美国参议院

This battle will be fought nationwide. In Florida, for example, the party pooh-bahs back Charlie Crist, the governor, for a soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. Mr Crist could probably win a general election. But conservatives despise his free-spending, Barack Obama-embracing ways, and would rather gamble on Marco Rubio, a young Cuban-American who hits all their sweet spots. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has recruited an impressive batch of moderates to contest winnable seats, such as Mark Kirk in Illinois and Michael Castle in Delaware. But all are likely to face bare-knuckle conservative challengers. Vicious primaries may yield either unelectable extremists or moderates who have been wounded by attack ads and drained of money. And the party is too ill-disciplined to prevent any of this from happening. In short, the Republicans are doomed.

这场战争会在全国范围内打响，比如，在佛罗里达州，党内要人支持Charlie Crist州长去争取将要腾出来的参议院的位子，Crist先生一般来说会赢得选举，但是保守派鄙视他如同奥巴马所做的那样乱花钱，保守派宁可把赌注压在Marco Rubio这位年轻的古巴裔美国人身上，他正好处于最佳位置全国共和党参议院委员会已经招募了一群给人深刻印象的温和派，比如伊利诺伊州州的Mark Kirk和特拉华州的Michael Castle去竞争可能获胜的位子，但是他们所有人都需要去面对毫不留情的保守派挑战者，残酷的初期阶段会产生没有参选资格的极端主义者或者温和派，他们会因攻击性的广告或者钱财耗尽而受伤，并且共和党毫无纪律去防止此类事情的发生，一句话，共和党前景黯淡。

In Senate testimony before her confirmation, she said she would work to build up the U.S. diplomatic corps as part of an exercise of "smart power" by the United States that leads with diplomacy, rather than the use of military force.

克林顿在得到确认前在参议院发表证词时说，她会努力加强美国的外交团队，作为美国使用"智慧力量"的一部分，并以外交为主，而不是使用武力。

Back then there were also a number of influential liberal Republicans, alas, a virtually extinct group today, including Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, the Senates only African-American; Mark Hatfield of Oregon; Jacob Javits of New York; and George Aiken of Vermont, a crusty old New Englander who thought our Vietnam policy was nuts and tersely suggested we should simply declare victory and get out.

那时也有不少很有影响的自由派共和党人，可现在，哎，这种群体已基本销声匿迹。这些自由派共和党人包括马萨诸塞州的爱德华。布鲁克，他是参议院唯一的非裔美国人；俄勒冈州的马克。哈特菲尔德；纽约州的雅各布。贾维茨；佛蒙特州的乔治。艾肯——他是一个坏脾气的新英格兰（新英格兰主要指美国东北角的三个州地区）老人。在他看来，我们的越南政策是在瞎胡闹，因此精辟地建议我们只要宣布胜利，然后撤出军队就可以了。

U.S. federal legal system's "shield law" was in February 2009 passed the Senate vote, the next step is to deliver the Senate to vote on.

美国联邦法律系统的"盾牌法"于2009年2月通过了参议院的表决，下一步正在交付参议院表决。

American civil rights leaders, including Mrs. Caretta Scott King, watched the Senate debate from the Senate family gallery as members argued not so much about sanctions and the efficacy of sanctions, more about the choice between affirming the bill already passed by congress or supporting the President.

美国的人权领导们，包括 Caretta Scott King 女士，从参议院家属席上观看了参议院的争论，成员们对制裁的功效谈之甚少，而对是肯定这项已经由国会通过的议案或是支持总统争论不休。

Bernanke, whose appointment as head of the U.S. central bank must be confirmed by the Senate, has led the Fed and the U.S. economy through its most tumultuous period since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Obama's Democrats control the Senate.

在伯南克的带领下，美联储和美国经济已走出了自上世纪30年代大萧条以来最混乱无序的状况，伯南克的任命需要得到参议院的通过，奥巴马的民主党占参议院多数席位。

In the USA , a bill is introduced either in the house or in the senate, passed through committee stage with public hearing, then to general debate in the full house.

在美国，议案可在众议院或参议院推出，通过讨论公众倾听，然后在整个参议院进行一般性辩论，在二读时对法案进行逐段辩论。

Others, representing the safer, more conventional wisdom, will insist that all the constitutional compromise on slavery—the omission of abolitionist sentiments from the original draft of the Declaration, the Three-fifths Clause and the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Importation Clause, the self-imposed gag rule that the Twenty-fourth Congress would place on all debate regarding the issue of slavery, the very structure of federalism and the Senate—was a necessary, if unfortunate, requirement for the formation of the Union; that in their silence, the Founders only sought to postpone what they were certain would be slavery's ultimate demise; that this single lapse cannot detract from the genius of the Constitution, which permitted the space for abolitionists to rally and the debate to proceed, and provided the framework by which, after the Civil War had been fought, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments could be passed, and the Union finally perfected.

其他人则表现出更保守、更传统的明智，坚持认为所有对奴隶制度在宪法上的妥协——在《独立宣言》，《五分之三条款》，《逃奴条款》和《进口条款》的原始草案中缺乏废奴主义者的意见和看法，第24届美国国会常常在所有关于奴隶制度问题的辩论中，自己强加给自己规定，要求限制这方面的言论自由。联邦制度和参议院的构成体系是一个必要的联邦组成机构；创建宪法者没有对此发表意见，他们认定奴隶制度终究会终结，而他们只是试图寻求推迟这个进程；这一个小小的失误并不能贬低《美国宪法》的本质，它也为废奴主义者提供了重整旗鼓的空间，使得争论得以继续下去，而且提供了立法框架，通过这个框架，在美国南北战争结束后，第十三、第十四、第十五宪法修正案得以通过，我们的联邦最终得到了完善。

Some, like America's Senate and Germany's Bundesrat, have real clout and can prevent bad laws from going beyond proposals.

有些国家，如美国的参议院和德国的联邦参议院，二者都手握实权，能够否决不良提案。

In 1803, the US Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

1803年的这一天，美国参议院批准路易斯安那州购买法。

The split between the two groups can hardly be papered over.

这两个团体间的分歧难以掩饰。

This approach not only encourages a greater number of responses, but minimizes the likelihood of stale groupthink.

这种做法不仅鼓励了更多的反应，而且减少跟风的可能性。