Mori Dinauer

The House will vote tonight on the $825 billion economic stimulus package whose vote for floor consideration already attracted significant “blue dog” defections. Meanwhile President Obama is continuing his outreach efforts, hosting a reception at the White House for Congressional leaders of both parties and courting CEOs to support the bill. Mike Castle (R-Del) bets […]

Barack Obama‘s efforts to win votes for his economic stimulus package from Republicans might have been well-intentioned, but it ought to be crystal clear to the president after today’s meeting with Hill Republicans that they are not — particularly the House GOP — interested in compromise. If I had the president’s ear I would tell […]

President Obama cleared the way for enacting widespread EPA review of emissions standards for vehicles, issuing executive orders to fast-track applications from 14 states pushing for tougher standards for cars and trucks. This follows Obama’s directive to freeze construction of new coal-burning plants, Henry Waxman‘s aggressive stewardship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and […]

Kirsten Gillibrand has been appointed to Hillary Clinton‘s vacated Senate seat and the decision is flawed both from the perspective of advancing progressive causes and electoral strategy. Ultimately, though, Gillibrand is likely to be a mixed bag on policy; as Ben Smith notes, some progressive groups are already lining up behind her, while others are […]

Making good on campaign pledges, President Obama signed executive orders today to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within a year, shut down the system of international prisons utilized by the Bush-era CIA to indefinitely detain terror suspects without legal recourse, and banned the use of torture by U.S. personnel, restricting interrogation techniques to those […]

On his first full day as President, Barack Obama initiated a salary freeze for administration staff making over $100,000, ordered a two-year ban on lobbyists working in the administration in the same area they had previously lobbied in, made several calls to Mideast leaders, met with top military leaders to discuss a timetable for withdrawal […]

Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in today as the 44th president of the United States, despite John Roberts‘ inability to properly memorize the oath of office he administered. In his inaugural address, the president justly criticized the foreign policy of the past eight years and was the first president to refer to Muslims and nonbelievers […]

Barack Obama campaigned in Ohio today to promote the economic stimulus package introduced in Congress yesterday and plans to hold a “fiscal responsibility summit” in February designed to address the long-term effects of not only the stimulus itself but also entitlement spending. Ted Kaufman was sworn in to replace Joe Biden as Delaware’s new junior […]

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 […]

After dining with a group of conservative pundits at George Will‘s house last night, Barack Obama met with the “liberal” equivalent this morning at Obama’s transition headquarters. Oddly, the only outrage being expressed in the blogosphere (outrage being its defining feature, as all responsible journalists know) is on the Right because, apparently, last night’s guests […]