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- It appears that there is mounting Democratic opposition to the president's budget plan, and not just from Robert Menendez. Even Bayh penned an op-ed in The Wall St. Journal urging the president to veto his own budget if it passes in the Senate, and Politico reports on a meeting between 14 "moderate and conservative Democrats" (and whatever Joe Lieberman is) to hash out the problems they see with Obama's spending priorities. Even Russ Feingold is getting in on the act. The sense of crisis that made the stimulus legislatively possible is not going to present for the budget battle, which invites opportunity for Brooksian pleas for moderation even if these so-called moderates can't even describe what it is they object to in Obama's budget (other than the tax-hike chimera). Meanwhile, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll confirms that the public is supportive of Democrats -- and Obama in particular -- to fix the economy but still harbors familiar contradictory opinions about the size of government and what it should be doing.
- In another reversal of his predecessor's policy, Barack Obama has issued an presidential memo that promises to provide greater oversight into the process of awarding government contracts. Obama claimed the new guidelines would save up to $40 billion a year.
- Perhaps he was not long for this world. RNC Chairman Michael Steele is beginning to take on dead-man-walking status as rumors swirl that his clumsy and rudderless leadership is making top GOPers think twice about the man they elected to lead them through their days of political exile. As if to confirm the sense that he's in over his head, Steele told Politico that "some folks in Washington feel that they’re kind of on the outside of this -- that they don’t have the day-to-day blow by blow of what I’m doing. And that’s exactly how I like it. I want to be about the business of putting in place a good infrastructure that will enable me to go out and build a better brand, stronger brand, for the GOP. And I won’t get there by tattle-telling every day what I’m doing." But it likely won't be Steele's don't-ask-don't-tell approach to rebuilding the GOP that brings him down, as Adam mentions below.
- These days, there's no shortage of stories about Rush Limbaugh. Today, largely due to this Jonathan Martin story, the emerging meme is that the continuing sniping between Limbaugh and Democrats really has its origins in a deliberate White House strategy to keep the spotlight on the GOP's would-be leader. Greg Sargent takes the time to point out the obvious: while the White House is certainly enjoying itself in continually needling Limbaugh, the effort to tie him to Republicans began much earlier and has been exploited, independent of oneanother, by not only the Obama administration, but by the DCCC and various outside think tanks and interest groups. Meanwhile, a poorly-worded Rasmussen poll finds that only 11 percent of Republicans say Limbaugh is their party leader -- so poorly worded, in fact, that David Kurtz suggested the question might as well have been, "are you Rush's bitch -- yes or no?"
- Patrick Leahy's hearings for his "truth commission" began today and there seems to be some support for going down the road of issuing prosecutions for Bush administration officials who broke the law.
- Wingnut watch: Missouri Republicans keep the birth certificate conspiracy theory alive; Glenn Beck threatens to "hunt down and kill" anyone who buys of a copy of Rod Blagojevich's forthcoming memoirs, and a California congressman says Obama's economic policies remind him of Atlas Shrugged. Tyranny of the individual, indeed.
- Speaking of wingnuts, Matt Cooper describes a visit to the Heritage Foundation featuring the stylings of a comedian who says he went from being a "brain-dead liberal" to a conservative after 9/11. This notion of a "conservatism" forged in reaction to a national disaster is very curious. Many people lost their minds in the aftermath of 9/11 and while this provided an opening for the Bush dictatorship, the effect was a temporary one for most. Not so, it seems, for our conservative comedian, who thoroughly reorganized his perception of the world around finding, fighting and destroying an ubiquitous and diabolical threat to Western Civilization aided and abetted by liberals who root for "evil over good, wrong over right." Now that the immediate memory of 9/11 has faded, there's little support for this worldview. But the need for an omnipresent threat remains, which is why you're hearing so much about "socialism" these days from the right. They need to think there's a constant existential threat to their way of life, and it matters little what that threat is or even if it's real.
- Remainders: Obama formally nominates Julius Genachowski to head the FCC; the D.C. voting rights bill stalls over a gun law amendment; Mike Quigley is on track to be IL-05's new representative; it isn't just the GOP that is suffering from a leadership vacuum; Howard Dean finds a new project to focus on; fans of maps and Sec. Clinton can finally rejoice; and talking trash to the President of the United States, courtside edition.
--Mori Dinauer
