Official White House photo by Pete Souza
–President Obama has decided to delay his trip to Asia, originally scheduled to begin March 18, in order to work on health care. He is now slated to depart March 21. The window is still tight; the House has just nine days before he leaves to pass the Senate bill and the final CBO score has …
No tickling here that we know of, but an important reminder that there is another member, Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who is under investigation — criminal investigation — for his alleged lucrative attempts to silence the husband of the staffer he was having an affair with, as Eric Litchblau and Eric Lipton of the New …
As the Massa implosion fades, Capitol Hill returns today to health care reform with both chambers considering obscure parliamentary procedures in order to pass legislation before Easter recess, which officially starts March 28. The House is on a shorter leash, with the White House pushing them to get something done before President Obama …
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
–President Obama is on the road again Wednesday, trying to carry health reform over the finish line. The consensus on Monday’s outing: “fiery.” Expect more of the same today in St. Louis, plus plenty of knocks on health insurers, the administration’s favorite foil.
–Speaking of which, HHS Secretary …
I’m not sure what’s more surprising here, that’s the guys pushing for financial reform have resorted to this or that Ron Howard directed the video. But it is pretty funny…
[vodpod id=Video.3202953&w=425&h=350&fv=]
–We’re at an interesting point where both parties are trumpeting their intentions to run on health reform if/when it goes through, pro and con respectively. But I’m very skeptical of Senator McConnell’s assertion that every election in November will be a referendum on the issue. The notion that health care will totally overshadow …
As always, Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles nails it brilliantly:
Normally, I don’t pay much attention to staff hires by gubernatorial hopefuls, but Independent Tim Cahill, the Massachusetts State Treasurer who is challenging Governor Deval Patrick for his seat, sent out an interesting press advisory this morning. A recent poll showed Cahill in a statistical tie with the Republican candidate, Charles …
My recap of where things stand, from the new issue of dead-tree TIME.
Here’s a new story from me on the Senate Parliamentarian who’ll be refereeing the process of reconciliation on health care reform. Apparently, Republicans — and keep in mind, Alan Frumin was hired by Trent Lott — aren’t waiting for the process to begin. They’re preemptively calling his foul.
This morning Ben Smith over at Politico floated the idea that billionaire Mort Zuckerman might challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for Hillary Clinton’s old Senate seat in New York. This evening in a post on the New York Daily News, a paper he owns, he says he’s not gonna run. With Harold Ford out as well, this has been a good week for …
More than five days after he began but two days too late to prevent a cut off in services that will now have to be fixed retroactively, Senator Jim Bunning gave up his one-man filibuster of a $10 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits for 30 days. The measure passed with large bipartisan support 78-19. The Kentucky Republican said …
