Meet the Press April 3 Video

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Kyl Can't Come Up With Any Reason to Stop START

It's a forgone conclusion that Jon Kyl is opposing START for political reasons. I think Kyl has a petty personal Alpha male issue with Obama. Kyl and Durbin debate the ratification of the treaty with Russia, but Kyl can't come up with any substantive opposition:

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Obama Speaks at Alexi Giannoulias Event in Chicago Video

This event was held yesterday. Obama takes the podium at the 1 minute mark:

Who's Going to Be at the Healthcare Meeting?

Via The Hill: Temperamental Judd Gregg is not going, though he apparently wanted to.

McConnell instead tapped Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), ranking Finance Committee member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee member John McCain (R-Ariz.), and the Senate’s only two physicians — Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
GOP Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) are also attending and were previously invited. Enzi is the ranking Republican on the HELP Committee, of which Coburn is also a member.
McConnell spokesman Don Stewart had no immediate comment on Gregg’s exclusion, but did say that dozens of GOP senators had lobbied to be invited.

Asked about McConnell's choice not to invite him, Gregg declined to comment. “You'd have to ask Sen. McConnell,” he said.

Democrats:

The Senate’s Democratic attendees to the summit include Reid, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Conference Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.), Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.), Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (Conn.), HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (Iowa), Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care Chairman Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) and Conrad.

The White House originally invited 21 members of Congress — 12 Democrats and nine Republicans — along with aides and representatives from the Office of Management and Budget, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Congressional Budget Office, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Office of Health Reform Director Nancy DeParle.

The meeting is Thursday at 10 am eastern.

Independents Want Brown to Work With Democrats

Bob Schieffer has a good commentary this week. People are tired of the partisanship. It's a means to nowhere, nothing, status quo. Why can't our leaders act like adults?

John McCain wants to start over on healthcare. Dick Durbin says that's already been tried:

Illinois Prison Will House Gitmo Detainees

The Obama administration notified Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn by letter Tuesday that it intends to acquire a rural prison in his state for the relocation of a "limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
The underutilized Thomson Correctional Center is in the small village of Thomson, Ill., 150 miles east of Chicago. It has become the center of controversy over what to do for a limited number of terrorist suspects, about 200, held at Guantanamo Bay.

Republicans are stomping their feet because that's what they do. It pushes their narrative that Obama is a terrorist sympathizer, which plays to their wingnuts, who go even further, saying Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist. We already have 355 terrorists in prisons all around the nation. It's just politically beneficial for republicans to pitch a fit:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted the plan to send Guantanamo detainees Thomson. McConnell dubbed the new facility "Gitmo North," and said the administration has failed to explain how it will make the United States safer.

"The American people and a bipartisan majority of the Congress have already rejected bringing terrorists to U.S. soil for long-term detention, and current law prohibits it," McConnell said. USA Today

Terrorists around the nation and not one escapee:

According to data provided by Traci L. Billingsley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, federal facilities on American soil currently house 216 international terrorists and 139 domestic terrorists. Some of these miscreants have been locked up here since the early 1990s. None of them has escaped. At the most secure prisons, nobody has ever escaped, period. Slate

Illinois governor Pat Quinn says the Thompson Correctional prison will be a maximum security prison for Gitmo detainees. No one has ever escaped a federal prison, he said. Detainees won't be allowed to have visitors. It will create 3,000 jobs in a depressed area of Illinois.

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Gibbs on reporter's suggestion of an Illinois Gitmo. Sometimes our press corps is really disappointing:

Does Senate Have 60 Votes to Pass Healthcare?

Dick Durbin discusses the challenge of getting 60 votes on Morning Joe. Progressives, such as Howard Dean, say democrats only need 51 votes using the so-called "reconciliation" process. Here's a good explanation of why that won't necessarily work. It seems to me that if you can't muster 60 votes for a bill, then it probably isn't a very good bill and it probably shouldn't pass.

Durbin also tells why allowing people to buy insurance across state lines wouldn't work, unless a national standard was put into place.

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Durbin and Dean: Public Option is Still on the Table

Contrary to what republican Olympia Snowe said this morning, Dick Durbin and Howard Dean say the public option or something like the public option is still on the table. Howard dean said regulating insurance companies like utilities would do the trick. John Cornyn says something but he's irrelevant:

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Dean says it doesn't matter to the American people how healthcare is passed:

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Obama Wishes Sotomayor Good Luck

Obama wishes judge Sonia Sotomayor good luck (that's really what he's doing in the photo) as her hearings begin tomorrow.
Sotomayor is almost certain to be confirmed but republicans have to have their say. Jon Kyl explains the republican strategy on Sotomayor (see video below). Today on This Week, Kyl quoted a Rasmussen poll saying that most people were against Sotomayor. That poll is contrary to most every other poll and it is an odd poll because it goes on to say that even though only 37% want her confirmed:

84% of the nation’s voters still expect Sotomayor to be confirmed. That figure includes 58% who say her confirmation is Very Likely.

I don't think much of polls, unless it's a positive one and then I might point it out, which is exactly the reason I don't think much of polls.

Geithner Testifies on Treasury Budget

Here is Geithner's opening remarks:

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner
Opening Statement – As Prepared for Delivery
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
June 9, 2009

Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Collins, members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you for the first time as Treasury Secretary on the President's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget request for the Department of the Treasury.

While we see some initial signs of economic improvement and the financial system is beginning to heal, our country faces very substantial economic and financial challenges.

President Obama and his Administration are working to meet these challenges by getting Americans back to work and getting our economy to grow again; by restoring fiscal discipline to ensure a sustained recovery, and by making the long-neglected investments in health care, energy and education needed to enhance America's global competitiveness and produce more balanced, sustainable growth over the long-term.

Treasury's Key Priorities

To achieve these goals, we are repairing and reforming our financial system so that it works for, not against, a recovery that serves all Americans.

To restore growth and meet our fiscal goals, we are redesigning and bolstering enforcement of our tax code so that it is both fairer and more efficient.

To advance our interests globally, we are working with other nations to promote economic recovery and financial repair, and to ensure more open markets for U.S. business.

And to protect the country, we are deploying all of the tools at our disposal to exclude terrorists, proliferators, and other illicit actors from the international financial stage, and thereby secure our financial system and combat threats to our security.

The Fiscal Year 2010 Budget that you have before you will allow Treasury to pursue these core missions assigned to the Department by the President and the Congress. The $13.4 billion request includes a $676 million, or 5.3 percent, increase over enacted 2009 levels.

Of this increase, $14 million would go to bolstering the staffs of our Domestic Finance and Tax Policy offices, which are at the epicenter of Administration efforts to support rigorous analysis and implementation of revenue policy and to redesign and improve our tax policies and tax code.

Some $137 million would be devoted to more than doubling our Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund to ensure that the benefits of our financial repairs reach beyond our major banks and businesses to help economically distressed communities. These communities were underserved by our financial system even before the current crisis, and have been deeply hurt by the job losses and business failures that the crisis has spawned.

A total of $332 million would be devoted to new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement efforts, including $128.1 million to add nearly 800 new IRS employees to combat offshore tax evasion and improve compliance with U.S. international tax laws by businesses and high-income individuals. Another $130 million would go to bolster the security of the IRS information technology, improve the efficiency of its business systems and upgrade its fraud detection capabilities.

Although not directly under the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee, our Budget also includes funds to meet our international obligations to help us in mounting a global response to the crisis and in creating mutually reinforcing growth around the world.

As we seek these additional funds to respond to our nation's troubles, we have cut back on some programs that are either ineffective or that we believe can be safely delayed.

For example, while the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) continues to be one of the most effective anti-poverty programs that the Federal government administers, the Advanced EITC, a related program which provides benefits in advance of filing a tax return, has been prone to exceptionally high levels of error and low use by those eligible for it. Accordingly, our Budget proposes to end this latter program for savings next fiscal year of $125 million.

Similarly, even as we seek to increase capital investment for the IRS, our Budget would reduce the Department-wide capital investment account by 65 percent for a savings of $17 million.

The Treasury Budget would reduce the number of international economic attachés from 20 to 16, saving $2 million next fiscal year. It would absorb a portion of our non-pay inflation through more efficient use of contracting and other cutbacks, saving $18 million. It would take advantage of the growth of efficient electronic filing of tax returns to reduce the IRS processing budget by $8 million next fiscal year.

Given we have had control over the budget for fewer than five months, the reductions that I have just described represent a first attempt to do more with less. As we begin work on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2011, Treasury has prepared itself for a more rigorous assessment of its spending.

I have already issued guidance to Treasury senior staff that says, in part: "To afford any new investments, we will have to take new approaches to solving old problems. I expect each bureau and policy office to identify opportunities for innovation that will transform how Treasury fulfills its missions in order to both improve performance and reduce cost."

In addition, the President has announced his intention to nominate Dan Tangherlini to be our Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget. Consistent with the President's mandate, I will look to Mr. Tangherlini to scour the Treasury's budget for efficiencies and cost savings. He comes to the job with an impressive track record of working on budget, management and performance issues with District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty, and I am convinced that he will bring the same results-oriented approach to the federal government.

Repairing and Reforming the Financial System

The President has assigned the Treasury to repair key sectors of our economy so that they help revive growth and produce broadly shared prosperity.

The Treasury has been working to repair and reform every major element of our financial system, and to fill gaps in the system so that it benefits all Americans.

Last month, federal banking supervisors announced results of the stress tests that we asked them to conduct on our 19 largest financial institutions. The aim of these assessments was to ensure that these institutions have sufficient capital buffers to absorb the losses that they could suffer under worse-than-expected economic conditions and continue to make the loans necessary to sustain recovery.

The clarity and transparency provided by the tests has helped improve market confidence in the banks, making it possible for them to collectively raise nearly $90 billion through private equity offerings, bond issuances without government guarantees and sales of business units.

On housing, Treasury is working with HUD to bolster our housing markets by helping to drive down mortgage interest rates and by assisting responsible homeowners to refinance into more affordable mortgages or modify their at-risk loans to avoid preventable foreclosures.

In terms of the non-bank financial sector, Treasury is working to revive critically important securitization markets for both new and old asset-backed securities.

We have begun to boost new consumer and business lending by re-starting the markets for asset-backed securities that financed almost half of all lending in this country before the crisis. There were more securities of this type issued the four months after we launched our effort than in the preceding nine.

Additionally, Treasury is about to join with private investors in seeking to restart the markets for legacy mortgage loans and securities that are now stuck on bank balance sheets, keeping these institutions from making new loans to families and businesses.

As we have made repairs to the financial system, we have understood that repair alone is not enough. We must also reform the system so that it is less prone to crises of the dimensions that we now face.

In the next few weeks, we will outline a comprehensive plan of reform that will include systemic risk regulations to ensure that no large and interconnected firm or market can take on so much risk that its failure could destabilize the entire financial system. The plan calls for bolstering consumer and investor protections. And it will streamline our out-of-date regulatory structure so that our regulatory system matches the size, shape and speed of our modern financial system. Together, these changes will help prevent another crisis of the magnitude that we have just lived through, and give the government new tools to better cope with similar problems should they occur in the future.

In addition to the financial system, Treasury is helping to ensure that the nation has a viable auto industry in the future. We are working with General Motors and Chrysler to make sure these companies make the changes necessary to again prosper. As President Obama has said "we cannot…must not…and will not let our auto industry simply vanish."

The resources for administering key elements of both our financial and auto repair efforts were authorized by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

These activities are being handled by our Office of Financial Stability (OFS), which is focused on ensuring that TARP funds serve the public purpose of economic and financial stabilization; that they are fulfilling this purpose in ways that protect taxpayers; and that we can provide a clear account to the Congress and the American people about the effectiveness of the funds' use.

In order to administer TARP and ensure compliance by TARP recipients, OFS has had to quickly assemble a substantial staff. OFS staffing levels, which were at 88 when I arrived in office, had risen to approximately 165 by the end of last month and are expected to rise to 225 by next fiscal year. The office's budget for next fiscal year will total $262 million, a 6 percent decline from the current fiscal year's $279 million. The change is largely due to a decline in estimated spending on contracts as part of the program's initial start-up.

While TARP is proving effective at improving the immediate stability of the financial system, the scope of the issues that this Administration and this Department face extend beyond TARP to include striking the delicate balance between intervention and allowing market participants latitude to operate; devising a new financial regulatory structure for the future; and working through the tough problems of what form our government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, should take as we emerge from this difficult period.

All of these issues fall to Treasury's Office of Domestic Finance, which, together with OFS, is having to operate on new policy terrain, tackling problems that the country has not faced in generations and for which we have few guideposts in our immediate past.

That is why the workload of the Office Domestic Finance has already expanded greatly, and is all but certain to expand still further. And it is why we are seeking to modestly increase its size and bolster its expertise in several critical areas.

Our Budget requests an additional $8.7 million for the office to add 26 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to the staff. This represents a 26 percent increase from the office's current fiscal year staffing of 101.

The additional funds will be used to create two new Deputy Assistant Secretary positions, one for housing finance, small business and consumer issues, and a second for capital markets. These two new officials will lead teams that will perform the economic and institutional research necessary to ensure that we understand all of the policy options in each of these areas and choose the most effective ones for solving our problems.

As we seek additional funds for Treasury, we must also seek them for the front-line institutions that will sustain our economic recovery and ensure that its benefits are broadly shared.

Our Budget would more than double the resources of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund to $243.6 million. The fund's mandate is to help low-income, economically distressed communities that were poorly served by our financial system even in economic good times, and – although they had nothing to do with causing current conditions –have been significantly hurt by the economic and financial fallout of the crisis that we now face.

The $136.6 million, or 128 percent increase in funding, would allow this program to support financial institutions in making job-creating investments and in providing access to capital in communities that are often considered too risky for mainstream financial institutions to serve. By targeting lenders and borrowers in these communities, the Fund would help some of our most vulnerable populations weather the crisis and benefit once recovery is underway.

The aim of the fund is to make sure that we provide distressed communities with more than simply government grants and aid. We must also build the capacity of their local financial institutions to ensure that capital is flowing to homebuyers and businesses so that they can finance their own economic futures. Since its inception in 1994, the fund has directed nearly $1 billion to distressed communities, and allocated $19.5 billion in tax credits through its New Markets Tax Credit program.

Financial institutions funded through the CDFI program make loans to small businesses and micro-enterprises and take equity positions in them. They provide mortgages to low-income homebuyers, and finance developers of low-income housing and community facilities, such as charter schools, health clinics and child care centers.

One example can be seen right here in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC. City First Bank – a local CDFI – and Charter Schools Development Corporation partnered to provide a $13.3 million New Markets Tax Credit for the Thurgood Marshall Academy, the city's first charter school focused on law, serving 360 students in grades nine through twelve and achieving a 100 percent college acceptance rate for its first three graduating classes.

Historically, the CDFI program has been heavily oversubscribed and has had to turn away qualified applicants. For example, in the current fiscal year, the program for CDFI financial and technical assistance awards is budgeted at $55 million, but it expects to receive applications for more than $500 million in funding.

Redesigning the Tax System for Fairness and Efficiency

The President has asked Treasury to redesign and bolster enforcement of our tax code so that it supports growth, sets the stage for our return to a sustainable fiscal path, and accomplishes these goals in a manner that is fair, efficient and supportive of our society's broadest goals.

To make good on the President's assignment, our Budget requests a modest increase in funding for Treasury's Office of Tax Policy and more substantial increases to expand IRS enforcement activities and to improve its information technology.

Treasury has moved quickly in implementing the more than 30 tax provisions of the President's economic recovery plan. Treasury also has played an integral role in designing the tax provisions of the President's Fiscal 2010 Budget, and it will play a similar role in implementing these. Read the rest here.

The treasury also announces that 10 banks will pay back TARP funds:

Treasury Announces $68 Billion in Expected CPP Repayments

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that 10 of the largest U.S. financial institutions participating in the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) have met the requirements for repayment established by the primary federal banking supervisors. Following consultation with the primary banking supervisor of each institution, Treasury has notified the institutions that they are now eligible to complete the repayment process. If these firms choose to do so, Treasury will receive $68 billion in repayment proceeds.

Combined with repayments received to date from other institutions, Treasury will have received approximately $70 billion in repayments from CPP participants. More than 600 banks across the country have participated in the CPP, representing $199 billion in investments.

"These repayments are an encouraging sign of financial repair, but we still have work to do," said Secretary Tim Geithner.

These repayments follow a period in which many banks have successfully raised equity capital from private investors. Also, for the first time in many months, these banks have issued long-term debt that is not guaranteed by the government.

Under the CPP investment agreements, firms that repay their preferred stock have the right to repurchase the warrants Treasury holds in their firms at fair market value. In addition to Treasury's potential income from sale of the warrants, these 10 institutions have already paid dividends on the preferred stock totaling approximately $1.8 billion over the last seven months. Dividend payments received for all CPP participants are approximately $4.5 billion to date.

Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, proceeds from repayment will be applied to Treasury's general account. These repayments help to reduce Treasury's borrowing and national debt. The repayments also increase Treasury's cushion to respond to any future financial instability that might otherwise jeopardize economic recovery.

Gingrich and Durbin on Meet the Press

Dick Durbin puts things in perspective. Dick Cheney's fear mongering on "weapons of mass destruction" cost the U.S. 4,283 soldiers' lives (not to mention all the thousands of innocent civilians killed in the process).
Durbin says there are 437 convicted terrorists in our prisons.
Democrats against housing terrorists in U.S. prisons are wimpy (Sen. Harry Reid) and playing politics. Democrats were WRONG not to fund the closure. 
Newt Gingrich lies about FBI's Mueller, who DID NOT say don't put terrorists in U.S. prisons. People like Gingrich constantly exaggerate to make their points. He makes a better talk radio host. I wonder if he's ever spoken without mentioning Ronald Reagan.

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Transcript

Obama Administration Aims to End Sentencing Disparity for Crack and Powder Cocaine

Right now, if you have a little crack, you go to prison for a long time. It takes 100 times more powder cocaine to get the same jail time.
The Obama administration is also focused on lesser sentences and more treatment, which is exactly what's needed. We can't continue to throw people in jail for drug addictions.

The Obama administration joined a federal judge Wednesday in urging Congress to end a racial disparity by equalizing prison sentences for dealing and using crack versus powdered cocaine.

"Jails are loaded with people who look like me," U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, an African-American, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said the administration believes Congress' goal "should be to completely eliminate the disparity" between the two forms of cocaine. "A growing number of citizens view it as fundamentally unfair," Breuer testified.

It takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh mandatory minimum sentences.

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said, "Under current law, mere possession of five grams of crack — the weight of five packets of sweetener — carries the same sentence as distribution of half a kilogram of powder or 500 packets of sweetener."

Durbin said more than 81 percent of those convicted for crack offenses in 2007 were African-American, although only about 25 percent of crack cocaine users are African Americans.

Congress enacted the disparity during an epidemic of crack cocaine in the 1980s, but the senator said lawmakers erred in assuming that violence would be greater among those using crack. Read the rest at MSNBC

Now, the number of white people going to jail for drugs is on the rise and the number of black people going to jail for drugs is shrinking but there still are a disproportionate number of black people sentenced than white people:

For the first time since crack cocaine sparked a war on drugs 20 years ago, the number of black Americans in state prisons for drug offenses has fallen sharply, while the number of white prisoners convicted for drug crimes has increased, according to a report released yesterday.

The D.C.-based Sentencing Project reported that the number of black inmates in state prisons for drug offenses had fallen from 145,000 in 1999 to 113,500 in 2005, a 22 percent decline. In that period, the number of white drug offenders rose steadily, from about 50,000 to more than 72,000, a 43 percent increase. The number of Latino drug offenders was virtually unchanged at about 51,000.

It looks as though meth could be the cause for the increase in drug sentencing for white people:

African American drug offenders, who have been convicted most often for dealing and possessing crack cocaine, still made up a disproportionate share of drug offenders in state prisons, 45 percent in 2005. That was down from nearly 58 percent in 1999. Black Americans make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population.

The number of white drug offenders in state prisons rose from 20 percent to 29 percent, and Latino prisoners made up 20 percent of such inmates.

"I have no doubt that crystal meth explains some of the white increase, but I'm not ready to say it's the reason for all of the white increase," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which opposes stiff penalties for nonviolent drug crimes. "It's also hard to imagine that [drug courts] are not having some effect. Most drug courts are in urban areas where African Americans live." Read the whole story at WaPo

Durbin Amendment the New Fairness Doctrine?

Unless, I'm missing something, Kathleen Parker is off base here. See the video below. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine (would require equal time for conservative and liberal voices on the airwaves) was voted down in the Senate by a fairly large margin.

I can't imagine that Obama in any way would want to suppress conservative talk radio. That seems so petty and cynical because it assumes that Americans are mindless and would somehow be brainwashed by radio jocks. 

Sure, the democrats have had fun with Rush over the past couple of weeks and have used him as a tool to make a point, but no one in greater America thinks of Limbaugh as a leader, only the people who listen to him and the apologizers. 

There is, however, the Durbin amendment (Illinois Senator Dick Durbin) that the conservatives are now shivering about. Conservatives thrive on conspiracy. The Durbin amendment was voted up and conservatives call it the new Fairness Doctrine, but it doesn't say anything about taking any of their dear leaders off the airwaves. The statement of its purpose:

To encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership, and to ensure that the public airwaves are used in the public interest.

That says to me that the FCC would be more interested making sure that Rupert Murdoch doesn't own all the media (although he owns a pretty good chunk now, including Fox and the WSJ). Obama's not about limiting free speech as far as I can tell. If he was, he ought to start with the skinheads. 

Conservatives are a jittery bunch and I'm beginning to understand why they carry guns. They tend to think everyone is after them. I wonder if that's genetic or if it relates to being brought up in certain parts of the country. They're intent on seeing Obama as the ideological left as Bush was the ideological right. But it just ain't so. 

Obama Heads to Springfield for Lincoln Feb. 12

Obama will attend the annual Lincoln birthday banquet put on by the Abraham Lincoln Association. I'm sure Obama will use the moment to do more than just blow out a few candles for Lincoln.

Swamp: Two years ago this month, on Feb. 10, 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, Ill., -- not far from the Abraham Lincoln museum

Next week, on Feb 12., President Obama will return to Springfield to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

The White House says the president will travel at the invitation of Sen. Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois who helped convince Obama to run for president.

Obama has had plenty to say about Lincoln on his way to inauguration as the 44th president. On Feb. 12, in Springfield, he'll have a chance to say a lot more.

The day he announced his candidacy, in the place where Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech, the city where Obama served as a state senator, Obama spoke of the nation's "unyielding faith, that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

Dick Durbin Calls For Special Election

See full video coverage of Blago scandal by Chicago CBS.

Obama: No Grudges Against Lieberman

Well, isn't this refreshing. Obama's leading by example already. I know many on the left want to kick Joe out but there are bigger, more important tasks at hand.

CNN: According to Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, the president-elect doesn't “hold any grudges” against Lieberman and thinks the Connecticut lawmaker should remain a part of the Democratic caucus.

"We aren't going to referee decisions about who should or should not be a committee chair,” Cutter said. “President-elect Obama looks forward to working with anyone to move the country forward. We'd be happy to have Sen. Lieberman caucus with the Democrats. We don't hold any grudges."

Besides, Lieberman may be needed:

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Majority Whip of the U.S. Senate and one of President-elect Barack Obama's best supporters, was asked today what fellow Democrats should do with that renegate Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the independent who caucuses with the Democrats but campaigned hard for Republican John McCain.

"Here's the reality,'' Durbin said in an interview today. "The reality is that, at this moment, there are 57 Democratic senators. There are three races still in question--Georgia, Alaska and in Minnesota. And one may require a run-off in December.

"So at the end of the day, we may not have the 60 votes we need to enact measures in the Senate, and we will have to build on what we have. So every vote is important. That's the starting point,'' Durbin said.

On the Minds of Superdelegates 6

this is the sixth in my series of "what's on the minds of superdelgates."
to recap: obama has gained 16 since march 3 and clinton netted 6, lost 1 (see my regularly updated sidebar tallies).
i'll also note that all the news outlets have different counts and some add supers and pledged delegates together when they really should be separate because they can't even get the pledeged delegate number straight and the superdelegate number is fluid. they can change their minds. the best site is demconwatch.
as i read what's on the mind of superdelegates, it occurs to me they're not so super at all. the obama supers say that whoever leads in delegates should be suppported and that the will of the people should not be overturned.
clinton supers say that it's all about "electability."
well, obama has the delegate lead, popular vote lead and electability.

here's one who thinks the pastor's comments might hurt obama but he's sticking with him:

"It does hurt his appeal," says Bill George, an uncommitted Pennsylvania superdelegate and the head of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO. "He may have lost those people who have some racial inner doubts about him." But Mr. George says he thinks that Sen. Obama has responded well to the controversy and that the episode won't affect his vote as a superdelegate.

here's one who says he's been getting a lot of attention:

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, who is uncommitted, has been contacted twice by former President Bill Clinton, and he chats from time to time with both Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with their top surrogates.

"It's soft-sell, at best," Cardin says. The campaigns were taking his temperature "almost hourly" in the lead-up to the Ohio and Texas primaries, when he was rumored to be on the verge of an endorsement (he declines to say for whom).

this one feels slighted, not really:

Greg Pecararo of Westminster, a DNC member since 1996, said he complained in jest to a Clinton delegate tracker that he hadn't even gotten a call from the candidate's daughter, Chelsea.

"It shows where I rank," said Pecararo, who sees no reason to make a choice until the August convention and dismisses the notion that a prolonged nomination fight will help John McCain.

How Maryland and the rest of the country voted will be one factor in his decision, said Pecararo. But the rush of states to hold early primaries did "not allow the normal nomination process to play out" this year, and party rules "give us the obligation to substitute our judgment for what would have happened there."

He said it was a "philosophical question" as to whether other factors might also influence his vote, such as the interests of his trade association. Pecararo runs a lobbying arm of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and "if your employer came to you" and expressed an opinion for one Democrat over another, he acknowledged, "you might take that into account."

there is no rulebook

Superdelegate Dick Durbin, Obama's senatorial partner from Illinois and a vocal backer, acknowledges that superdelgates have no rulebook to follow. But he says if one candidate leads in pledged delegates and popular votes after the final primary, then the superdelegates' path is obvious.

"If the elective process has produced a clear winner, whether by five delegates or 100 delegates, then it's extremely difficult to overrule that without undermining the unity of the party," Durbin said. "Many people would say 'it just isn't fair.'"

this one likes clinton. that's all.

By contrast, the Clinton camp and some independent observers say superdelegates who look ahead and add up electoral votes in November might reasonably choose Clinton even if Obama enjoys slim leads in pledged delegates and the popular vote.

Leticia Van de Putte, a co-chair of the party's national convention and a Texas state senator, said "A lot of Democrats are wary and worried, because they saw what happened to the popular vote (in 2000). I think some superdelegates are not saying, 'Who would be the better leader?' but 'How can we win?' They'll look at the math and the Electoral College."

Clinton points to her success in big states, richest in electoral votes, as reason for those superdelegates to select her.

this one likes obama and says the general election is not about big states:

"This is not a big-state nomination process," said U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., a superdelegate from Chicago backing Obama. "If that were the case, then one would need only to set up a campaign in the big states and ignore the rest."

Jackson said Obama can meet some of his big-state challenges by "ticket-building" -- strategically choosing his running mate.

He added a point largely borne out by primary exit polls -- one that also could help tip the superdelegate scales in Obama's direction as they calculate their party's chances in November.

"Only Barack Obama," Jackson said, "has shown the ability to reach out to both independents and Republicans."

On the Minds of Superdelegates 1
On the Minds of Superdelegates 2
On the Minds of Superdelegates 3
On the Minds of Superdelegates 4

On the Minds of Superdelegates 5