Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Obama is set to meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu today at the White House. Both countries’ press corps seem focused on the personal rift. The White House seems determined to reverse that impression. Bibi says getting to direct talks is the goal.
–Scott Brown flirts with an “aye” on financial reform.
–Democratic committees are already feeling the bill’s effects on their pocketbooks.
–New regulation’s potency may be determined as much by the who as by the how. Sudeep Reddy games out who’s in the running to head up the CFPB. Beyond consumer finance protection champion Elizabeth Warren, you may recognize one name on the short list: Martha Coakley.
–Mitt Romney, sharpening his foreign policy stick, pokes Obama over START.
–David Brooks walks the middle path (as he is wont to do) on fiscal policy and warns against “reckless new borrowing or reckless new cutting.” His ideas for stimulus:
First, extend unemployment insurance; that’s a foolish place to begin budget-balancing. Second, you need to mitigate the pain caused by the state governments that are slashing spending. You need a program modeled on Race to the Top. You will provide federal money now to states that pass responsible long-term budget plans that will reduce spending and pension commitments. That would save public-sector jobs and ease contractionary pressures without throwing the country into a fiscal-debt spiral.
–In case you missed it in the link above, he talks to someone at the White House (Read: Rahm) twice a week.
–Michael Steele is catching plenty of flak for his Afghanistan comments, but Ron Paul has his back.
–He’s likely to survive until January.
–Some California Dems worry Jerry Brown doesn’t have the firepower to bring down big-spending Meg Whitman.
–And John McCain’s re-election camp, who’ve been putting on somewhat of a clinic in defusing J.D. Hayworth’s primary challenge, look like they’re having fun.
What did I miss?