ATMOSPHERE OF PARTY TENSION

The work of the new 112th US Congress, which was elected in the midterm elections of November 2010, began with a tragedy which, as some commentators say, might be the outcome of the tense political atmosphere in a country in which the views of Republicans and Democrats on many domestic political issues are diametrically opposed.

In Tucson, Arizona, a town in the south of the state, Gabrielle Giffords, Democratic representative from the state of Arizona to the House of Representatives, received a serious head wound during a meeting with voters.  In the attack on the politician, six people were killed, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl.  Besides Giffords, 12 other people were wounded.  Jared Loughner, 22, opened fire with a semiautomatic pistol in the presence of hundreds of people.  He had left a video address on a video blog, in which he bid his friends farewell and asked them not be angry with him.  In other postings the murderer, who admits that his favourite book is Hitler's Mein Kampf, harshly criticized US President Barack Obama for "brainwashing the nation" and using currency which is "not backed with gold and silver."

Giffords, 40, has represented Arizona's 8th congressional district in the House since 2007 and is a member of several congressional committees, including the Armed Services Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee.  It was noted that the politician is one of but a few Democratic Party members elected three times in one of the most conservative states and the third woman in Arizona to become a member of the House of Representatives.  Chairman of the local office of the Democratic Party, Jeff Rogers, said that Giffords is a "rising star" in the party and hopes to become the senator for the state of Arizona in the future.  She is also an active supporter of transition by the US energy sector to renewable and environmentally friendly sources and is pro-choice on the issue of abortion.  Incidentally, after the shooting former Alaska Governor Sara Palin has found herself at the centre of a scandal because there was a call to "shoot" (in a political sense) Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on her Facebook page for a few months.  Commentators say that Palin uploaded a US map on her page on which cross hairs were placed over districts where, according to the former Alaska governor, the Republicans were to "liquidate" the Democrats.  Gifford was among the "targets".

The former governor rushed to convey her condolences to the families of the victims and wished the wounded a speedy recovery, but she has already been accused of incitement to violence.  "We focus specifically on those members of the House who voted for Barack Obama's health care reforms and who represent the congressional districts which Senator John McCain and myself carried in the 2008 election campaign," Palin wrote in her comment on the map.

The much-debated health care reform was to be discussed again by congress next week, and many of them want to revoke it.  However, the US Congress House of Representatives decided to postpone all debates to enable politicians to recover from the shock of what happened in Arizona.

Against this backdrop, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, cited by the BBC, said that the tragedy could have been provoked by the "atmosphere of hatred and bigotry" between the two parties.  Especially as, according to The Chicago Tribune, Democratic Party congressman from Chicago Danny Davis received an email message with the threat that "he is next."  However, the FBI stated that it could find no apparent threat to US law makers.

The media also reported that in March 2010, Giffords' office was raided immediately after her speech in support of Obama's health care reform bill.

In the mean time, the wounded congresswoman staunchly supported Americans' right to carry weapons and admitted more than once that she owns a weapon herself.  This issue, just like the health care reform and ban on abortion, causes heated debates in the United States.  Literally a few days before the attempt against Giffords, a high school student, Robert Butler Jr, son of a local police detective from Omaha, Nebraska, opened fire on Principal Curtis Case and Vice Principal Vicki Kaspar and then committed suicide.  So, in the opinion of many political analysts, the tragedy in Arizona is a clear sign that opinions in the country are polarized and that fierce political battles will be waged in the new Congress.  There will probably be attempts to "revoke" laws already passed, although the Republicans will need a big effort to achieve this.  But it is highly likely that there will be a constant "peddling" of concessions and amendments by both Republicans and Democrats.

The Republican Party won a majority of seats in the House (242 seats of 435, leaving 193 seats to the Democrats), which marked the end of four years' dominance by the Democrats.  At the same time, the Democrats barely retained their majority in the Senate (53 to 47 for the Democratic Party, which also includes two independent candidates).  House Speaker Johh Boehner, who replaced Democrat Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the lower chamber, said that law makers are to make a number of difficult economic decisions.  Boehner is convinced that Republicans must force the administration to take note of ordinary Americans and must pursue an open and honest policy.  "People voted for change, and today we are beginning to fulfil their expectations," said the new speaker of the House.

In particular, the Republicans promised to cut federal budget spending by $100 billion, revise labour law, carry out reforms to the country's tax system, step up the fight against illegal immigration, reduce international aid and thoroughly analyze the work of the presidential administration. In addition, Obama's political opponents promised to bring to a halt the incumbent US president's largest-scale project - reform of the health care system. Obama argues that the US health care system must provide access to health services for everyone; this should be based on an affordable government-funded medical insurance system which would compete with private insurance companies. Regulation of the rising costs of medical services was also proposed.  This reform has to be funded by raising taxes.

Obviously, this is about the interests not only of ordinary Americans, many of whom are not willing to pay out of their pockets for medical services to those US citizens who, for example, do not burden themselves with work.  Obama's plans for reform of health care services first of all made the owners of private insurance and medical companies flinch.

Things went so far that health care reform was dubbed Obama's "political Rubicon", which he must cross to prove his political credentials.

The Democrats are already accusing Republicans of provoking aggression among the people with their intemperate speeches.  The mass media are also accused of incitement.

A house Democratic leader, Steny Hoyer, told CBS that he and his colleagues were very concerned about the "atmosphere in which we have to work - it has become more confrontational."

At the same time, President Barack Obama showed his readiness to work with a "difficult" Congress.

Obama said that he hoped that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell (Republican minority leader in Congress) realize that there will be plenty of time for the 2012 campaign in 2012, and that this year the main aim is to do their best to accelerate economic recovery.

Boehner's candidature merits special discussion:  241 congressmen voted to make him the 61st speaker of the House.  As mentioned above, the new speaker, who before his election was leader of a Republican minority, said that all the laws which had been passed by the House with Democrat support would be "revised", and all other bills proposed by the incumbent administration would be thoroughly scrutinized in future.

At the same time, Nancy Pelosi, whom the Republicans have accused of authoritarianism in the past, will lead the Democratic minority.  During her last few days as House speaker, Pelosi, despite objections from the Obama administration, tried hard to organise a vote on official recognition of the so-called Armenian "genocide."  However, the White House, together with the Turkish Government and Turkish community in the United States, managed to thwart that attempt.

Now the Republicans have a majority in Congress and they are against the bill on the "genocide."  In other words, for the next couple of years, until the next elections in the United States, we should not expect that the House will discuss the "genocide" issue.

"I can say with certainty that neither the new speaker nor the new head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, will allow discussion of this issue," said North Caroline congresswoman Virginia Foxx, an associate of John Boehner, to the Hurriyet newspaper.

So, analysts predict that the new Congress with a Republican majority will mainly focus on domestic political issues, while the main emphasis in foreign policy will be placed on the Iranian nuclear programme, "reset" in relations with Russia (as well as the New Start and missile defence), Afghanistan and Iraq, and situations on the Korean Peninsula and in Sudan.  And political analysts believe that there will be no large-scale clashes between the Republicans and Democrats on issues of foreign policy.  Especially as the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is still headed by Democrat John Kerry, and Republican Richard Lugar, whom many people call a centrist, remains the ranking member of the committee.

However, foreign policy is, of course, going to be increasingly important as 2012, the year of the presidential election, draws near.

ARA news agency reported, for example, that the 112th Congress intends to focus on issues like the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, development of the energy sector in Azerbaijan, economic development of Armenia and reconstruction of Georgia after the military intervention by Russia in 2008.  The agency's Washington correspondent reports that Jim Nichol, specialist in Eurasian affairs, said this in his latest report by the Congressional Research Service, "Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia:  Political developments and implications for US interests."  The report was prepared for Congress members and committees.

"Some members of Congress and other policymakers believe that the United States should provide greater support for the region's increasing role as an east-west trade and security corridor linking the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, and for Armenia's inclusion in such links," the report reads.  "Others urge caution in adopting policies that will increase U.S. involvement in a region beset by ethnic and civil conflicts."  There is also an opinion that, because the South Caucasus is the EU's neighbour, the main role there must be played by the EU.