Last week I flagged Donald Trump’s dizzying spin on the very hypothetical and pretend political implications of his divorces under the banner, “Newt Take Note”: “But one of the reasons I was divorced is because I worked very hard,” he said. “And, you know, that’s a good reason. But I worked very, very hard building [...]
Here’s what President Obama had to say about Jon Huntsman at this morning’s announcement of Huntsman’s replacement in China: As many people know, our current Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, has decided to step down from his current job. During his tenure, Jon has been an outstanding advocate for this administration and for this country. [...]
(White House/Pete Souza) –Majority Leader Harry Reid has put entitlements on the table, the first open step on the part of Democratic leadership toward the possibility of a grand budget bargain. Speaker Boehner and company still want to do short-term non-defense discretionary spending first. –Whatever cuts are made, it’s a safe bet that they’ll be [...]
Two different views on how things are going today: David Petraeus, preparing the field for his Congressional testimony next week, says progress is being made. CJ Chivers, writing in the Times, isn’t so sure. I’m not sure, either: progress has been made in the Taliban heartland, in Kandahar Province, but the effort in the eastern [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the floor this morning to yet again rail against the House’s 2011 omnibus bill. He listed a number of the bill’s evils. The last few days I’ve come to the floor and explained at length the damage that this Tea Party plan would do on the short term [...]
One of the most overlooked rifts in Washington’s budget debate is the escalating food fight. In the last two years, the U.S. has endured everything from salmonella-contaminated tomatoes to Chinese milk laced with melamine, a potentially lethal ingredient used to make plastic. House Republicans, in their sweep to enact billions in cuts to federal spending, [...]
The New York Times reports today that some members of Congress have offered an early seal of approval to a health care administrator who could succeed Medicare/Medicaid chief Don Berwick. According to the Times, Berwick’s deputy Marliyn Tavenner has emerged as a leading candidate to fill the post before or once Berwick recess appointment expires [...]
President Obama and Australian PM Julia Gillard visit Wakefield High School in Virginia on March 7. (REUTERS/Jason Reed) –American Banker gets ahold of a draft settlement state attorneys general are hammering out with the mortgage servicing industry. Felix Salmon is skeptical about its implementation. –The Senate Gang of Six’s deficit reduction plan, reportedly good for [...]
WAUKEE, IOWA–“Are you ready to begin the process of choosing Barack Obama’s successor here in Iowa?” So asked the longtime Christian conservative activist Ralph Reed on Monday night at the giant Point of Grace evangelical church here a few miles outside of Des Moines, Iowa. Before a crowd of perhaps 1500 charged-up activists, the Iowa [...]
As expected, Defense Secretary Robert Gates suspended the two-year ban on new action in military commissions for detainees at Guantanamo Bay today, resuming a practice Obama did away with as one of his first acts in office. For background on the tortured arc of Obama’s rightward move on this issue, see the piece I did [...]
