×
- The final version of the economic stimulus package passed in a House vote today, 246-183, with seven Democrats joining unanimous Republican opposition to the bill. A Senate vote is scheduled this evening when Sherrod Brown (D-OH) returns from his mother's funeral. Senator Kennedy will not be present for the vote and Judd Gregg is expected to vote against the legislation.
- Leon Panetta was confirmed by voice vote in the Senate last night to head the CIA and sworn in today.
- According to Politico, the Judd Gregg withdrawal has "emboldened" the GOP because it supposedly reveals a Democratic party hell-bent on expanding government and their own power. Meanwhile, a separate article from Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin notes that it's Obama who's been emboldened by his victory with the economic stimulus, and who is "plunging ahead on a large and expensive agenda that virtually assures 2009 will be marked by intense partisan battles about the size and role of government." To which I say, good. When a political party loses power and credibility the opposition that fills the vacuum is supposed to govern differently, right?
- Karl Rove, who believes the Obama administration's decision to directly oversee the 2010 census is "the biggest White House power grab ever," was subpoenaed (again) by the House Judiciary Committee.
- So, the religious right thinks the term "religious right" makes them sound like extremists and would prefer to use the more neutral term "socially conservative evangelicals." I expect that the right wing, in all its forms, will never grasp the fact that the radicals in their midst will remain radical and outside of the mainstream no matter how much "rebranding" occurs.
- A good idea, but I'm skeptical that it will catch on: "Iowa lawmakers are considering changing the way the state's presidential votes are counted as part of an effort to break from the Electoral College system. ... It calls for Iowa to join with other states and pledge its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter who wins in Iowa. Once states representing 270 electoral votes have adopted such a resolution, it would go into force."
- John Judis has a piece up today that argues the lack of a unified, disciplined and bold left is largely responsible for a substantially weakened stimulus package and a tepid bank bailout plan. He's right. The whining of people like John McCain aside, if Obama truly wants to be a transformative president (and it's not clear whether this is his goal) then he can't, by definition, be "post-partisan." He, in fact, needs to be post-bipartisan.
--Mori Dinauer
