Beyond the Dome

To close out the week, here's a quick roundup of some of the best readings about the overlap between the congressional campaigns and Congress.

Now that the House couldn't pass supplemental funding for the war in Iraq, the pressure will be on Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain to decide whether they want to return to the Senate and help their colleagues do it when the bill comes to the floor next week. Here's the rundown of the complicated war funding politics by CQ's John Rogin and Liriel Higa.

One of the most valuable nuggets in Matt Bai's look at John McCain's national security views in Sunday's New York Times magazine is its reminder that he hasn't been a knee-jerk supporter of every U.S. military action. As a House member in 1983, he was just one of 27 Republicans to object when President Reagan wanted to extend the deployment of the Marines in Lebanon. And as a senator in 1993, after U.S. soldiers were ambushed in Somalia, McCain wanted to bring them all home.

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Monica Langley finds out what bugs Mark Salter, John McCain's longtime adviser and speechwriter, about Barack Obama: "Mr. Salter says he finds a "messianic" quality and "youthful conceit" to Sen. Obama, citing the senator's oratory and his appearances before big audiences with his arms outstretched."

And a few other interesting tidbits from around the Web:

Michael Crowley of The New Republic likes one of the newer ideas that has surfaced out of nowhere: former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as chief of staff in an Obama White House.

David Frum at National Review thinks congressional Republicans who are worried about their re-elections should "treat the presidential election as already lost" and focus all their fire on Obama.

Matt Cooper of Condé Nast Portfolio thinks this will be "the last Clinton election" and throws cold water on all the rumors that she'll become majority leader if she returns to the Senate.

Harvard economist Greg Mankiw says McCain was right to oppose the farm bill, and links to an earlier post explaining why.

And Daniel Finkelstein of The Times of London has a fascinating post (via Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic) about what McCain should expect if he actually brings the House of Commons' "Question Time" to Congress. It takes a lot of time, Finkelstein says, and McCain would have to decide what his real goal is: "Do you try to win the exchange or do you try to win over the public?"