'ISIS will go to hell': Iraqi Christians struggle to teach kids message of forgiveness

The message on the whiteboard inside the Mar Elia Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region bears a message for the hundreds of Christian families driven from their homes by Islamic State militants: "Be grateful. Be alive. Be happy. Be careful.”
But Christianity's central tenet of forgiveness is a hard sell for children who, after living much of their lives in relative peace with Muslim neighbors, find themselves homeless after their families fled when Islamic State militants ordered them to convert or be killed. With Iraq's Christian population dwindling, the daunting task of helping kids cling to the faith of their parents falls to church elders, who have taken in hundreds of families now living in a sprawling complex of tents.
"It's hard to explain what is happening," Father Daniel Alkhory told FoxNews.com in the predominantly Christian district of Ankawa inside the Kurdish capital of Erbil. "I was teaching them the parable of Ishmael and Lazarus, talking to them about Heaven and Hell, so I used that to bring up ISIS. I asked them where ISIS will go and they said, 'Directly to Hell!'"

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Hundreds of families live in tents set up atMar Elia Chaldean Catholic church in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. (FoxNews.com)

Alkhory tells the story of a Christian in Mosul who had been living next to a Muslim man for more than 20 years when the Muslim man one day suddenly threatened him, ordering him to leave Mosul within 24 hours simply because he was Christian.
"So the Christian man started to pack his things, but before leaving he said he won't leave without saying goodbye to that neighbor," Alkhory recounted. "His neighbor opened the door and was really angry and shouting at him, 'Why are you here? I told you to leave Mosul!' The Christian man said he wouldn't leave without first saying goodbye. His Muslim neighbor started to cry and promised to protect him."

"I asked them where ISIS will go and they said, 'Directly to Hell!'"- Father Daniel Alkhory

In the enormous swath of Syrian and Iraqi land now controlled by Islamic State, the homes and churches of Christians have been looted and burned to the ground. Christians in Iraq once numbered around 1.5 million, or about 5 percent of the population. Current estimates hover around 200,000, their numbers depleted by murder, forced conversions and flight -- mostly at the hands of Islamic State radicals. Those who remain refuse to renounce their beliefs, even under the threat of death. One Christian man living at Mar Elia brandished a large tattoo of Jesus' mother Mary on his arm. Like many others, his faith was discovered by militants and he and his family were forced to flee to the safety of the Kurdish region.
More than 100,000 Christians have fled the clutches of the terrorist organization since its advance across the Nineveh Plains in Iraq, home to some of the world's most ancient Christian communities. The Kurdish region has taken in more than 1.5 million displaced people, including Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities, since June – and according to Alkhory, the word "displaced" is crucial terminology.

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Church leaders try to give the children a sense of normalcy with talent shows and movies. (FoxNews.com)

"Refugees is a bad word and refers to people that don't know each other, but these people here are our family. They are displaced people. We want to take the negative energy out with the words we use," he explained. "And we never call it a camp. It's a center."
"The children are very traumatized. They've lost their hopes and dreams and we try to help them understand that life keeps going," Alkhory said. "But a child is like a flower, we can shape them. We have to take care of them now; otherwise the next generation of ISIS could come from these children. Through all their sadness and depression, they wanted revenge. I knew I needed to build a new environment for them."
That new environment consists of time spent on artistic endeavors such as drawing images and creating shapes in an effort to express their feelings and frustrations, as well as outings to play in the park and dancing. The children recently saw their first-ever 3D movie: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
"They wore the glasses and were just so happy," Alkhory said.
The center even hosts its very own "Got Talent" and "The Voice" competitions, modeled on the hit American versions, where children can perform for friends and family and win prizes. Mass and Bible study each make up critical components of every day.
The flashpoint of the crisis began for the team at Mar Elia at midnight on Aug. 6, when Kurdish troops cautioned a local bishop in Qarakosh that the Christians had to leave as ISIS was closing in. Church leaders began knocking on doors urging families to immediately flee.
"Fifteen families stayed, as they didn't wake up. Sadly, we don't have any contact with them anymore. At the beginning we did, they were describing the horrors and said they couldn't even turn on a light as ISIS would become suspicious," Alkhory noted.
With no realistic prospect of returning to their homes anytime soon, the thousands of displaced families strewn across the Kurdish region have no choice but to start their lives from scratch in unfamiliar territory.
"Father, when can we go home? When can I see my friends?" one young boy asks the soft-spoken Alkhory. The pastor tells the boy he should make new friends at the center now, and maybe one day he will go home and meet his old friends once again.
But “home” as it stands for some 700 families from Christian villages is now a collection of tents donated by several different organizations and placed on Church grounds. The tents are divided into halves for each family, approximately four persons per half. Some organizations have started donated caravans to families, although land shortage remains problematic.

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The children attend school from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week, with after-school activities running from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. each night.
"I just keep telling the kids you have to forgive. Forgiveness will lead us to so many paths. I don't want them to grow up and be after revenge and be angry," Alkhory said. "We want to make a party for them every day.
"We just want them to be happy and keep smiling," he added. "We just want the children to feel like they are at home."

Ferguson grand juror sues to be allowed to talk about case

ST. LOUIS –  A member of the grand jury that declined to indict a Ferguson police officer in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown contends in a lawsuit filed Monday that the prosecutor in the case has wrongly implied that all 12 jurors believed there was no evidence to support charges.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the unnamed juror, who wants to be allowed to talk publicly about the case but could face charges for doing so because of a lifetime gag order. The juror also says he or she came away with the impression that evidence was presented differently than in other cases, with the insinuation that Brown, not Officer Darren Wilson, was the wrongdoer. No grand jurors have spoken publicly about the case.
Brown, who was black, was unarmed when he was fatally shot after an Aug. 9 confrontation with Wilson, who is white. The shooting in the St. Louis suburb led to widespread unrest, including some protests that resulted in local businesses being burned and looted. Protests again turned violent Nov. 24, when St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch publicly announced that the grand jury investigating the case had decided there wasn't enough evidence to indict Wilson. Wilson has since resigned from the department.
"In Plaintiff's view, the current information available about the grand jurors' views is not entirely accurate -- especially the implication that all grand jurors believed that there was no support for any charges," the lawsuit says.
The suit was filed against McCulloch, who oversaw the investigation, because his office would be responsible for bringing charges against the juror. McCulloch's spokesman, Ed Magee, said his office had not seen the lawsuit and declined immediate comment.
"Right now there are only 12 people who can't talk about the evidence out there," ACLU attorney Tony Rothert said. "The people who know the most -- those 12 people are sworn to secrecy. What (the grand juror) wants is to be able to be part of the conversation."
The suit also contends that legal standards in the case were discussed in a "muddled" and "untimely" manner. Jurors could have charged Wilson with murder or manslaughter, but nine of 12 would have needed to agree.
The suit does not seek to allow grand jurors in all Missouri cases to be free to discuss proceedings. But it argues that the Ferguson case was unique, and that allowing the juror to speak would be valuable to the national debate about race and police tactics that followed the shooting.
"The rules of secrecy must yield because this is a highly unusual circumstance," Rothert said. "The First Amendment prevents the state from imposing a lifetime gag order in cases where the prosecuting attorney has purported to be transparent."
After the decision was announced, McCulloch took the unusual step of releasing thousands of pages of witness testimony provided in secret to the grand jury. Grand jurors usually hear a condensed version of evidence that might be presented at trial, but the Ferguson grand jury heard more extensive testimony.
The panel -- which included nine white and three black members -- met on 25 separate days over three months, hearing more than 70 hours of testimony from about 60 witnesses, some of whom provided inconsistent versions of events. McCulloch acknowledged in a radio interview last month that some of the witnesses obviously lied to the grand jury.
Rothert said the grand jury convened in May and heard hundreds of other cases before devoting its attention to the Wilson case in August. The suit contends that McCulloch's office handled the Wilson case far differently than the others, with "a stronger focus on the victim."
Jim Cohen, associate professor at Fordham University Law School and a grand jury expert, said the lawsuit will add to concerns about how the case was handled.
"Believe me, there's already more than a fair amount of skepticism about whether this process was fair, notwithstanding Mr. McCulloch's cynical attempt to pretend that it was fair," Cohen said.
Cohen believes the juror has a strong argument in the lawsuit.
"This matter has been discussed by virtually everybody in the universe with the exception of any person actually subjected to the presentation of evidence," he said.
Last month, state Rep. Karla May, a St. Louis Democrat, asked a joint House and Senate committee to investigate whether McCulloch "manipulated" the grand jury. It wasn't clear if the committee would take up that request. Messages were left Monday with May and state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, the committee's chairman.

Outspoken, diverse freshman class joins Congress -- sets sights on economy, jobs

After a Republican wave election that boosted the party's House majority to historic levels and handed them control of the Senate, dozens of new lawmakers are arriving in Washington Tuesday for the 114th Congress -- including several fresh political faces poised to make waves. 
A total of 71 new members, of both parties, arrive in Washington this week. As the new Congress prepares to tackle weighty issues ranging from immigration to the budget to the Keystone pipeline, these freshmen stand to have a big impact on the legislative debate and direction of their respective parties. 
"When the American people voted for Republican majorities in November, they really voted for people who are going to go up there and start working again," Thom Tillis, the incoming Republican senator from North Carolina, told Fox News. "Start sending legislation to the president's desk and get the economy back to a sustained recovery versus this limping along that we've been doing for the past several years." 
Tillis is one of 13 new senators, all but one of them Republican, being sworn in as the GOP takes a 54-seat majority in the chamber. The lone incoming Democrat is Michigan Rep. Gary Peters. 
Among the new House members are incoming Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who after several tries finally wrestled her southern Arizona House seat away from Democrats.
McSally touted her conservative credentials this past weekend, telling “Fox News Sunday” that her focus will be on creating jobs and securing the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, she also pointed out that her home district is full of non-Republicans whom she also must serve in Congress.
“My district is very diverse,” said McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat.
“I think it does represent America, but 50 percent of the people didn't vote for me," she said, pointing to areas of shared concern. "Democrats [and] business owners can agree that they want to grow their small business. Kids graduating from college want to have job opportunities. So, those are not politically charged issues.”
The need to help boost good-paying, full-time jobs has indeed emerged again as a goal for congressional Democrats and Republicans, with leaders from both parties and chambers putting the economy at the top of their agendas.
The Republican-controlled House and Senate could vote in the first couple weeks on legislation to finish building the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which is estimated to create about 42,000 construction jobs. A Senate bill is set to be filed on Tuesday, and the House is planning a vote Friday. Though Republicans are pushing the legislation, some Democrats are expected to support it. But some also are floating amendments which could imperil a deal.  
Other priorities for Republicans include tax reform, changes to ObamaCare and legislation rolling back environmental regulations. 
The House will have 58 freshmen, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.
The incoming classes will bring new gender and racial diversity to Capitol Hill, with 104 women in the House and Senate and close to 100 black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers.
The newcomers include the youngest woman elected to Congress, 30-year-old Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, and Mia Love of Utah, the first black Republican woman in Congress.
On Sunday, Love backed House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., after recent revelations that in 2002 he spoke to a white supremacist group. She said Scalise, the No. 3 House Republican, showed “humility” in acknowledging he spoke to the group, though apparently unknowingly. 
“I believe he should stay in leadership,” she told ABC’s “This Week.”
Several new members expressed hope that they could ease the partisanship that often divides Washington and show the public that they really can govern.
"This election was not an endorsement of either party, it was a condemnation of, yes, the president's policies, but also of government dysfunction," said GOP Rep.-elect Carlos Curbelo, who defeated a Democratic incumbent in Florida.
Gallego says they have already discussed areas of cooperation, such as infrastructure investments and bringing down the cost of college.
"We all want the same things in the general scheme of things -- a stable country, a prosperous future,” he said. “We may not agree 100 percent on how to get there, but I think Democrats and Republicans do want to find a way." 
Stefanik, as well as Democrats Seth Moulton, of Massachusetts, and Ruben Gallego, of Arizona, are all House freshmen under 36 and Harvard graduates.
Two House newcomers are not new to Washington at all.
Debbie Dingell is replacing her husband, Michigan Democratic Rep. John Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress, who retired after nearly 60 years.
And Virginia Republican Barbara Comstock is replacing her onetime boss Rep. Frank Wolf, whom she served as a top aide and chief counsel on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before joining the Virginia legislature.
The House now has two black Republicans, with Love joining Will Hurd of Texas. The party also has one black senator, 10 Hispanic House members and two Hispanic senators. There are 22 Republican women in the House and six in the Senate.
A number of the new arrivals have served in the military, something that has become increasingly rare on Capitol Hill.
Moulton and Gallego both served with the Marines in Iraq, while another incoming freshman, Republican Lee Zeldin of New York, served with the Army there. 
And Republican Sen.-elect Joni Ernst of Iowa, who attracted a lot of buzz during the midterms, is an Iraq War veteran and lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard.

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Texas Rep. Gohmert to challenge Boehner for House speaker post

Gohmert

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert said Sunday that he will challenge House Speaker John Boehner for his post when Congress returns this week to Washington.
Gohmert, among the House Republican caucus’ most conservative members, made the announcement on “Fox & Friends,” saying he decided to run after Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., said Saturday that he would challenge Boehner for the chamber’s top post.
“We have heard from a lot of Republicans that said, ‘I would vote for somebody besides speaker Boehner.’ But nobody will put their name out there,” Gohmert said. “That changed yesterday with Ted Yoho.”
Gohmert also hinted that another House member will announce a challenge to Boehner on Sunday.
Boehner once again returns to Capitol Hill amid challenges to keep his post, largely from the conservative members who most recently say he caved in by agreeing last month to a $1.1 trillion temporary federal spending bill, which averted another partial government shutdown.
Group members complained in part because they think Boehner did not try to punish President Obama enough for sidestepping Congress on immigration reform.
“After the November elections gave Republicans control of the Senate, voters made clear they wanted change,” Gohmert said. “We were hopeful our leaders got the voters’ message. However, after our speaker forced through the (spending bill) by passing it with Democratic votes and without time to read it, it seemed clear that we needed new leadership."
A Boehner spokesman said Sunday that the speaker was selected in November as the House Republican Conference's choice and that "he expects to be elected by the whole House this week.”
Gohmert, during an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Friday, said his party must use its power in the House to defund Obama’s immigration plan as well as ObamaCare. He also said the GOP must stop excessive government regulation, citing the Keystone pipeline.

Huckabee leaves Fox News, says will make 2016 decision by late spring

Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced Saturday that he is leaving the network after six and a half years as the host of “Huckabee,” and will make a decision on a possible 2016 presidential run by late spring.
In the Saturday edition of “Huckabee,” the former governor expressed thanks for what he called “the ride of a lifetime.”
"I have never had so much fun in my life,” Huckabee said. "But I also realize that God hasn't put me on earth just to have a good time or to make a good living, but rather has put me on earth to try to make a good life.”
Huckabee said that he would not rule out running for president in 2016, and that it is not possible for him to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race while doing the show.
“The honorable thing to do at this point is to end my tenure here at Fox.  As much as I have loved doing the show, I cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run,” Huckabee said. “So as we say in television, stay tuned."
Huckabee served more than a decade as Arkansas' governor and ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, the year that the GOP nominated Arizona Sen. John McCain.

GOP Senate leaders say they are willing to work with Obama in new Congress, but he must 'play ball'

Senate Republicans on Sunday, just hours from taking control of the chamber, suggested a willingness to work with President Obama on job growth and other key issues but also said he must meet them halfway.
“There are a lot of areas where we can work together right out of the gate,” South Dakota GOP Sen. John Thune told “Fox News Sunday.” “You always enter a new session of Congress with high hopes…We want to see solutions for the American people. And we hope the president will meet us there.”
Thune, the incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said Republican leadership has set an early goal of trying to pass legislation with bipartisan support, such as a bill to complete the Keystone XL pipeline.
Though Senate Republicans seem optimistic about passing Keystone swiftly to perhaps set the tone for the entire session, Thune hinted that Obama and fellow Democrats might define the direction in Washington if the legislation doesn’t pass with a veto-proof majority and if the president fails to sign the bill.   
“We're going to get an indication of how this president wants to govern in the last two years and how he wants to work with Republicans in Congress,” Thune said. "We're going to find out very early, I think, whether or not the president wants to play ball."
Thune also made clear that Senate Republicans will not shut down the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding expires in February, over differences with Obama about immigration reform, particularly his use of executive action to delay deportation for millions of immigrants now living illegally in the United States.
However, he said congressional Republicans would use “the power of the purse to challenge the president."
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also on Sunday appeared to strike a more compromising tone.
He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that voters continue to elect candidates from both parties because they want government that “gets things done in the political center, things that both sides can agree on.”
McConnell said both sides would “talk about the things where there may be some agreement.”
But he made clear that Obama is “not going to like” some of the bills that will now reach his desk -- likely including Keystone, rolling back environmental restrictions and repealing parts of ObamaCare.
He also said Americans “want us to look for things to agree on and see if we can make some progress for the country," comments similar to those he made after nearly losing a re-election bid in November.
Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker told Fox News that Republicans "absolutely need (Obama) to be involved” on big issues. 
"We look forward to that opportunity," said Corker, who becomes chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
However, Corker said Congress must have a bigger role in negotiating with Iran to end its apparent pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
“This is one of the biggest issues we'll be dealing with,” he said. “And for Congress not to have a role is totally inappropriate.”
He said that without question more sanctions will be imposed on Iran if the existing deal falls apart.
Corker also said that Congress, like Obama, realizes that changes must come to the U.S. prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but suggested the president has only a piecemeal plan, which included transferring 28 detainees out of the facility last year.  
However, he did not say whether congressional Republicans would try to block an attempt by the president to shutter the facility.
“If he tries to close it on his own, we'll see,” Corker said.

Afghanistan president suggests US 're-examine' troop withdrawal timetable

Afghanistan's president has suggested that the U.S. "re-examine" its plan to withdraw all of the American-led coalition troops from the country by the end of 2016. 
"Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas," Ashraf Ghani told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired Sunday evening. 
"If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to re-examine a deadline," he added.
When asked if he had made his view clear to President Barack Obama, Ghani said "President Obama knows me. We don't need to tell each other."
There was no immediate response from the White House, State Department, or Pentagon to Ghani's remarks Sunday night. 
The U.S. and its NATO allies marked the formal end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan last week. On Thursday, 13,500 soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force, almost 11,000 of them American, transitioned to a supporting role for Afghanistan's military. 
The handover of primary responsibility for battling the Taliban represents the ultimate test for the 350,000 strong Afghan army. Critics have long questioned the local troops' morale, discipline, and competence in the face of Taliban attacks. According to a United Nations report, 2014 was the deadliest year on record for non-combatants in Afghanistan, with at least 3,188 civilians killed in the intensifying war. By comparison, at least 4,600 members of the Afghan security forces were killed by fighting last year. 
Ghani also told CBS that he was concerned about the possibility that Islamic State fighters could make their way to Afghanistan. However, that concern was refuted by ISAF commander Gen. John Campbell, who said that "This is not Iraq. I don't see [Islamic State] coming into Afghanistan like they did into Iraq. The Afghan Security Forces would not allow that."
Campbell also described the Afghan National Army as "the number one respected institution in Afghanistan. Couple years ago, I probably wouldn't have said that, but today it is."

Gitmo Free to Go Cartoon

GOP Congress aims to focus on issues, avoid slip-ups in 2015

When you fix one thing, you don’t want to break another.
House Republicans are all too aware of this axiom as members jet into Washington over the next few days to launch the 114th Congress on Tuesday.
The GOP will feature a robust, 246 seats in the House. That’s the largest Republican House majority since the Great Depression. Republicans also captured the Senate and will start the Congress with 54 seats.
A Republican-controlled House and Senate. This is precisely what the GOP asked voters for. Republicans are especially energized about these prospects to serve as a check on President Obama and his policies, which many on the right view as out-of-step with the country.
The House plans not one but two votes next week on ObamaCare. The House is also teeing up a bill to expedite construction of the Keystone pipeline. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says a Keystone bill is the first measure his body will tackle.
House Republicans may even try to tackle a bill this month to show how they would cut into Obama’s executive order on immigration by tightening the purse strings on the Department of Homeland Security.
In short, Republicans aim to focus on the issues and demonstrate their political bona fides. They don’t want to fumble to start the new Congress.
Just a few days ago, Republicans looked as though they may face one big headache in the new year. The issue centered on a solitary member. But it threatened to command lots of headlines and serve as a general problem for the party. But that issue resolved itself. Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., initially planned to remain in office despite his guilty plea on federal tax evasion charges just before Christmas.
Grimm’s presence on Capitol Hill at the start of the new Congress would serve as a distraction for the Republican majorities. Reporters would pursue Grimm down hallways, hounding him about whether he was fit to serve. The press would inevitably pepper GOP leaders with questions about whether they would move to expel Grimm.
After his court appearance, Grimm declared he intended to say in Congress. But a few days later, Grimm reversed himself and announced his intention to quit. Grimm’s pending resignation foamed the flames of one GOP problem. But just as Grimm agreed to step aside, another more cyclonic political storm developed.
Grimm may have been a relative backbencher. But that’s not the case for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Word came this week that the Louisiana Republican spoke to a white supremacist group associated with David Duke 13 years ago when Scalise served in the state legislature.
If this controversy erupted when Congress was in session, it’s possible (possible) it may have run its course by now and been laid to rest. But the Scalise story emerged over the holiday recess in the middle of a congressional information vacuum -- to say nothing of a numbingly slow news period. That means that whatever developments that may have percolated with Scalise over the past few days won’t fully form until next week.
Scalise has generally kept his head down since the news broke. He released a statement to reporters saying it “was a mistake I regret” and “wholeheartedly condemn” the views of the group. The whip declined an invitation to appear on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the misstep. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, declared that his colleague’s decision to speak to the group “was an error in judgment.” But Boehner added he knows “Steve to be a man of high integrity and good character. He has my full confidence as our whip.”
The fact that Boehner had to tell the world that Scalise has the speaker’s “full confidence” reflects the potential volatility of this story.
It also reflects the depth of the consequences for the top echelons of the House Republican leadership. After all, this controversy touches on race -- an issue that is bathed in footlights after incidents in Ferguson, Mo., on Staten Island and the murders of two New York City cops.
Moreover, the GOP generally struggles with appealing to black voters, though they elected several Republican persons of color to congressional ranks this cycle.
Naturally, Democrats sense blood in the water and went for the jugular.
Some Republicans winced privately about Scalise’s association with the group. Other Republicans whispered about his somewhat bumpy start as the top GOP vote counter.
House Republicans elected Scalise to the job in mid-June with the presumption he would formally take over the whip post during the dormant August recess.
As the newest senior member to the House Republican leadership, the public and many in politics have barely unwrapped Scalise. Some opportunists seek to define him specifically on the race topic.
Democrats aimed to paint many Republicans in the extreme for associating with a group that is so politically radioactive.
Congress hasn’t been in session much since Scalise’s election to the leadership.
On one hand, it may seem that such a respite would enable him to develop his sea legs in the leadership. But the hiatus also has a downside. At the end of July and early August, Scalise was only partially on the job as Republicans struggled to approve their own plan to tackle the border crisis.
The GOP-plan went through several iterations before leaders rolled out the bill. Then the House appeared to lack the votes to pass the GOP plan. Congressional leaders were on the verge of sending everyone home for the August recess until they decided to rework the package yet again and hold members in Washington for an extra day-and-a-half before adopting the rejiggered measure.

It wasn’t fair to pin the uncertainty associated with that vote on Scalise because technically, he wasn’t supposed to be on the job yet to whip the vote. But once the calendar flipped to August 1 and members were still here, fair or not, Scalise was the de facto whip and took some heat in the press.
There were also issues in mid-December when the Republican majority struggled to clear a major procedural hurdle to bring the so-called “CRomnibus” spending bill to the floor to avoid a government shutdown.
After some arm-twisting, Republicans clumsily vaulted the procedural barrier by a single vote. The GOP majority had to rely on lots of Democrats to pass the overall bill. The House went into a nearly seven-hour recess as CRomnibus supporters from both sides of the aisle tried to nail down the votes.
Again, the predicament was not all Scalise’s fault. But some GOP Scalise detractors are unimpressed with his vote-counting skills.
That criticism may be fair to Scalise. But the race controversy hits as he has a limited body of work in leadership. Scalise really hasn’t had a chance to fully ensconce himself in the leadership suite with Congress in session. Some Scalise opponents may use any excuse to come after him. And some of those adversaries are on the right.
Fair to Scalise? Not at all. But it reflects how things work in Washington. Moreover, there’s precedent for this when it comes to scandals involving congressional leaders and the race issue.
Since Congress is away, the shelf-life of Scalise’s troubles are hard to read. This may blow over very quickly or a more muscular news story may shove it aside. But keep in mind the controversy involving then-Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., in 2002.
Lott spoke at the 100th birthday celebration for the late-Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. During his remarks, Lott implied that some of Thurmond’s formerly segregationist attitudes (later self-denounced) may have actually been good for the United States.
Lott’s remarks simmered quietly on a back news burner for several days before exploding as a full-blown conflagration. The tempest ultimately cost the Mississippi Republican his leadership post.
Fair to Lott? Not entirely. But this is Capitol Hill.
Before the Thurmond episode, there were also daggers out for the Mississippi Republican. Many were in senior Republican circles on Capitol Hill and in the administration of President George W. Bush. Lott adversaries viewed the leader as too conciliatory toward Democrats. They held particular contempt for Lott after he agreed to cede control of the Senate to Democrats once the late-Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vermont,  dropped his GOP affiliation and caucused with the other side. Jeffords’s maneuver propelled Democrats to the majority in the spring of 2001.
In early 2001, the Senate was evenly-divided 50/50. Republicans held a nominal advantage as then-Vice President Cheney could break ties. So Lott and the Democratic leader, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.C., forged a power-sharing arrangement. Republicans would control the Senate so long as they had a majority of seats or Cheney served as tiebreaker. However, Democrats would take the helm if they added seats at some point during the Congress.
Once Jeffords abandoned the GOP, Lott’s foes increased in number. Some were incensed he relinquished control. They argued that Lott should have fought hammer and tong for Republicans to maintain the majority. They pointed out that in the mid-1950s, Republicans never turned over the majority to Democrats in the middle of a Congress -even though at one point, Democrats held more seats.
Lott’s enemies were simply looking for a reason to pounce. And when an issue as toxic as race reared its head, Lott’s antagonists shoved him out the door.
It’s unknown if such political animus lurks around the corners for Scalise. But the universe surrounding his controversy hasn’t quite formed. Granted, some Democrats, including former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, and Rep. Cedric Richmond, Louisiana Democrats, have spoken highly of the majority whip since the scandal hit the headlines.
But back on Capitol Hill, Scalise will have to face the issue head on next week. Reporters will hound him in the hallways. Rank-and-file members from both bodies and congressional leaders will have to answer questions about Scalise.
Will the GOP bring Scalise to speak publicly at leadership events --tempting the press to ask him about the issue? Or would Scalise’s conspicuous absence fan the flames? Congressional Republicans will also be back in the same place for the first time in weeks and get the chance to mull over the issue with one another.
The holidays and break between the two Congresses deferred the usual course surrounding the Scalise story. And in a few days, we’ll know if this dies down or has legs.