Fierce advocate

We had to chuckle at the resurgence of "fierce advocate." When last seen, it was busy wooing millions of dollars and votes from the gay community in return for a lot of unkept promises:

President Obama insisted that he and his administration have pursued a "fundamentally business-friendly" agenda and are "fierce advocates" for the free market, rejecting corporate criticism of his policies.

"The irony is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business, and then on the business side we are perceived as being anti-business," Obama said in an interview this week with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "You would be hard pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses," he added. He predicted that legislation he will sign this year would cut corporate taxes by about $70 billion.

Yes, you would be hard pressed. Read More......

The White House is coming up with their own health care plan for the bipartisan summit

From a letter Rahm and HHS Secretary Sebellius just sent to Pelosi, Reid, McConnell and Boehner regarding next week's bipartisan health care summit between the White House and Congress:

Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package. This legislation would put a stop to insurance company abuses, extend coverage to millions of Americans, get control of skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and reduce the deficit.

As one reader just wrote me, "heaven help us." Read More......

Gibbs: Obama will sign DADT repeal this year if someone else magically makes it appear on his desk

I just wrote a rather large piece about this over on AMERICAblog Gay. Here's an excerpt:

Strike "DADT" and insert "public option" and this could be a quote from last year, when the White House refused to push for the public option, but stated repeatedly that if the legislation magically somehow landed on the President's desk, he'd sign it.

We need leadership. From our groups, from the Congress, and most of all from our President. The military ban is his domain, no one else's. He may be able to get away with claiming it's Congress' job to repeal DOMA and pass ENDA (even though the President has one hell of a role in helping to get Congress to do that), but the repeal of DADT is going to come down to what the Department of Defense and its Commander in Chief decide they want. Congress, for better or worse, will likely follow the lead of DOD and the President on this one. And neither is leading.

We had a great seven days for DADT, between the State of the Union and the Armed Services hearing, and now that momentum is in danger of being lost. Servicemembers United presented an excellent compromise this week, that could really move the ball forward - namely, repeal this year with delayed implementation until the DOD study is done. But it happened in a vacuum, a vacuum of leadership.

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More economic trouble in the eurozone

The PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) may soon be the PIIGS as the Italian economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2009. The German economy was expected to show some growth but instead, it was stagnant last quarter. France has shown some mild growth but at least it's growth. With the rescue plans for Greece still undecided, the markets may show caution again. None of this ensures a double-dip recession but the recovery is not completely certain either. Reuters:

The news comes at a hard time for Europe's single currency bloc as governments struggle to sort out Greece's debt difficulties and contain financial market fears that have driven the euro lower and government bond yields higher.

German GDP was flat in the final quarter of last year, the statistics office said, following expansions in the two previous quarters that ended a year-long recession. Growth of 0.2 percent had been forecast.

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AFL sends out action alert targeting White House

I've supposed it's happened before, but I've not seen it. A major liberal constituency targeting the White House with an action alert. It's about time. Too bad some of the gay groups, health care reform groups, and other progressive groups don't show this kind of chutzpah. There's a point where it becomes useless, and downright counter-productive, being in the pocket of a White House that does little to follow through on its major promises, and frankly, finds your constituency little more than a bother, and even a bit of an embarrassment.

Dear xxxx,

We’ve just learned that the Senate and the White House cut a last-minute deal with obstructionist Republicans to approve some of President Obama’s nominees. But guess who was left out of the deal? Yup, that’s right: working people.

Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, highly respected labor lawyers whom President Obama nominated for seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), weren’t included in the deal. Meanwhile, the NLRB, tasked with protecting American workers’ rights, has been handicapped with vacancies for the past two years.

Enough is enough. Call the White House switchboard today and demand that President Obama fight Republican obstructionism and use his executive power to appoint Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the NLRB during the Presidents Day recess.

Call the White House Switchboard NOW: 202-456-1111 OR 202-456-1414.

Becker already has received majority backing in the Senate and both won committee support, but the Republican minority has continually blocked their appointments. America’s working people are getting short shrift and it’s past time to do something about it. Workers need an NLRB that can enforce the National Labor Relations Act and protect workers' rights—not an NLRB handicapped by vacancies.

In solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
AFL-CIO President

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Poll: Bush blamed for bad economy

And rightly so. Still, Obama and the Democrats need to make this point every single day.

While the president is showing signs of vulnerability on his handling of the economy — a majority of respondents say he has yet to offer a clear plan for creating jobs — Americans blame former President George W. Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more than they do Mr. Obama for the nation’s economic problems and the budget deficit, the poll found.

They credit Mr. Obama more than Republicans with making an effort at bipartisanship, and they back the White House’s policies on a variety of disputed issues, including allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military and repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

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China clamps down on dissidents while denying they exist

Another reason why China's demands to cancel the meeting with the Dalai Lama makes no sense. If anything, there's probably a connection as the government tries to deflect attention from their human rights problems this week.

"Persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights," U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman said in an e-mailed statement. It was the first statement issued under his name since he took the post in August.

Asked whether China's treatment of dissidents might negatively affect its image overseas, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu responded, "There are no dissidents in China."

It was bad week here for activists: On Tuesday, a court in Sichuan province sentenced writer and activist Tan Zuoren to five years on the same charge as Liu after he investigated the deaths of thousands of children in a massive earthquake in 2008.

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When you've lost Yglesias and Ezra...

Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein think Obama's 'big win' on nominations last night (which I initially fell for) wasn't so much of a win after all.

Yglesias:

Barack Obama apparently went to Mitch McConnell and threatened a bunch of recess appointments unless the Senate would start confirming some of his nominees. Consequently 27 uncontroversial officials who were being held up for no reason got confirmed. But people who are being held up for a reason, no matter how stupid or petty the reason, are still in limbo. Thus the Shelby Shakedown continues and the Defense Department will still be doing without the services of three well-qualified appointees as Alabama’s least-horrible Senator continues his porking efforts. John Kyl is holding up a diplomatic appointment to a disarmament conference because Kyl loves out-of-control nuclear proliferation and wants to single-handedly sabotage the conference.

This is to say nothing of nominees like Craig Becker and Dawn Johnson who are being held up for ideological reasons. So the White House is touting this as a win, but I’m not totally sure what they’ve won. They had it within their power to put all 27 of these people in place with recess appointments and also circumvent the Shelby & Kyl holds with recess appointments and also put Becker & Johnson in office with recess appointments. The authority to do that is right there in the constitution. Given that 41 Senate Republicans are clearly going to hold up 100 percent of Obama’s legislative agenda anyway, I don’t see what else the White House has as a better use of its time than picking a fight over confirmations.

Ezra Klein:

The administration scored a big victory last night, or at least it thinks it did. After President Obama finally threatened to make recess appointments if Senate Republicans didn't let some of its nominees through the confirmation process, the Republicans allowed the Senate to confirm 29 of them last night. As if to thank them, the White House promptly shot itself in the foot.

"On Tuesday," the president said in a statement released last night, "I told Senator McConnell that if Republican senators did not release these holds, I would exercise my authority to fill critically-needed positions in the federal government temporarily through the use of recess appointments. This is a rare but not unprecedented step that many other presidents have taken."

At this point in his presidency, George W. Bush had made 10 recess appointments. Over the course of his presidency, he would make almost 200. Bill Clinton made about 150. In describing recess appointments as "a rare but not unprecedented step," Obama made it harder to actually make any, because he's defined the procedure -- which, unlike the hold, is a defined constitutional power of the president rather than a courtesy observed in the Senate -- as an extraordinary last-resort. He also promised, later in the statement, that he wouldn't make any appointments this recess.

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High school installs wi-fi on school bus, quiet ensues

Neat idea. And predictable, yet still fascinating results.

[O]n this chilly morning, as bus No. 92 rolls down a mountain highway just before dawn, high school students are quiet, typing on laptops.

Morning routines have been like this since the fall, when school officials mounted a mobile Internet router to bus No. 92’s sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. The students call it the Internet Bus, and what began as a high-tech experiment has had an old-fashioned — and unexpected — result. Wi-Fi access has transformed what was often a boisterous bus ride into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared.

“It’s made a big difference,” said J. J. Johnson, the bus’s driver. “Boys aren’t hitting each other, girls are busy, and there’s not so much jumping around.”

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Pelosi and Obama at odds?

Yes, it's from Politico - the Page 3 Girl of politics. But, what they're reporting makes sense, and it's also in line with what Joe and I have been thinking, and seeing, from the Hill.

The House has to be getting annoyed that they pass legislation, only to watch it get bogged down in the Senate after the White House either doesn't try hard enough, or puts all its eggs in the basket of bipartisanship. Joe and I also noticed, as early as last summer (if not sooner) that the White House's condescension to the left often included jabs at Congress as well, usually in the form of putting all of us in the same basket as Republicans, and claiming we're all too extreme. Not very helpful.

And now, one of the President's recent talking points has been to blame Congress for health care reform being stalled. And obviously, Congress has a heck of a responsibility, per se. But so does presidential leadership. The White House, and its allies, often play down the power and role of the presidency in legislating. Regardless of their assertions to the contrary, it's huge. There's a reason that Presidents make promises, often legislative, during their campaigns for office. It's because they have a rather large ability to influence legislation. George Bush proved this time and again. It's why Jane Hamsher and the folks at FDL dubbed the Congress under Bush "the rubber stamp Congress." The power of Presidential suasion, the old fireside chat, should never be discounted. But it has to be used to be effective. And for some reason, the White House often seems reticent about throwing its weight around (except when challenging liberals), and its enemies on the right know this and take advantage of it, as would be expected.

So, yeah, this story is plausible. Credible? Who knows. It's Politico, and sadly, short of Ben Smith, and a few additional reporters I've gotten to trust, the publication does tend towards the sensational. They've built a good brand. But when bloggers feel the need to apologize every time they quote the publication, there's a problem.

“He wants a jobs bill, we get a jobs bill,” the official said. “He wanted health care, we got health care. Then the answer is, ‘You just need to twist enough arms to pass the Senate bill.’ You can twist arms if you’ve got a handful of them to twist. You can’t twist over 100 arms. There needs to be some reality check there.”

“Both ends of the Capitol — the House and the Senate — are starting to wonder if they’re on their own,” the official continued. “You have a lot of frustration there. And the White House’s reaction to all of that seems to be, ‘Run against Congress’ — which, as you can imagine, doesn’t go over very well with House members. The White House reaction seems to be, ‘Position ourselves against Congress.’”

One Democratic official went further, saying some Democratic House members actually believe that the White House “wouldn’t mind having a foil, and that foil is a Republican [House] majority — that would serve their political purposes going into 2012.”

These House Democrats say privately that veterans of Bill Clinton’s administration working in Obama’s White House may think having a Republican majority in Congress will help Obama win reelection, as it did Clinton in 1996. House Democrats know that Obama will do whatever it takes to win reelection, whether or not it helps members keep their seats this year.

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75% support letting gays serve openly in the military, that includes 64% of GOPers

From the Washington Post/ABC News poll:

Three-quarters of Americans say that they support openly gay people serving in the U.S. military, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a finding that could lend momentum to the Obama administration's effort to dismantle the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

That's a pretty big number. And, it should lead to momentum. This also shows broad support for a new policy across the ideological spectrum:

The percentage of Americans who say they support gays openly serving is the same as a Post-ABC News poll found in July 2008; both are far above the 44 percent who said so in May 1993. In the new poll, majorities across party lines favor such a policy, with support among Democrats (82 percent) and independents (77 percent) higher than among Republicans (64 percent).

Not many allegedly "controversial" issues get those kinds of numbers. Looking at these poll results, John wrote at AMERICAblog Gay:

It's amazing how on so many issues, from the public option to gays in the military, the Democrats in Washington are so far behind the American people. They're actually afraid to follow through on their own promises, promises they were elected on, promises that the overwhelming majority of Americans support, even Republicans. What's the problem?

What is the problem?

Again, this should lead to momentum. But, whether or not it will is still an open question. As we reported yesterday, there's still no path for repeal of DADT. Let's hope these new numbers spur "the administration’s point man in the Senate, Jim Messina" and everyone else involved into action. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Life is slowly returning to normal here in the nation's capitol. It was quite the weather week, especially for us weather geeks.

The President has a very low-key public schedule today. Nothing big on the daily guidance.

The House and Senate are both in recess til February 22nd. How about that drama in the Senate yesterday over the jobs bill? Harry Reid pulled the legislation crafted by Max Baucus because it had so many non-jobs related provisions. Baucus added those provisions to assuage the GOPers (who don't really care about job creation.) After the debacle on health care, it's stunning that the Senate Democrats trusted Baucus to do anything.

The Winter Olympics start tonight from Vancouver, which is a really beautiful and very cool city. NBC has been do heavy promotion of the opening ceremonies. I have a feeling tonight's festivities won't match what we saw on the first night in Beijing, although NBC wants me to think it will.

Let's get it started... Read More......

London banker bonuses up despite 50% tax

The public outrage by bankers was absent during the fall before being bailed out but was noticeable once the UK slapped a 50% tax on the highest bonuses. You could have sworn the end was near, they screamed so much. In reality, the banks handed out very substantial bonuses again and hardly seemed deterred by the tax. These are the best of times for the bankers.

Alistair Darling's 50 per cent "super tax" on bankers' bonuses has done almost nothing to curb the City's culture of excess, with almost half its bankers receiving significant increases, a survey to be published today reveals.

The poll of 694 British bankers and finance professionals carried out by eFinancialCareers found that 57 per cent saw an increase in their bonuses this year compared with last year, with many payments more than doubling.

Across the board, the rise in bonus payments was calculated at an average 40 per cent. Basic pay has also increased sharply, with nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of respondents saying they had been handed rises, with the average increase coming in at 26 per cent.

The findings threaten to re-ignite the row over City excess at a time when workers in many fields face pay freezes or even cutbacks for the second year in a row. Some 90 per cent of the respondents were eligible for a bonus. Of them, just 3 per cent did not receive one.

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China steps up demand that Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama

And China's public temper tantrum is going to help, how?

The White House had said on Thursday that Obama would meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader on Feb. 18, despite China's repeated warnings that such talks would hurt ties.

"China firmly opposes the Dalai Lama visiting the United States and U.S. leaders' contacting with him," a report from the official Xinhua news agency cited foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu as saying.

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Scathing Rolling Stone article about the DNC's OFA

From Tim Dickinson, in Rolling Stone:

The failures of the past year, however, have left a strong sense of betrayal among many who once were Obama's fiercest advocates. "After all the sweat and tears of the campaign," says the creator of a popular pro-Obama website, "we were owed the opportunity to fight for something." Adds another, "We thought we had earned an ownership stake in the future of our country through this campaign, but that ownership stake has been revoked."

Had Obama let his activists lead the charge and gone to the mat for health care reform, would the outcome have been any different? "I can't say that we would have health care reform," says Moulitsas. "But people wouldn't be so demoralized. We'd have an engaged base still willing to fight for that change. And I tell you what: We would not have lost Ted Kennedy's seat."

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