley or members of the minority party, like Heller and Nevada’s Rep. Jon Porter.

They must watch and wait for an opening, and hope they have laid the political and legislative groundwork for a smooth entry.

Porter, who tends to stay away from hot-button legislative proposals of his own, will continue efforts to address Southern Nevada’s shortage of nurses and work with fellow Republican Ensign to establish a system in which doctors can prescribe medications online.

Heller has his sights set on fighting illegal immigration as he continues to bolster his conservative credentials. Tough talk on immigration speaks to his primarily rural district, where he won office in 2006 after a grueling primary attack from the right. He also plans to press on with efforts to protect lands from devastating wildfires.

Killing the plan for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, always tops on the delegation’s agenda, will be a priority for Berkley and the others. The dump is facing a make-or-break deadline this summer.

As the Capitol comes alive this week, it will be a soft opening. The House returns Tuesday, but the Senate isn’t back until next week one of the perks of having the majority leader, who sets the schedule, from Nevada.

Saturday is caucus day in Nevada, and presidential politics is driving much of the action on the Hill, even if it doesn’t always look that way on a sunny afternoon in Washington.