CNN's The Situation Room reported that with the "economic crisis in full swing," President-elect Barack Obama "wants to focus on the economy." However, said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, "The Burris controversy or the Blagojevich controversy is a significant distraction. And it's not what the Obama administration wants to be talking about. It's not what Democrats want to be talking about." Roland Burris, added CNN, "is a fixture in the news cycle. A source familiar with the governor's thinking says Blagojevich was not against creating chaos with his pick, and he has certainly stirred the pot." As Senate Democrats "threaten to block Burris's appointment, race has become an issue."
The Wall Street Journal reports Burris "suggested he would challenge any effort to block the move, but said he is confident Senate Democrats will relent and let him take the job. 'We think they will come around and recognize that the appointment is legal and valid and I am the junior senator from Illinois,' Roland Burris said during an interview at his office."
E.J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post, "Blagojevich knows how to make life hell for his enemies, who now encompass almost everyone in the Democratic Party, including...Obama. Yet 'almost everyone' is the operative phrase." By "walking away from Burris, Democrats deprive themselves of a Senate vote for a bit and may even face litigation. That's still better than implicating themselves in Blagojevich's game."
Burris Reportedly Pushed Wrongful Execution In a piece appearing in The Politico, Ben Protess of ProPublica writes that Burris, as "state attorney general in 1992...aggressively sought the death penalty for Rolando Cruz, who twice was convicted of raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl in the Chicago suburb of Naperville." When another man confessed the crime, "Burris' own deputy attorney general was pleading with Burris to drop the case," but "Burris refused." That Deputy Attorney General, Mary Brigid Kenney, resigned over the case, finding that Burris "wasn't going to do anything to seem soft on crime" in a year when he was running for Governor, and saw "fit to ignore the evidence in this case." Cruz was exonerated and released, "after serving 11 years on death row for a crime he did not commit."
Governor Rejected Candidates On Obama's List The Hill reports President-elect Obama "believed that seven candidates were 'highly qualified' to succeed him in the Senate, but the two people...Blagojevich (D) has asked to fill the vacant seat weren't on the president-elect's list." Rep. Danny Davis "said he recently discussed filling Obama's seat with Blagojevich's staff, but turned down the embattled governor's offer."
Fitzgerald Asks For More Time CNN's The Situation Room reported there was "new evidence that the corruption case against" Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich "may be even more staggering and complicated than first thought." US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is "asking to extend his deadline for filing an indictment against" Blagojevich "by 90 days, until April 7th. Now, one reason" is that "there reportedly are thousands -- thousands of secret wiretaps of the governor."
President-elect Barack Obama reportedly will meet with Congressional leaders to discuss plans for an economic stimulus package. CNN's The Situation Room reported a Democratic congressional leadership aide said "plans are underway for a meeting on Monday between President-Elect Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to discuss Obama's" stimulus proposal. CNN later said transition aides "say the goal is to get the bill signed into law as quickly after the inaugural as possible -- to get the new President a quick victory while also giving the economy a shot in the arm." According to The Politico, Obama's goal Monday is "to assuage rising concerns among Republicans and some Democrats that his economic stimulus plan is too costly and too rushed." After their own meeting, "Obama, Pelosi and Reid are...expected to meet with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) and House minority leader Republican John Boehner (R.-Ohio)." The Financial Times says while "many Republicans on Capitol Hill have cautiously accepted the need for stimulus measures to avoid a deeper economic crisis, creating the potential for bipartisan agreement...McConnell said his party would act as a watchdog against excess, raising the prospect of conflict over the scale and contents of the package."
The CBS Evening News reported the "challenge will be getting a stimulus passed in Congress without billions in pork spending while addressing what caused the recession in the first place." Peter Morici, University of Maryland economist: "The broken banks, their inability to make credit, the trade deficit with China, and our massive oil imports." The Christian Science Monitor reports "Obama's economic stimulus plan is expected to reach historic proportions, but what the world could really use right now is something even bigger: similarly ambitious plans from the rest of the world. That's what many economists prescribe as the best path out of a slump that has turned global in scope."
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President-elect Barack Obama and his national security team are reported to have diverging views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While Obama and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton at times clashed on foreign policy during the presidential campaign, CNN's The Situation Room reported when Obama "announced his security team a month ago, he made it clear that he and...Clinton will work together on the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. And a transition team official says whatever debates may take place as they formulate policy, they will speak with one voice in the end." Other members of the team "come at this with different positions. His top national security adviser, General James Jones, once helped the Palestinians establish a security force. He has also consulted with Brent Scowcroft, who was very tough on the Israelis during the first Bush administration." Given the fact that Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, "has family ties to Israel -- a very strong supporter of Israel -- and Mrs. Clinton's support of Israel, you might have some very healthy debates in that cabinet."
On the CBS Evening News, Mike Allen of The Politico was shown saying, "The Obama team says a big reason Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State is that she's a force multiplier. While he's dealing with the economy and Congress at home, she can be representing him on the world stage." The New York Times reports Hillary Clinton, "having secured her standing as a friend of Israel...must show a new audience that she can also be a mediator in her next expected role as secretary of state, when her first challenge may well be the renewed violence in Gaza." But "given Mrs. Clinton's once troubled history with Arab-Israeli issues," the Times says "that could be a tricky task."
Meanwhile, the NBC Nightly News reported President-elect Barack Obama kept to his 'one president at a time' position today, making no public comment about Gaza. However, candidate Obama laid out positions very much in line with President Bush," and "some in the Arab world see Obama's silence as complicity with Israel." In the end, "with the White House in transition, it appears to be getting tougher for America to have much impact at all."
Polls Show Israeli Support For Barak Up The Financial Times reports Israel's "continuing attacks on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are likely to play a key role in shaping the outcome of February's Israeli general election, with polls on Thursday indicating growing support for Ehud Barak, the defence minister and Labour party leader." Labour's "surge means that rightwing and religious parties appear no longer to command a majority in the polls." The Christian Science Monitor reports that "so far the Israeli operation in Gaza is receiving broad public support among Israelis a political boon for the incumbent Kadima Party."
The Politico reports, "Bill Clinton's advisers helped Barak beat Netanyahu in 1999, and Democratic leaders are typically more comfortable with the Israeli center-left -- Labor and, now, the Kadima Party, of which Livni is the party leader."
The US on Thursday turned control of the Baghdad Green Zone over to Iraqi authorities, a move that some press accounts noted for its powerful symbolism. Yet media coverage overall was markedly muted. NBC Nightly News reported briefly that the ceremony marked "the handover of what has been the heavily secured headquarters of the US occupation forces since 2003." The CBS Evening News also briefly reported the handover and noted that "as of today, US troops throughout Iraq are officially operating under Iraqi control."
AFP calls it "an emotional ceremony at the former palace of executed dictator Saddam Hussein," which "was hailed by Iraqi government and military officials." The Washington Post, however, says "the ceremony wasn't much" and "neither the American ambassador, nor the top commander of US troops, nor Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki showed up." USA Today reports, "Col. Steven Ferrari, whose brigade oversees security and logistics of the Green Zone, said his soldiers would train the Iraqis manning the checkpoints and hope to hand complete control of external security to the Iraqis in 90 days."
The Los Angeles Times reports "some Iraqis said they were unaware of the transition, part of the Status of Forces Agreement for the withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011." The AP meanwhile, reports that "many of the changes inaugurated on New Year's Day won't bring immediately visible results." US troops "still man its checkpoints, although now as trainers rather than leaders." The handover, notes the Financial Times, also included control of "one of the most powerful symbols of the transition," the Republican Palace.
Under the headline "Attacks Occur As Iraq Takes Control Of Key Sites," the New York Times reports on the handover to the Iraqi government of "security and administrative duties at the main airport in the southern city of Basra. The airport had been used by British forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq."
The Washington Post reports in a front page story that the "war in Iraq is indeed over, at least the conflict as it was understood during its first five years: insurgency, communal cleansing, gangland turf battles and an anarchic, often futile quest to survive. In other words, civil war -- though civil war was always too tidy a term for it. The entropy, for now at least, has run its course. ... Not to say that there is peace in Iraq. As many people are killed today as on any day in 2003 and 2004. Nor is there victory."
Marines Buying Cows For Iraqi Widows The Los Angeles Times reports from Anbar province, that at the "suggestion of an Iraqi women's group, the Marine Corps recently bought 50 cows for 50 Iraqi widows in the farm belt around Fallouja, once the insurgent capital of war-torn Anbar province. The cow purchase is seen as a small step toward reestablishing Iraq's once-thriving dairy industry, as well as a way to help women and children hurt by the frequent failure of the Iraqi government to provide the pensions that Iraqi law promises to widows."
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CNN's The Situation Room explored the possibility of New York Gov. David Paterson (D) appointing an "interim" senator to replace Hillary Clinton, "someone with the political clout, let's say, of Bill Clinton," so "the public can vote in two years who should hold the seat for the long run." However, Paterson said, "I'm actually opposed to that. It would cause New York to lose seniority. And, in the United States Senate, the most effective senators are the ones that have seniority." Meanwhile, the New York Times adds Paterson "sought to tamp down some of the political brinksmanship over his selection of a new United States senator, insisting on Thursday that he was still interviewing people for the position and felt no pressure to appoint any particular candidate."
In his blog at The Politico, Ben Smith says Caroline Kennedy "is starting the new year on a good note, with the news that a key player in New York State government, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, has dropped his opposition to her - on the very practical grounds that he thinks she's going to be the senator." Silver said, "I have determined there's a good possibility she will be the appointee of the governor. If she is the appointee of the governor, I will certainly be supportive of her. I will work for her and will work strenuously for her election."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, "With a New Year's Eve noisemaker that could further prolong the U.S. Senate recount," Sen. Norm Coleman's (R) campaign "asked the Minnesota Supreme Court late Wednesday to scrap the reviews of wrongly rejected absentee ballots underway across the state and instead have all such ballots reviewed by state and campaign officials in St. Paul." An attorney for Al Franken's (D) campaign "said that his campaign would fight the move and was confident it would fail." The St. Paul Pioneer-Press said Franken "leads by 49 votes. But that lead could change. The latest tally doesn't include any of the absentee ballots local election officials mistakenly didn't include in their counting. Those ballots are expected to be recounted this weekend in a state Capitol hearing room."
McClatchy reports Gov. Sarah Palin "spent part of Wednesday countering what she considers inaccurate descriptions of how much education her daughter's fiance has, an effort culminating at the end of the day with her first public statement about her new grandson." Palin was "in touch with a celebrity magazine, a national news service and the Anchorage Daily News to question reports that her future son-in-law, Levi Johnston, is a dropout." UPI adds Palin said, "Bristol begins her final semester of high school next week where she'll get her last credit needed to graduate. Levi is continuing his online high school work in addition to working as an electrical apprentice on the North Slope." The Washington Post adds, "According to Palin, People reported, any implication that the couple will not graduate from high school 'harms Bristol's reputation and Levi's reputation and their chances for good work opportunities.' Bristol and Johnston, both 18, have said they plan to wed."
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The late-night talk shows were reruns last night.
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