Did Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs provide a hint at whether Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) will be Obama's next pick for health and human services secretary?
Read what you want into this, from the press gaggle on Air Force One:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (yes, we know we already wrote about him once today but hey, it's a slow news day) is declaring victory on the stimulus.
Cantor (R-Va.) posted this video, titled "The House GOP is Back" today on the GOP Whip's website.
Anyone know if Steven Tyler is a Republican? How about Joe Perry?
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Said Burris, "Very brief statement is that we said in our testimony before the impeachment committee -- my lawyer stated that we will have to file official information in our report because there were some questions asked where we had to get some additional information for the committee. He also stated that we might be incomplete in our report, therefore, we -- if we check the transcripts -- that we would file supplemental information -- (off mike) -- because we might not have answered all questions."
"When we got the transcript it was determined that I had said yes in the transcript to all those names, but we had not addressed those names. So that's what's prompted me, then, to make a decision to file a separate affidavit that will show who we talked to and what we said. There was no change any of our -- of our testimony. We followed up, as we promised the impeachment committee. We've done everything here that we said that we were going to do. So the information that has been reported in terms of -- that this was done because there was a..... statement is absolutely, positively not true. It was done because we promised the committee we would supplement information in case we missed anything. End of story.
"God bless you all. Thank you very much."
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Newly appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has come under fire from her former House colleagues for her support of gun rights, keeps two rifles under her bed, she recently told Newsday.
"If I want to protect my family, if I want to have a weapon in the home, that should be my right," she said.
An Gillibrand aide told Newsday that New York does not require rifles to be registered.
Gillibrand's stand on gun rights has already become a critical issue during her short tenure as a senator. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who husband was killed in a Long Island shooting in 1993, has said she is considering challenge Gillibrand in the 2010 Democratic primary because Gillibrand's support of gun rights. Gillibrand is also clearly working to counter that line of attack, appearing recently at a high school of a student that was killed in a gang shoot out.
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Slowly over the last few weeks, some of Barack Obama's most fervent supporters have come to an unhappy realization: The candidate who they thought was squarely on their side in policy fights is now a president who needs cajoling and persuading.
Advocates for stem cell research thought Obama would quickly sign an order to reverse former President Bush's restrictions on the science. Now they are fretting over Obama's statement that he wants to act in tandem with Congress, possibly causing a delay.
Critics of Bush's faith-based initiative thought Obama had promised to end religious discrimination among social service groups taking federal money.
But Obama, in announcing his own faith-based program this month, said only that the discrimination issue might be reviewed.
And Obama's recent moves regarding a lawsuit by detainees have left some liberal groups and Bush critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, feeling betrayed, given that Obama was a harsh critic of Bush's detainee policies when running for office last year.
The anxiety is also being felt in the labor movement, one of Obama's most important support bases. Some union officials and their allies are frustrated that at a crucial point in negotiations over his massive stimulus package, Obama seemed to call for limits on "Buy American" provisions in the bill aimed at making sure stimulus money would be spent on U.S.-made materials.
Obama has been president for less than a month, and his liberal critics concede that the economic crisis has understandably taken the focus off their issues. But some of the issues in play were crucial to building excitement on the left and mobilizing grass-roots support for Obama's candidacy.
One Democratic operative operative that was part of Obama's liberal coalition during the election, though, implied that the article goes too far and told the Briefing Room that liberals are taking a long view of Obama's progress.
"Obama just pushed through a very important economic stimulus package that, while not perfect, is a big step forward," the operative said. "Working Americans have suffered under the failed policies of the Bush Administration, and ultimately, he will be judged on what he delivers to our working and middle class. But taking the long view is critical in judging how he'll govern. It took eight years for the Republican leadership to drive this country into a ditch and it won't all be fixed in his first month in office."
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House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the new figure head of the GOP, said Monday morning that the process by which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) quickly pulled together the $787 stimulus package was "unacceptable."
Just days before Chrysler and General Motors' restructuring plans are due to the Treasury, President Barack Obama has decided against appointing a car czar, according to news reports.
Chrysler and General Motors, who already have an agreement for $17.4 billion in government loans, are to submit to the Treasury their plans to update their companies in order to keep those loans.
So, if not a car czar, who is going to oversee the dispersment of the funds? Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Mr. Obama is designating the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, and the chairman of the National Economic Council, Lawrence H. Summers, to oversee a presidential panel on the auto industry. Mr. Geithner will also supervise the $17.4 billion in loan agreements already in place with G.M. and Chrysler, said the official, who insisted on anonymity.
The official also said that Ron Bloom, a restructuring expert who has advised the labor unions in the troubled steel and airline industries, would be named a senior adviser to Treasury on the auto crisis.
Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) blamed partisan politics and the media for the current frenzy surrounding his appointment to the Senate and said he has always conducted himself in an honest way at a press conference on Sunday.
Just days after Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) came back to her old House district to endorse him, Scott Murphy will host an event with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday, according to Murphy's campaign.
Schumer will stump at, of all places, a pretzel shop in New York's 20th District. From the advisory:
WHAT:Citing His Experience Creating Jobs and Growing Small Businesses, Senator Schumer to Endorse Scott Murphy at Locally Owned Pretzel Shop
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