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- House Democrats unveiled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 -- an $825 billion economic stimulus package -- in collaboration with the incoming Obama administration. The package is at a 2-1 ratio of spending to tax cuts, a more thorough breakdown of which can be found here. The best House Republicans could muster was John Boehner's "Oh. My. God." See also Nate Silver's developing roundup of reactions from professional economists to the bill, and Chris Hayes' short and convincing argument for why Republicans won't oppose the stimulus.
- It was a busy day on Capitol Hill, with congressional hearings for a number of Obama administration appointees, including, among others, Ken Salazar, Susan Rice, Janet Napolitano and William J. Lynn. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder received the most attention, however, with his strong rejection of the lawlessness of the Bush years. Besides stating the obvious on waterboarding ("waterboarding is torture") and answering "yes" on whether the administration would close Guantanamo Bay, Holder rejected the ticking time bomb situation as an exception justifying "harsh interrogations" and said he might consider putting the screws to "good American" Brad Schlozman.
- Speaking of the law, A FISA court has ruled that the Bush administration's warrantless wiretaps of international communications did not violate the law, but Steve Benen argues that that's not quite the whole story.
- Transitions: Roland Burris was sworn in as Illinois' junior Senator, Susan Tierney is expected to be named deputy secretary of energy, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-1 in favor of Hillary Clinton at State, Barack Obama has promised to end "don't ask, don't tell," pays a visit to The Washington Post and USA Today (but not The New York Times), and the conservative PAC "Our Country Deserves Better" is trying to raise "$44,600 or so" to air an advertisement critical of the incoming president beginning Inauguration Day.
- After Dick Cheney's exit interview with PBS last night, you might find this New York Times piece on Joe Biden's plans for the vice presidency to be a useful antidote. Unfortunately, I can't recommend anything to soothe the nausea induced by these two repulsive defenses of the outgoing president.
- Seems that Sarah Palin won't be a guest at Barack Obama's dinner honoring John McCain, et al next week, although she will be the first guest on Glenn Beck's new Fox News show, arguably a more appropriate venue. And, although I approach the analytical skills of Rick Santorum with great skepticism, there's a chance he might be right about the motives behind McCain's legislative relationship with President Obama in the future.
- Continuing in the tradition of "How 'Dallas' Won the Cold War," Reason offers another silly pop-culture analysis of how the late Patrick McGoohan's 'The Prisoner' helped libertarian ideas penetrate "communitarian" France. Or maybe instead you should be reading Brad DeLong's briefer and more interesting look at the historical relationship between classical and modern liberals.
- Recommended Reading: Jeffrey Toobin's New Yorker profile of Barney Frank.
--Mori Dinauer
