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- As expected, cautious Democratic Senators, namely Kent Conrad, have begun extracting their pound of flesh from President Obama's progressive budget, slashing spending for health care and stripping a tax credit for working families. Ezra has more on what Conrad's cuts actually mean vis-a-vis working with the opposition. Tim looks at the all-bark, no-bite approach of Evan Bayh's band of moderates, whose grandstanding about deficits and spending has been a distraction on the road to supporting the president's agenda and trying to woo moderate Republicans to their side. Meanwhile, outside interest groups step up their own ad campaigns to win support for the president's budget.
- As for the GOP, it's striking how relatively quiet they've been for the past couple weeks. It's almost as if they've run out of ways to oppose Barack Obama and are sitting around waiting for him to fail (as they know he will) so they can wrestle back political power and unveil their next Contract with America.
- Barack Obama has made his first foray into election endorsements since assuming the presidency, making an email pitch for Scott Murphy, running in the March 31 special election for the NY-20 seat.
- I haven't commented on the unresolved Minnesota Senate race in some time. For the blow-by-blow I would recommend Eric Kleefeld's tireless reporting/blogging at TPMDC. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that the contest has now broken the previous state record for longest unresolved election result, just as the court battle is coming to a close. And even though Norm Coleman has remarked that he has no intention of taking him case all the way to the Supreme Court, I see no reason why he wouldn't appeal his case as far as he can considering he really little future in politics and that the FEC has granted him and Al Franken the privilege of tapping maxed-out donors for recount fundraising.
- EFCA might (or might not!) be imperiled this year because of Arlen Specter's decision to challenge Pat Toomey next year, but at least according to Quinniapac, he would lose by double-digits to his more conservative challenger in a hypothetical 2010 primary matchup.
- Remainders: Obama continues to travel down the "state secrets" road blazed by his predecessor; Howard Dean announces that Democracy for America will be making a big push for keeping the public insurance option part of Obama's health care reform agenda; Cornerites have short memories when it comes to mocking presidential halos; Glenn Thrush makes the offhand comment that Joe Lieberman "is inching back into Democratic respectability by the hour"; the Lone Star state makes its bid to be the next Dover, PA; Mark Blumenthal takes a characteristically thorough look at unionization polling; Obama decides the music industry's failed business model is worth preserving too; and behold the Bachmann Effect!
--Mori Dinauer
