The Hill News

As a girl growing up in a small Texas town, it was beyond my wildest dreams to think I'd one-day be competing on Bravo's Top Chef -- a dream that never would have come true if the Education Department's new “Gainful Employment” rule had been in effect when I applied for federal student aid.

The "Gainful Employment" rule, which is expected to be released in early March, was meant to curb the rising amount of student debt in America. It will limit federal aid to students like me who seek to attend career colleges -- such as my alma mater, the Art Institute of Houston.

The purpose of this rule is to limit the amount of financial aid that students at for-profit colleges and universities could receive if the program they are enrolled in doesn’t lead to “gainful employment.” This would apply to institutions that are failing to provide students with the skills necessary to become gainful employed while repaying their student loans.

Read more...

Former Rep. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.) wants a woman to run for president in 2012 â€" just not former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Kelly said money was the big factor stopping a strong female candidate from running for office.

"But I wouldn't love to see Sarah Palin and I'll say that on air, up front," Kelly said. "I just don't think this time around they're going to run, and the reason is the money factor. Money is so huge in a presidential race."

Although she is not the only high-profile female Republican to show an interest in running, Palin is probably the most likely to jump into the ring. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has been mentioned as a possible GOP challenger and has recently been making trips to key battleground states.

In an upset, Kelly lost her seat in 2006 to former Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.). Hall was defeated by Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) in 2010.

Watch Kelly's segment at 7:45 bel! ow, courtesy of foxnews.com here.

White House press secretary Jay Carney tweeted for the first time on Monday, after taking over the job two weeks ago.

Carney tweeted that he would take some questions from the @PressSec account's 150,000-plus followers:

Ok, let's turn this machine back on. Jay Carney here, send your Qs my way and I'll answer a few soon

The message was expected: The White House announced last week that Carney would tweet for the first time on Monday.

White House communications director Dan Pf! eiffer told Twitter users "don't go too easy on him."

Carney's predecessor, Robert Gibbs, who recently left the post, tweeted for the final time on Feb. 3. Gibbs's old tweets are still intact on the site, which is subject to federal laws regarding online content.

The head of Senate Democrats' campaign committee emphasized on Monday that Democrats weren't questioning the veracity of Sen. Scott Brown's (R-Mass.) revelation that he was a victim of sex abuse when they circulated articles containing criticism of Brown.

{mosads}The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) circulated articles to reporters last week by respected Boston columnists that suggested Brown's revelations were a hypocritical move in the light of his endorsement of a congressional candidate who was accused of insensitivity to sexual assault.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the DSCC, emphasized that Democrats weren't questioning the claims.

"No one is questioning the veracity of his story. We send out literally hundreds of articles daily, and this was part of that," Murray said at the Capitol.

"I just want to emphasize that no one was ever questioning the veracity of his story," she added.

Clips are routinely circulated by party committees to reporters. They don't always necessarily reflect the official stance or position of a party or committee, but typically serve the purpose of bringing certain articles to reporters' attention.

Brown is a top target for Democrats in 2012 and has spent much of the last two weeks on a media blitz to promote his memoir, "Against All Odds."

President Obama warned Monday against vilifying public workers, making his first allusion to the labor dispute in Wisconsin in a week and a half.

The president, speaking Monday to a bipartisan group of governors at the White House, warned against using public servants as scapegoats, a not-so-subtle reference to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) pursuit of legislation that would eliminate collective bargaining rights for public workers.

{mosads}"I don't think it does anybody any good when public servants are denigrated, or vilified, or have their rights infringed upon," Obama said.

The president has been largely silent on the labor dispute, which prompted weeks of demonstrations in Madison by pro-labor crowds, since saying on Feb. 17 that Walker's plan represents an "assault on unions."

Some Democrats have clamored for more a more vocal stance by Obama on behalf of pro-labor forces in Wisconsin, but amid major international d! evelopments in Libya over the past week, the president has largely let surrogates â€" namely Vice President Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis â€" take the lead on the issue.

Obama framed his comments in the context of a larger conversation about entitlement reform at the state and federal level.

"We need a conversation about pensions and Medicare and Medicaid and other promises we've made as a nation," he said.

The gap between Republican and Democratic support for Israel fell significantly in 2011 but self-identified Republicans still back Israel in higher numbers than Democrats.

A Gallup poll released Monday showed that 80 percent of Republicans sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians compared to 57 percent of Democrats who do the same. The gap decreased by 14 percentage points from 2010, when 85 percent of GOPers said they sympathize with Israelis compared to 48 percent of Democrats.

{mosads}Despite the drop, Republicans still support ! the Israelis over Palestinians in larger numbers than Democrats. When the sample is broken down by conservatives and liberals, 74 percent of the former group sided with Israelis compared to 49 percent for the latter.

Independent support is at 57 percent whereas moderate backing is at 62 percent.

The poll is surprising in some respects, considering that relations between the U.S. and Israel have had some rocky moments over the past year.

The U.S. was upset by an Israeli decision to begin construction on housing units in disputed East Jerusalem and the so-called "flotilla incident" in May 2010 also strained ties between Israel and governments in the rest of the Western world.

The survey also comes as the 2012 presidential campaign is beginning to heat up, during which the U.S.-Israel could become a top foreign policy issue.

Potential GOP candidates have taken subtle jabs at Obama over Israel with the hopes of appealing to their base, which strongly supports Israel.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Monday brushed aside concerns about widespread demonstrations against his rule, and said his people "love him."

"My people love me. They would die for me," Gadhafi told ABC News during his first interview with a U.S. media outlet. 

Gadhafi's latest comments come as rebels continue to clash with Libyan government forces over control of large swaths of the country. Hundreds have been reported killed during the demonstrations against Gadhafi and subsequent violence.

The Libyan leader, who has controlled the country for four decades, has repeatedly declined to step aside, and given a series of rambling speeches on state-run media outlets.

Preside! nt Obama has condemned Gadhafi's conduct, and the U.S. announced Monday that it froze $30 billion in Libyan assets. Last week, Obama ordered unilateral sanctions against Libya, and is considering other options in accord with the United States's European allies.

In his interview Monday, Gadhafi criticized the West for turning its back on him.

"I'm surprised that we have an alliance with the West to fight al-Qaeda, and now that we are fighting terrorists they have abandoned us," he said. "Perhaps they want to occupy Libya."

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) is treading carefully around the union disputes that have gripped the Midwest and his home state as he considers a run for the governor's mansion.

Speaking on a local radio station on Monday, Pence said that although he doesn't support the arguments of pro-union protesters in states like Wisconsin and Indiana, he thinks the open debate over benefits is healthy.

{mosads}"I think what you see in Indiana, in Wisconsin, and elsewhere are vigorous, important debates about the future of our country," Pence said in an interview with local Indiana radio station WTLC.

Pence, a conservative favorite who had considered running for president, is mulling a bid for Indiana governor.

His remarks come as state legislature Democrats in Indiana and Wisconsin continue to stay away from their respective states, thereby blocking bills that would limit certain union rights.

Protests of the union bills have brok! en out in a number of Midwestern states, with the largest and longest-running occurring in Wisconsin. On Monday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) continued his calls for state Democrats blocking the controversial bill from passing to return home and vote on the bill.

Walker said that if the Democrats don't return home in the next 24 hours, they will miss an important chance to solve Wisconsin's debt problems. He says the bill that union advocates are protesting is necessary for solving the state's debt woes.

Rock journalist Dan Sinker has been revealed as the mind behind the popular @MayorEmanuel Twitter account that parodied Rahm Emanuel.

Sinker’s fake Twitter account public mocked the former Obama chief of staff and Chicago mayoral candidate’s habit of profanity, and became more popular than Emanuel’s own Twitter account.

By the numbers, @MayorEmanuel had 39, 062 followers as of February 28, while the real Emanuel Twitter account had 11,786 followers. Sinker's official Twitter has 2,050.

Sinker’s background is in punk rock, according to a story in The Atlantic, which revealed he was the mind behind the Twitter account:

Sinker is the founder of Punk Planet, a legendary zine that ran fro! m 1994 until 2007. Sinker and his tiny staff put out 80 issues during that time and created a punk rock tent big enough happily include Black Flag and filmmaker Miranda July.

Sinker said that he never meant to be critical of the real Emanuel.

“I was never really making fun of the guy,” Sinker said. “I was making fun with the guy.”

He explained to The Atlantic that in the beginning it was really just about using as much profanity as possible, but over time his inner storyteller kicked in.

“I started to think, I can really tell a story about this,” Sinker said.

The fake Twitter took on the shape of a sort of cross between a darkly humorous Twitter feed and serialized cartoon strip roughly following the events of the actual Chicago mayoral race.

When it appeared that the real Rahm Emanuel would have to drop out of the race after his Chicago residency was challenged, the fake E! manuel’s tweets were about Emanuel burning his possessions j! ust so h e could feel something.

And when the real Rahm Emanuel went on a tour of Chicago’s 50-wards in the home stretch of the mayoral campaign, @MayorEmanuel tweeted potty-mouthed dispatches (which had nothing to do with the actual 50-ward tour).

 

A group of six senators hashing out a bipartisan plan on deficit and debt reduction will meet for "very important" discussions on Tuesday, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Monday.

Conrad, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said that they've reached no agreement on a proposal, and that tomorrow's meeting would be crucial to determining how much progress could be made.

"We'll meet again tomorrow morning. It's a little hard to say â€" we don't have an agreement," Conrad said on MSNBC. "Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. Tomorrow's meeting is very important."

The "Gang of Six" includes four members of President Obama's fiscal commission â€" Conrad and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) â€" and two other senators, Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.). The group has been working now for "weeks," Conrad said, and are considering all options for deficit and debt reduction! .

"We will know a lot better tomorrow what progress we're making," Conrad said of tomorrow's meeting. "We have really a comprehensive review tomorrow morning."

The top Democrat on budget issues, Conrad said it would take the group more time to come to some final conclusions. He also said the group was developing two proposals.

"We've really got two approaches. One is along the lines of the fiscal commission," Conrad explained. "The other is a backup plan to encourage Congress to adopt a comprehensive plan â€" real consequences if Congress fails."

Partisan rancor between Democrats and Republicans is "almost un-American," according to a freshman GOP congressman.

Rep. Michael Grimm (N.Y.), a former FBI agent and Marine, gave several interviews on Monday in which he pleaded for better cooperation from both political parties.

{mosads}"Both sides are bashing each other," Grimm told the Staten-Island Advance. "It's disappointing. It's almost un-American. We have to get past the partisanship and get down to business."

Grimm's comments are one sign he is facing a tough reelection in 2012 after defeating centrist Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon in November. 

McMahon, who served one term, has made overtures to the Democratic base in anticipation of a potential run in 2012. Democrats had been frustrated over McMahon's vote against the healthcare reform law, which he since said was a mistake.

Tea Party groups and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) endorsed Grimm during his 2010 campaign, but he has also reached out to Democrats during his short time in office.

He sided with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) on reducing funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace and voted with the Queens congressman to bolster the COPS law enforcement hiring pr! ogram. 

Grimm told NPR on Monday that his campaign was based on more than just support from conservatives.

"We had a tremendous amount of support outside the Tea Party. So I think it is broader than that," he said.

President Obama pointedly praised on Monday the healthcare program Republican Mitt Romney installed as governor of Massachusetts.

Obama singled out Romney for praise over his state's healthcare plan, which shares similarities with the president's national healthcare reform, in a bit of backhanded praise for the likely Republican presidential candidate.

"I agree with Mitt Romney, who's recently said he's proud of what he accomplished in Massachusetts," Obama said at a gathering of governors at the White House.

The comment is a kind of kiss of death for Obama's would-be foe in 2012. Romney has sought to defend his reforms from criticism from possible GOP primary opponents. Already, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) has taken on "RomneyCare," though Huckabee said Sunday that it shouldn't disqualify Romney from the Republican nomination. 

Romney has wrestled with how to present a defense of his plan to potential primary voters. He's said that, given the chance, he might not pursue all of the same reforms, and last week his spokesman said that Romney was proud of having made an attempt at healthcare reform.

Obama's ! comment was undoubtedly political; reporters immediately picke! d up on the 2012 implications of the president's praise of Romney for having been willing to seek innovative solutions on healthcare. Romney is considered one of the top contenders to emerge from the Republican primary, and eventually secure the nomination to challenge Obama in the general election.

It's not the first time that Obama has sought to make a possible Republican rival in 2012 uncomfortable by cozying up to him. Obama praised his ambassador to China, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), in January, joking that Huntaman's service in this administration would be an asset in a Republican primary. Huntsman is now considering running for president.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Republicans who are reportedly waiting until 2016 to run for president to consider getting off the sidelines for 2012.

Graham said Monday that the time was ripe to take on President Obama, and that any candidate with the ambition to be president should run.

"If you really decide to do this, now's the time," Graham said, noting speculation that a number of top GOP candidates are waiting until 2016. "If you think you should be president, it's not about timing, it's about ability."

"There's plenty of opportunity here for the Republican Party to win in 2012," the Palmetto State Republican said on conservative talker Laura Ingraham's radio show.

There are a number of Republicans considering running for president in 2012, including some of the GOP's biggest names, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.).

But! there are also a number of rising stars in the party who have passed on running for president this cycle, perhaps to run in 2016. Among them are New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, among others.

The conventional wisdom says that some of the candidates may be waiting for 2106 because they're hedging their bets about Obama's beatability in 2012. The president has the advantage of incumbency, and he's regarded as a formidable campaigner and fundraiser who won in 2008 with a broad electoral map.

Graham said that he didn't expect Obama to win North Carolina, Virginia or Indiana, as he did in 2008, and speculated that the president might be vulnerable in Wisconsin and Ohio, the latter of which is a traditional bellwether in presidential campaigns.

"Any sitting president probably has some built-in advantages, but this guy's incredibly exposed," Graham said.

The South Carolina s! enator didn't tip his hand as to which candidate he might back! in a Re publican primary (Graham spoke favorably in the past of South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who declined to run), but he did flag Christie for praise. Graham said that Republicans could win in 2012 "if our party will listen to Chris Christie on the economic side," and develops a strong contrast with Obama on national security as well.

The top budget Democrat in the House twice name-checked former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) for making unhelpful comments on the budget.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, singled out the potential Republican presidential candidate for criticism for his comments on the spending debate in Washington.

“I was just listening to that clip from Governor Pawlenty. That’s revisionist history," Van Hollen said in an interview on Fox News, referencing a clip of Pawlenty talking about the budget, and the labor dispute in Wisconsin.

"The notion ! that police and firefighters and teachers and these unions are responsible for the meltdown in the economy and are the ones that are holding it back is just nonsense," Van Hollen added.

Pawlenty has been vocal in supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) bid to reform collective bargaining rights in his state, and has been vocal about the deficit battles in Washington.

Pawlenty said over the weekend that Republicans should consider forcing a government shutdown over spending cuts if they feel like they have no other options, and he's advocated against raising the debt limit when it comes up for a vote this spring. 

"We do need to work together, an! d people need to make these compromises," Van Hollen said. "Th! e worker s are weilling to do that, but the kind of rhetoric we're hearing from Gov. Pawlenty does not help solve the problem at all."

Updated 10:03 a.m.

Recent reports about Supreme Court justices participating in partisan events have raised concerns that this behavior may undermine public perception of the Court’s impartiality and the legitimacy of its decisions. In fact, the situation is so acute that 107 judicial ethicists from 76 law schools around the country signed a letter to Congress calling for reform of the Court’s ethics rules.

Perhaps the most notorious example of justices willfully entering into politicized activity was the reported attendance by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas at an electoral strategy conference for big donors and politicians hosted by the billionaire Koch Brothers. This wasn’t just an opportunity to speak or socialize at a gathering on conservative philosophies. A central purpose of the conference was the solicitation of millions of dollars from wealthy donors in order to influence elections and advance a political agenda. 

Read more...

The election results of November 2 signaled… well, no one is really sure.

Resurgent Republicans returned to power in Congress on a wave of voter anger, capitalizing on double-digit underemployment rather than a specific policy agenda.

Disillusioned Democrats failed to defend the legislative record of President Obama’s first two years, including the economic stimulus and universal healthcare. 

Read more...

President Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon to discuss ways of stopping violence against civilians in Libya.

The two will consider “the humanitarian, diplomatic legal and other actions needed to put a stop to violence against civilians,” the White House said, and ways “to ensure that U.N. agencies and U.N. members mobilize to provide humanitarian assistance to Libya’s people.”

{mosads}Libya has erupted in violence as the country’s long-time leader, Moammar Gadhafi, cracks down on anti-government protesters seeking to force him from power. Human rights groups have said that hundreds have been killed.

Recently the anti-government rebels have won defections of former military officers loyal and continued to increase their weapons arsenal to combat pro-Gadhafi forces.

In a Saturday telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama said Gadhafi had lost his legitimacy to rule and it was time for him to step down.

Echoing that statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday the United States is willing to help the Libyan protesters with "any kind of assistance" it could.

The United Nations Security Council voted over the weekend to impose sanctions on Libya and Gadhafi. The U.N. also referred to the International Criminal Court allegations that Gadhafi and his forces committed atrocities against Libyan citizens.

President Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon to discuss ways of stopping violence against civilians in Libya.

The two will consider “the humanitarian, diplomatic legal and other actions needed to put a stop to violence against civilians,” the White House said, and ways “to ensure that U.N. agencies and U.N. members mobilize to provide humanitarian assistance to Libya’s people.”

Libya has erupted in violence as the country’s long-time leader, Moammar Gadhafi, cracks down on anti-government protesters seeking to force him from power. Human rights groups have said that hundreds have been killed.

Recently the anti-government rebels have won defections of former military officers loyal and continued to increase their weapons arsenal to combat pro-Gadhafi forces.

In a Saturday telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama said Gadhafi had lost his legitimacy to rule and it was time for him to step down.

Echoing that statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday the United States is willing to help the Libyan protesters with "any kind of assistance" it could.

The United Nations Security Council voted over the weekend to impose sanctions on Libya and Gadhafi. The U.N. also referred to the International Criminal Court allegations that Gadhafi and his forces committed atrocities against Libyan citizens.

As we approach tonight’s State of the Union address by President Obama, it reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes mystery when the British detective asked his assistant Dr. Watson about the dogs that didn’t bark. Key to understanding the president’s remarks will be the issues that he leaves out.

Read more...

When nations mourn, leaders heal.

Sarah Palin, the darling of the right and self-appointed standard-bearer of appropriate political rhetoric, demonstrated she is incapable of rising above a tragedy or controversy to project the kind of leadership that brings Americans together in times of crisis.

Too bad. I had hoped for more from her.

Read more...

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is accusing the Obama administration of "leading with ideology and politics" instead of science on the deepwater oil drilling debate.

"Unfortunately, I think it is politics and ideology over sound science and common sense," Vitter said in an interview with the Fox Business Network. "The president...has also been attacking traditional energy, particularly oil and gas."

Read more...

Yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of the new 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines represent another step forward for the health of our nation. 

Just as the dietary guidelines were updated based on the latest nutrition information, it is time the Obama Administration got the rest of its dietary advice up to speed. 

Read more...

It would be easier to forgive the Obama administration's lackluster handling of the political crisis in Egypt over the last couple of weeks if things were going our way elsewhere in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, they're not.

Start with Iran. Despite two years of engagement, Tehran is still developing nuclear weapons -- significantly shaking stability in the Middle East as they do. 

Read more...

The unrest that continues to grip the Middle East is, first and foremost, a reminder of a truth that is too often forgotten: The desire to live in dignity is more powerful than any dictator or army.
 
It’s also a reminder of another truth that most would prefer to overlook: our ability to discern the geopolitical signs of the times remains remarkably poor. Recent history is replete with examples of such failures â€" failures to predict as well as predictions that turned out to be incorrect, often egregiously so.

Read more...

A prominent Muslim civil rights group is asking Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, to apologize for his take on Christian churches that have allowed Muslims to use their worship space. 

Huckabee, who also ran for president in 2008 and is mulling a 2012 bid, said on “Fox and Friends” recently that he did not understand why churches would make that sort of decision. 

Read more...

President Obama made a cameo at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, broadcast on Sunday.

The president appeared in a montage of man-on-the-street interviews, during which participants were asked to name some of their most memorable songs from movies.

Obama appeared in the montage to say that his favorite was "As Time Goes By," the song sung by actor Dooley Wilson in the classic "Casablanca."

The montage came before the Oscar in the category of "Music (Original Song)" was awarded. Nominees in that category were "Coming Home" from the film "Country Strong," the song "I See the Light"  in the movie "Tangled," "If I Rise" from "127 Hours," and the song "We Belong Together" in "Toy Story 3."

Incoming congressman Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) made his Twitter debut on Tuesday under the handle @RepMGriffith.

His first tweet read, "Looking forward to the swearing-in tomorrow. Ready to get to work for the people of #VA09."

The feed currently has 6 followers.

Former pizza executive Herman Cain won on Sunday a 2012 presidential straw poll of attendees of a Tea Party conference in Arizona.

Cain won 22 percent of the vote in a straw poll of in-person attendees at the American Policy Summit, the first-ever conference organized by Tea Party Patriots, one of the larger umbrella organizations for Tea Party activists.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R), meanwhile, won nearly 50 percent of the votes cast by 2,300 online straw poll participants.

The win is a minor coup for Cain, the long-shot presidential candidate who's the only one to have actually formed an exploratory committee so far. Behind Cain amongst in-person attendees were former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) at 16 percent and Paul, at 15 percent. All three of them spoke at the convention.

“Mr. Cain and Rep. Paul positions resonated with Tea Party Patriots this weekend and the straw poll indicates the enthusiasm for these strong conserv! atives,” said Mark Meckler, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, in a statement.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that China could be one of the next countries caught up in the wave of Middle East pro-democracy protest fervor.

"I'm not sure that these winds of change are going to be confined to blowing just in the Arab world and the Magrhreb," McCain said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"To wit, what's happening in China and other countries around the world," he said. "I think it's going to happen all over the world."

Calls have been continuing across the blogosphere for China to pick up the Jasmine Revolution, and the wary government has met the calls with increased police presence in the streets and increased online censorship.

"All of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights," McCain said.

Talking from Egypt, the senator said he had met with military leaders and members of the youth movement there.

"There are still significant divisions but I think they are headed in the right direction," McCain said. "I b! elieve there's every good chance they could succeed."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka gave his blessing Sunday to President Obama's handling of the labor standoff in Wisconsin.

Amid some criticism on the left that Obama could do more to boost unions in their demonstrations against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and his proposal to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for public workers, Trumka said the president was doing just fine.

"I think he's doing it the right way," Trumka said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

A growing number of Democrats have pressed Obama to take more of a leading role in the labor dispute. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, last week called for Obama to head to Wisconsin.

Obama has called the Walker proposal "an assault on unions," but has said little else personally. Other members of the administration, including Vice President Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, have also voiced concerns about the ! Wisconsin dispute.

"Everybody could be doing more," Trumka said when pressed about whether the president could do more, pointedly avoiding singling out Obama for criticism.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said Sunday he'll make his decision on wether to run for president in April, and that decision wouldn't depend on which candidates jump into the race in the meanwhile.

Barbour, the former Republican Governors Association (RGA) chairman who's considering running, wouldn't outline his criteria for deciding whether or not to run, only to say that it was mostly a family decision.

He reiterated that the decision would come in April, at the end of his state legislature's session.

In the interim, other candidates may well formally enter the race. The 2012 cycle is getting off to a relatively late start compared to earlier years, though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) is reportedly preparing to start up an exploratory committee within the next 10 days.

Barbour said his ultimate decision, though, wouldn't be premised off of any other candidates' decisions. 

"Whether or not somebo! dy else runs is irrelevant to my own decision," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Earlier in the interview, Barbour hailed the political skills of President Obama, the man who Barbour would hope to beat in 2012, should he run.

"The president is one of the greatest politicians in the history of the United States," Barbour said.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said that he's "an eternal optimist" when it comes to passing his budget that nixes collective bargaining rights.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Walker said of the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to hold up the vote, "in the end I believe that at least some of those state senators will come back."

He said his goal was to avoid layoffs that would occur if the cuts aren't passed. "My hope is at least one of those 14 state senators feels the same," the governor said.

Walker said he wasn't buying assurances from unions that they were committed to working together to resolve the standoff as he'd seen unions rush to get contracts through in localities in the past two weeks, one even pushing through a pay increase.

If serious, he said, they would have offered up contrcts that paid more for pensions and healthcare, "but they're not."

"To me, laying off peple in this economy is just completely unacceptable," ! Walker said. "If Senate Democrats don't come back we'll be forced to."

He defended the plan that kept bargaining rights for police and firefighters as a public safety issues, since Wisconsin couldn't afford to have those workers walk off their jobs as teachers did.

"We're broke and it's about time somebody stood up and told the truth in this state," Walker said. "I make no apology for the fact that this is an important moment in time."

"...I know that collective bargaining has a cost," he said.

South Carolina's new Republican governor sent a signal on Sunday that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) might not expect candidates she endorsed in the 2010 elections to necessarily return the favor in 2012.

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said that she doesn't feel any special obligation to Palin, who endorsed Haley at a critical juncture of last year's Republican gubernatorial primary.

"I have not in any way endorsed, plan on endorsing at this point in time at all. I want all the candidates to come to South Carolina," Haley said on ABC when asked if she'd endorse Palin.

"I want the people of South Carolina to get to see them the way I know them. I want them to campaign hard. And then when right time comes, I will endorse. But there's is no one that I feel like I owe at this time," Haley added.

The governor's remarks don't necessarily rule out the possibility of an endorsement of Palin, it also makes clear that any candidate -- i! ncluding the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee -- will have to work for Haley's endorsement.

Haley's endorsement is especially critical because of her position as the GOP figurehead in South Carolina, the state which traditionally hosts the third nominating contest in each presidential cycle. For Republicans, the winner of the South Carolina primary often signals the preference of conservatives in the party. The endorsement of the state's conservative icon, Sen. Jim DeMint (R), could also be particularly important in determining the outcome of the primary.

For Palin, those endorsements could be particularly important, since she's generally stayed away (to date) from New Hampshire, which traditionally hosts the second nominating contest, making Iowa and South Carolina of pronounced importance to Palin, should she run.

Congressional Republicans should consider a shutdown if they can't win enough concessions on spending cuts, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said this weekend.

Pawlenty, one of the Republican Party's main contenders for the presidential nomination in 2012, said it could take "dramatic moment" to prompt the kind of spending cuts the House GOP wants.

"If it came down to it and it was between that and not getting the budget headed in the right direction, that’s an option I think Republicans have to consider," Pawlenty told the liberal blog ThinkProgress following his speech at a Tea Party gathering in Arizona.

The former two-term governor has been stepping up his rhetoric against President Obama and on political issues in general as he seeks to distinguish himself in the 2012 ! Republican field. Pawlenty auditioned his message on Saturday during a speech at a Tea Party convention in Phoenix.

As part of those efforts to distinguish himself, Pawlenty's spoken out against a looming vote in Congress to raise the debt ceiling, and has flirted with the prospect of a shutdown, noting that when Minnesota underwent a shutdown during his time as governor, it did not turn out badly.

Pawlenty did not call for House Republicans to foe a shutdown at this point; indeed, it looks as though a deal could make its way through the House and Senate this week that would fund government at reduced levels for an additional two weeks past March 4, when funding expires.

But he did adv! ocate for Republicans taking a hard line with Obama and Democr! ats in c ontrol of the spending.

"We’ve got to get back to certain principles and responsibilities and starting with getting the budget balanced and if it takes a dramatic moment or a dramatic week or a dramatic month, those kinds of line-in-the-sand moments are what we need to get politicians back up against the wall and have them make the tough decisions," he told ThinkProgress. "They all talk about making the tough decisions and never do."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said in a live Sunday appearance on C-Span's Newsmakers program that he is cautiously optimistic that a government shutdown at the end of the week can be avoided.

“I think some of the cooler heads on the Republican side have prevailed, they have decided not to go for an immediate $61 billion in cuts,” he said. “But that doesn't mean we won't be right back here three weeks from now debating these things.”

Van Hollen told The Hill after the broadcast that he believes a two-week spending bill floated by House Republicans on Friday afternoon will pass the House and Senate even though it cuts $4 billion from current spending.

The cuts identified in the continuing resolution come from eight programs already targeted in Obama's 2012 budget request, and from defunding earmarks. If the House and Senate cannot agree on a new spending bill, the government could shut down after March 4.

Van Hollen said that he is personally “very concerned” however that the GOP bill cuts several education programs and does not reinvest the savings in education as Obama called for in his budget. He also noted that Teach for America may lose funding due to the assault on earmarks.

Because of this Van Hollen and other House Democrats may vote against the CR, he said.

Asked if he thinks Democrats enjoy a tactical advantage and would benefit from a shutdown, as the party did after the shutdown fight of 1995, Van Hollen said Democrats are working strenuously to avoid a shutdown while negotiations continue on funding after the two-week bill runs out. Republicans are seeking much deeper cuts in a six-and-a-half month CR that would be needed after March 18 to fund the government through Sept. 30.

But he said riders in the longer-term CR that create “social policy” such as defunding of Planned Parenthood and Obama's health care reform are non-starters for Democrats. This fact could increase the risk of a shutdown if the GOP sticks to its guns, as former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) urged the party to do in a Washington Post opinion piece on Sunday. 

“I think those items which are social engineering under the guise of fiscal policy are going to be unacceptable on the Senate side and certainly the great majority of Democrats voted against those provisions in the House,” Van Hollen said

Van Hollen was asked if Democrats would shut down the government to preserve such funding, but he did not say so directly. 

“The Republicans should not be using the budget process to deal with the hot button social issues. If they are serious about fiscal issues let's stick with those, let's have our argument there, don't try and slip these other things in there in the middle of the night.”

Van Hollen said that he believes his caucus has an important role to play in the spending fight and House Republican leaders may look to Democrats to counter the influence of Tea Party-backed freshmen.

He said House Democrats can suggest alternative cuts as a bill is sent to the Senate and when the Senate bill comes back, they may provided crucial votes to a package freshmen simply cannot back.
“On the rebound it may require some Democratic votes, we just don't know what the end of the movie will be,” he said.

Van Hollen was asked about a bipartisan effort in the Senate to put the recommendations of the president's fiscal commission into law. He said that he will meet Monday with one of the six senators involved in the effort, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), to engage in the conversation for the first time.

The Senate plan is still being drafted and at this stage the group envisions requiring Congress to meet certain spending and revenue targets on a set timeline. Van Hollen said that he is concerned that the senators will propose lowering individual tax rates to a set level without first specifying which tax breaks Congress should eliminate to pay for that.

The fiscal commission proposed eliminating tax earmarks in order to lower the rates and would use some of the new revenue for debt reduction.

So far the bipartisan debt effort has solely been taking place in the Senate, but Van Hollen wants to get involved especially once the issue of the temporary spending bill is resolved.

He said that entitlements need to be tackled, but it is not yet clear what Republicans plan to put on the table in their 2012 budget proposal.

He agreed that the budget process is in need of reform and said that this week he will be introducing an enhanced rescission bill.

This bill, called line item veto light by some, would allow the president to send Congress a bill rescinding wasteful spending he identifies in appropriations legislation quickly after it becomes law. Congress would have to schedule and up or down vote on the rescission package, and Van Hollen's bill will require any savings be put in a “lockbox” for deficit reduction.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) expressed bewilderment on Sunday at the most recent congressional recess during a spending fight that could prompt a government shutdown.

Christie questioned the wisdom of the House and Senate having taken a week off to mark the Presidents Day holiday, leaving them only a week to hash out a deal to continue funding the government before it runs out of Monday on March 4.

"I was a little surprised they took the last week off, to tell you the truth. I think most Americans are asking why they weren't at work," Christie said on "Face the Nation" on CBS.

The House has been trying out a new schedule this year in which they alternate recess weeks; they spend a few weeks in session, then leave for a weeklong "district work period." The Senate also recessed for the holiday, as has been customary in most years past.

The new schedule hasn't entirely escaped criticism. Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) s! aid it was too light on work when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced it late last year.

Lawmakers are set to return to Washington this week, and are expected to advance a short-term spending measure offered by the GOP to fund the government for an additional two weeks, at reduced levels. If that breaks down, or if talks break down on a longer-term measure, the government could face renewed risk of a shutdown.

Christie said he didn't view a shutdown as being a good option, unless congressional Republicans viewed it as their best option.

"I don't, unless that's the only way to forward your principles," Christie said when asked if a shutdown was a good idea. "And I think they're going to find a way to advance their principles."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) healthcare plan shouldn't disqualify him from being the GOP candidate for president, one of his top foes for the nomination said Sunday. 

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), who's hammered away at the Massachusetts health reform Romney pioneered as governor, said he wouldn't rule out Romney as the nominee. 

"I don't think it disqualifies him. I think the purpose of states are to always be laboratories of government," Huckabee said on "Fox News Sunday."

"It's not a good plan, but he attempted something that he wanted to see, would it work," the former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate said.

Huckabee raised eyebrows this week with criticism toward "Romneycare" included in his new book. Both former governors poll near the top of the pack in the race for the 2012 nomination, though neither have formally entered the race.

The Massachusetts reforms are see! n as one of Romney's largest possible vulnerabilities among Republican primary voters. The plan resembles in some ways President Obama's healthcare reform law, which all the candidates have vocally criticized.

“Mitt Romney is proud of what he accomplished for Massachusetts in getting everyone covered,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Boston Globe earlier this week. “What's important now is to return to the states the power to determine their own healthcare solutions by repealing Obamacare. A one-size-fits-all plan for the entire nation just doesn't work.”

Huckabee denied his attacks on Romney were somehow inappropriate at this stage in the campaign, claiming that his attacks were based on policy, not the personal.
"Policy differences are legitimate. If we start atta! cking ea ch other on integrity and character, that's a problem," Huckabee explained.

President Obama hasn't broken his promise to seek immigration reform, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Sunday in defense of the president.

Pelosi said that Republicans were to blame for the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and, barring that, the DREAM Act.

"Well I don't think he broke his promise, what he found is that it is almost impossible with the resistance in the Senate of the Republicans to pass it," Pelosi said Sunday in an interview on Univision. "But that doesn't mean we don't keep on trying and keep coming up with new ways to do it."

Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress had talked consistently over the past two years about their intention to push forward with immigration reform, as they'd promised to do on the campaign trail in 2008. But the protracted healthcare battle and stagnant economy deprived Congress of the time and political capital to tackle comprehensive reform.
Instead, in the lame-duck Congress, the House passed the DREAM Act, a more limited bill providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. But even this measure failed in the Senate, when most Republicans and some Democrats joined together to sustain a filibuster of the legislation. 

That failure was seen as a disappointment to Hispanic voters, who tend Democratic and had favored immigration reform. Elected Democrats are hoping the inaction won't hurt Obama and the party at the polls in the 2012 election.

Democrats have vowed to return again to the DREAM Act and immigration reform, but it's tough to see how such legislation would advance through the now-Republican House.

"Well, our commitment had always been to comprehensive immigration reform, in order for that to happen we needed to have bipartisan support to have that done," Pelosi said.

The former Speaker, who's now in charge of ! Democrats as House minority leader, also hammered Republicans ! for slas hing some border security funding as part of their budget cuts.

"Right now you see a contradiction on the part of the Republicans because securing our borders had always been part of comprehensive; securing our borders, unifying our families, path to legalization, well you know, protecting our workers, you know what the provisions are, but right now, just last week what they did was slashed the funding for security at the border," she said.

We are broke. 

The American people understand this and they are asking Congress to have an honest conversation about where we stand and how we can ensure that our children and grandchildren have the same opportunities we once had. Unfortunately, the Administration wants to continue business as usual and try to tax and spend its way out of this recession.   

It isn’t working.  

Read more...

The Department of Interior issued an announcement yesterday that perfectly illustrates the irrationality of our current approach to water issues.

California’s precipitation this season has gone off the charts. Statewide snow water content is 198 percent of normal; in the all-important Northern Sierra snowpack is 174 percent of normal. This is not only a wet year â€" it is one of the wettest years on record. 

Read more...

This letter was sent to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor from Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)

Dear Leader Cantor,

As members of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Medicare program, we write today to express concern about the significant harms to Medicare beneficiaries that will result from repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

Read more...

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the administration must walk "a very delicate line" in its approach to the turmoil in Egypt.

"This is an incredibly complicated and delicate situation changing very very rapidly," she said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "The U.S., I think, cannot micromanage the process, what we have to do however is make clear that the process itself is important."

Read more...

We see the new members of the Republican freshman class (and most of them are “men”) just chafing at the bit to “repeal” the healthcare bill â€" lock, stock and barrel.
 
And the date they have chosen for this hysterical (as opposed to “historical”) vote? Next Wednesday, January 12 … Rush Limbaugh’s 60th birthday… how appropriate! A gimmick, a charade, political payback to the Tea Party â€" to be sure.

Read more...

Not the wars. Not greenhouse gasses. Not even the deficit. The issue most important to Americans is jobs. Despite that, jobs failed to make an appearance in the State of the Union address. 

The talk was all about business. Business was doing better. Business needed taxpayers to help pay for research and innovation. Business will get government help to eliminate pesky regulations. Business must have lower taxes. 

Read more...

Americans who were under the impression that the new leadership in the House of Representatives would focus on jobs and the economy learned the truth last week.

One day after voting to repeal a health-reform law that includes guaranteed prenatal care and the promise of no-cost contraception for women, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declared a far-reaching anti-choice bill to be one of his “highest legislative priorities.” 

Read more...

While healthcare reform has been a lightning rod for political conflict and controversy, there is at least one easy fix to a flaw in our healthcare system that is sure to garner overwhelming bipartisan support â€" ending the “use it or lose it” rule for flexible spending accounts (FSAs). This week, members of the Employers’ Council on Flexible Compensation are meeting in Washington, D.C. to encourage Congress to do just that.

Read more...

What a brilliant prank! Now we know the truth. When he thought he was talking to his billionaire benefactor from the far right, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) did the impossible. He simultaneously sounded like a true megalomaniac with an immense notion of his historical greatness â€" and a fawning shill for special interests!

Considering his modest poll numbers, one would think Walker would have a more modest vision of his personal destiny.

Read more...

In 2008 I devised a system of choosing presidential candidates similar to that which they use to grade cheese at county fairs, hoping to avoid the Ahab Syndrome here in New Hampshire (“I’d just like young people to see a Zoroastrian fire worshiper up there running for president”), as well as Day Trader Syndrome (“My wife is rich and I need something to do in the daytime”).

Here are the categories. (I’ve entered an eighth category this year, Sarah Palin. She gets her own category.)

Read more...

February marks the second-year anniversary of President Obama signing the failed stimulus package. Even its most ardent supporters have to admit the stimulus bill failed to create net job growth, and it further created more debt, placing a tremendous burden on our children and our grandchildren.

Instead of causing unemployment to drop below 8 percent by now, as the Administration promised the stimulus bill would do, the unemployment rate in January 2011 remained stuck at 9 percent or higher for the 21st consecutive month â€" the longest period since the Great Depression. 

Read more...

Many Americans believe that the government can solve people's financial problems created by the Great Recession.

The siren calls of President Obama and the liberal congressional Democrats promise to ease their economic pains by having the government provide a blanket safety net insurance policy for all that may go wrong.

Like any insurance policy, this safety net insurance policy comes at enormous costs. The upfront economic costs include higher taxes to fund larger government and the redistribution of income. The long-term costs include economic stagnation and the loss of individual freedom.

Read more...

Jay Carney, the president’s new mouthpiece, gives the impression of the “man behind the curtain.” Little to say, as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post reports, few tools in the toolbox, tepid and inauthentic, like one of Don Draper’s paste-up artists, stylish and self-effacing. Who’s afraid of Jay Carney? Who’s afraid of Barack Obama? It is all smoke and mirrors. But the perfect spokesman as the president moves to use the Justice Department in a pure and unconscionable strategy of political revenge. It reveals the inner man. Sarko was right: Obama is a weakling.

Read more...

My good friend Ed Gillespie is a smart guy and an exceptional communications professional. I heard him speak a couple of weeks ago about politics and he made a good point about how Republicans tend to communicate on immigration policy. He said that Republicans often forget to finish the sentence when it comes to talking about how we like legal immigrants, but dislike illegal immigration. People usually just hear the part about how we hate illegal immigrants.

I agree with Ed on immigration policy, and I think his point carries over to the latest debate that has engulfed Congress.

Read more...

“I find these allegations to be very disturbing,” said New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow in her announcement of an investigation into Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey for allegedly aiding and abetting sex traffickers.

Question: How many non-profit organizations that break the law are now being funded by Congress? In the case of Planned Parenthood, one too many.

The House of Representatives just recently voted to stop subsidizing Planned Parenthood with hundreds of millions in federal taxpayer money. Now it is time for the Senate to pull the plug on funding once and for all. 

Read more...

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for tougher penalties against Moammar Gadhafi's regime on Saturday shortly before President Obama said Libya's leader should step down immediately.

Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement that the U.S. and the international community should impose measurers including "the establishment and enforcement of a no-fly zone, a comprehensive arms embargo, a travel ban on regime officials, immediate suspension of all contracts and assistance which benefit the regime, and the imposition of restrictions on foreign investment in Libya, including in Libya's oil sector."

The congresswoman also criticized Friday's United Nations Human Rights Council resolution condemning the repression in Libya as an "overdue, reactive, and insufficient measure by a deeply flawed body."

She urged the Obama administration to call for a U.N. General Assembly vote to "immediately suspend" Libya's membership on council, and to stop funding and participating in the council until "real membership standards" are adopted to "prevent human rights violators like Libya from becoming members in the first place."

Friday's emergency session to address the crisis in Libya marked the first time that the 47-member council has met to address human rights abuses by one of its own members.

"How many innocent people had to be killed or imprisoned by the Qaddafi regime before the Human Rights Council would finally act?" Ros-Lehtinen said.

Former deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said he's been "mystified" at how the White House has handled the bloody crisis in Libya.

"We've been just way too slow," Wolfowitz said in an interview airing Sunday on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." "And that slowness, we're going to pay a price for, for a long time.

"Al Jazeera, which is no friend to the United States but which has become, with some justification, a hero of these revolutionary movements is taking the -- showing a picture of the White House or the president, why is the U.S. being so silent?" he said. "Why is it being as silent as these people? And then it shows pictures of the people who have been killed in the protests. It's a devastating image."

The former Bush administration official, who also served as president of the World Bank, was asked if the U.S. applying pressure to endangered leaders in the region would rattle countries such as Saudi Arabia and spread a message that Wa! shington is angling for regime change.

"I don't think that's a legitimate reason to stand by a man who's slaughtering his own people," Wolfowitz said. "And I have a lot of criticisms to make of the Saudis, but I don't believe they're capable of this sort of butchery.

"We'd be in a much better position to say, look, with all its faults, Saudi Arabia doesn't treat its subjects as trash," he continued. "It doesn't kill them, brutalize them, and threaten to take them back to the Stone Age. So let's put Saudi Arabia in one category. We'd be in a much better position to do that if we were clear about Gadhafi."

Of the Bush administration decision to normalize relations with Libya in return for the country giving up its weapons of mass destruction, Wolfowitz said the White House gave Gadhafi "a lot by, in effect, saying you won't suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein."

"Some move was appropriate," he said of the restoration of relations. "I think we w! ent too far. And I think the Obama administration continued t! hat.

"Al Jazeera is having great fun showing pictures of Hillary Clinton meeting with Mutassim Gadhafi who is, I don't know which of his sons is the most hideous, but this is the National Security Advisor, he's a pretty bad man," Wolfowitz said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must step down "now," President Obama said Saturday in a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama told the German leader that it's come time for Gadhafi to go, according to a White House readout of the call. 

"The president stated that when a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," the White House said.

Obama spoke to Merkel a day after imposing major sanctions against Libya and Gadhafi, who's cracked down on anti-government protesters over the past week.

Obama's concern that Gadhafi might "use mass violence against his own people" to keep control of power is a possible reference to concerns that Libya remains in control of some weapons of mass destruction that it would turn against its own people.

"They discussed appropriate and effective w! ays for the international community to respond," the White House readout said. "The president welcomed ongoing efforts by our allies and partners, including at the United Nations and by the European Union, to develop and implement strong measures."

As with the revolution in Egypt, Obama's been frequently consulting with world leaders, Merkel being one of his closest allies in Europe.

Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi must step down "now," President Obama said Saturday in a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama told the German leader that it's come time for Qadhafi to go, according to a White House readout of the call. 

"The president stated that when a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," the White House said.

Obama spoke to Merkel a day after imposing major sanctions against Libya and Qadhafi, who's cracked down on anti-government protesters over the past week.

Obama's concern that Qadhafi might "use mass violence against his own people" to keep control of power is a possible reference to concerns that Libya remains in control of some weapons of mass destruction that it would turn against its own people.

"They discussed appropriate and effective w! ays for the international community to respond," the White House readout said. "The president welcomed ongoing efforts by our allies and partners, including at the United Nations and by the European Union, to develop and implement strong measures."

As with the revolution in Egypt, Obama's been frequently consulting with world leaders, Merkel being one of his closest allies in Europe.

One Democratic congresswoman solicited suggestions on Saturday for names for her family's new puppy.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) asked her almost-4,000 followers for names ending in "-ie" or "-y" to help name the new family pooch.

She tweeted Saturday:

Help us name r new puppy. Tweet suggestions. Name should end in ie or y. My kids will see tweets - please be nice! http://twitpic.com/441y14

Of course, members of Congress are the recipients of not-so-nice comments from constituents, especially on Twitter, prompting her disclaimer.

An aide to Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel resigned on Friday over an ethics violation.

Judy Erwin, a co-chairwoman of Emanuel's mayor campaign, stepped down from her spot on the Democrat's transition team after it came to light that she resigned from a state job in 2010 for committing an ethics violation, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

Erwin resigned after paying a fine for having conducted political business -- namely, politicking for Barack Obama's presidential campaign -- while on the job and using state resources. Emanuel previously served as President Obama's chief of staff.

"The bottom line is the mayor-elect has very important work to do and I certainly don't want to have any! distractions," Erwin told the Tribune. "I will be stepping aside from the transition. I don't want any distractions at all."

Emanuel won the mayoral election this past Tuesday to succeed longtime Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

President Obama isn't playing for a narrow victory in his 2012 reelection effort, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tim Kaine promised Saturday.

Kaine, speaking to party members in Washington at the DNC's Winter Meeting, said that the president's reelection would kick off sometime in the second quarter of 2011.

That campaign wouldn't be looking, though, to eke out just enough electoral votes to put Obama over the top.

"We're going to play for the big win," Kaine told DNC members, to cheers. "We're going to play in every corner of this country."

Kaine explained that locating the party's 2012 convention in Charlotte, N.C. was part of that strategy. Obama won the state in 2008 despite its having voted mostly for Republicans in previous presidential elections. It may be tough to win again in 2012, but the DNC's decision to locate its convention there signals that Obama plans to play with an expanded map.

"W! e're going to go into territory that the other guy thinks is theirs," Kaine said.

Kaine also formally announced several developments within the DNC and campaign infrastructure as the reelection effort gets underway in Chicago.

As had previously been reported, the DNC's executive director, Jen O'Malley Dillon, will leave the DNC to work on the reelection. Patrick Gaspard will take her place as executive director at the DNC. Kaine also announced that the DNC's political director, Clyde Williams, will depart for private opportunities in New York.

Gov. Scott Walker's (R) push for collective bargaining reform in Wisconsin is akin to the accomplishments of Presidents Lincoln and Reagan, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Friday evening.

Bachmann, speaking on conservative talker Mark Levin's radio show, accused President Obama of ignoring budget debates in Washington to focus on financing demonstrations against Walker's labor reforms in Madison.

"I'd say it's a new revolution going on over there," Bachmann said. "We saw the great Ronald Reagan pushing back the Soviet Union in the eastern bloc nations. We saw Abraham Lincoln push back the Confederacy in Atlanta. And now we're seeing the Republicans in Wisconsin causing the Democrats to retreat to Rockford, Ill., so I'd say we're winning!"

Bachmann had previously been relatively silent! on the labor protests in Madison, had been traveling this past week on an official congressional trip to Mexico and Colombia. But on Friday she strongly backed Walker, and castigated Obama amid reports that his political arm, Organizing for America, has helped organize protests in Wisconsin. (The administration has backed off taking credit for the demonstrations.)

"I think what Obama is doing is, he's busy organizing buses and plans and trains to get people into Madison," she said. "Here you have BarackObama.com, Organizing for America, you have the president of the United States behind these protests in Madison. He's trying to run away from it now, because here, he can't balance a budget."

Bachmann is also mulling a longshot run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. She said that she'll return to Iowa soon for another speech in the key caucus state.

In one of his most challenging moments, President John F. Kennedy was honest and straightforward in conceding he had erred. When speaking to reporters after the Bay of Pigs, he shared a wise man’s quote.

“An error does not become a mistake - until you refuse to correct it.”

Last Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott made an error in rejecting high-speed rail. Now, it looks like he’s making a monumental mistake, saying he remains unconvinced there’s no risk to taxpayers. And, I think, the governor in rejecting the project may even be exceeding his constitutional authority.

Read more...

It has been four weeks since the first demonstrators occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square â€" an eye blink in history. Yet, in those thirtyâ€"plus days, a regime that successive administrations described as “the most stable in the Middle East” has dissolved, its president has resigned and the military has formed an interim government. 

Predictably, Egypt’s revolution has inaugurated a season of questioning in Washington. During a recent meeting of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House members pointedly questioned intelligence officials on why the events in Egypt took them by surprise â€" why is it that, as one member said, “we didn’t see this coming”?

Read more...

Pro-life legislators have done President Obama a big favor -- they're helping him keep a promise he made to the nation.

The Protect Life Act delivers on the pledge President Obama made to a joint session of Congress in September 2009, that “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”

The bipartisan bill, introduced by Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), addresses serious anti-life provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) by applying the principles of long-standing federal laws prohibiting abortion funding and protecting health care providers’ conscience rights.

Read more...

Isn’t it about time Congress stopped passing laws without knowing what impact passage will have on our economy? Here’s a case in point: the most dramatic of the “patent reform” provisions Congress is now considering, namely, the switch from granting patents to the “first to invent” to the “first to file.”

When a Congressman asked experts during a hearing last week about the impact of “first to file” legislation on the U.S. economy, the sobering answer was “No one knows.”

Here’s what I know: this change will cripple job creation in the United States and lead to even more economic advancement from our overseas competitors.

Read more...

So Hillary Clinton is going to Geneva, where on Friday the United Nations Human Rights Council meets to consider the popular uprising in Libya.

The 47-nation Council’s credibility is on the line here. Given Libya’s dubious human-rights credentials even before Moammar Gadhafi’s bloody crackdown on his own people, it is unacceptable that it should remain a member of the U.N. body to which it was elected last year.

Clinton should take the lead in Geneva to ensure that Libya is expelled â€" it is the very least she can do given President Obama’s framing of the protests across the Middle East as fulfilling aspirations for “universal rights.”

Read more...

I’m having a case of health care déjà vu. 

In the early 1990’s the health care industry plowed forward with managed care and in a short period of time millions of Americans enrolled in Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO’s) â€" changing the face of health care delivery in this country. Physician sentiment was not exactly positive during that transition. During care visits, we listened to our doctors tell us why participating in an HMO was sub-optimal. Many believe that this grassroots campaign of sorts, perpetuated largely through individual doctors’ office visits, significantly contributed to the fall of the “capitated” managed care movement. 

And now we’re seeing the same problem all over again. 

Read more...

The House of Representatives has made brutal cuts to key national security programs designed to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. The cuts are outlined in a continuing resolution bill passed by the House on February 19 to fund the federal government from March 4 through the end of FY 2011 on 30 September.  

The Continuing Resolution would cut more than $600 million from President Obama’s request of $2.7 billion to secure and safeguard nuclear weapons and materials across the globe. The programs funded by this request are part of a high priority effort to keep nuclear weapons and materials away from terrorists, and have long enjoyed bipartisan support. The proposed cuts deny the importance of these programs for national security. 

Read more...

Let's start with the obvious. Social Security is a beloved and vital program that needs changes. Politicians are afraid to touch it, and some its staunchest supporters say we don't need to talk about it now because its problems aren't all that serious. The irony is that not talking about Social Security -- and not touching it -- is the riskiest choice of all. 

If you've been following the debate over Social Security, maybe you've seen the year 2037 popping up regularly. That's when the Social Security system empties the assets from its Trust Fund, at least based on current projections. In 2037, Social Security will only be able to pay 78 percent of promised benefits, not the full amount people are expecting (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/tr2010.pdf). 

Read more...

It’s illegal in America now to buy or sell a human being, but a recorded telephone conversation between a Republican governor and a guy he though was a billionaire benefactor shows that it’s still possible to own a politician. 

Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker didn’t have time to talk to Democratic leaders or union officials about his anti-union legislation â€" a proposal that has incited protests by tens of thousands for more than a week in Madison. But he jumped on the phone for 20 minutes this week when told the caller was billionaire David Koch, who was Walker’s second largest campaign contributor, who provided $1 million to a GOP fund to attack Walker’s opponent and who bankrolls radical libertarian organizations and the Tea Party. 

Read more...

Fox News should fire Glenn Beck because there are some "opinions" that should not be given prominence on a network that purports to be a serious news station. Beck has the right to express his opinions, but a publicly traded company that presumes to be a credible news network should not be aiding and abetting the spreading of hate using its shareholders' money on the public airwaves.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) should denounce the birthers clearly, unequivocally, immediately and unconditionally and should state, without qualification, that President Obama is a Christian and an American. A leader of one of our two great parties, and the leader of the whole House of Representatives, which is the true role of the Speaker, should not give one ounce of credence to the politics of lies and hate, or leave one inch of doubt that he condemns the politics of lies and hate.

Read more...

Despite a ballooning federal debt and intense pressures on the federal budget, cyber security has become Washington’s new growth industry. The U.S. government has spent over $600 billion on information technology over the last decade, with a growing amount devoted to cyber security. 

In its new Pentagon budget request, the Obama administration designated $2.3 billion to strengthen Department of Defense cyber security operations, including activities of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Command! and half a billion dollars for new cyber technology research. These figures exclude growing spending on “black” cyber security activities, embedded within the approximately $80 billion annual intelligence budget.

Read more...

The Agriculture Department (USDA) has set up a new $1.33 billion fund to compensate Hispanic and female farmers who have alleged discrimination by USDA. 

The announcement Friday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Assistant Attorney General Tony West will help resolve the last of long-standing discrimination claims against USDA held by several minority groups. 

Claims processes have been set up already for black and Native American farmers who claimed they were discriminated against by USDA after their loan applications were rejected by department officials. 

"The Obama Administration has made it a priority to resolve all claims of past discrimination at USDA, and we are committed to closing this sad chapter in USDA’s history," Vilsack said in a statement. "Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers who allege past discrimination can now come forward to participate in a claims process in which they have the opportunity to receive compensati! on."

Read more...

New White House press secretary Jay Carney will assume the @PressSec Twitter handle on Monday.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted the news on Friday: 

Jay Carney will officially take over the @PressSec account next week. He will start by taking your questions on Monday afternoon.

Carney started his job last Monday, but has not yet taken to Twitter, prompting questions about if and when he would. In his previous post as Vice President Biden's communications adviser, Carney did not use Twitter.

His predecessor Robert Gibbs was an active tweeter on the @PressSec account, which has over 150,000 followers. Gibbs' old tweets are still intact on the site.

The last tim! e the account tweeted was Feb. 3, but it now bears Carney's name and photo.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) jokingly swiped at late night talk show host Dave Letterman Thursday night, invoking the advice of a comedian-turned-senator.

During his appearance on the "Late Show," Paul and Letterman struck up a conversation about how they both know former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)

After Paul described Franken as his "mentor," Letterman asked if he had any advice for Paul about appearing on the show.

"Yeah, he said don't," Paul replied.

"Now, he did say it was fine to come on here. He said don't worry. He said he's been on your show," Paul continued. "He said, 'Letterman is not that funny first of all.' And then he said, 'As long as you're not funnier than him, not a big deal. But then he also said, "P.S. Don't tell Letterman I said he's not funny.'"

"I may be in trouble now," he said.

Wisconsin, and other states facing crippling budget deficits driven by out-of-control government employee costs, have reached a watershed moment. 

Either the states will finally rein in the government unions that have driven pension, benefits and salaries through the roof or the states will see their economic prosperity devastated by higher taxes, crippling debt and ever bigger government.

In Wisconsin, Governor Walker has demonstrated resolute political courage by proposing a common-sense budget proposal that will have government employees pay about half of their pension costs (still far below what folks in the private sector pay) and 12% of their health insurance premiums (still well less than the approximately 22% paid by private sector workers).

Read more...