Congressional Republican leadership opened up a new line of attack on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan Wednesday. But once again, the ghost of Harriet Miers, President Bush's SCOTUS nominee, haunted their efforts ... On the day that he sat down with Obama's pick for the Court, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) went to the Senate floor to express concerns about the Solicitor General's independence from the president(s) she served ... "She's never had to develop the judicial habit of
Over the past few days, more than 170,000 people weighed in on the six finalists in the White House Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. The race was neck and neck with all of the schools finishing within half a point of one another. ... The top three finalists, in no particular order are: ... Clark Montessori Jr. & Sr. High School in Cincinnati, OHKalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, MIDenver School of Science and Technology in Denver, CO ... The next step in the Challenge is
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES ... SUBJECT: Establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity ... Across our country, childhood obesity has reached epidemic rates and, as a result, our children may live shorter lives than their parents. Obesity has been recognized as a problem for decades, but efforts to address this crisis to date have been insufficient. My Administration is committed to redoubling our efforts to solve the problem of childhood obesity within
Yesterday, I posted on how a group of senators sent the White House a letter expressing concern over a multitude of presidential appointments -- which they label "czars" -- and how they "raise serious issues of accountability, transparency, and oversight." At length, I pointed out how those senators themselves need to do a better job accounting for the actual roles of those so-called czars, which are transparently obvious and easy to oversee ... Now it's the House's turn to get deeply mired in
Iran is out of the lead slot in all of the papers, and the New York Times and Washington Post turn back to Washington to warn that President Obama is losing momentum on some of his most important domestic policy initiatives due to doubts from lawmakers. The WP has a two-story lead, focusing on doubts from lawmakers about increasing the power of the Federal Reserve and the fighting that has broken out over the price tag for health care reform. The NYT also leads with health care, noting that the
CLEARING THE DECK ... We're just about at the stage at which the health care debate starts crowding out practically every other domestic policy. That, at least, was the impression one got watching the White House this afternoon. President Barack Obama ...
CBS News is reporting that a new public opinion poll shows that 66% of the people interviewed approve of the job that President Obama has done in his two plus months on the job ... The interesting thing about this poll is the timing of it… while the President is on his first major foreign [ ... ] ...
Economist, March 28The cover story expresses disappointment in President Obama, who has been "curiously feeble" on domestic policy for a president who won so decisively on domestic issues. The stimulus bill explains much of the problem: He did not include Republicans in the process and let his own party "mess him around." Obama was also slow to announce his toxic-assets plan and has yet to fill crucial Treasury Department positions. There are signs his administration is getting things together,
BAYH AND THE BLUE DOGS 'HAVE NO AGENDA' ... Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) has noticed some of the progressive pushback to his new working group, compromised of "centrist" Democrats, who want to water down make President Obama's popular domestic policy agenda ...