Roundup

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | October 19, 2009, 9:01AM

Obama Administration To Issue New Policy In Favor Of State Medical Marijuana Laws
The Obama administration is set to release new guidelines today on medical marijuana, which will not pursue marijuana smokers or their suppliers whose activities are consistent with state laws on medicinal marijuana. The government will still pursue those who are exceeding state limits, or are using the practice of medical marijuana as a cover for other illegal activities.

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will meet at 10:30 a.m. ET with the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge winners. He will meet with senior advisers at 3:15 p.m. ET, and with Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) at 4 p.m. ET.

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | September 23, 2009, 9:01AM

Obama To Tell U.N.: Don't Wait For America To Solve World's Problems Alone
In his upcoming speech to the United Nations today, President Obama will call for international cooperation -- and declare that America can't fix the world's problems alone. "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility," Obama will say, also adding: "Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will meet at 9 a.m. ET with Prime Minister Hatoyama of Japan. At 10 a.m. ET, he will address the U.N. General Assembly. At 12 p.m. ET, he will attend a meeting with leaders of peace-keeping troop contributing countries. At 1:05 p.m. ET, he will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony for fallen U.N. staff members. At 1:15 p.m. ET, he will attend a lunch hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, for heads of state and government. At 3:30 p.m. ET, he will meet with President Medvedev of Russia. AT 7:05 p.m. ET, the President and First Lady will host a reception for heads of state and government.

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Barack Obama

Obama Calls Out GOP For Spending Big Without Paying For It; Cantor Types On BlackBerry

Eric Kleefeld | September 9, 2009, 8:51PM

President Obama just pledged to be fiscally responsible with the health care bill -- and he called out the Republicans who might criticize him, for having been very irresponsible during this past decade:

"First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits - either now or in the future. Period. And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize. Part of the reason I faced a trillion dollar deficit when I walked in the door of the White House is because too many initiatives over the last decade were not paid for - from the Iraq War to tax breaks for the wealthy. I will not make that same mistake with health care."

During the applause by the Democrats, the news cameras then went to the Republican leadership -- where House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) could be seen looking down, typing out something on his BlackBerry.

DNC

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | August 11, 2009, 8:57AM

New DNC Ad: "There's Something In It For All Of Us"
The Democratic National Committee has this new TV ad, a mostly positive spot on health care that will run on national cable and on local cable in New Hampshire, Montana, Colorado and D.C.:

"Health insurance reform means your family's care comes first -- not insurance industry profits," the announcer says. "Call Congress. Tell them when it comes health insurance reform, there's something in it for all of us."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will depart from the White House at 11:15 a.m. ET, arriving at 12:40 p.m. ET in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and holding a town hall on health insurance reform at 1 p.m. ET. He will depart from Portsmouth at 3:20 p.m. ET, arriving back at the White House at 4:50 p.m. ET. He will meet at 5:30 p.m. ET at Sec. of Defense Robert Gates.

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | July 31, 2009, 9:02AM

Beer Summit Goes Down Smoothly, Participants Agree To Have Lunch
The "Beer Summit" of President Obama, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Sergeant James Crowley appeared to conclude successfully yesterday -- with the three of them agreeing to meet again for lunch at a later time. Gates gave this very memorable line: "We hit it off right from the beginning. When he's not arresting you, Sergeant Crowley is a really likable guy."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will meet with business leaders at 12 p.m. ET. He will meet with Vice President Biden and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton at 3:30 p.m. ET. Obama and Biden will host a meeting with member of the Cabinet at 6:15 p.m. ET at Blair House, and they will return to the White House at 10 p.m. ET.

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Eric Cantor

Rep. Cantor Rumored To Be Planning Presidential Run. Who's Next?

Rachel Slajda | July 14, 2009, 11:22AM

Congressional Quarterly is reporting that two Republican congressmen, Eric Cantor of Virginia and Mike Pence of Indiana, could be looking to make a presidential run.

One of our favorite Cantor memories was when he missed one of President Obama's prime time press conferences on the economy. Where was the House minority whip? At a Britney Spears concert.

But Cantor's apparently fueling speculation by scheduling listening tours and raising money. He's added $637,000 to his PAC -- called Every Republican Is Crucial (or ERIC).

Just goes to show: In the new Republican Party, no one's too obscure or too weird to be considered presidential material.

Barack Obama

TPMDC Saturday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | July 11, 2009, 1:22PM

Obama: Stimulus Designed To Work Over Two Years -- Not Four Months
In this weekend's YouTube address, President Obama answered stimulus opponents who say that it has not restored the economy -- as well as those who say it didn't go far enough -- by saying that it has saved the economy from greater disaster, and calling for patience:

"But, as I made clear at the time it was passed, the Recovery Act was not designed to work in four months - it was designed to work over two years," said Obama. "We also knew that it would take some time for the money to get out the door, because we are committed to spending it in a way that is effective and transparent. Crucially, this is a plan that will also accelerate greatly throughout the summer and the fall. We must let it work the way it's supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity."

Cantor: "This is now President Obama's Economy"
In this weekend's Republican address, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) blasted President Obama and Congressional Democrats for producing a stimulus program that he said has failed to create jobs:

"In fact, they said that unemployment would stay under eight percent. Yet just months later, they are telling us to brace for unemployment to climb over ten percent," said Cantor. "They promised jobs created. Now they scramble to find a way to play games with government numbers by claiming jobs saved. Simply put, this is now President Obama's economy and the American people are beginning to question whether his policies are working."

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | June 12, 2009, 9:04AM

Obama And Congressional Negotiators Reach Compromise On Abuse Photos
House and Senate negotiators have approved a $106 billion compromise bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, after President Obama personally intervened on the controversy over an amendment to forbid the release of detainee abuse photos. The amendment was removed in the hope of assuaging liberal Democrats -- but Obama promised to use all means at his disposal to prevent their release.

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will meet at 2:30 p.m. ET with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and at 2:50 p.m. ET with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). At 3:30 p.m. ET, he will meet with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Moran Tsvangirai, who will press Obama for international aid and try to assuage the doubts about his country's political situation, given the uneasy power-sharing government he has with his rival, President Robert Mugabe.

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | June 9, 2009, 9:01AM

First Gitmo Detainee Brought To United States
The Justice Department has announced that they have for the first time brought a Guantanamo Bay detainee to the United States: Ahmed Ghailani, who was indicted in 1998 for al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed mored than 224 people. Said Attorney General Eric Holder, in a press release: "The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will be speaking at 1 p.m. ET, advocating for the budgeting principle known as PAYGO (Pay As You Go) -- that any new tax or entitlement policies should be paid for up front. Members of Congress, including the members of the Blue Dog Coalition, will attend the event. At 2:30 p.m. ET, he will meet with the Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee. At 4:30 p.m. ET, he will meet with Sec. of Defense Robert Gates, along with Vice President Biden.

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Republicans

GOP's National Council Initiative Straddles Public/Campaign Dollars And Rules

Eric Kleefeld | May 15, 2009, 5:15PM

So what exactly is the deal with the Republicans' new outreach project, the National Council for a New America, and how is it complying with the letter and spirit of ethics rules and guidelines for financing?

Roll Call explored the topic on Monday looking at how the NCNA's spending has been bifurcated. Its main Web site is hosted on Cantor's official House Web site, and his staff have helped build the site, while other aspects such as its recent town hall event have been paid for out of campaign funds. In a follow-up editorial, they called on House Minority Whip Eric Cantor to refund his House account with campaign money for whatever has been spent on this, and for the ethics rules to be revised against this whole thing.

Jan Baran, an ethics attorney advising the group, referred any questions regarding the editorial to Cantor's office. In turn, Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring gives us this comment: "As Roll Call reported, the NCNA is in compliance with the law and House ethics rules just like other congressional groups such as the Progressive Caucus, the Democratic Caucus, Republican Conference, and the Blue Dog Coalition."

I spoke with Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, and she had some tough things to say about it, saying that it went against the overriding principles of the ethics guidelines: "This may be legally permissible, but it's a pretty tortured reading of the rules."

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Eric Cantor

Cantor: "It's Not A Rebranding Effort"

Eric Kleefeld | April 30, 2009, 2:26PM

CNN reported last night the GOP was launching a new initiative, the "National Council for a New America," as a push to rebrand the party's image away and counter the label that the Democrats have put forward calling the Republicans the "Party of No."

However, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) appeared today on Fox News, and he said it is not a rebranding effort, but is instead an attempt to engage with the American people:

"Jane, it's not a rebranding effort," said Cantor. "What this is, is an attempt to engage and begin a conversation with the American people. what we're looking for on the National Council for a New America is to involve all the American people for wide-open policy debate about the issues confronting this nation, on the issues confronting the families and the communities across this country."

So did CNN read in too much, thinking that an effort to alter the party's image was tantamount to rebranding -- or is it that Cantor is walking the idea back?

Barack Obama

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | April 22, 2009, 9:00AM

Senate Confirms Christopher Hill As Ambassador To Iraq
The Senate last night confirmed Christopher Hill to be President Obama's Ambassador to Iraq. The nomination had previously been delayed by some Republican Senators, including John McCain and Sam Brownback, but Hill was finally able to win confirmation on a 73-23 vote.

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama is traveling to Iowa for Earth Day today, accompanied by former governor and current Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack. He will depart the White House at 9:45 a.m. ET, and take off from Andrews Air Force Base at 10 a.m. ET. He will arrive in Des Moines at 12:15 p.m. ET, and will tour the Trinity Structural Towers Manufacturing Plant, which makes wind-energy towers, at 1:20 p.m. ET. At 2 p.m. ET, Obama will deliver remarks on his energy plan, laying out a strategy focused on clean energy. He will leave Des Moines at 3:15 p.m. ET, and is scheduled to arrive back at the White House at 6:30 p.m. ET.

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Republicans

Republicans "Scramble" For Ideas, Find Old Ones

Brian Beutler | April 14, 2009, 5:03PM

I see via Politico that House GOP Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has put together an online "Solutions Center," which purports to answer the four big questions Americans are asking. Patrick O'Connor and Mike Allen see this as the GOP scrambling "to show it has ideas," which suggests, perhaps, that they didn't spend too much time on the site. Because in all their scrambling, House Republicans didn't come up with much that hasn't already cost them the last two elections.

Here's an abbreviated version of the problems Americans face, and the solutions the GOP is positing.

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Rush Limbaugh

Cantor: Crisis? What Crisis?

Brian Beutler | April 2, 2009, 11:28AM

It's hard to tell if Eric Cantor's testing a new message, or if this is the new Republican line on the Democrats and the state of affairs in the country, but Politico reports that, at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning, the House GOP whip, said Democrats are "overreacting, as they often will, to crisis."

But back to this morning. Cantor told participants that "Doing too much has huge, huge pitfalls," better, in other words, to err on the side of doing too little.

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Budget

House GOP Budget: Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions with Offshore Drilling

Brian Beutler | April 1, 2009, 10:29AM

Speaking of Congressional Budget Committee Ranking Members Who Write Op-Eds, Paul Ryan, Judd Gregg's House counterpart, has a piece of his own in the Wall Street Journal. In it, he summarizes the bottom line of the budget (or the counter-part to the non-budget budget) he plans to release today. More on that very soon, but here's what to expect:

• A budget that nixes all non-military federal discretionary spending for five years amid a recession.
• A budget that deploys "more clean and renewable energy sources free of greenhouse gas...by opening exploration on our nation's oil and gas fields, and by investing the proceeds in a new clean energy trust fund, infrastructure and further deficit reduction.
• A budget that creates two tax brackets--10 percent for income below $100,000 and 25 percent for every dollar above that--and that cuts corporate income tax rate to 25 percent.

Late update: At the end of his op-ed, Ryan writes, "[i]n the recent past, the Republican Party failed to offer the nation an inspiring vision and a concrete plan to tackle our problems with innovative and principled solutions. We do not intend to repeat that mistake." Hmmm. He wouldn't be talking about this and this, would he?

Budget

Dems Pounce on House GOP's Details-Free Budget

Brian Beutler | March 27, 2009, 9:20AM

The House GOP's non-budget budget may have riven senior members of the GOP caucus, but it has united House Democrats and the Obama administration, who have each distributed a set of talking points to their respective members about the thin (though shiny!) document.

The House Dem's memo, like the budget it mocks, is sleek and well produced. It notes that "[w]hile Republicans expended a great deal of effort to make their budget document look just like President Obama's, it was missing something rather important: Number...or any substance at all."

The White House's memo, while slightly more substantive, hits at many of the same themes: "The plan they released today is a rerun of the same failed policies that got our country into this deep financial and economic crisis: massive tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy, huge subsidies to big oil and gas companies, and no plan to bring down the costs of health care."

Both documents refer to the GOP as "the party of no" and "no new ideas".

It's probably important to remember that President Obama was practically begging his congressional nemeses to put out a budget or budgets of their own. Now he has a risible alternative to point to when critics or members of the media blanch at the big numbers in his own budget proposal, and the modifications to it released by congressional Democrats earlier this week.

Bailout

Viva Cantor-Krugman? House GOP Backs Receivership For Insolvent Banks

Elana Schor | March 26, 2009, 1:49PM

There were few details in today's outline of the House Republican budget alternative -- but on the thorny question of future bank bailouts, the GOP had a clear plan. And it looks a lot like Paul Krugman's preferred method.

TPMDC noted the first stirrings of the GOP's Krugman love earlier this week, when House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) joined the liberal economist in lamenting the taxpayer subsidy built into the Obama Treasury's latest bank rescue plan. But today's Republican budget alternative goes even further, directly repeating Krugman's past criticism of the Treasury's bailout ethose:

In sum, the message with bailouts of this magnitude is that your profits will be private but your losses socialized.

Now, House Republicans go on to extrapolate a future of socialized losses as well as profits -- a prediction one suspects Krugman would reject. And then they go right back to Krugman-ville with this proposal:

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Budget

House GOP Unveils Its Budget Shiny Packet of Goals

Elana Schor | March 26, 2009, 1:22PM

Stung by their stereotyping as the "party of no," House Republicans eagerly promoted the unveiling of their alternative to President Obama's budget today -- but when they finished speaking, reporters had one big question: Where's the actual budget? You know, the numbers that show deficit projections and discretionary spending?

There certainly was no hard budgetary data in the attractively designed 18-page packet that the House GOP handed out today, its blue cover emblazoned with an ambitious title: "The Republican Road to Recovery." When Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was asked what his goal for deficit reduction would be -- President Obama aims to halve the nation's spending imbalance within five years -- Boehner responded simply: "To do better [than Obama]."

When pressed further by reporters, Boehner promised that Republicans would release their actual budget within the next few days and pointed a finger back at the president.

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Barack Obama

Cantor Passes Up Obama Presser For Britney Spears Concert

Elana Schor | March 25, 2009, 5:17PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) was asked by NBC this morning if President Obama "said anything last night that you and your colleagues will support."

And Cantor answered in great detail ... which must mean he caught Obama's press conference on TiVo during breakfast. Because the rising GOP star went straight from a campaign fundraiser to Britney Spears' sold-out D.C. concert last night.

Here's how Cantor's office explained it to Wonkette, which first reported this fact today:

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | March 25, 2009, 9:00AM

Jindal: Do I Want Obama To Fail? It Depends
At an NRCC dinner last night in Washington, Bobby Jindal blasted Democrats for demanding that Republicans not want President Obama to fail. "Make no mistake: Anything other than an immediate and compliant, 'Why no sir, I don't want the president to fail,' is treated as some sort of act of treason, civil disobedience or political obstructionism," said Jindal, going on to explain the bottom line: "My answer to the question is very simple: 'Do you want the president to fail?' It depends on what he is trying to do."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama is meeting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at 10:45 a.m. ET. At 1 p.m. ET, he will meet on Capitol Hill with the Senate Democratic Caucus, where he is expected to discuss his budget proposal. At 5:05 p.m. ET, he and Vice President Biden will host an event in the East Room to commemorate Greek Independence Day. And tonight he will speak at two DNC fundraisers: An 8:15 p.m. ET event at the National Women in the Arts Museum, and at 9 p.m. ET in Warner Theater.

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Timothy Geithner

Geithner's Bank Plan: Bringing Eric Cantor Closer to Paul Krugman

Elana Schor | March 23, 2009, 2:51PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has just released his official reaction to the Treasury Department's new toxic-asset-purchasing plan. And in an illustration of the GOP's sudden populist shift, Cantor attacked the proposal as a giveaway to big business:

As described, the plan seems to offer little incentive for private investors to participate unless the subsidy is made so rich that it comes at the expense of the taxpayer. In its current form, Secretary Geithner's plan is a shell game that hides the true cost of the program from the taxpayers that will be asked to pay for it. Six months after Congress debated the first TARP, it is inexcusable that taxpayers still have not been told their true exposure.

Disturbingly enough, Cantor's criticism of the Treasury plan echoes that of Paul Krugman, who wrote this morning:

The only way to argue that the subsidy is small is to claim that there's very little chance that assets purchased under the scheme will lose as much as 15 percent of their purchase price. Given what's happened over the past 2 years, is that a reasonable assertion?

Now, Cantor's party has yet to emerge with any coherent alternative to the Obama administration's plan -- and the GOP certainly isn't embracing anything like Krugman's pitch for greater government involvement in winding down truly insolvent banks. But when a leading conservative politician and a leading progressive economist are sending the same signals, it's safe to say that the day has taken a turn for the Carroll-esque.

Late Update: A GOP source emails to note that House Republicans did offer a plan of their own to right the markets. In September, Cantor proposed an insurance fund that would charge banks a premium in exchange for guaranteeing toxic mortgage-backed securities.

I'm certainly aware of that concept, but would argue that it's far from a viable alternative to Geithner's current tack. Time economics columnist Justin Fox explained at the time that insuring toxic assets would have the same risk of inadvertent subsidy that Cantor decried today, because setting premium levels for the banks would still require setting (likely inflated) prices for the securities being insured.

The Times also cited Cantor as admitting that the GOP plan "could only work in conjunction with a direct purchase of troubled debt by the Treasury" -- a situation in which government would be playing the same role that Geithner envisions the private sector at least partially playing. So my reference to the lack of a "coherent alternative" included the mortgage-backed-securities insurance idea.

Budget

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | March 16, 2009, 9:00AM

Obama To Use Campaign Infrastructure To Build Support For Budget
President Obama and the Democratic National Committee will be leveraging Obama's 13-million name e-mail list in order to mobilize support for Obama's budget proposal. From the Washington Post: "Aides familiar with the plan said it is an unprecedented attempt to transfer the grass-roots energy built during the presidential campaign into an effort to sway Congress."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama and Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner will be meeting at 11:25 a.m. ET with small business owners and community leaders. Obama and Geithner will deliver remarks to the group and members of Congress at 12 p.m. ET. At 2 p.m. ET, Obama will speak at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Biden's Day Ahead
Vice President Biden will be speaking this afternoon at the International Association of Fire Fighters 2009 Legislative Conference. In the evening, Biden will attend an event for the Democratic National Committee, where he will be speaking.

Obama To Roll Out Small Business Aid Plan
At their White House event today, President Obama and Sec. Geithner will announce plan to help small business. The plan will include lower small-business lending fees, as well as an increase on the government guarantees for some Small Business Administration loans, and other steps aimed at unlocking the credit markets.

Poll: Economy Is Top Issue, And Unemployment Is Top Economic Issue
A new CNN poll finds 36% of Americans saying unemployment is the single most important economic issue -- compared to 13% last April, when the biggest economic issue during a time of rising gas prices was inflation. Overall, 63% say the economy is their top concern.

Simmons Running Against Dodd
Former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT) has announced that he is running for Senate against Chris Dodd in 2010. Simmons lost re-election by less than 100 votes in the 2006 Democratic wave, but a recent Quinnipiac poll gave him a 43%-42% edge over the embattled Dodd.

GOP Spending Big In Special Election For Gillibrand's House Seat
The Hill reports that the Republicans are investing heavily in the special election for Kirsten Gillibrand's former House seat, where the polls are showing just a small lead for GOP candidate Jim Tedisco (after he'd previously held a much larger one). In all, 82 members of the GOP conference have agreed to donate to Tedisco's campaign, and both John Boehner and Eric Cantor have held fundraisers for him.

Eric Cantor

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | March 13, 2009, 5:08PM

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

• CBS, Face The Nation: Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, and Thomas Friedman of the New York Times.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in his first TV interview since leaving office.

• Fox News Sunday: Austan Goolsbee, White House Council of Economic Advisers; Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN); Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA); Mark Zandi, Moody's Economy.com; and FDIC Chair Sheila Blair.

• NBC, Meet The Press: House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Dr. Christina Romer, Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Bailout

Taking Their Cues From The New York Times, GOPers Go All Financial Crisis, All the Time

Elana Schor | March 10, 2009, 5:46PM

In his Times opinion column this morning, David Brooks urged Republicans to adopt a singular focus on the financial crisis as a way of countering President Obama's agenda. As Brooks wrote:

Republicans could admit that they don't know what the future holds, and they're not going to try to make long-range plans based on assumptions that will be obsolete by summer. Unlike the Democrats, they're not for making trillions of dollars in long-term spending commitments until they know where things stand.

...

Do I expect them to shift course in this manner? Not really.

But Brooks appears to have underestimated his own influence. Senior Republicans came out in force today to contend that the financial crisis was getting short shrift from the White House, expanding on the "Obama is distracted" meme that Matt has blogged about this week to accuse the president of not tackling the economy as intensely as he should.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) relayed the new message loud and clear, as The Hill reports:

Following the GOP's weekly conference meeting, the second-ranking House Republican told reporters that President Obama should be focusing on the "economic crisis," as opposed to holding four-hour meetings on healthcare, as the president did last week. The efforts may be laudable, Cantor said, but the White House should be devoting all resources to fixing the economy and not to "impose these cap-and-trade schemes."

And Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) echoed the assertion that Obama's team needs to do more intense work on the economy. "I wish Secretary Geithner and the president would actually begin to solve the problem that's Number One, the credit crisis," he told me today, urging the president to "attend to the problems of the most importance to our country first."

The GOP also seems to be moving forward on Brooks' other recommendation this morning: the introduction of a coherent conservative alternative to the Obama administration's financial policies. Ideas under consideration include a tax credit to homebuyers who make a 5% down payment, tax benefits for those who sell investment properties ... and likely more breaks in the tax code.

Afghanistan

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | March 8, 2009, 12:59PM

Obama Open To Outreach To Some Taliban Elements
In an interview with the New York Times, President Obama said that the United States is not winning the Afghanistan War, and that one option would be to negotiate with some elements of the Taliban. Though he acknowledged that the complexities of Afghanistan, he also said: "If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq."

Karzai Approves Of Obama's Stance On Taliban Negotiation
At a public appearance yesterday in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: "Yesterday, Mr. Obama accepted and approved the path of peace and talks with those Afghan Taliban who he called moderates." He added: "This is a good news ... this is approval of our previous stance and we accept and praise it."

Obama Arriving Back At White House From Camp David
The First Family is scheduled to return to the White House at 2:50 p.m. ET, after spending the night at Camp David.

Ted Kennedy To Receive Award Tonight, Biden Attending
Ted Kennedy will be honored tonight at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where he will be presented the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Vice President Biden and Jill Biden will be in attendance.

Shelby: Improve Market By Letting Big Banks Fail
Appearing on ABC's This Week, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) laid out his opposition to bank nationalization, and his support of letting big banks fail. "Close them down, get them out of business. If they're dead, they ought to be buried," Shelby said. "We bury the small banks; we've got to bury some big ones and send a strong message to the market. And I believe that people will start investing in banks."

McCain: GM Should Go Into Bankruptcy, Reorganize
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, John McCain said: "I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11, they reorganize, they renegotiate ... the union-management contracts and come out of it a stronger, better, leaner, more competitive automotive industry." Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican, strongly disagreed, saying that if GM and Chrysler go into bankruptcy they would likely not come out of it.

Orszag: Spending Bill Will Be Different Next Year
Appearing on CNN, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said the Obama Administration doesn't like aspects of the omnibus bill, but has to handle it as a matter left over from last year. "Is it uglier than we'd like? Yes. But again, this was negotiated last year," said Orszag. "We think we should just move on. When we are engaged in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations process, it's going to look a lot different."

Cantor: White House Has No Credibility On Spending
Also appearing on CNN, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) fired back at Orszag. "There is no way anyone could take what Mr. Orszag has said with any credibility," said Cantor. "Of course they're negotiating on this bill in the Senate right now. To say that we would have drawn it differently, but leave $430 billion plus on the table like this? No way." A note about credibility: Cantor voted for all of the Bush White House's deficit-spending programs.

Rush Limbaugh

Cantor Declines To Reiterate Criticism Of Rush

Eric Kleefeld | March 3, 2009, 2:35PM

So is House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) going to criticize Rush Limbaugh, or not?

Earlier today, Rush told Greg Sargent that Cantor's comments on ABC's This Week, saying that neither he nor other Republicans want President Obama to fail, was in fact in agreement with Rush on the policy issues, and had been distorted by ABC.

So we asked Cantor's office for clarification -- and they're not giving a real answer to it.

Instead, Cantor press secretary Brad Dayspring is daring the Democrats to go talk to Rush themselves:

If Robert Gibbs is worried about the policies Rush Limbaugh talks about on his show, he should call into the show- I'm sure Rush would welcome it. In the meantime, if Mr. Gibbs and the Administration want to focus on creating jobs and helping the Middle Class deal with an economy in recession, they should call Eric Cantor and work with us on the these very real problems.

After seeing what happened to Michael Steele, who can blame Cantor for not wanting to be caught criticizing the great leader?

Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | March 1, 2009, 12:58PM

Obama Picks Sebelius For Health And Human Services
President Obama has reportedly selected Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services, and will officially announce the pick on Monday. Sebelius' move to the cabinet would seem to take her out of the running for the 2010 Senate race, for which some had hoped she could be first Democrat to win a Senate seat from Kansas since 1932.

Limbaugh Reaffirms It -- He Wants Obama To Fail, And America To Succeed
Rush Limbaugh accepted his "Defender of the Constitution Award" at CPAC last night, reaffirming that he wants President Obama's policies to fail. "You can't say, Mr. Limbaugh, that you want the President to fail because that's like saying you want the country to fail," Limbaugh said rhetorically. "It's the opposite. I want the country to survive. I want the country to succeed," he added, as the crowd cheered.

Cantor Distances Himself From Limbaugh, Says GOP Doesn't Want Obama To Fail
Appearing on This Week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) rejected the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh, that Republicans want Obama to fail:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So the Rush Limbaugh approach of hoping the president fails is not the Eric Cantor , House Republican approach?

CANTOR: George, absolutely not. And I don't -- I don't think anyone wants anything to fail right now. We have such challenges.

What we need to do is we need to put forth solutions to the problems that real families are facing today. And our common-sense, conservative principles of limited government, and the belief in free markets, and the belief that really opportunity can only be created by the private sector are going to undergird our proposals going forward.

Rahm: Limbaugh "The Intellectual Force And Energy" Of GOP
Appearing on Face The Nation, Rahm Emanuel moved to further tie the Republican Party to Rush Limbaugh, declaring him to be "the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party." Of Limbaugh's rhetoric about failure, Rahm said: "He said it, and I compliment him on his honesty. But that's their philosophy that's enunciated by Rush Limbaugh and I think that's the wrong philosophy for America."

Orszag: Deficit Will Go Down In Near Future
Appearing on This Week, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag reaffirmed the White House's projections that they can cut the deficit in half in the next few years, as the economy recovers and the Bush tax cuts expire. "We've got both spending constraints and additional revenue, as the economy recovers," Orszag explained. "That's where a lot of the deficit reduction comes from."

Gates: Obama 'More Analytical' Than Bush
Appearing on Meet The Press, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates compared President Obama to his previous boss, George W. Bush: "I think that probably President Obama is somewhat more analytical. And he makes sure he hears from everybody in the room on an issue. And if they don't speak up, he calls on them." He also said it is "fairly remote" that the current plan for withdrawal from Iraq would change.

Mullen Expresses Confidence In Obama, Withdrawal Plan
Appearing today on Fox News Sunday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said that the current timeline to withdraw from Iraq is acceptable, and expressed his confidence in President Obama: "He clearly has sought my advice. I feel very comfortable that as a senior military officer and adviser to the president that he is giving me the time and the opportunity to advise him accordingly."

Pawlenty: Coleman Has 'Plausible' Chance
In an interview with The Hill, Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) said of the disputed Senate race in his home state: "Norm has a plausible chance, a decent chance of winning this thing. He has raised irregularities that rise to the level of legal issues, legitimate legal issues, that could change the result."

House of Representatives

Aerosmith to House GOP: Don't Use Our Song

Elana Schor | February 17, 2009, 5:48PM

Poor House Republicans. They were pretty psyched yesterday about that new troops-rallying video from Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) that used Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" to declare that "The House GOP is back" thanks to the party's unanimous opposition to the stimulus.

But unfortunately, Aerosmith wasn't feeling the love. Cantor's clip has been pulled from YouTube after a copyright infringement claim made by Stage Three Music, which owns the rights to "Back in the Saddle."

The GOP's use of the tune "was something we, as the publishers, didn't approve and would not have approved without going to the writers," Connie Ashton, director of copyright and licensing at Stage Three, told me. "Aerosmith did not approve of its use and also wanted to have it taken down," she added.

Ashton added that House Republicans never contacted Stage Three to put in a request for use of "Back in the Saddle." Maybe they assumed it was okay because Joe Perry endorsed McCain last year.

Republicans

GOP: $50B For Housing is Too Much; Try Our $121B Plan

Elana Schor | February 17, 2009, 2:35PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- who shares TPMDC's affinity for Aerosmith -- was at it again yesterday during an interview with CBS. Cantor strongly suggested that he would oppose President Obama's mortgage aid plan, slated for unveiling tomorrow. Cantor slammed the $50 billion price tag as too high:

We just cannot continue to pay for the kind of things that this administration thinks that we can. So, I'm very concerned about the direction I see us going ...

Hmm, maybe Cantor should bring this up with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) GOP crew at their next bicameral mixer. The Senate Republicans have spent much of this month touting their alternative stimulus, which would have provided government subsidies for lower mortgage interest rates -- the same broad concept as Obama's plan -- at an initial cost of $121 billion.

Unless the minority wants its new talking point to be 'we voted for billions of dollars for mortgage aid before we voted against it.' At least that's better than lying about a salt marsh mouse.

Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | February 15, 2009, 1:04PM

Obama: I'm An Optimist -- But Not A Sap
In an interview with National Journal, President Obama said he is open to reaching across the aisle, but policy results matter. "My bottom line is not how pretty the process was," he said. "My bottom line was: Am I getting help to people who need it?" He also added: "I am an eternal optimist [but] that doesn't mean I'm a sap."

Obama Heading To U. of Chicago Campus
President Obama and Vice President Biden do not have any scheduled public events for today. However, Obama is visiting the University of Chicago campus today, where he formerly taught as a part-time law professor.

Obama To Sign Stimulus On Tuesday, Discuss Foreclosures Wednesday
President Obama will sign the stimulus bill on Tuesday, in a special trip to Denver -- the city where he formally accepted the Democratic nomination. Then on Wednesday he will head to Phoenix, Arizona -- John McCain's home state -- to put forward a plan to fight home foreclosures.

Axelrod: Obama To Take Action On Stem Cells
David Axelrod said on Fox News Sunday that President Obama will soon take action on stem-cell research, and is considering an order to formally lift the ban on federal funding that was put in place by George W. Bush.

Burris: Blagojevich's Brother Asked Me For Contribution Last November
Senator Roland Burris (D-IL) has now admitted that Rod Blagojevich's brother asked him for campaign contributions last fall, which Burris says he declined to do. Burris didn't disclose this when asked by the state impeachment committee to name any contact he'd had with Blago's people about the Senate seat.

Cantor: I Get Advice From Gingrich
In a new profile in the New York Times, Eric Cantor said he has regularly sought out the advice of a previous House Republican Whip who faced similar circumstances as he did, and then put his party in the majority: Newt Gingrich. Said Cantor: "I talk to Newt on a regular basis because he was in the position that we are in: in the extreme minority."

McCain: Stimulus Bill A 'Bad Beginning' For Obama
Appearing on CNN today, John McCain lambasted President Obama's performance in passing the stimulus bill. "It was a bad beginning because it wasn't what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people - that we would sit down together," said McCain, adding that "almost all of our proposals went down on a party-line vote."

GOP Senator Graham: 'The Country's Screwed'
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed his dissatisfaction today with the legislative process that led to the stimulus bill. Appearing on This Week, Graham had this to say about Democrats dominating the process: "If I may say, if this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed."

House of Representatives

Triangulation Now, Triangulation Forever? GOPers Hang Together

Elana Schor | February 13, 2009, 3:53PM

The advertising campaign against them didn't matter. Entreaties from Republican governors didn't matter. House Republicans stayed united against President Obama's stimulus bill, and they looked plenty pleased about it today as the gavel came down and the measure passed despite their objections.

But don't tell Republicans that it's Obama's stimulus plan they're rejecting. GOPers are subtly aiming to capitalize on two very different numbers: the Democratic Congress' sub-30% approval rating and Obama's impressive 64% approval.

"The problem lies squarely with congressional Democrats," House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) told reporters after the vote. "My conversation with the president was clear; he said, 'it's the Speaker [Pelosi] and the Leader [Reid] running these chambers, they have the ability to control this process.'"

As the Church Lady might say, How conveeeenient.

Read more »

Stimulus

Steele Keeps Pushing GOP's Debunked Stimulus Math

Eric Kleefeld | February 12, 2009, 11:58AM

Michael Steele has a new op-ed posted at USA Today, promoting the GOP's continuing assertion that their stimulus plan has numbers to back up its superiority over the Dem bill:

Republicans have a better solution: an economic recovery plan that lets families and small businesses keep more of what they earn. By our analysis, the Republican plan would create 6.2 million jobs, twice the number created under the Democrats' plan, at half the cost.

Again, it needs to be asked where they got this from. As we've previously reported, this came from altering the base numbers in an economic analysis that Christina Romer, who is now serving as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote a year ago -- well before the current crisis of a deflationary economy had come into play.

There are two problems here. First, that paper didn't actually examine tax cuts, but instead looked at the negative effects of tax increases under normal circumstances. The Republicans' predictions about tax cuts come from flipping the numbers around and assuming the mirror-image effects.

And furthermore, they've totally ignored the fact that we are in an abnormal scenario right now, with different fundamental underlying assumptions.

But hey, never let that stop you from some good political spin.

Late Update: Hmm, Eric Cantor is doing it, too.