×
- Henry Waxman has come out with an aggressive climate change proposal that would reduce emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, going much further than the Obama administration's proposal, although the stage has already been set for an emboldened EPA to use authority granted by the Clean Air Act to circumvent Congress entirely. Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi is confident that climate change legislation will be passed by July.
- Polls close for today's NY-20 special election at 9:00, and there doesn't appear to be a clear favorite in the race (although it would seem that Tedisco is already prepared to challenge a loss). That being said, I'm with Steve Benen on the significance of the race: this is merely a reflection of the people who show up and vote in that district, not a referendum on the GOP, President Obama, the popularity of the stimulus or a harbinger of the future. Indeed, as this Roll Call article on how the 2010 elections won't resemble the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress notes, special elections only tend to matter in the actual election year, not over a year beforehand.
- Everybody had a great time mocking the Republican alternative "budget" proposal last week, myself included, but I would actually like to see some concrete numbers, if only to get a sense of what the GOP's spending (or lack thereof) priorities are. Well, it seems whole thing is a big ruse, sources telling ABC News that the GOP doesn't plan on offering a real budget, just amendments to the Democrats' proposal. First Read, however, reports that there will be some Republican budget-related program activities going on tomorrow morning at the Capitol, but it sounds to me like another dog-and-pony show.
- There's every reason to be happy that the war against al-Qaeda (and it is a war, as Spencer Ackerman reminds us) will no longer officially be referred to as the "Global War on Terror," but if Brian Beutler is correct, the new phraseology, "Overseas Contingency Operations" doesn't inspire much confidence, either. Virtually all military activities undertaken by the United States are overseas operations, which leaves "contingency" to fill another vague foreign policy framework.
- A new Washington Post/ABC News poll has some interesting finds, not the least of which is the right track/wrong track question, with 42 percent saying the country is on the right track, up nearly 30 points since December and the highest it's been since 2004. Barack Obama remains popular, with a 66 percent approval rating, and gets majority support on his handling of the economy (60 percent) and the budget deficit (52 percent). I fully expect those numbers to drop, but what's clear is that right now voters overwhelmingly blame financial institutions, banks and corporate managers for the tumbling economy -- and only 25 percent blame Obama.
- Perhaps the reason Democratic strategists are turning to Sarah Palin as the new Rush Limbaugh is because of this nugget in an Esquire profile of the talk show host: "The dirty little secret of conservative talk radio is that the average age of listeners is 67 and rising, according to [Air America founding president Jon] Sinton -- the Fox News audience, likewise, is in its mid-60s: 'What sort of continuing power do you have as your audience strokes out?'"
- Remainders: Barack Obama's push for post-partisanship dies a quiet, not-early-enough death; Mark Sanford continues to grandstand for conservatives while the people of South Carolina suffer; Steve Clemons predicts big changes in U.S.-Cuba relations are coming; and unions think Bank of American ought to get the GM treatment from the administration.
--Mori Dinauer
