The Swamp

House health-care compromise reached

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:30:00 PST

by Noam N. Levey and James Oliphant

With a historic floor vote looming on their healthcare bill today, House Democratic leaders secured an 11th-hour compromise late Friday night to settle a long-simmering debate over how to restrict federal funding for abortion.

The deal appeared to clear the way for a vote on the sweeping healthcare legislation this evening.

And senior Democrats maintained that they would have the 218 votes needed for passage when the House votes.

"You don't go to the floor unless you're there -- and we're there," said Rep. John B. Larson of Connecticut, the No. 4 Democrat in the House.

President Obama, who has made healthcare legislation the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, planned to go to the Capitol this morning to rally House Democrats.

The abortion compromise will allow socially conservative Democrats to offer a strong antiabortion amendment today when the bill comes to the floor. The amendment, which is expected to pass with the support of Republicans, would prohibit the new government insurance plan -- or so-called "public option" -- from covering elective abortions.

Obama honors Fort Hood's fallen

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:15:00 PST

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, who has ordered feeral flags lowered to half-staff until Veterams Day for the soldiers killed and wounded in an Army psychiatrist's rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, honors the fallen, their families and their comrades today in a weekly address that also honors the service of all military men and woman present and past.

"It was in this place,'' Obama says of Fort Hood today ,"on a base where our soldiers ought to feel most safe, where those brave Americans who are preparing to risk their lives in defense of our nation, lost their lives in a crime against our nation....

"e cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing. But what we do know is that our thoughts are with every single one of the men and women who were injured at Fort Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who've lost a loved one in this national tragedy. And our thoughts are with all the Americans who wear - or who've worn - the proud uniform of the United States of America; our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and coast guardsmen, and the military families who love and support them...

"They are Americans of every race, faith, and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendents of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion, and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Fort. Hood showed America and showed the world.''

See the address above and read it below.

Sarah Palin: Gridiron-ready, Frank too

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:45:00 PST

by Mark Silva

Those East Coast media who are always "making things up'' may not be the best friends of Alaskan Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president, but Palin is expected at one of the Washington media's most elite gatherings:

A winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, that invitation-only assembly of Washington journalists which stages a white-tie evening of Marine Band-accompanied, off-the-record satire in the Capitol each spring ("Ladies are always present,'' the club's old tradition holds, "but reporters never are,"" though that's who's there.):

Both Palin and Rep. Barney Frank, the Democrat from Massachusetts who could arguably be described as a polar political opposite to the politician from the near-Polar Circle, are booked for the Gridiron's winter dinner in December, a good source tells the Swamp. Another good Gridiron source confirms that Palin has accepted the date.

So Palin won't be accusing the Swamp of making this up.

Youbetcha.

Climate change hang-ups: Copenhagen

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:10:00 PST

by Jim Tankersley

Perhaps nothing illustrates the challenges of government efforts to curb global warming more than the chain of events that unfolded this week on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

In Washington, the Senate environment committee approved sweeping limits to the United States' emissions of the heat-trapping gases scientists blame for climate change - employing a rare procedural tactic to overcome a Republican boycott of the vote - while a separate trio of senators announced progress in efforts to compose a bipartisan energy and climate bill.

Those efforts were meant, in part, to reassure international leaders preparing for a major climate summit in Copenhagen next month that the United States is serious about emissions cuts. Environmentalists welcomed them as such.

But even as the Senate committee prepared to vote, climate negotiators were publicly lowering expectations for the Copenhagen summit - citing, in large part, the United States' inability to pass a climate bill into law before the talks begin.

The bottom line is this: Neither Congress and the Obama administration nor the negotiators appear likely to finish their climate work by the end of the year.

Instead, analysts here and abroad say, it looks like the Copenhagen negotiators will attempt to settle for something less than a legally binding climate treaty. Perhaps, for instance, a political declaration that includes specific, nation-by-nation targets for emissions cuts and a fixed deadline for turning that declaration into a binding treaty.

Negotiators conceded as much in Barcelona this week, as they met for the final time, formally, before Copenhagen.

"I sense that people are getting into a more realistic place about what we can reasonably accomplish in Copenhagen" - largely because of US and how far along the process is - said Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, who attended the Barcelona meeting.

Obama: Flags half-staff for Fort Hood

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:45:34 PST

by Mark Silva and updated

The president today ordered flags flown at half-staff until Veterans Day in respect for 13 killed and 30 wounded in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

"We don't know all the answers yet, and I would caution jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,'' President Barack Obama said today in a Rose Garden appearance.

The lowering of flags will be "a modest tribute to those who lost their lives even as others were preparing to risk their lives for their country,'' Obama said of "one of the worst mass shootings ever to take place'' on a U.S. military base.

The president plans to travel to Texas for memorial services when they are scheduled next week.

The memorial service will be scheduled for the convenience of the families, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today, and the president will adjust his schedule around that to attend. The president is scheduled to leave for an annual summit of Pacific-rim nations in Asia on Nov. 11.

Obama met with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other officials this morning and said, "As we continue to learn more about what happened at Fort Hood, we will continue to provide you updates.''

The president plans this afternoon to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the Army-trained psychologist accused of the shootings at Fort Hood worked for six years before assignment to Texas. The White House says the visit to the Army hospital was planned before the shootings.

(President Barack Obama pictured above walking out of the Oval Office of the White House to speak in the Rose Garden today. AP photo by Alex Brandon)

White House: FOX off-limits -- strategist

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:04:00 PST

by Peter Nicholas

At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel, an outlet that presidential aides have depicted as not so much a news-gathering operation as a political opponent bent on damaging the Obama administration.

Political consultants are a staple of cable television talk shows, analyzing current events based on their own experiences working on campaigns or in government.

One Democratic strategist said that shortly after an appearance on Fox he got a phone call from a White House official telling him not to be a guest on the show again. The call had an intimidating tone, he said.

The message was, "We better not see you on again,'' said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to run afoul of the White House. An implicit suggestion, he said, was that "clients might stop using you if you continue.''

In urging Democratic consultants to spurn Fox, White House officials might be trying to isolate the network and make it appear more partisan.

A boycott by Democratic strategists could also help drive the White House narrative that Fox is a fundamentally different creature than the other TV news networks. For their part, White House officials appear on Fox News -- but sporadically and with "eyes wide open,'' as one aide put it.

David Plouffe, the president's campaign manager and author of a new campaign book, The Audacity to Win, was scheduled to appear on Fox's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren last night as he promotes his book. His appearance, pre-empted by the breaking news of the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, has been rescheduled for Monday.

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said Thursday night that she had checked with colleagues who "deal with TV issues'' and they had not told people to avoid Fox. On the contrary, they had urged people to appear on the network, Dunn wrote in an email.

But Patrick Caddell, a Fox News contributor and a former pollster for Democratic President Jimmy Carter, said he has spoken to Democratic consultants who have been told by the White House to avoid appearances on Fox. He declined to give their names.

Caddell said he had not gotten that message himself from the White House. "They know better than to tell me anything like that,'' he said.

Caddell added: "I have heard that they've done that to others in not too subtle ways. I find it appalling. When the White House gets in the business of suppressing dissent and comment, particularly from its own party, it hurts itself.''

Obama: Walter Reed tour today

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:45:00 PST

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama plans a stop today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where some of the most wounded casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated -- and where the Army psychologist accused of killing 13 and wounding 30 at Ft. Hood, Texas, worked for several years before reassignment in Texas.

The visit was planned before Thursday's shooting -- "horrific,'' the president called it -- according to the White House. Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, who ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was a frequent visitor at Walter Reed, where he often met privately with the wounded and spoke publicly with reporters afterward.

Obama plans an appearance in the Rose Garden this morning at 11:30 am EST, on this day when unemployment has surpassed 10 percent for the first time in 26 years.

He wil travel to Walter Reed early this afternoon.

The accused gunman at Ft. Hood, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, is an Army-trained psychologist who had worked at Walter Reed. Most recently, he was working at the Darnall Army Medical Center, Ft. Hood's hospital, which has an extensive program to help soldiers cope with the stress of returning from war.

Hasan, a Virginia native schooled at Virginia Tech, worked at Walter Reed for six years before his transfer to the Texas base in July. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has said that Hasan was about to be deployed to combat for the first time "and was upset about it." Hasan's cousin, Nadar Hasan, a lawyer in northern Virginia, told Fox News that deployment was his cousin's "worst nightmare."

At Ft. Hood, which is the nation's largest military installation, base personnel have accounted for more suicides than at any other Army post since the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, with 75 tallied through this July. Nine of those suicides occurred in 2009, counting two in war zones.

Three of the four brigades of the 1st Calvary Division based at Ft. Hood are in Iraq. The three brigades -- the first, second and third -- are making their third tour. The division's newest brigade, the fourth, has done two tours in Iraq, returning most recently in June.

Ft. Hood also is home to three of the brigades of the 4th Infantry Division, now in Afghanistan. The first brigade has done three tours in Iraq, returning most recently in March. The second brigade has also done three tours, returning most recently in September.

Unemployment surpasses 10 percent

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:05:00 PST

by Don Lee

The nation's unemployment rate surged to 10.2 percent in October, reaching double digits for the first time in 26 years, the Labor Department reported today.

The unexpected sharp increase, from 9.8 percent in September, came as employers dropped 190,000 workers from their payrolls last month. That was larger than the 175,000 job losses that most forecasters were expecting for the month, and it underscored just how dire the labor market remains despite the recent upturn in the nation's economic output.

Unemployment had been steadily rising in recent months, but the double-digit figure is likely to have a major psychological impact as well as potentially significant consequences in Washington.

"It's an important political threshold," said Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under the Clinton administration who now teaches at the University of California at Berkeley.

With the mid-term elections looming next year, he said, "the 10 percent is going to give Republicans more ammunition to criticize the [Obama] administration and force the hand of the administration to at least appear to be taking additional steps to remedy the situation."

In fact, White House aides, in apparent anticipation of the bad statistical news, said President Obama was scheduled this morning to sign a bill that would extend jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed and expand tax-relief programs for homebuyers and businesses operating at a loss.

The last time the jobless rate crossed double digits was during the recession and initial recovery period of the early 1980s. Then, unemployment hit 10.1 percent in September 1982 and stayed at or above that level, rising to a high of 10.8 percent, until June the following year. In the mid-term election in November 1982, then President Ronald Reagan and the Republicans lost control of the House.

This time around, unemployment has risen even faster and, by some analysts' reckoning, could hover around 10 percent for much longer. The jobless rate at the start of this year was 7.6 percent and it was a mere 4.9 percent in late 2007 when the latest recession officially began. Since then, the number of unemployed workers has increased by 8.2 million to 15.7 million as of October, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Health care: Public option, more time

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:15:00 PST

by Mark Silva

As the House prepares to take the first vote Saturday on the health-care legislation that President Barack Obama is seeking by year's end, most Americans say they'd be happy with Congress taking more time to either work out minor problems or major changes in the bill.

A slim majority - 53 percent - also say they oppose the president's plans for a health-care and insurance overhaul as they understand them.

Yet a slightly stronger majority - 55 percent --- say they would support a "public option'' plan for health care run by the federal government that competes with private insurers - which has become perhaps the most controversial element of the legislation under debate, with the House and Senate eyeing variations on a public option.

These are among the findings of a CNN/Opinion Research poll released this morning and conducted over the past weekend.

Obama plans to travel to the Capitol on Saturday to meet with the House Democratic caucus, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) takes the Democratic leadership's plan for health care to the floor for debate and an expected vote. Republicans have lined up against the plan - just as every Republican in the House voted against the economic stimulus plan that the president signed in February.

Americans surveyed are divided on the question of whether the president, who had promised the bridge the partisan divide in Washington, has done enough to work with Republicans in Congress: 49 percent say yes in the CNN survey, 49 percent say no.

Yet the Democratic portrayal of the GOP as "the party of no'' may have taken root as well: Asked if Republicans in Congress have done enough to work with the president, 67 percent say no and only 31 percent say yes.

Obama mourns 'horrific' Ft. Hood spree

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:15:00 PST

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, lamenting "a horrific outburst of violence'' in the killings of a dozen soldiers and wounding of 31 more people at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas today, promised to "stay on this.''

"There has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base... We don't yet know all the details at this moment,'' Obama told an assembled audience for an event at the White House. "What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence.

"My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and the families of the fallen,'' the president said. "These are men and women who have made the selfless decision'' to protect the nation. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.''

Obama, who had been informed of the shootings privately this afternoon, offered his first public remarks at the start of an address to a summit of native American tribal leaders meeting at the White House.

The White House said that the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and other members of the intelligence community were gathering information and assessing the situation at Fort Hood, where the Army has reported 12 killed and 31 injured today in a series of shootings allegedly started by a soldier.

"I would ask all Americans to keep the men and women of Fort Hood in your thoughts and prayers,'' the president said. "We will make sure that we get answers to every possible question about this horrible incident....

"There is no greater honor, but also no greater responsibility, than for me to make sure that the extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for,'' Obama said. "We are going to stay on this.''

Obama curtailed his prepared remarks for a tribal assembly that he had addressed in the morning and the returned to this afternoon for closing comments, which offered him the first opportunity to address the Fort Hood shootings in public.

Robert Gibbs: 'Jon Voight joke in here'

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:25:00 PST

by Mark Silva

The White House today was asked for comment on a crowd that assembled on Capitol Hill to protest health-care legislation.

"I'm sure there's a Jon Voight joke in here somewhere, given he was one of the featured speakers,'' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said of the activist actor who had a few choice words for the White House this week.

"You're not even going to try and make it?'' a reporter asked.

"No,'' Gibbs said. "My father always told me my mouth would get me in trouble... And I have a feeling if I acted on the line that (I'd like to give) you, I'm almost positive that it would surely...''

The crowd of protesters, rallied by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, wasn't the massive march that some had anticipated. Americans United for Change, the union-backed group backing health-care reform, said the anti-crowd could have filled Ford's Theater. "Pathetic,'' they gloated.

The Academy Award-winning actor and activist Voight had launched a broadside against the president in Minnesota this week, saying that, "We're becoming a socialist nation, and Obama is causing civil unrest in this country. ... I say that they're taking away God's first gift to man: our free will." He said so at a fundraiser for Gov. Tim Pawlenty's new Freedom First PAC in Minneapolis, part of an exploratory presidential bid.

But Gibbs wasn't biting on his own set-up today.

"Wait a minute, what have you got against Jon Voight?'' the press pressed, with someone volunteering this offer in the press briefing room of the West Wing:

"Off-the-record!''

"Off-the-record,'' mused Gibbs. "I like that.''

(Actor Jon Actor Jon Voight, center above, is pictured at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., last summer. Photo by Chuck Kennedy / MCT. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is pictured waiting his turn as President Barack Obama addressed the press briefing today. Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)

Census counting all: Citizens or not

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:45:00 PST

by Mark Silva

The 2010 Census will count the undocumented.

Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, advanced a plan to prevent the Census Bureau from counting non-citizens in its conduct of the 2010 Census.

The Senate's Democrats blocked that in a 60-39 vote today.

The Census not only is the basis for apportioning congressional districts for the coming decade, but also becomes a guide for the distribution of billions of dollars in federal aid. Critics complained that Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from participating in the Census, with law long recognizing that congressional districts are drawn by population. The Constitution calls for a Census is based on the "whole number of persons" residing in a state.

"The current plan is to reapportion House seats using that overall number, citizens and non-citizens," Vitter said. "I think that's wrong. I think that's contrary to the whole intent of the Constitution and the establishment of Congress as a democratic institution to represent citizens."

States such as California and Texas would fare worse under the restriction that Vitter was seeking. And Louisiana stands to lose one of its seven House seats in the next round of congressional reapportionment, the way things stand today.

Census Director Robert Groves opposed the proposal.

"The proposal is just not doable and we would have had to delay the census," Census Bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner said today. "The 2010 census remains on track and on schedule, and we're moving forward to ensure we have an accurate count in 2010."

Wire services contributed.

Bachmann: 'Crown jewel of socialism'

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:10:00 PST

by Michael Muskal

Conservatives rallied at the Capitol today while Democrats pushed the levers of their majority in the House as Washington and the nation braced for Saturday's first vote on healthcare reform.

Thousands of people listened to Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who has become the face of conservative opposition and one of the principal targets of liberals. "Republicans don't have the votes to kill this bill as we were limited," said the congresswoman, who has called the pending healthcare measure "the crown jewel of socialism."

"But what was unlimited was the voice of the American people," she said.

"Kill the bill, kill the bill," the crowd shouted.

The rally and subsequent lobbying are designed to spur Republicans to oppose the bill, which will be up for a rare Saturday vote in the House.

Top Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, braced for the fight to round up the necessary votes. President Barack Obama plans to visit the House on Friday to try to persuade wavering legislators. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that he expected the legislation to pass, though the vote could be tight.

"I wouldn't refer to it as a squeaker, but I think it's going to be close," said Hoyer (D-Md.) "This is a huge undertaking."

Language on abortion and illegal immigrants was still being negotiated, Hoyer said of the bill, estimated to cost more than $1 trilion over 10 years. it still has to be reconciled with a Senate version, with no clear timeline for a Senate vote apparent yet.

Rush Limbaugh: FOX ratings-booster

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:50:00 PST

by Mark Silva

Radio's Rush Limbaugh is not only good for his own business - with a new eight-year contract offering him the potential to make $400 million.

Limbaugh also is good for FOX News.

Limbaugh's appearance on FOX News Sunday set a record this year in ratings for the network's Sunday morning counterpunch to Meet the Press and the rest.

Wallace drew 3,892,000 viewers, including 1,180,000 in the coveted 25-54 age group, for the show on the FOX broadcast network and cable FOX News Channel (2.35 million tuned in at FNC.)

Combined, that topped NBC News' Meet the Press on NBC and MSNBC combined , with 3,554,000 and 1,169,000 ages 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

CBS News' Face the Nation and ABC News' This Week don't have similar cable outlets, but the FOX News Sunday combo on broadcast and cable surpassed them as well.

"I'm a - a guy who earns a percentage of what I generate every year,'' Limbaugh told Wallace in the interview that aired Sunday. "There are some guarantees, but the $400 million is not guaranteed. I have to earn that. So far...I could - I'm ahead of schedule, in fact..

"You're worth whatever your value is,'' he said, asked by Wallace to justify that sort of salary, "and that's determined by what somebody's willing to pay you for. And the only reason I get that money is because the people who invest in me get results beyond their expectations."

And for Wallace, who declined to discuss his own salary when we spoke with him about his fifth anniversary at FOX News Sunday, Limbaugh was box office Sunday.

AARP backs House's health-care bill

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:15:00 PST

by Noam N. Levey

As House Democrats prepare to vote Saturday on a sweeping bill to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, they picked up an important endrosment this morning from the 40-million member AARP, the nation's largest senior citizens group.

The group, which has been pushing for a health overhaul for more than a year, had withheld a formal endorsement of any of the healthcare bills being developed by congressional Democrats.

But today, AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond said the group saw the House Democratic bill as the most promising proposal.

"We can say with confidence that it meets our priorities for protecting Medicare, providing more affordable insurance for 50 to 64-year-olds and reforming our healthcare system," she said at the group's Washington headquarters.

The AARP's backing counters mounting opposition among employer groups who are stepping up their advertising campaign against the House Democratic bill. And it comes on a day when other influential groups are swinging their weight behind the healthcare legislation.

On Tuesday, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network announced its endorsment of the House bill. The American Medical Association, the nation's largest doctors group, also announced it support today.