Morning Must Reads: What’s Next

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Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

–The day Democrats’ health care legislation is due to be signed into law, Republicans are continuing to push the idea of repeal. At least 10 GOP state attorneys general are lining up legal challenges.

Marc Ambinder writes, “the point of the lawsuits isn’t legal — it’s political. It advances the politics of conservative jurisprudence, and the political ambitions of conservatives…”

Feasibility of such challenges aside, the political merits are questionable. Jay gives five reasons Republicans should just drop the whole thing, Adam Nagourney warns it could exacerbate the “Party of No” label, Dan Balz writes, “Most concede that a strategy that focuses only on repeal and does not acknowledge the need to change the health-care system is unlikely to be a winner,” and Mark Halperin notes businesses and special interest groups will likely rally to the Democrats’ defense. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which fought the bill tooth and nail, isn’t interested. The call for repeal may raise some money and profiles in the short term, but it appears likely to fizzle before long.

–The reconciliation bill has cleared its first hurdle in the Senate; parliamentarian Alan Frumin ruled the excise tax doesn’t impact Social Security and the bill can move ahead for now.

–The Senate’s next big challenge will likely be financial regulatory reform. The Banking Committee passed its bill on a party line vote and now the battle heads to the floor. Passage is still a long way off; a deal between Republicans and Democrats has yet to be reached, and they haven’t yet made tweaks to the Dodd draft.

–The New York Times editorial board frets comprehensive reform will be a heavy lift in an election year.

–Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made his case yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute. I didn’t catch it live, but the speech (pdf) reads pretty well. Financial reform may offer Geithner a chance to reemerge as an effective surrogate for the Obama White House, something he struggled with early on.

–Secretary of State Clinton and Israeli PM Netanyahu both held their ground in speeches last night at pro-Israel lobby AIPAC’s conference.

–They both have a full plate; Clinton is headed to Mexico today for talks on the recent wave of drug violence there, while Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Speaker Pelosi and President Obama.

What did I miss?