In this story for TIME.com, Massimo Calabresi points to one of the trickier calculations that every President–and especially a new one–must face: How much to defer to Congress on legislation.
Ultimately, of course, Congress writes every line of every bill, and the leaders and committee chairmen on Capitol Hill have a better feel …
We already know that Obama plans to officially announce Joshua DuBois’ appointment to be director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships tomorrow, as well as the unveiling of his newly-formed Presidential Advisory Council of the same name. But I’m told by a religious leader who will be part of the Council …
In the ArenaUncategorized
On the Daschle debacle and how Obama should think about restructuring the stimulus package.
Two administration officials just finished briefing White House reporters about the details of President Obama’s new plan to restrict Wall Street compensation. (As a condition of the briefing, I cannot tell you the names of the officials who spoke; reporters objected to this condition at the outset to no avail.)
The briefing did shed …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Let’s leave aside the fact that if Dick Cheney and his alleged boss had been more vigilant–if they had listened to the Clinton appointees like Sandy Berger who warned about Al Qaeda, if they had paid attention to their own intelligence reports (notably the one on August 6, 2001)–the September 11 attacks might never have happened. …
Here’s the latest from me about President Obama and Speaker Pelosi’s relations. There’s also a report out today that Blue Dog Rep. Jim Cooper told Liberadio on Sunday that he got “quiet encouragement” from Obama’s staff to organize a letter signed by 55 House Dems criticizing Pelosi for not putting the stimulus through …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Kathleen Parker has the precisely correct reaction to the Michael Phelps flap. Marijuana should be legalized and taxed. It’s costing the society way too much in terms of law enforcement and hypocrisy.
Update: Some interesting reactions from early commenters. Sacredh notes that the combination of marijuana and power tools is not …
I figure I should keep offering a suggestion a day until the Obama White House figures this out for themselves. So here’s my Wednesday idea:
Divide the two jobs that Tom Daschle was going to have.
For HHS Secretary, pick Safeway CEO Steve Burd, who has been one of the boldest advocates for health care reform in the corporate …
Now that the former Senate Majority Leader has withdrawn his nomination to become Health and Human Services Secretary, speculation in Washington turns to who might take the job–two jobs, actually, if you count the newly created White House post for health care reform.
What we know of Barack Obama in situations such as these is that …
John McCain may be the first American to see money from the stimulus. He sent out to supporters today the below email which asks them to sign a petition against the stimulus on a website hosted by his PAC (conveniently linked to at the bottom of the petition page).
Dear Jay,
Yesterday, the Senate began debate on an economic
…
Here we go again.
A modest proposal:
The majority of people really do their best to pay their taxes, though you might not think so if you have been following the news lately. I’d like to suggest something the Obama Administration could do to make it easier for those of us who have household employees.
In my case, I’ve had the …
ABC News uncovers this old campaign spot by Tom Daschle. It’s a great one–considering.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdrp8vIoofA&hl=en&fs=1]
Update: I credit ABC above. But I am now informed that it was NBC News who first wrote about this ad in the context of the current controversy. The posting on YouTube done by a …
