DCExaminer Morning Email

Michael Barone - The Left loses its way by abandoning 'third way'
Now, less than a generation later, both New Democrats and New Labor seem defunct.

Chris Stirewalt - Crist can't count on the white vote to carry him
A racially divided electorate produces racially skewed electoral outcomes.

Byron York - Top 10 dumbest things said about the Arizona immigration law
The last few days have seen an extraordinary outburst of criticism of Arizona’s new immigration law. In the nation’s elite media outlets, its most respected commentators are portraying the law as an act of police-state repression. Many, if not all, of the specific criticisms can be refuted simply by reading the law itself, but others are more generalized criticisms of immigration enforcement. In any event, it’s hard to choose the most over-the-top and wrongheaded commentary on the law, but here are ten choices, in no particular order.

Susan Ferrechio - For Dems, new finance law may be a matter of survival
Democrats are pushing speedy passage of legislation that would impose disclosure requirements on groups that spend money to influence elections. But opponents are calling it a partisan bill written to help shield dozens of vulnerable Democratic incumbents who stand to lose their seats in November.

Obama all but accuses critics of stoking anti-government violence
"What troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad," Obama said after receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree. "When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us."

Morning Reads from the DCExaminer

Byron York - Why Graham balked; can Dems win by losing on climate AND immigration?
Within hours, it became clear that there would be no unveiling, and, at least as far as Graham was concerned, no bill, either. Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats decided to remove the measure, on which Graham and others had worked for months, from the Senate schedule and replace it with some sort of unformed and so-far-unwritten measure on immigration "reform."

Chris Stirewalt - Public unions make a private sector power grab
All week, the unions and their allies in community organizing will be holding mass demonstrations across the country to decry the power of Wall Street and demand passage of the president's plan.
Rallies and marches for a bank bill? What does that have to do with working for the government?

Michael Barone - Hold the VAT -- taxpayers may prefer spending cuts
The Obama Democrats' stealth strategy for increasing the size and scope of the federal government is well under way, despite huge voter backlash. Federal spending has been increased from a 30-year average of 21 percent of gross domestic product to 25 percent, and a bipartisan commission tasked with reducing the deficit may recommend tax increases. Presidential economic adviser Paul Volcker has already called for a value added tax, a form of national sales tax, and presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs has declined to rule it out.

Mark Hemingway - Did an Obama national security adviser make an anti-Semitic joke?
A Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally arrives at a store run by a Jew and asks for water. The Jewish vendor tells him he doesn’t have any water but can gladly sell him a tie. The Taliban, the jokes goes on, begins to curse and yell at the Jewish storeowner---

Susan Ferrechio - GOP says it has the votes to block Dems' bank bill
Senate Republicans say they will likely have the votes to block the start of debate on a major financial reform bill, which would leave the legislation in limbo until a bipartisan deal can be achieved.

Morning Email From DCExaminer

Michael Barone - Gangster Government becomes a long-running series
Republicans have been accurately attacking the Dodd bill for authorizing bailouts of big Wall Street firms and giving them unfair advantages over small competitors. They might want to add that it authorizes Gangster Government -- the channeling of vast sums from the politically unprotected to the politically connected.

Timothy P. Carney - Goldman Sachs wants regulation, not laissez-faire
Just as drug companies and insurers used Republicans to kill the public option before using Democrats to mandate insurance and subsidize drugs, big banks are using Republicans to kill a bank tax while using Democrats to erect barriers to entry, to institutionalize bailouts, and to restore confidence in Wall Street.

Susan Ferrechio - Parties feud in public, deal in private on bank bill
Despite Reid's threat to forge ahead without the GOP, he is at the same time working with them on a compromise behind the scenes. His willingness to wait until next week to move a bill to the floor is a clear sign that Democrats have yet to win over a Republican.

J.P. Freire - Is Goldman Obama's Enron? No, it's worse
Campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees to President Obama are nearly seven times as much as President Bush received from Enron workers, according to numbers on OpenSecrets.org.

Julie Mason - Obama and GOP both take risks in Wall Street attacks
Both parties are courting political risk by trading sordid accusations over a pending financial services regulations bill -- including the risk of overplaying their hands.

More Stories
To keep us from owning guns, DC politicians are willing to trade our voting rights

Despite being ‘dissolved,’ ACORN still trying to raise money

Where in the world is Tony Rezko?

More Problems in the Stan

Once everyone understands that if you run up behind a convoy of military personnel in the dark in a free fire zone you'll probably get shot, this stuff will stop happening.

Los Angeles Times -- Western troops fire on bus, kill 4 Afghan civilians

Riots in Kandahar after NATO troops opened fire on a busload of civilians.

The shooting sounds like a tragic case of mistaken identity when the bus driver tried to overtake a convoy in the dark, but with anti-American sentiment running high in Afghanistan these days, this seems to have touched out real outrage – tire fires, “Death to America!” chants, etc.

With Hamid Karzai acting wobbly and the spring offensive planned for Kandahar in some doubt, this incident promises to make a difficult situation more so.

Writer Laura King followed the dispatches from Kabul:
“The early-morning shooting occurred in the Zhari district, when a bus traveling west from Kandahar on the main highway came up quickly behind several Western military vehicles, said Zalmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the district governor.

Under what NATO calls ‘escalation of force’ rules, troops are supposed to use nonlethal means when possible to prevent a suspicious vehicle from approaching them. It was not immediately known whether Western forces were able to signal the driver to halt, or to fire warning shots."

Back To More Important Things

Here's the thing: there are crazies and wackos on this planet and they need to be dealt with so they don't hurt anyone. I want the people tasked with protecting me, and my right to speak and assemble, to have whatever they need, and be able to do what is needed to get the information required to deal with the above-referenced crazies and wackos. Free speech is such a marvelous tool for id'ing the crazies and wackos. They do it to themselves, if you only give them the opportunity. All we have to do is present our argument reasonably and logically and have the documentation to back it up. We don't need to rant about overthrowing the government or removing sitting elected officials by force. That's what the ballot box and the soap box are for.

Turning COINTELPRO on the tea party?
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
04/07/10 5:13 PM EDT

Writer David Herszenhorn of the New York Times has the account of how the FBI nabbed the man charged with threatening Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

The suspect, Charles A. Wilson, is accused of leaving messages for Murray saying she should be "strung up" for her support of President Obama's health care program and other ugly-sounding things.

The FBI had the number from which the calls had originated and knew that it belonged to Mr. Wilson. But to make the arrest, they needed to have evidence matching the caller on the tapes with the number -- to eliminate the possibility that someone else was using Mr. Wilson's phone.

To make the match, an agent called Wilson and claimed to be part of Patients United Now, the group behind the "Hands Off my Health Care" campaign. No one from the FBI spoke to Patients United or their parent group Americans for Prosperity about the ruse.

The agent talked with Wilson about the group's effort to see the president's program repealed and asked for his opinion about the legislation, eliciting responses similar to the sentiments left on Sen. Murray's answering machine.
That was enough to get a warrant for Wilson's arrest.

Some questions to consider:

How comfortable are you with the idea of agents posing as activists to elicit anti-government tirades? Sounds like good investigative police work to me.

How comfortable would you be if the Bush administration had done the same thing with Code Pink in an effort to get a anti-war activist to threaten a Senator who voted in favor of invading Iraq? Based on my experiences with code oink, I would have volunteered to help, for free.

Would it be appropriate for an agent to attend a tax day tea party rally next week and elicit similar statements from attendees in an effort to find more threats to lawmakers? See the first question.

DCExaminer Morrning Email Blast

Chris Stirewalt - Democrats get hip to the paranoid style of politics
To read the news, you might assume that there is a militiaman under every rock and that every tea party is a front for the Aryan Nation.
Will Sarah Palin's "targeting" of House Democrats incite assassins? Is "kill the bill" really a call to violence? Are there links between the Republican Party and nine nuts shooting guns outside a southern Michigan doublewide?
It is usually those out of power who are drawn to paranoid conspiracies, but Democrats sound like a pack of John Birchers talking about a shadowy conspiracy that is plotting against them.

Byron York - Poll: Majority says Dem health care tactics an 'abuse of power'
A new Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans believes Democrats abused their power by using procedural shortcuts and controversial parliamentary tactics to pass the new national health care makeover. And in a striking finding, slightly more people blame the Democrats' tactics than Republican criticism for the threats of violence and vandalism that were reported after the bill's passage.

J.P. Freire - Democrats expect voters to be good housewives
Though ballyhooed, this document labelled “The good wife’s guide” from a May 1955 edition of Housekeeping Monthly, has particular poignancy when viewed through the lens of a Democratic politician accusing dissenters of Obamacare of not giving the bill a chance. Just replace “wife” with “voter” and “men” with “politicians” and you arrive at the sort of government-knows-best logic that not only led to a legal requirement to buy health insurance, but also the idea that any harsh rhetoric protesting the law is unbecoming for a good electorate

Julie Mason - Drilling offer may revive climate plan
Clearing the way for new offshore oil drilling leases, President Obama showed a new flexibility on energy policy -- but whether it buys him support for stalled emissions legislation remains uncertain.

DCExaminer Morrning Email Blast

Apparently, Henry "Nostrils" Waxman doesn't appreciate someone taking a closer look at this steaming pile of dog excrement. If this doesn't offend your sense of freedom and fairness, you need to move to some other country where politicians are free to bitchslap private companies when they question their government; like Venezuala. If I worked for any of these companies in an executive position, I'd respectfully and firmly advise Nostrils to have winged intercourse with a round mobile pastry.

Byron York - Democrats threaten companies hit hard by health care bill

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has summoned some of the nation's top executives to Capitol Hill to defend their assessment that the new national health care reform law will cost their companies hundreds of millions of dollars in health insurance expenses. Waxman is also demanding that the executives give lawmakers internal company documents related to health care finances -- a move one committee Republicans describes as "an attempt to intimidate and silence opponents of the Democrats' flawed health care reform legislation."

On Thursday and Friday, the companies -- so far, they include AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, Deere, Valero Energy, AK Steel and 3M -- said a tax provision in the new health care law will make it far more expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to their retired employees.

Now, both retirees and current employees of those companies are wondering whether the new law could mean reduced or canceled benefits for them in the future.

The news is an embarrassment for Democrats. As President Obama and Congressional leaders tout the purported benefits of the new health care law, some of the nation's biggest companies are saying it will mean higher costs and fewer benefits -- not exactly what Democrats want to hear in the days after their historic victory.

So Waxman has ordered the executives to explain themselves at an April 21 hearing before the Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee. That subcommittee just happens to be chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak

Waxman's demands for documents are far-reaching. "To assist the Committee with its preparation for the hearing," he wrote to Stephenson, "we request that you provide the following documents from January 1, 2009, through the present:

(1) any analyses related to the projected impact of health care reform on AT&T; and

(2) any documents, including e-mail messages, sent to or prepared or reviewed by senior company officials related to the projected impact of health care reform on AT&T. We also request an explanation of the accounting methods used by AT&T since 2003 to estimate the financial impact on your company of the 28 percent subsidy for retiree drug coverage and its deductibility or nondeductibility, including the accounting methods used in preparing the cost impact statement released by AT&T this week.

Michael Barone - Obama slights our friends, kowtows to our enemies
Barack Obama's decision to postpone his trip to Indonesia and Australia -- to a democracy with the world's largest Muslim population and to the only nation that has fought alongside us in all the wars of the last century -- is of a piece with his foreign policy generally: Attack America's friends and kowtow to our enemies.

Timothy P. Carney - Why pot growers favor pot prohibition
If California legalizes marijuana, they say, it will drive down the price of their crop and damage not just their livelihoods but the entire economy along the state's rugged northern coast

Morning Must Reads from DCExaminer

New York Times -- In Health Vote, Democrats Weigh Success vs. Survival
The number of real undecideds on Obamacare is probably down to five, and since Democrats only need to get three of them, party leaders are feeling good.
But now is the time when you have to start calling people off the fence, and the shifts must be well choreographed. Because like kids at Christmas, House Democrats will want to know why someone else got something better.
If some freshman who’s probably going to lose anyway is getting to stay on the no side, why should a venerable moderate from a Republican district have to switch to pass?
The speaker will bring in several more fake maybes today in an effort to show momentum, but those will mostly be yeses who stay yeses.
Writer Jeff Zeleny looks at the political math that drives the question of who is allowed to save their own skin and who is forced to drink the poison draught.
“But inside the speaker’s suite of offices on the West Front of the Capitol where Democrats are filing in for face-to-face discussions with party leaders, there is a pecking order for vulnerable lawmakers that helps determine the degree of arm-twisting and pressure imposed on them.
Who won by the smallest margin? Which districts have smaller black populations, a traditionally reliable vote? Who voted for the somewhat different version of the legislation in November and is going to be attacked by Republicans for that vote regardless of what they do this weekend? And who stands the best chance to persevere through a roiling political year and by November have at least a decent shot of winning?”

Wall Street Journal -- Health Showdown Is Set
Writers Greg Hitt and Janet Adamy look at the astonishing details of the final push to passage in the House.
Even before they get to the legislative end run that relies on procedural trickery in both houses of Congress, Democrats are engaging in a wild, desperate surge.
One deal was set up to tempt Earl Pomeroy, a yes vote who is suddenly facing a tough re-election in the wake of Sen. Byron Dorgan’s retirement.
“Senate Republicans complained in a press release about the ‘Bismarck Bank Job,’ a provision preserving a state-owned North Dakota bank's participation in the government's student-loan program. A spokesman for Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said the senator has asked the provision be removed.”

Washington Post -- Congressional Budget Office's sunny forecast carries big uncertainties
Writer Neil Irwin points out that the numbers released by the CBO that made Democrats “absolutely giddy” are really estimates of estimates, not hard predictions.
The economists at CBO have been scoring and rescoring Obamacare for weeks, haggling with lawmakers over how to tally the costs, savings and disruptions to the economy.
There will be a more complete score today or Saturday now that the actual legislation is in place. We can expect to see more detail on issues like how adding a 3 percent tax on investment income will shrink the economy, etc.
“If Congress were considering, say, a 20-cent increase in the gasoline tax, the CBO could easily analyze how that would affect gas consumption and do some simple math to calculate how much money it would raise. The same goes for figuring out the cost of legislation that offers a new benefit, such as an expansion of food stamps.
But the proposal on the table contains sweeping changes that would touch almost all corners of the health-care system, and the changes interrelate in hard-to-predict ways. For example, the legislation contains subsidies for those who would not be able to afford health coverage on their own -- but the cost of those subsidies could vary a lot depending on how much other elements of the legislation change the price of health insurance, such as through provisions requiring minimum coverage levels.”

New York Times -- Coburn Warns Vote-Switchers on Health Care
One of the downsides to destroying the remaining collegiality in Congress through employing nuclear options to pass Obamacare in both the Senate and House is that now Democrats have to watch their backs. The courtesy that protected them, like the strained cordiality between feuding neighbors, is gone.
That’s particularly good news for Sen. Tom Coburn, who didn’t think to highly of all that butt covering anyway.
There are three retiring House Democrats who might make the switch from “no” to “yes” and many more who may opt to switch and will lose this fall as a result. There are dozens more who have demanded goodies as a condition of keeping their yeses as yeses.
Coburn’s promise: If you’re counting on a golden parachute in an administration job or to patch things up with voters with a big dose of pork, you’ve got a problem.
Individual senators can block presidential nominations and hold up appropriations, which Coburn already does, but he’s ot the backing of the Senate GOP to start an earmark detective squad to scour every appropriations bill and earmark for anything that might benefit a switcher. And since Coburn doesn’t care how often Democrats decry him as Dr. No, he’ll likely stop the pork and shame them for taking a bribe.
Writer Carl Hulse tells us about it:
“‘If you think you can cut a deal now and it not come out until after the election, I want to tell you that isn’t going to happen and be prepared to defend selling your vote in the House,’ Mr. Coburn warned those making up their minds across the rotunda.”

New York Times -- After a Bitter Campaign, Forging an Alliance
In what is ostensibly an article about the growing alliance between President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, writers Mark Landler and Helene Cooper were really producing a note of warning to the president from the secretary of state. Clinton has fired a few shots across Obama’s bow – stampeding him into offering domestic benefits for gay partners, expressing public doubts about the Copenhagen summit, etc.
This story, featuring an interview with Clinton and choice blind quotes, suggests that while the former first lady is glad they’ve managed to work out a professional rapport, it’s time for Obama to give her more operational space and control over foreign policy. “It would be a shame to see anything happen to this nice publicity you’ve got here, Mr. President.”
It’s not going to happen for the very reason that Obama has only been able to offer a cold fish friendship to Clinton. He still doesn’t trust her.
“While their underlings at times grouse about one another — some Clinton supporters call White House officials ‘The Cardinals’ (to suggest that they are too controlling), and some Obama staff members refer to the State Department as ‘Hillaryland’ (the campaign’s leftover name for the enemy camp) — Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton both have compelling reasons to make their relationship work.”

Morning Emails from DCExaminer

Michael Barone - What's good for House leaders is bad for members
My sense is that the current Democratic leadership is at least 10 votes short of the 216-vote majority. So far none of the 37 November no votes has publicly committed to voting yes, not even Dennis Kucinich, who objects to the legislation because it doesn't go far enough. And some of the yeses, like Bart Stupak, sponsor of the abortion funding ban in the House bill, are committed noes.

Timothy P. Carney - Dems tap drug maker millions for PhRMA-friendly bill
On this bill, Republicans side with insurers, and Democrats mostly side with the richer and more powerful drug makers. The difference: Republicans didn't cut a backroom deal with the insurers. Obama will still play the populist card, even as the drug lobby is his ace in the hole.

Susan Ferrechio - Democrats on the defensive about 'no vote' plan to pass health bill
"Other than the people in this room, do you think any American is going to make a distinction?" House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., asked reporters at his weekly news conference when they questioned him about the political risks of using the procedure.

Michael Barone - President Obama seeks Democratic votes on Fox News
If you didn’t think the Democrats were having trouble passing the Senate health care bill in the House, this should get your attention: Barack Obama has agreed to be interviewed by Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier on the Special Report program Wednesday at 6pm Eastern time.

Byron York - Holder: 'We will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden'
If you are concerned that the Obama administration might grant full American constitutional rights to Osama bin Laden himself, then you are probably more concerned after Holder's testimony.

More Stories
Pelosi, Slaughter went to court with Public Citizen against GOP in 2005 case that exposes Slaughter Solution flaw


House Rules Committee GOPer memo points to more problems with Slaughter Solution

Morning Reads from the DCExaminer

Obama's 'Star Trek': From Mr. Spock to Capt. Kirk
The president's supporters had grown tired of their model of cool logic. They wanted the anti-Spock. They wanted Capt. Kirk -- the impetuous leader who ignores the probabilities because he trusts his gut and has enormous self-confidence.
Obligingly, Obama has been doing his best James T. Kirk imitation since the beginning of the year.

Byron York - Democrats aren't suicidal. They're self-executing
Using the self-executing rule strategy, Democrats could conceivably pass the rule, the Senate bill, and the House reconciliation "fixes" to the Senate bill all in one vote, without a single House member voting for any specific health care measure.

Michael Barone - Tea party brings energy, change and tumult to GOP
The Republicans for the last two decades have been a party whose litmus tests have been cultural issues, especially abortion. The tea partiers have helped to change their focus to issues of government overreach and spending. That may be a helpful pivot, given the emergence of a millennial generation uncomfortable with crusading cultural conservatism.

Byron York - Axelrod threat to GOP: 'Make my day'
Top White House adviser David Axelrod says that if Congress passes the Democrats' national health care bill, it will be politically impossible for Republicans to undo the changes brought by the massive legislation. "I say, Let's have that fight. Make my day," Axelrod said on "Meet the Press." "I'm ready to have that, and every member of Congress ought to be willing to have that debate was well."

Julie Mason - Think Washington is partisan now? Wait until after Obamacare
For Obama, the political calculation boils down to the risk of losing versus the risk of winning and having to deal with the political fallout later. Doubling down and failing on health care would make him look weak heading into midterm elections, and could hurt his party at the polls.

Susan Ferrechio - Democrats lack health care votes, but not bravado
House Democrats this week will embark on one of the biggest political quests in recent history as they attempt to pass a massive health care bill that still lacks the 216 votes needed for passage and faces universal Republican opposition.

Continuing With the DCExaminer

Washington Post -- Nancy Pelosi's office was told of concerns about Eric Massa
It seemed at first that House Democrats had acted swiftly to deal with the charges against tickle-fight fan Rep. Eric Massa, avoiding one the central problems that dogged the GOP in the 2006 election year: trying to protect Rep. Mark Foley who was pawing at the boy pages.
But now the House leadership is caught in a bit of a bind – on the day that the Ethics Committee dropped the investigation into Massa’s alleged sexual harassment of his male aides (the Foley probe went on for weeks after he left Congress and produced a damning report about him and his protectors) it is also revealed that the House speaker’s office knew about Massa’s unusual sense of congressional decorum last fall, but took no action.
It lends some credence to the theory that Massa’s antics only became an issue once Democrats were rounding up votes for the final health care vote. Massa voted n on the grounds that the bill was insufficiently liberal and was a prime target for leaders looking for switchers.
Writer Carol Leonnig tells us what Pelosi’s office knew in October:
“Joe Racalto, Massa's chief of staff, was uneasy that Massa, 50, was living with several young, unmarried male staffers and using sexually explicit language with them, one source said. But what finally prompted him to call Pelosi's director of member services, the source said, was a lunch date that Massa made with a congressional aide in his 20s who worked in the office of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
According to a person briefed on the call, Racalto was concerned that the lunch followed a pattern by Massa -- who is married and has two children -- of trying to spend time alone with young gay men with no ostensible work purpose. Racalto, according to this person, also alerted Frank's chief of staff. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the matter.”

Washington Post -- Employers plan to shift more health-care costs to workers, survey reports
The drive for Obamacare has already had one major effect – employers are dumping costs on workers as fears of crippling expenses grow.
Writer David Hilzenrath looks at the results of the National Business Group on Health, the annual survey that looks at trends in the health benefits field. The results show that many employers are trying to get out in front of new regulations and fees by shifting the burden to workers. Another popular strategy is to start edging high-risk/high-cost employees out of company plans so they can be quickly dumped into any new government program that does emerge.
“So-called spousal surcharges impose a fee if an employee's spouse enrolls in the company plan, despite having the option of getting coverage through his or her own job. The theory is that spouses who take advantage of the company plan are likely to be heavier consumers of health care. Twenty-eight percent of employers plan to use spousal surcharges next year, up from 21 percent this year, the survey found. Although only 3 or 4 percent of employers give employees financial incentives to meet targets for blood pressure, weight and cholesterol, 13 to 14 percent are considering doing so, the survey found. Six to 7 percent are considering declaring that only employees who meet targets can enroll in "preferred" health-care plans, up from 1 percent now.”

Washington Post -- Politics, shaky economy create no rush to restructure Fannie and Freddie
Writer Zachary Goldfarb tells us that while the Fed and Treasury look for ways to spin down bailout projects, it looks more and more like the total federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are permanent conditions. Along with General Motors, the mortgage lenders are likely to become wards of the state in perpetuity.
The government has pumped $125 billion into propping up the lenders and there will be more costs as foreclosures continue and the administration looks for new, and more expensive, ways to intervene.
So for now, the lenders operate in a shadow world where there is neither the oversight and transparency of a government agency nor the competitive pressures of the free market – and there’s no plan to devise a permanent solution.
“When the Bush administration seized the firms, it said it would make $200 billion available to them. The Obama administration a year ago doubled that figure, then decided late last year to offer them unlimited financial assistance as a signal to investors that the companies' solvency was guaranteed.”

New York Times -- Tight Race in Iraq Could Mean Weeks of Horse-Trading
Ahmed Chalabi, the Shi’a schemer who helped feed fake Iranian intelligence to the U.S. in the run up to the Iraq invasion, seems to have lost again in parliamentary elections. The forecast vote from Sunday’s election has Chalabi’s party trailing secular reformer Ayad Allawi in the balloting. Allawi’s team trails the party of incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, but is close enough to get some say in the formation of the new government.
Left out by the voters, Chalabi and his Iranian backers, are looking to delegitimize the results.
Writer Mark Santora explains the tough road ahead for forming a ruling coalition.
“In the months after the 2005 election, while politicians wrangled for months about the makeup of the government, insurgents gained strength and religious tensions worsened. Tens of thousands were killed in the sectarian fighting that followed, which made Mr. Chalabi’s challenge on Thursday deeply troubling to Western observers.”

Washington Post -- It's Obama vs. the Supreme Court, Round 2, over campaign finance ruling
Liberal outrage at Chief Justice John Roberts found a new gear after Roberts answered a question from a University of Alabama law student by objecting to the high court being placed in the public stocks during President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Roberts point was that while it may have become a nice tradition during the modern era of states of the union for the justices to turn up and smile silently through the speech, it’s no good if it’s a chance for the president to shame the judiciary. What the president did was tacky and unprecedented, and Roberts said only that he found it “troubling” and that he may follow Justice Thomas’ lead and leave the “political pep rally” to the politicians.
The White House seized on the chance to reengage the debate on the underlying issue – the decision to lift blackout dates imposed by the McCain-Feingold Act on political expenditures by non-candidates.
Robert Gibbs was immediately bleating about the corporate takeover of American politics and proving that he likes being disagreeable while disagreeing. Fortunately for Gibbs, writers Robert Barnes and Anne Kornblut were on the case to explain that this was all very bad news for Roberts and would reinforce that the president’s public chiding was the right thing to do – lots of blind quotes about the ruling and the political wisdom of boorish behavior.
“[Obama officials] acknowledged that a debate over campaign finance fed into Obama's central campaign promise of transparency and reform. ‘This is really about the president's change agenda,’ a White House official said.
‘This is the functioning of democracy at its highest,’ the official said. ‘People disagree, they discuss, they debate.’”

Morning Must Reads from DCExaminer

Chris Stirewalt - You can't blame Rahm Emanuel for being himself
Emanuel was Obama's first hire. His elevation to chief of staff was heralded from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to the corridors of lefty think tanks as proof that Obama was going to get tough and be serious about governing.
"Obambi" would have backup from "Rahmbo."

Julie Mason - Missed deadlines pile up for Obama
* Promised to close Guantanamo Bay prison within a year of taking office
* Set an August, 2009 deadline to pass health care reform
* Then, Christmas
* Now, March 18
* Vowed to sign health care bill in 2009
* Called for an energy bill by the end of 2009
* Sought a financial regulation bill by the end of 2009
* Demanded Iran prove by the end of 2009 that its nuke program was peaceful
* Pending: Iraq combat troop withdrawal by Aug. 31; Afghanistan troop withdrawal beginning in July 2011.

Michael Barone - Bad news for Democrats in Democratic poll
Barack Obama's job approval at 47%-48%. By a 51%-41% margin likely voters think America's standing in the world has gotten worse since Obama became president and by 47%-44% say that America is less safe from foreign threats than two years ago. Obama's approval is a negative 42%-57% on the economy and 44%-51% on terrorist interrogation and prosecution of terrorist suspects

Susan Ferrechio - No compromise seen on health care abortion battle
House Democrats were no closer to a compromise on abortion funding language in the president's health care plan, with pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., insisting the final bill prohibit the use of any taxpayer dollars for the procedure and pro-choice Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisting the current bill already meets Stupak's requirement.

Sara Carter - Sources: Captured Taliban leader 'singing like a male canary'
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The Afghan Taliban's former second in command has been "singing like a male canary" since his capture last month, officials here told The Washington Examiner.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested by Pakistani security agencies in Karachi, has become "a vital asset in gathering information on the Taliban and other extremist groups operating in the region," one Pakistani counterintelligence official said.

More Stories
Report: Massa groped shipmates in the Navy

DCExaminer Morrning Email Blast-Murtha-End of an Error

Chris Stirewalt - The end of the era of Congressional dinosaurs
Even the staunchest earmark foe had to feel a twinge with the passing of John Murtha. Not just because the congressman's family is pained by the sudden loss of an imposing figure, but because it was another paragraph in the final chapter of an era in American politics. The era of the dinosaurs is ending and the new epoch will be one of great upheaval.

Julie Mason - Biden's new role: Cheerleading, not policy
The Obama administration's avuncular No. 2 has evolved -- after a sometimes bumpy first year -- into a classic guy-behind-the-guy. He stays busy but rarely makes news, and he's a trusted presidential confidant -- but not exactly in the inner circle.

Michael Barone - Democrats in worst shape in the last 50 years
The metrics are pretty clear: Barack Obama got the highest percentage of the vote for a Democratic candidate for president since 1964 and now he has plunged his party into its weakest position in the polls since that time.

Byron York - Poll: Republicans gain on Obama, public welcomes GOP power to block
All in all, the poll shows the public growing increasingly confident in the GOP's ability to handle critical issues. The public would not have approved of a Republican check on Obama's power several months ago, when trust in the GOP was at an astonishingly low level. Now, with trust increasing, they want to see the GOP exercise more influence. In that sense, when Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown pledged to be the 41st Republican senator -- that is, to be the lawmaker who could help block some Obama initiatives -- he was speaking for the country as well as his state.

Susan Ferrechio - Once thought extinct, New England Republicans re-emerge
When a poll made the startling claim that Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., "may be facing his most difficult re-election campaign in 16 years," the news came as a shock to residents in the Ocean State, where Kennedy has been easily re-elected since taking office in 1995. The poll, conducted by WPRI-12, found that 31 percent of those interviewed would "consider another candidate" and 28 percent would "vote to replace" Kennedy. Only 35 percent said they would vote to give Kennedy a ninth term.

Morning Must Reads from DCExaminer

Baghdaddy Bob Gibbs "eggs, milk, bread....." Apparently Baghdad Bob has some ADD issues with a grocery list.

Two Parties Join Together, Then Resume Divided Ways
When will President Obama give up on the Robert Gibbs experiment?
Immediately after Obama made a surprise appearance in a snow-emptied press briefing room to emphasize that he was sincere about his new call for bipartisanship, Gibb took the podium for a bit of prop comedy at the expense of the GOP.

In taking follow-up questions from reporters, Gibbs went into a rehearsed, tedious bit Sarah Palin writing talking points on her hand. He wrote his grocery list and “ hope and change” on his own hand. That he lacked the good sense to keep his palm on the podium after Obama’s remarks should be enough to get him sacked.

Gibbs, who often uses sarcasm and put downs, immediately undercut Obama’s message about seeking an open dialogue with a petty attack totally out of place for anyone working at the White House, let alone the public face of the administration. If Obama ever needed proof of what a liability Gibbs has become, Tuesday’s performance should prove that his press secretary is far out of his depth.

Writers Helene Cooper and Carl Hulse look at the uneven efforts of the Obama White House to prove that the president has rediscovered post-partisanship.
“Tuesday’s meeting was the first in what administration officials say will be monthly bipartisan sessions, which Mr. Obama called for in the State of the Union address. Mr. Obama declared that ‘a sense of purpose that transcends petty politics’ must be forged by Democrats and Republicans to address national problems.”

Wall Street Journal -- Union-Backed Nominee Blocked in Senate
The president has a bipartisanship image problem, but when it comes to passing legislation, his challenges are all Democratic in nature.
Republicans were ready to use their newly enlarged minority for a first party-line filibuster to stop the appointment of a hard-line union lawyer to the National Labor Relations Board. But before they could try their first Brown-out, key Democrats abandoned ship. Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln both jumped off the train and joined the Republican filibuster against the personification of Card Check.

While party leaders got some moderates facing voters this fall, like Indiana’s Evan Bayh and Colorado’s Michael Bennet, to back the controversial nominee, the defection of four Democratic Senators (Landrieu of Louisiana and Pryor of Arkansas both sat out the vote once it was clear the president and his labor allies had been shut down) reveals again why Democrats, despite supermajority control of Washington for most of a year, accomplished so little.

Writers Melanie Trottman and Kris Maher look at what’s next for Democrats and big labor (aside from pinning the blame on the GOP):
“Richard Trumka, president of labor federation AFL-CIO, called the outcome Washington politics-as-usual and said it was ‘reprehensible that a minority in the U.S. Senate has blocked an up-or-down vote’ on Mr. Becker. Mr. Trumka said he would support President Barack Obama in making recess appointments of critical government posts ‘if that's what it takes to get around minority delay and obstruction.’”

Los Angeles Times -- Senate jobs bill a show of bipartisanship
The bipartisanship being lately embraced by the majority party was supposed to be capped off by some Republican support for a Senate jobs/stimulus/unemployment bill. But the evil winter weather pushed back the timeline and left the Democrat’s claims resting on bipartisan opposition to one of the president’s key nominees and the schlock comedy of the White House press secretary.

Writers By Janet Hook and Christi Parsons look at what will likely be in the bill that Harry Reid hopes will get some love from across the aisle. To make that happen, Reid may need to sweeten his offer.
“[The] cornerstone would be a proposal to give businesses that hire unemployed workers this year an exemption from the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax. If they keep those workers more than a year, employers would get an additional $1,000 tax credit per employee.
Other provisions of the bill are, for the most part, expansions or extensions of existing policies. The tax break for new equipment purchases by small businesses would be increased. The bill expands the Build America Bonds program, which subsidizes interest costs for state and local bonds issued to finance infrastructure projects. It extends until May 31 unemployment payments and healthcare subsidies for the jobless, which otherwise would expire for many people at the end of the month.”

New York Times -- House Closes for 2 Weeks; Senate In and Out
I have to shovel some new pathways into the back yard because the dog is running out of operational space after six days of snow siege.

Writer David Herszenhorn tells us that the House is giving up – they’re gone until Feb. 22. Harry Reid, who is such a bad poker player that he even tries to bluff a blizzard, is talking about jamming through his jobs bill on Thursday.
Republicans need a couple more days to get on board through negotiations, and the conditions here are so dreadful – howling winds, drifting snow and no public transportation – that getting staffers to the Senate is too tough.
“If comity prevails, the Senate could finish up votes on the jobs bill on Thursday, and senators could head out for their own Presidents’ Day recess. If not, Mr. Reid indicated that he may need to schedule a vote next weekend.”

New York Times -- U.S. Eyes Tougher Sanctions Over Iran Nuclear Program
While the administration is very busy defending itself against charges that the president has been soft on terrorism, pressure is mounting on the diplomatic front as well.
Iran is tweaking Obama over uranium enrichment, making more demands about how and where the delivery of nuclear fuel should be made and promising to make their own if the West does not comply.

That again leaves Obama doing an unconvincing Bush impersonation in talking about tough new sanctions and isolation for Iran as a year of engagement and dialogue produce nothing but an emboldened regime in Tehran.

Writers Helene Cooper and Mark Landler look at the administration’s frustrations.
“As the Obama administration lays the groundwork for a resolution, it is racing against a couple of timetables. The first is set by Iran’s nuclear program and the administration’s sense of urgency to act. The second is set by the dynamics of the Security Council, where France currently presides.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been aggressive in pushing for new sanctions, especially in the energy sector, according to American and European officials. The next member to hold the chair is Gabon, an African nation less likely to push hard for a resolution.”

Morning Must Reads from DCExaminer

Wall Street Journal -- Public Health Tab to Hit Milestone
If you’re worried about the government takeover of health care, you’re too late.

Writer Peter Landers explains that for the first time ever, more than half of all health spending will come through the government.

Government actuaries report that 50.4 percent of the more than $2.34 trillion spent on health care will come from taxpayers in 2011.
But this isn’t really a health-care story. This is a deficit story.
It also helps explain why the president may be willing to get bipartisan on health care. If he doesn’t, Medicare will gobble up all of his other priorities as Baby Boomer start soaking up more and more services.

But some aren’t worried:
‘There is nothing inherently wrong with crossing this threshold, especially in light of the recession. These data show that government programs are working as intended,’ said Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. ‘However, these projections do reinforce the need to enact comprehensive health reform, like the legislation passed by both chambers, that lowers costs for individuals and businesses and improves coverage.’

New York Times -- LaHood Backtracks on ‘Stop Driving It’
Even Joe Biden must have winced when he heard about Treasury Secretary LaHood’s gaffe -- telling the drivers of more than 4 million Toyotas that may be subject to a rare but serious problem with their accelerators to immediately dump their cars at their local dealers for repairs.
Toyota stock imploded and a creeping unease turned into panic for some drivers. By the time he hit the pack of reporters outside, LaHood was ready to retract the statement.

But the news just keeps getting worse for the world’s number one carmaker. Toyota has expanded its product concerns to now include the brakes on the Prius. But look at it this way – it may be a bummer to read a bunch of smug bumper stickers in traffic, but it least it means that the Prius is in front of you.

Writers Mark Leibovich and Matthew Wald do not explore the question of whether it’s appropriate for Hood to be on a crusade against one of the top competitors of the government’s car company, but do give you a sense that LaHood may have outlived his usefulness as a symbol of phony bipartisanship.

Note Rahm Emanuel (who had to call LaHood “f---ing developmentally disabled” because of his promise to the Special Olympics) use of the past imperfect tense.

“Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, defended Mr. LaHood. ‘I think and the president thinks Ray’s been a great secretary.’

When he misspoke, Mr. Emanuel said, ‘he immediately realized he’d said it.’ When some officials make an error like that, Mr. Emanuel said, ‘Usually these things take days. He did it in five minutes.’”

New York Times -- National Prayer Breakfast Draws Controversy
Writer Laurie Goodstein doesn’t tell you exactly how today’s National Prayer Breakfast is connected to the imprisonment of homosexuals in Uganda, but takes plenty of time to raise concerns about the involvement of President Obama and others in the event.

Goodstein’s argument seems to be a claim by undercover author Jeff Sharlet that The Fellowship, the Capitol Hill Christian group that hosts the breakfast, was the motivating force behind a Ugandan bill that would have made certain homosexual acts punishable by death. This claim hasn’t apparently been confirmed elsewhere but has become a rallying cry for gay activists who believe that the Ugandan model is what American evangelicals are hoping to pursue here. But, again, no context from Goodstein.

It’s an ironic story given Obama’s message today: that we must not demonize our political opponents.
“The Family has no identifiable Internet site, no office number and no official spokesman. J. Robert Hunter, a member who has spoken publicly about the group, said that it was unfair to blame the Family for the anti-gay legislation introduced by David Bahati. Mr. Hunter said that about 30 Family members, all Americans, active in Africa recently conveyed their dismay about the legislation to Ugandan politicians, including Mr. Bahati.”

USA Today -- Obama's budget curbs border program
An interesting nugget from writer Mimi Hall: the Obama budget shifts money away from securing the U.S.-Mexico border -- fewer agents, no expansion of the existing physical barriers, and a reduction in electronic surveillance.

Where is the money going?
“In the wake of the failed attempt to blow up an airplane bound for Detroit on Dec. 25, Obama's budget for next year calls for $371 million for 500 more body scanners, 275 more canine teams and an unspecified number of new air marshals.

Former Homeland Security department policy chief Stewart Baker says in paying for more aviation security, the White House "has decided that some of the border defenses are more expendable. ... We're taking some risks there."

Wall Street Journal -- U.S. Announces Helmand Offensive
Allied forces are hoping to drive the Taliban out of their stronghold of Marjah in the Helmand Province without an attack or to provide a decisive victory in a high-profile attack that conspicuously features Afghan forces.

Taking the unusual step of advertising the attack – even issuing press releases and giving the mission a name (Which mean “Operation Together” in Pashtun) – NATO commanders hope to demonstrate that the Afghan government has clout.

U.S. Marines are hoping the civilians clear out so they can kill as many bad guys as possible without running afould of the Pentagon’s rules of engagement.
Writer Michael Phillips explains:

“That is what happened in 2008 in Garmsir, a Taliban-held town further south in Helmand province. The locals fled to the desert during a month of fighting between a Marine battalion and dug-in insurgents. With little reason to worry about civilian casualties, the Marines were able to use their superior firepower, including helicopter gunships and mortars, to oust the insurgents.”

Column on “punching bag bipartisanship” is here.

DCExaminer Morrning Email Blast

Michael Barone - Voters spurn the 'boob bait' of the educated class
Members of "the educated class" are pleased by Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and congressional Democrats' bills addressing supposed global warming. They are puzzled by his reticence to advance gay rights but assume that in his heart he is on their side.
They support more tepidly the Democrats' big government spending, higher taxes and health care bills as necessary to attract the votes of the less enlightened and well-off. For "the educated class," such programs are, in the words of the late Sen. Pat Moynihan, "boob bait for the bubbas."

But the Massachusetts equivalent of the bubbas weren't biting

Chris Stirewalt - Republicans think locally for 2010 and beyond By having Obama run as a shamanistic healer rather than as a politician with a program, Plouffe set up the president for a precipitous fall.
Before Plouffe gets to the White House, one guy he should call is Ed Gillespie.

Byron York - Abdulmutallab interrogated for less than an hour; White House defends handling of terrorist case
The White House is not disputing a report that FBI agents questioned accused Northwest Airlines bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for just 50 minutes before deciding to grant him the right to remain silent and provide him with a court-appointed lawyer -- a decision that led Abdulmutallab to stop talking and provide no more information.

Susan Ferrechio - Dems look for a way to press ahead on health care
Democrats are weighing two possibilities: Pass a scaled-back version in smaller pieces, or try to move the current Senate health care bill through the House and then make changes to it through a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation, which would require just 51 votes for passage.

More Stories
Taxpayer-owned General Motors spent $1.48 million on lobbying in fourth quarter
Want to know what campaign finance reform is really about? Watch this video
Does Red Sox President Larry Lucchino regret his $2,000 to Martha Coakley

DCExaminer Morrning Email Blast

Byron York - Two factors will decide Massachusetts Senate race
After all the speeches, politicking, and attack ads, there are just two issues that will determine the winner of the Massachusetts Senate seat in Tuesday's special election. The first is health care and the second is one-party government. And in Massachusetts, neither issue works exactly as outsiders might think -- and right now both are working in favor of Republican Scott Brown.

The Coakley campaign, struggling against surging Republican Scott Brown, has been touting Clinton's appearance for Martha Coakley, the struggling Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts, has had the luxury of two presidents campaigning for her. Bill Clinton was in Boston and Worcester on Friday, and Barack Obama came to Boston today.

Byron York - Will Obama's lackluster speech really help Coakley?
Who was more effective? Having watched Clinton's Boston speech from inside the room Friday, and Obama's speech on television today, it's impossible to escape the conclusion that Clinton just blew Obama's doors off. Obama's speech was halting, wandering, and humorless; the president looked as if he didn't want to be there. There's no doubt the crowd was excited to see Obama, but he seemed so hesitant and out-of-rhythm at the top that it appeared he might have been having teleprompter trouble, and he was also clearly rattled and unable to handle the completely-predictable presence of a heckler.

Chris Stirewalt - Republicans learn to play the technology game
GOP members of Congress have more than twice as many Twitter followers than their Democratic counterparts and tweet five times more often. Minority Leader John Boehner may look like a character from Mad Men, but the Don Draper of the House has a “director of new media” and more than 30,000 Facebook fans – almost four times as many as Nancy Pelosi.

Mark Hemingway - 'Multiple advisers to President Obama' saying Coakley will lose?
Reports CNN's Ed Henry: Multiple advisers to President Obama have privately told party officials that they believe Democrat Martha Coakley is going to lose Tuesday's special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy for more than 40 years, several Democratic sources told CNN Sunday.

More Stories
Who's investing in Martha Coakley: AHIP, BIO, and the billion-dollar winner of Obamacare
Democratic 'tolerance' rears its ugly head in Mass. Senate race
Dems' lock on Senate is mixed blessing for Obama

Morning Must Reads -- Tripping up on Capitol Hill

From Chris Stirewalt and the DCExaminer

Boston Herald -- Hush comes to shove
Columnist Michael Graham looks at the debacle that was Martha Coakley’s Washington health-industry lobbyist fundraiser on Tuesday night.

He argues that for a campaign that can’t shoot straight (spelling Coakley’s state “Massachusettes” in an ad, saying in a debate there were not terrorists in Afghanistan, etc.) – the event (first reported by Examiner colleague Tim Carney) crystallized a lot of what Bay Staters don’t like about the candidate.

The event got extra attention in Boston because part of Coakley’s entourage shoved The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack into a rail. To tell the tale in Boston, reporters had to explain where she was (schmoozing with health industry lobbyists) and what question she was running from (whether she still thought Afghanistan was free from terrorists after recent bombings.)
Shoving McCormack made irresistible video and pictures for TV and Web sites, and Graham thinks what’s said setting up the shot may turn the tide for fed up Massachusettes and Massachusers.

“All the guy did was ask a question and the Coakley campaign pushed him to the curb. How many Massachusetts voters watched that video and thought ‘Pal, I know just how you feel’?
Coakley may not realize it, but we’re tired of being pushed around. Tuesday is our chance to push back.”

Los Angeles Times -- Tax expansion could pay for healthcare overhaul
Washington’s attack on capital investment has come to the health discussion as Democrats make their final push on a health bill.

Meeting for six hours with President Obama at the White House (which you didn’t see on C-SPAN) congressional Democrats tried to hammer out a deal that could pass both houses swiftly. With fears that the Massachusetts Senate race could deliver them an unhappy surprise the president and his party are plunging into the work of passing a plan right away.

A sticking point has been that the Senate plan is partially funded through a tax on high-end health insurance, including many union policies, including government workers’. The House wants a special “millionaires’ tax” that Senators worry will hit small businesses and do nothing to discourage expensive health plans.

Why would the government want to "discourage" expensive health plans? What constitutes "expensive"? Who decides? It's my money and if I want the best healthcare coverage I can afford, I shouldn't be penalized or "discouraged". Not only is it unconstitutional, it's stoopid.

Writers Janet Hook and Noam Levey tell us that one solution seriously discussed at the meeting with President Obama was to exempt union policies from the plan and repace the lost revenue by applying Medicare payroll taxes to investment income.

A bill that punishes senior citizens already would take another swipe at anyone living off dividends or annuities. Plus, disincentives to investments in a sluggish economy seem like a daft thought.

That Democrats would even include such a wild idea at this point suggests that things are getting a little loose in the turns as Democrats try to get into the home stretch.

“Under current law, the top rate on capital gains and dividend income is 15%. That is scheduled to rise to 20% in 2011 if the George W. Bush-era tax cuts are allowed to expire.”

Washington Post -- Obama administration seeks tax hike on financial firms to recoup cost of bailout
Writer Binyamin Appelbaum has learned that the financial industry tax to be proposed by the Obama administration today will take the form of a special penalty on inter-bank borrowing: loans taken by financial firms to make investments without disrupting their main holdings.
The "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee” would apply to the 50 largest financial institutions, including those owned by the government, and is designed to rake in the $90 billion estimated cost of the financial bailout, and then some.

The goal is to prevent another financial crisis by discouraging investments and big profits on Wall Street. The proposal does not address that improvidently arranged government policies for backing bad mortgages at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made the crisis possible.

“The president's proposal will be included in the draft budget delivered to Congress in early February. What emerges from Congress, however, could be markedly different. Some members of both chambers are calling for a more punitive tax. Proposals range from a 75 percent levy on bonuses to a toll on financial transactions.”

Dana Milbank -- 'Sorry' still seems to be the hardest word on Wall Street
Lloyd Blankfein seems like the kind of guy who accepts the loathing of others like a military decoration. If that’s so, he wears more medals than General Petraeus.

Testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Wednesday, the Goldman Sachs CEO sneered his way through the session.

Milbank rings his bell for refusing to accept any responsibility for incinerating the financial system by selling souped-up investments to customers while simultaneously placing big bets that those investments would crash and burn.

What sticks out most to me about Bully Blankfein’s testimony, though, is his inability to admit that he’s no capitalist swashbuckler, but a mooch who relies on friends in government to survive.

“When Wall Street collapsed 16 months ago, Goldman benefited from multiple forms of government bailouts: $10 billion in TARP money from the Treasury, billions more in payments to Goldman as part of the AIG bailout, and much more in the form of federal government lending programs. Regulators also allowed Goldman to convert itself into a bank holding company, an extension of federal backing that let the firm avoid the fate of Lehman Brothers. Without the federal government propping up Wall Street, Goldman, like most firms, probably would have failed.”

Bloomberg -- Haiti Rescuers Race to Find People Buried in Rubble
Writers Peter Green and Bill Faries provide a clear, useful overview of post-earthquake Haiti, with a good picture of how the surges of relief pouring in from the U.S. and elsewhere are being frustrated by the weak infrastructure of the nation.

While we don’t know the death toll now, it is increasing by the moment as those trapped in rubble expire and could reach six figures. With the New York Times and others calling for a long-term commitment to stabilizing Haiti after the relief effort, the task ahead could be enormous for America.

“Haiti’s population of 9.6 million has a per capita income of about $560, with 54 percent of Haitians living on less than $1 a day and 78 percent on less than $2 daily, according to the World Bank. The gross domestic product was $7 billion in 2008. The country is still recovering from four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed at least 800 people in 2008.”--

Chris Stirewalt's column on a health bill designed to fail is here.

Morning Must Reads from DCExaminer

New York Times -- Obama Orders Improvements in Security Policies
The State Department took interest in the dire warnings given by the father of the underwear bomber about his son’s Jihadist tendencies, but without other “biographic information” the National Counterterrorism Center found those warnings did not qualify him for the “no-fly” list.
And the day after that failure put the bomber on the plane, the head of the Counterterrorism Center still left town, with White House approval, for a family ski trip.
The new report from President Obama’s top terrorism advisor about the Christmas Day bombing attempt shows that State Department officials did not yank Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s visa on the spot, perhaps because of confusion with records.
But the real problem is in the fact that when the Western-style businessman father of a young, male, Muslim foreign national says his son is trying to attack America isn’t enough to get at least temporary addition to the no-fly list.
That dot should have needed no connecting, but even so, the president is ordering the intelligence community to speed up analysis and its dissemination dramatically.
The other part of plan is to make sure that TSA workers get to look at you naked before you are allowed to board a flight.
Writers Jeff Zeleny and Helene Cooper explain the president’s refusal to profile passengers.
“‘We are at war,’ Mr. Obama said, releasing an unclassified version of a report on the attempted attack.
He pledged not to ‘succumb to a siege mentality’ sacrificing the country’s civil liberties for security, but he called for expanding the criteria for adding people to terrorism watch lists.”

New York Times -- Fed Advice to A.I.G. Scrutinized
The Federal Reserve has given up most of the pretext that it operates above the political fray. Instead of operating at some arms-length distance on policy questions with the White House, the central bank is engaging in rather rank political gamesmanship. It’s become like a department of the executive branch but without the reporting requirements.
Writer Mary Williams Walsh tells us that a lawyer for the New York Fed told bailed out insurer AIG to withhold information on official reports about the size of the Fed’s payments to investors with AIG policies and the depth of the problems facing the company.
“The Fed’s lawyer, Ethan T. James, of Davis Polk & Wardwell, deleted all references to the $10 billion in swaps that could not be torn up. He wrote in the margin: “There should be no discussion or suggestion that A.I.G. and the N.Y. Fed are working to structure anything else at this point.”
After receiving his instructions, A.I.G. deleted the reference to the $10 billion derivatives problem from its filing.”

Wall Street Journal -- EPA Proposes Tighter, Costlier Smog Limits
Writers Mark Peters and Stephen Power tell us how a new EPA smog rule, which the agency says may cost the private sector up to $90 billion a year, will work.
Smoggy cities will still be smoggy, but less smoggy places will be regulated.
“According to the agency, more than twice the 322 counties that violate current federal ozone standards would fail to comply if the new standard were set at 0.06 ppm. For areas thrown into noncompliance for the first time, the standards could result in new pollution controls on large factories, or requirements for retail gasoline outlets to sell cleaner-burning fuel. Under federal law, states are required to submit plans to the EPA that detail how they will comply with the government's ozone standards. Those that don't submit such plans or fail to implement them risk losing highway funds.”

The Hill -- Pelosi vows to defend House healthcare bill
The House speaker is making noise about not signing off on the Senate health bill having heard grumbling from her members over their problems with the Senate plan. The president is even planning another trip up to the Hill to quell unrest among House members.
But, as writers Jared Allen and Jeffrey Young explain, the calculus remains the same – with several Senators itching for an excuse to spike the legislation and no margin of error within Harry Reid’s caucus, it is the House that must yield. At least they won’t have to do it on C-SPAN.
“House Democrats will caucus again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday they begin their three-day ‘Issues Conference,’ where they will hear from Obama directly.
Many members are awaiting guidance from the president, and there is a hope that he will help the two chambers clear their remaining hurdles.
Talk of meeting in the middle on certain areas was already permeating some of the policy discussions on Thursday.”

Washington Post -- Steele comments have GOP aides pleading, 'Get him to stop'
Philip Rucker and almost everyone else writing about Michael Steele suggests that the anger at Steele inside the GOP is because he suggested that the party wouldn’t win the majorities in Congress this year.
But the heart of the problem is how it happened: while Steele was out on a book tour, selling his own book. Steele was already in hot water for doing paid speeches in addition to his work as chairman, but a book designed to be provocative (and saleable) by pointing out what’s wrong with the party was too much.
The RNC is facing cash flow problems and organizational challenges, but Steele is still selling Steele.
It prompted top Hill aides to call for Steele to tone it down in a party conference call this week. Steele responded on ABC radio saying: 'I've had enough of it. If you don't want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way.'
Perhaps most worrisome for Steele is becoming the new Scozzofava:
“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) came to Steele's defense Thursday, telling a group of reporters in Atlanta that he is ‘a fan of Steele's’ even though the chairman ‘makes a number of old-time Republicans very nervous.’
‘He comes out of a different background,’ Gingrich said, according to the Associated Press. ‘ . . . But I think he's pretty close to what we need. He's different, he's gutsy and he's going to make a number of Republicans mad.’”