There’s little bipartisan agreement on what President Barack Obama’s health care summit on Thursday will truly be, though low expectations are popping up across the political spectrum.
“What’s disturbing is the continued media reports that [Democrats] already have their plan to move forward … no matter what the result is of …
–As Kate writes, political posturing pervades ahead of Thursday’s health care summit with Democrats and Republicans scrambling to score points. There’s plenty of that to come in the next 48 hours.
–To wit: Obama communications chief Dan Pfeiffer offers to post a Republican plan on the White House blog in a transparently backhanded …
Tonight the Senate will vote for cloture on Harry Reid’s stripped down jobs bill. No one knows – not Mitch McConnell and not the majority leader – if Reid will have the votes (so their offices say). But tonight’s vote is exactly the kind of thing that American voters have come to hate about the Senate: the bill is widely …
–Republicans in Congress still seem a little thrown off by the health care summit and haven’t yet settled on a message going in. Andrew Sullivan notes some inconsistency. They also haven’t decided which way to go on the Senate jobs bill.
–Former GOP Senator Lincoln Chafee, now running as an independent, makes the case for a third …
That’s what Congressman Joe Sestak, a retired Navy Admiral, is suggesting. Here’s the account in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) said yesterday that the White House offered him a federal job in an effort to dissuade him from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the state’s Democratic primary.
The disclosure
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The annual Conservative Political Action Conference launched today in Washington DC. I’ll be heading up to the Marriot Wardman in Woodley Park shortly to check out some of the afternoon festivities. But I caught Marco Rubio – probably the most anticipated speaker of the three-day event — on C-SPAN this morning.
The former speaker …
By golly, this is turning into a groundswell! I’m going to need a bigger bandwagon. Harry K. Scwartz delivers the latest endorsement in the Philadelphia Inquirer*:
The signals are growing louder that the Obama White House is readying its own health care plan in advance of next week’s summit. Press secretary Robert Gibbs fueled the speculation in his briefing yesterday. Asked about the possibility, Gibbs replied: “Stay tuned.”
If so, it would be a sharp break from the strategy that the White …
–Despite the high profile retirements and a Majority Leader on the ropes in Nevada, the chances of the GOP flipping the Senate in November remain slim, albeit not impossible. Adam Nagourney looks at the map in today’s Times, concluding that Republicans would have to run the table in all competitive races to have a shot.
–Everybody …
Sure, McCain’s had two primary opponents for months, but this one is so big that one of those original challengers — Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. founder Chris Simcox — actually stepped down and endorsed the new challenger. The newcomer isn’t really all that new, former Arizona Rep. J. D. Hayworth, who lost his seat in 2006. Hayworth …
In case anyone was wondering what an earth happened last week with the jobs bill hokey pokey, here’s a time.com story from me looking into what went on behind the scenes. The most troubling aspect of all this? That Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin are apparently further screwing up a screwed up Senate in their fight over Reid’s corpse. …
–D.C. dysfunction seems to be the theme of the day. Bayh says it’s why he’s retiring. Former Clinton chief of staff and Center for American Progress president John Podesta, citing GOP obstructionism, says the political environment “sucks.” Tea Party angst over big government run amok lands on the front page of the New York Times. A Wall …
–Bill Clinton has been released from the hospital and doctors say his prognosis is “excellent.”
–Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the late Ted Kennedy’s youngest son, has announced he won’t seek a ninth term in office. It would be the first time in almost 50 years a member of the Kennedy clan is not serving in Congress. He is the …
