Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–BP’s containment cap made some progress over the weekend.
–The administration’s not slapping any backs quite yet. They expect clean-up efforts to last at least through the fall. Thad Allen is on deck for today’s White House press briefing.
—Underestimating risk might be the theme …
Congressman Artur Davis, the man who hopes to become Alabama’s first black governor, is used to getting guff from other black leaders. First he was lambasted for being the only black member of Congress to vote against the President’s health care bill. Then he failed to get the endorsements of
—No hard assurances yet that “top kill” will work, but man-in-charge Thad Allen sounds cautiously optimistic this latest method may work to stop the flood of BP oil into the Gulf of Mexico. For President Obama, taking heavy criticism for not being involved enough in the situation, a political disaster could be averted by a quick …
Arlen Specter has survived a lot of things: a brain tumor, two bouts with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and five squeaker elections for the U.S. Senate. But in an anti-establishment year where the far right hates the moderates and the far left hates the moderates, Specter – whose voting record over the past 30 years is almost perfectly down the …
Photo by Ryan Kelly/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images
–Conventional wisdom played out; Obama will tap Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. The White House is rolling out with a 10 a.m. ET event where the president and his pick are both expected to speak.
–Never having served on the bench, Kagan’s record is …
President Barack Obama talks with U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, aboard Marine One as they fly along the coastline from Venice to New Orleans, La., May 2, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
–The Obama administration is now taking an “all hands on deck” approach to the …
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
–As I noted yesterday, Democrats have Senate Republicans in somewhat of a headlock over financial reform. From the Wall Street Journal:
Nerves appeared to be fraying among Republicans faced with the increasingly unappetizing prospect of opposing new curbs on Wall Street.
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Republican aides
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Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–President Obama has directed HHS to establish a rule whereby any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (basically all of them) cannot deny visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners, among others.
–Charlie Crist vetoed a teacher merit pay bill in Florida. Why is that a big …
Official White House photo by Pete Souza
—Mega-scoop from Ben Smith: Andy Stern reportedly plans to step down as president of the Service Employees International Union. Stern is a titan of the labor movement and the American left, not to mention an intimate ally to the White House. Marc Ambinder
–President Obama heads to the Czech Republic on Wednesday night. He’s returning to the site of his April, 2009 speech on nonproliferation to sign a new …
Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson had pledged to resign her Senate seat in her bid for Rick Perry’s governor’s mansion. She lost the GOP gubernatorial primary last month to Perry and today announced that, in fact, she will not resign — as first reported by Reid Wilson over at Hotline. She intends to serve out her term which expires in …
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Obama worked in an address to the troops and a sit-down with President Karzai in just six hours on the ground in Afghanistan. The brief weekend trip was his first to the nation as commander in chief. Michael tagged along to tell the tale.
–Reuters describes how the entire thing was …
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–There’s a lot to digest after last night’s historic vote on health care reform. Might as well dive right in:
–David Sanger writes in the New York Times that Obama succeeded at reshaping American social welfare — a feat the last two president’s failed to accomplish — but at the cost …
