CIA Director Leon Panetta's remarks on former Vice President Dick Cheney made in a nearly 7,600-word interview with The New Yorker generated some media attention last night and this morning. Calling them "tough words," ABC World News reported briefly that Panetta said of Cheney, who "has repeatedly, of course, criticized the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism," that "it's almost as if he is wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.'" Panetta, the New Yorker (6/22, Mayer) reports, was responding to a speech the former vice president made at the American Enterprise Institute, where he accused the Administration of making "the American people less safe" by banning brutal CIA interrogations of terrorism suspects that had been sanctioned by the Bush Administration. With "surprising candor," the magazine reports Panetta said, "I think he smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue. It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."
Also reporting the remarks, the AP reports Vice President Joe Biden was asked during an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he agreed. The current vice president, however, said "he wouldn't question the motive behind Cheney's criticism." Said Biden, "I think Dick Cheney's judgment about how to secure America is faulty. I think our judgment is correct."
As Republicans step up their opposition to the President's healthcare reform plans, media reports and analyses are portraying the path to a measure including the so-called public option as increasingly rocky. ABC World News reported that in Chicago today, "the President will take his plan to a meeting with the American Medical Association. Right now, those doctors are not on board." The doctors' "main concern, Mr. Obama's proposal to create a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers."
The Financial Times says Obama still "wants a publicly managed health insurance option, which would compete with private insurers and help keep costs down," but "Republicans and some Democrats argue it would crush private providers." Yesterday, The Hill reports, Sen. Kent Conrad said "Democrats won't have enough votes to pass a White House-endorsed...package that includes" the public option. On CBS's "Face the Nation," the New York Times reports, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said of the public option, "I think that, for virtually every Republican, a government plan is a non-starter."
The AP, meanwhile, notes that "Obama administration officials said Sunday that they are open to a compromise: a cooperative program that would expand coverage with taxpayer money but without direct governmental control." Roll Call says "Conrad's idea to set up a health insurance cooperative - rather than a government-run program - started to gain some currency last week, particularly with Republicans opposed to greater government involvement in health care."
The Politico reports, "In pushing the public plan, Obama is looking to persuade a constituency," the AMA, "already distrustful of the government's role in health care that a government insurance program won't be as objectionable as they imagine." USA Today reports that "Obama remains committed to a controversial government health insurance program," and notes that on NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President Biden said, "We think there should be a public plan."
On its front page, the New York Times reports "in closed-door talks, Mr. Obama has been making the case that reducing malpractice lawsuits -- a goal of many doctors and Republicans -- can help drive down health care costs, and should be considered as part of any health care overhaul, according to lawmakers of both parties, as well as A.M.A. officials."
Obama Snared In Intra-Party Tax "Battle" The Washington Post reports on its front page that the White House "is caught in a battle within its own party over how to finance a comprehensive overhaul of America's health-care system as key Democrats advocate a tax plan that could require Obama to break his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class." Democrats "are deeply divided over which taxes to raise, and the issue has become a central stumbling block." The Hill reports Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said on Fox News, "The idea of talking about taxing benefits at a time where people are already overwhelmed is, I think, a very bad idea."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
The AP reports Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday on Meet the Press "that 'everyone guessed wrong' on the impact of the economic stimulus, but he defended the administration's spending designed to combat rising joblessness." But "Biden said inaccuracies in unemployment predictions shouldn't undercut the White House's support of the $787 billion economic revival plan that has not met the expectations of President Obama's team." David Gregory, host of NBC's Meet The Press noted that 100 days after the stimulus bill was signed, President Obama "said 150,000 jobs had been created or saved," and asked Biden, "Can you explain where that number comes from?" Biden answered, "Yes, look, there's an econometric model that, that economists have been using for decades to correlate the economic circumstances of the nation with the creation of jobs. It is a model known as question, it's a model the Council of Economic Advisers have used to come up with that 150,000 jobs. But in fact -- and by the way, I think we're going to create another 600,000 jobs in the next 100 days, because now this thing is beginning to roll out."
State Budget Gaps Threaten Recovery The Wall Street Journal reports, "As the White House eagerly scans the economic landscape for signs of recovery, a looming drought in the form of state budget deficits could make any 'green shoots' wilt." While "discouraging talk right now of any federal response to state budget woes, the Obama administration is anxiously eyeing state efforts to close persistent budget gaps."
USA Today reports, "At a time when many students and parents are struggling to pay for college, several cash-starved states are considering reducing funds for grants and scholarships for thousands of low- and middle-income students." USA Today notes such plans in California, Ohio and Florida.
Senate Dems Criticized Obama Economic Team Newsweek's Michael Hirsh reports that earlier this year, Sen. Maria Cantwell, "along with a small group of insurgent Democrats in the Senate" -- Sens. Carl Levin, Byron Dorgan, Dianne Feinstein, Jim Webb and Bernard Sanders --- "met with" President Obama "and members of his economic team in the White House." Cantwell: "I told the president I was concerned that the administration had people in charge who had missed all this before." Hirsh recounts that "it was an awkward moment: two of the officials that Cantwell and her allies came to complain about" -- Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary Geithner "were sitting right there." Hirsh adds that Administration officials "reject" Cantwell's "view."
As protesters continue to protest the official returns of Iran's presidential election, a number of media reports this morning portray the situation as further complicating the Administrations' diplomatic efforts towards the country. The AP, for example, says the "crackdown on dissent...puts the Obama administration in a tougher spot, as it sticks with diplomacy as the best way to end that country's nuclear weapons program." Although Vice President Joe Biden "said Sunday that efforts to engage Tehran...will continue," the "charges of vote fraud and the battles between police and opposition protesters appear to be major setbacks for the new US administration's policy."
Likewise, the Washington Post reports in a front-page analysis that the "confused aftermath" is "complicating the Obama administration's planned outreach to the Islamic republic and underscoring the challenges facing the president's new approach to the Middle East based on shared values and common interests." The New York Times says that "while it is true that Mr. Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election complicates the question of how to proceed with negotiations, President Obama and his top aides began contemplating and even fashioning a new Iran policy before anyone in the White House really believed the opposition had a chance to win." The Administration, however, ABC World News reported, "faces a very tough choice. It had calculated that Ahmadinejad might win re-election. But it didn't factor in the danger of a disputed election, and to reach out to this regime right now is going to be awkward."
NBC Nightly News also reported that "analysts say the controversy surrounding the election complicates Mr. Obama's overtures," because "if Ahmadinejad's standing at home is in question, the value of any talks between Washington and Tehran could be in question." The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reports that in private, "a number of US officials said Mr. Ahmadinejad's re-election could potentially prove helpful to Washington's efforts to build an international consensus on containing Iran's nuclear program."
Similarly, the Financial Times reports Jeremy Shapiro at the Brookings Institution said Ahmadinejad has "unified many of the biggest powers against Iran," and "there's now less room for engagement, but more for sanctions."
Newsweek reports, "In February, the Missouri Information Analysis Center, one of several 'fusion' centers created after 9/11 to share intelligence among local, state and federal agencies, issued a 'strategic report' warning about a resurgence of the 'modern militia movement.' Last week, on the same day that white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly killed a guard at Washington's Holocaust Memorial Museum, Missouri's police chief informed legislators that the fusion center had suspended production of such reports." But law enforcement "and intel officials tell NEWSWEEK they're quietly scrutinizing threats from the far right just as carefully as those from Islamic extremists." US News Weekly's Alex Kingsbury writes, "Extremist group monitors and law enforcement officials worry that as more people join hate groups, acts of violence will become more likely."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
The AP reports if the Republican Party "is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is" Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) "the best person to turn things around?" Many "rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire." Barbour will "headline fundraisers in both states, but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association."
The New York Daily News reports, the New York State United Teachers union "has added its name to the growing list of labor organizations making early endorsements of" Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D), who is likely to face a significant primary challenge after being appointed to the seat. The union will "formally announce today what its president, Dick Iannuzzi, called an 'unquestionably unusual' endorsement of Gillibrand that is coming 'unquestionably early in the process' - a move that was agreed on over the weekend by NYSUT's Board of Directors and political action committees." The Albany Times Union adds Iannuzzi said "that the group's endorsement is an effective way to spread the word about the senator throughout the state during the election season. 'We think its important for her to have the exposure around the state,' the union leader said."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Conan O'Brien: "The country of Iran is holding its presidential election with four candidates running. ... Iranians will have to decide which candidate is best prepared to lead them into the 12th century."
Conan O'Brien: "This is crazy. You probably saw this. Former President George Bush Sr. celebrated his 85th birthday today by skydiving with CNN anchor Robin Meade. ... Fox News reported the story as 'liberal media pushes old man out of airplane.'"
Jimmy Fallon: "Yesterday, President Obama wrote a note for a fourth grade girl who skipped school so she could attend his town hall meeting. I don't see what the big deal is. Bush wrote notes to fourth graders, too. He just called them speeches."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Click image for larger view.
Smart analysis, insightful reporting, in-depth perspective—in a new, digital format.
Log in | Buy Now | See sample
View sample page 2View sample page 3View sample page 4View sample page 5advertisement
Get your POLITICALBULLETIN
Click image for larger view.
Smart analysis, insightful reporting, in-depth perspective—in a new, digital format.
Log in | Buy Now | See sample
View sample page 2View sample page 3View sample page 4View sample page 5Embed exclusive U.S. News headlines, rankings, columns, and blog postings to your Web site, blog, or social network.
advertisement
Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy.
