From NBC's Mark Murray, Chuck Todd, and Domenico Montanaro
As we mentioned earlier today, Illinois Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias will be at the White House for today's Greek Independence Day celebration. Wonder if the political folks at the White House want to discuss this Crain's Chicago Business story with him?

The family of Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias stands to collect more than $10 million in federal tax refunds even if its Broadway Bank fails, which Mr. Giannoulias said last week is likely... The possibility of family members pocketing millions in tax refunds as Broadway slides toward insolvency and federal receivership is likely to fuel more controversy for Mr. Giannoulias, who already is under fire for his role in the bank's woes. In an interview last week, he took some responsibility for a disastrous expansion of real estate lending when he was senior lender at Broadway in the mid-2000s, before winning election as Illinois treasurer in 2006.

*** UPDATE *** The Giannoulias camp pushes back, noting that at least two polls show him leading Republican Mark Kirk, and that the campaign just signed up a major Obama fundraiser. Still, at a time when Americans are furious at bank bailouts, this news could be potentially devastating for the Democratic nominee.

*** UPDATE 2 *** The Giannoulias campaign fires off this memo to the media:

MYTH:  The Giannoulias family stands to benefit millions if Broadway Bank fails.

TRUTH:  The idea that the Giannoulias family will benefit in any way if the bank fails is absolutely false. Like the millions of Americans who overpay their income taxes each year, the family is owed tax refunds. They are actively pursuing a refund of this money as a way to help save the bank. They would not profit in any way if the bank fails. Alexi has said repeatedly that he will do whatever he can give to save the bank, which includes using any tax refund he might get on his 3.6% share to recapitalize the bank. If the bank does indeed fail, the Giannoulias family, who are sole shareholders, will bear the full brunt of the loss.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Setting the date for another Upstate special election is probably down the list of priorities right now for embattled New York Gov. David Paterson.

But with Democrat Eric Massa's decision to resign from Congress, Paterson holds the key to when a special election might be held -- if one is held at all.

Constituents in New York's 29th district are currently without representation, and could be until the fall. Paterson can choose not to set a date at all and, instead, leave the seat vacant until the general election in the fall, according to the New York State Board of Elections.

"If he's going to have a special, then he issues a proclamation" and an election would be held no less than 30 days -- and no more than 40 -- after the proclamation was issued, said John Conklin, a spokesman for the board of elections. But, Conklin added, the governor hasn't contacted their office.

"We've had a couple of other vacancies and the governor has been more forthcoming in those instances," Conklin said. "He hasn't done anything like that with relation to this seat."

New York has had two Upstate special elections in the past year -- in the 20th congressional district to replace Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand (appointed to fill the Senate seat once held by Hillary Clinton) and the 23rd to replace Republican John McHugh (appointed to be President Obama's Army secretary).

"We didn't have one [a special election] for 50 years," Conklin said, "and then we [could] have three in 12 months."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Yesterday we made note of potential 2012 hopeful Mitt Romney's appearance on "Fox News Sunday" and the criticism he faced over his Massachusetts health-care proposal.

First Thoughts, March 8:

Chris Wallace put Romney on the defensive on this issue. WALLACE: "But, Governor, let's look at the plan that you signed into law in Massachusetts in 2006. You have an individual mandate. You have an employer mandate. You have subsidiaries for some of the uninsured. You set minimum insurance coverage standards." ROMNEY: A big difference -- a state plan versus a federal plan. No new taxes, unlike his plan. No cut in Medicare, unlike his plan. And no controls over insurance premiums, price controls, cost controls like his plan. So very, very different in that regard." Still, you can see the line of attack that is going to develop on Romney in conservative circles… Of course, let's remember, as bad as immigration was for McCain in 2007, it didn't end his bid; he still got the nomination. But there are a lot of similarities between Romney and health care and McCain and immigration.

The fallout from that interview continues today, as fiscally conservative group, The Club for Growth takes a shot at Romney for saying his health-care proposal was "the ultimate conservative plan." The Club says if Romney thinks that, he's "in the wrong party," according to Greg Sargent.

"We can say unequivocally that that is not a conservative plan," said Andy Roth, Club for Growth's vice president for government affairs. He added, "The individual mandate is diametrically against what free-market conservatives believe in." 

Romney is also taking flak from his right flank on his endorsement of John McCain over J.D. Hayworth.

Rush Limbaugh said with the move Romney is "risking his career," "is tone deaf, it's suicidal." He also said, "What is there to gain by this? Look, it's unfortunate, but people are weeding themselves out of the process all the while engaging in this kind of behavior. So in one sense it has a cleansing aspect to it."

Romney responded in an on-camera interview with Newsmax, saying, "It may not be right for me politically, but we face such challenges right now. It's time for people to do what they think is right for the country and to spend less time worrying about what may or may not be good for them politically."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The National Republican Senatorial Committee may be pledging not to "spend any money" in the Florida primary, but it is still helping raise money for Charlie Crist.

"I endorsed Gov. Crist early on, really before this became a real contest," Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas senator who heads the committee said at a briefing with reporters yesterday. "I'm not going to do anything to change that. I think I'm honor-bound to leave it as is. But it doesn't that mean we're going to spend any money in the primary. It doesn't mean we're going to be saying anything bad about Marco Rubio."

But a Florida paper got its hands on part of an NRSC memo (the full memo was also forwarded to First Read by a Democratic source), listing a series of upcoming fundraisers for Republican candidates. There are eight for Crist and none for Rubio.

That's not surprising given that the committee recruited and endorsed Crist, and NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh stressed that spending money versus helping raise money is "a very important difference." 

"Raising money is not the same as spending money in terms of spending tens of thousands of dollars on TV ads," Walsh said. "Big difference." He added, "And in this case, these aren't even NRSC fundraisers, these are Crist fundraisers that we publicize as a courtesy as we do for every endorsed candidate and for any candidate in any state in which we haven't endorsed.  And again, we've been doing it every week for a year -- goes out to key NRSC supporters so I don't know why it would surprise anyone that the NRSC would alert it's supporters to a fundraiser that one of our endorsed candidates might be doing. ... Senator Cornyn has made clear for months that the NRSC will not be spending money in this primary, and ultimately, it's the primary voters in Florida who will choose their nominee and not outside supporters for either campaign."

It is further evidence, however, of the fine line the NRSC has to toe now with Rubio's popularity among the activist base, which views him as a movement candidate. Crist's recruitment was seen as a coup when it was announced last year, and he was immediately seen as having a veritable lock on the nomination.

Rubio will be raising money next week at three events in South Carolina with Sen. Jim DeMint, a favorite among Tea Party activists. Cornyn said yesterday he had no problem with that.

"I'm for all of our candidates raising all of the money they can anywhere they can," he said.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Since Charlie Crist is bringing up back waxing as it relates to Marco Rubio (and today is Greek Independence Day), remember this nugget from the 2006 election? 

St. Petersburg Times, July 30, 2006:

"I mean my goodness - because I happen to have Greek heritage and if I go out in the sun for a half-hour and it looks like I've been out there for four hours because I have a darker complexion than somebody - honestly Jim, I thought we were at the place in this country where the color of somebody's skin or the complexion that they have is not something that's an issue of political debate anymore," Crist said. "I've been fighting for civil rights for all of our people as attorney general, and for the Democratic Party to kind of poke fun of something like that was really beneath" them.

Have we returned to the health-care conversation before Scott Brown?... Candidate Obama was back yesterday in Pennsylvania… Nuggets galore in a new Democracy Corps poll… Massa becomes cause célèbre among conservatives, despite his "fracking" story and his timeline that doesn't make much sense… Obama meets with bipartisan senators to talk about energy reform… And he also meets with Alexi Giannoulias, to the NRSC's delight.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** Back to Jan. 4: Ironically, at the very time the New Yorker has a piece on "Obama's Lost Year" and the New York Times magazine discusses the administration's first-year failures, it seems we've returned to Jan. 4, 2010, before Scott Brown became a national story. While news organizations are whipping out their whip counts to see if the Senate health-care bill can pass the House, the story also has returned to whether the GOP will mount a campaign to repeal health-care or whether states like Virginia can pass legislation forbidding a mandate that Americans have health insurance -- subjects we were talking about before Brown's victory. What's more, the conversation also has turned back to the thorny issue of abortion, which two months ago was the last real stumbling block in the House-Senate reconciliation talk. Of course, this doesn't mean that health care is going to pass, but it does mean that more and more people are beginning to act like it will.

*** Candidate Obama is back: Yesterday, for the first time in six months, President Obama was back on the campaign trail for the sole purpose of passing health-care reform. He rolled up his sleeves, took off his jacket, and blasted the insurance industry and Republicans. In fact, he mentioned the word "insurance" 54 times versus the 27 times he said "health care," which tells you the White House's focus. Also, Democrats after the speech were relieved to hear Obama's tone, as many Capitol Hill Democrats believe the White House's best pitch to wavering Democrats is to get them to rally around the party flag. As Sen. Arlen Specter, who accompanied Obama to Pennsylvania yesterday, said: "There is a lot of determination that's building to [pass health care], and I think the president is providing more fiery leadership now."

*** Nuggets galore: There are lots of nuggets in a new Democracy Corps (D) poll. For those looking at Campaign 2010, what immediately jumps is the Dem performance among "drop-off" voters vs. "likely voters" in general. Indeed, Obama's job approval among likely voters is 47%, but among "drop-off" voters it's 59%. What's more, GOP leads on the congressional ballot 47%-44% among likely voters. Yet among drop-offs, Dems lead 55%-30%. So there's a big gap there. The main thrust of new Democracy Corps poll is on national security. While Obama gets good marks in general on various national security issues, it doesn't trickle down to Dems, who trail the GOP by various margins on different aspects of national security. We'll dig deeper into this Obama-Democrat gap with pollster Stan Greenberg, who will be on MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown" later this morning. Speaking of MSNBC programming, "Andrea Mitchell Reports" speaks to Sen. Specter and MSNBC's Chris Matthews about his interview with Vice President Biden in the Middle East.

*** More Massa mess: Per NBC's Shawna Thomas, Rep. Eric Massa's (D) resignation notice will be read on the House floor at 2:00 pm ET. And later this afternoon, the ex-congressman will appear on Glenn Beck's show (and then on Larry King). Indeed, Massa has suddenly become a cause célèbre among conservatives after his suggestion that Democratic leaders wanted him out of Congress because of his "no" vote on health care last year. "Now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass," he told a New York state radio station on Sunday. (These conservatives, including Drudge, have focused less attention to his story that he told a male subordinate, "Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you" and then touched the subordinate's hair, which would be a fire-able offense at most private companies, or at least cause for a lawsuit.) But as the New York Daily News reported yesterday, Massa's timeline alleging he was forced out due to his health-care vote doesn't make much sense. Democrats' magic number to pass health care was already at 216 when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office revealed, on March 3, that it had received a complaint of sexual harassment by Massa. Then, on March 4, GOP Rep. Nathan Deal announced he was postponing his resignation, which brought the magic number up to 217.

*** The timeline doesn't make much sense: Massa's resignation now brings the magic number back to 216. But it's difficult to allege that Hoyer's office wanted him out when it revealed the news on March 3, because his resignation then -- before the Deal news -- would have left the magic number at 216 (a majority of 430 House members is still 216). Here's one other irony to the fact that Massa has now become a hero among conservatives: A la Dennis Kucinich, he opposed the House health-care last year because it WASN'T EXPANSIVE ENOUGH. "While this bill does contain a public option, it is far from a 'robust' one and Rep. Massa pledged, in a letter months ago, to vote against anything less than that," Massa's statement back then said. "The public option in this bill is available for only about 2% of the American population and its premium rates will match private health insurance, guaranteeing no effective competition in the marketplace." One final question: If Massa is so upset with Democrats, why quit? This story has "side show" and "shiny metal object" written all over it.

*** Talking energy: At 4:30 pm ET, President Obama meets with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss energy reform. And most interestingly are the GOP participants: Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Judd Gregg, George LeMieux, Dick Lugar, and Lisa Murkowski. These are the real bipartisan players on the issue. Also notice there's no leadership attending this time -- the White House is going around the leadership. Why hasn't it done this more? When political parties are in the minority, their leadership elections are about one thing: who can best lead them back to the majority. That's why the White House spending so much time working through leadership to try and become bipartisan never made political sense. McConnell and Boehner and their elected lieutenants are judged at the ballot box, not on how much then can successfully water down legislation. 

*** Giannoulias at the White House: Also today, Obama meets with Greece's prime minister (at 2:00 pm ET) and then delivers remarks at a reception honoring Greek Independence Day. Guess who will be coming to the reception? Alexi Giannoulias. Indeed, Republicans are seizing on Giannoulias' visit to the White House. The NRSC says it's "encouraging reporters to ask Axelrod and other White House officials whether or not their concerns were assuaged after Giannoulias' 'clearing the air' tour last week. And they will "highlight the contrast between Giannoulias and the President's recent comments about bankers." As you'll remember, it was just two months ago during the Mass special election that President Obama said: 'Bankers don't need another vote in the U.S. Senate,' and decried 'fat cats' who are getting 'rewarded for their failure.' Considering there's now a 'fat cat' banker who is running for the his former Senate seat and looking to get rewarded for his own banking failures, we will encourage folks to ask the White House: Does President Obama stand by Giannoulias' candidacy, and if so, how does he differ from these 'fat cats' who the President vehemently condemned?" (But was Giannoulias' bank really a fat-cat bank?) This is actually an important unofficial confrontation between Giannoulias and the White House. If the Chicago-White House folks want to send a message, they'll do it tonight.

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The New York Daily News' lead after Obama's campaign-style event yesterday: "President Obama turned up his vintage campaign-style fire Monday to rip Republicans and insurers for obstructing health care reform."

The Washington Post: "The White House is mounting a stinging, sustained broadside against health insurance rate increases as President Obama and his aides enter what they hope will be the final stretch of a year-long political war over health-care reform... The messages are part of a strategy that Obama and those around him have begun to employ lately, to ratchet up the pace and the populist appeal of their rhetoric against the health insurance industry. The barbed tone moves far beyond that of the 2008 presidential campaign, when Obama began to say that medical coverage should be accessible and affordable for more Americans."

The New York Times adds, "President Obama challenged wavering members of his party on Monday not to give in to political fears about supporting health care legislation, asserting that the urgency of getting a bill through Congress should trump any concern about the consequences for Democrats in November."

The AP tees up Obama's meeting today with Greece's prime minister: "Greek officials want to see the United States impose stricter regulations on hedge funds and currency traders, which Athens believes aggravated their crisis. In his meeting Tuesday with Obama, and in sessions during the week with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Papandreou will outline the steps Greece is taking to stem its financial bleeding and reform its economy. Papandreou's trip to Washington with his finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, comes as Greece tries to climb out of a steep economic hole that widened after Papandreou's Socialist party came to power in October and revealed that its budget deficit was far worse than the previous government had disclosed."

In addition to meeting with the Greek prime minister, President Obama will meet with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss energy policy.  
 
"For a guy who professes to have no interest in running for president, Gen. David Petraeus can come off as surprisingly eager to talk about it -- sometimes without even being asked," the AP says. "In a recent appearance at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia he turned a question about his retirement plans into an opportunity to deny he has political ambitions. An audience member asked if he planned to write a book when he left the Army. He responded by saying he'd feared the politics question. 'The answer is 'no,'' he said -- and he didn't mean no book; he meant no race for the White House."

GOP WATCH: 'Good enough for God'
Sarah Palin on writing on her hand: "If it was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it's good enough for me," Palin told a crowd in Canada. "She cited a line from the Bible as part of her remarks, which she said a supporter had sent her," the New York Daily News writes. "The passage, Isaiah 49:16, says, 'See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.' 'I'm in good company,' Palin said."  
 
"A GOP state senator with a staunch anti-gay voting record came out of the closet Monday and asked for his constituents' prayers," the New York Daily News reports.  'I am gay,' state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) said, breaking his silence on a conservative AM talk radio show based in his working-class California district. 'Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.'" 

Meanwhile, the DNC is a launching what it's calling a "Fight the Fear" campaign. (This is a play off from its earlier "Fight the Smears" campaign.) "If the Republicans are going to offer 'fear' tactics instead of new ideas, as we learned from their internal strategy memo is their express strategy," a DNC source said, "we are going to hold them accountable by making sure folks are aware of how they are trying to scare the American people and they have the truth." An e-mail is going out to supporters, asking them "to let us know at FightFear@DNC.org when Republican candidates or groups: Air misleading ads or offer false claims intended to poison the political debate; Incite fear of President Obama and Democratic leaders in an attempt to stir up their base; or Align themselves with the most extreme fringes of the Republican Party."

"Senate Democrats and Republicans are poised to have a knock-down, drag-out fight over the arcane budget reconciliation process and equally esoteric rules as Congress races to pass a health care bill before Easter," Roll Call writes. "Policy disagreements have become almost an afterthought as Republicans charge Democrats with twisting Senate rules to pass what they say is an unpopular bill while Democrats say the GOP's 'obstructionism' and hypocrisy have reached new heights."  
 
The Hill is the latest to try and do a whip count on health care and finds that several committee chairman are declaring themselves undecided.

Here's the Hotline's whip count.

Roll Call's lead on Massa: "Scandal-tinged Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) ended his short but combustible Congressional career Monday night, acknowledging inappropriate behavior as he battled allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer. And in a development with far-reaching political implications, Massa left office preparing to take to the national airwaves to point fingers at House leaders, who, he insisted, were eager to get rid of him because he did not support their health care reform legislation."  

The Washington Post writes how Massa -- who supports a robust public option -- has become a hero on the right.  
 
Roll Call looks at the lobbying pressure that Chris Dodd and Bob Corker are facing as they try to implement financial reforms. 
 
"Senate Democratic leaders have decided to pair an overhaul of federal student lending with healthcare reform, according to a Democratic official familiar with negotiations," The Hill reports, adding, "But leaders may have to reverse themselves if they receive strong pushback from Democratic colleagues who represent states where lenders employ hundreds of constituents."

NEW JERSEY: The Hill looks at GOP hopes for House races. "New Jersey Republicans argue Gov. Chris Christie's (R) impressive performance in several House districts during last year's gubernatorial race will help the party pick up seats in the midterm elections. Christie beat Gov. Jon Corzine (D) 56-39 in freshman Rep. John Adler's (D) district and won 51-43 in Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.'s (D) district, according to an analysis of the 2009 results. Christie also ran up impressive vote totals in Democratic strongholds like Bergen County."  
 
NEW YORK: Another good New York Post Paterson headline: "Lonesome Gov." 
 
A Siena poll shows a majority of voters, 55% would prefer Paterson serve out the remainder of his term, versus 37% who want him to resign.    
 
Doug Hoffman, the former Conservative Party candidate in the special election in NY-23 "formally entered the [2010] race for the Republican nomination Monday, telling his supporters in a letter posted to his Web site that he 'will defeat Bill Owens' if there's a rematch," the Watertown Daily Times reports.  
 
PENNSYLVANIA: "Former congressional staff member Mark Critz today won the nomination to represent the Democratic Party in a May 18 special election to replace his former boss, U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.  
 
WISCONSIN: "Sen. Russ Feingold took aim at Republican Tommy Thompson on Monday, questioning in an e-mail to supporters why the former governor was getting so much encouragement from Washington insiders to run against him," the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes. In the letter, Feingold writes, "'So you might ask, 'Well why are these people in Washington asking Tommy Thompson to run?' Because he's their friend. Because he does what they want. That's why they're asking him to run.'" 

From NBC's Ali Weinberg
On the heels of President Obama's fervent call for health-care reform this morning, the blogosphere offers its latest takes on the fate of the legislation.

Quoting Obama's line this morning that "the time for talk is over," National Review Online's Jim Geraghty recalls previous speeches where Obama employed the same now-or-never tactic. "The last time President Obama declared that 'the time for talk is over' was at the U.N. climate-change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where no major deal was reached, and talk continued," Geraghty writes. "By the way," he continues, "nothing more effectively communicates that 'the time for talk is over' than spending your week traveling to Pennsylvania and Missouri and giving speeches about your health-care plan."

Red State's Dan Perrin also seems to doubt the pledges Obama and congressional Democrats have made. "The Speaker and the White House can not allow themselves to believe anything other than they will win, because they have developed the intellectual behavior of the politically irrational," Perrin writes. He also writes that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's inability to dictate the bill's passage, from the House to the Senate to the President's desk, is harming the Democrats' efforts. "[Speaker Pelosi] is acting unstable," Perrin writes, noting her denial that the House would not vote before the Senate before she said the House would, in fact, vote first. "One day she insists the sky is yellow, then the next she says the sky is purple," he continues.

The Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti references two outside sources also linked to by Red State's Perrin. First, he notes an evolving list from Real Clear Politics' Jay Cost of House Democrats who are wavering or steadfast in their opposition to the health care bill.  While Cost acknowledges he cannot provide a clear estimate on how many Democrats will vote no, he does write that he can't see "anything less than 35 defections from Democrats on this bill."

Continetti also links to a post by Keith Hennessey, the senior White House economic adviser under former President George W. Bush. Hennessey writes, "[I]f the President wants to press forward after recess, nothing precludes him from doing so. I had mistakenly thought they would have given up long ago. I'll guess that the real deadline is for House passage before the Easter Recess." Continetti comments on what he perceives as the blindly persistent efforts of the White House and congressional Democrat, which may end only with a referendum at the polls: "Say they don't get the votes before the Easter recess. Would the president and Congress declare the bill dead? Doubtful... this incessant but ineffective push would continue until Election Day--or until a major party figure goes rogue, splinters the party, and says the bill is dead."

Writing at Daily Kos, David Waldman gives a liberal voice to procedural impediments to health care passage that conservative bloggers are citing. Waldman writes of a scenario he "worries about," in which House Democrats pass the Senate bill and the reconciliation fixes and sends it to the Senate, at which point "the Senate realizes they have the House over a barrel and can add something that perhaps they want, but know the House doesn't."

More: "The Senate should restrain itself if they're thinking of gaming the situation, and doing anything other than passing unchanged the reconciliation bill handed to them by the House. And that'd perhaps be something you could count on if reconciliation weren't such an unpredictable procedure. But it is," he writes.

While he calls news that California insurance company Anthem is hiking up premiums "a well-timed boost," Washington Monthly's Steve Benen also acknowledges that health care passage is "by no means a foregone conclusion." He does, however, look enough ahead to note the political futility of future Republican efforts to repeal any final health care law. "Democrats are going to ask, 'are you really going to fight to repeal protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions? Are you really going to take coverage away from 30 million middle-class Americans?' If Republicans say 'no,' they alienate the GOP activists who will settle for nothing but a full repeal. If Republicans say 'yes,' they alienate the mainstream electorate."

The liberal blogosphere also has a field day over news that Sarah Palin's statement today that her family "used to hustle over the border to Canada" to get health care.

Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog calls her "shameless. And, a hypocrite."

Daily Kos' Waldman also has plenty to say. "Sarah Palin's freeloading family used to border-hop for Canadian socialist, single payer, death panel health care for themselves, only to return to the U.S., where she grew up to dedicate herself to denying affordable care to you, largely by hoping you'll believe that the Canadian health care she crossed the border to get sucks so badly, it'll kill you," he writes. "Oh, not to mention the favorite Republican claim that passing health care reform in this country will supposedly rip off taxpayers by making health care available to border-hoppers!"

On a serious note, Think Progress' Igor notes, "this isn't the first time Palin highlighted the difficulty of obtaining affordable health care in America... Palin's experience also highlights the fact that American medical-tourism to Canada is common, despite conservatives' claims that Canada's health care system drives Canadians into the states."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Sen. John Cornyn, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he did not regret recruiting and endorsing Charlie Crist for a Florida Senate run.

Seeking to thread a needle between the endorsement of Crist and the Marco Rubio/Tea Party enthusiasm, Cornyn said he was "honor-bound" not to abandon his endorsement of Crist, but he also praised Rubio.

Cornyn, reflecting on the recruiting process, said he began the process in Florida by courting former Gov. Jeb Bush during a December 2008 meeting in Miami. "[F]or about a month or so, he was talking about running, but decided not to," Cornyn said of Bush. "And then I looked around to see who was the most popular Republican in the state, and somebody who was a good fundraiser, and that person was Charlie Crist. And, selfishly, given the limited resources we have and the national scope of our responsibilities here, I didn't want to have to spend any money in Florida if we didn't have to help. So Charlie Crist seemed like the ideal candidate."

Careful to toe the line with Rubio, Cornyn then said, "And this had nothing to do with Marco Rubio, who I subsequently met and have a lot of respect for. So, I think our posture here is, I endorsed Gov. Crist early on, really before this became a real contest. I'm not going to do anything to change that. I think I'm honor-bound to leave it as is. But it doesn't that mean we're going to spend any money in the primary. It doesn't mean we're going to be saying anything bad about Marco Rubio. To the contrary, I think Marco Rubio, if he wins the nomination, will beat Kendrick Meek."

Cornyn then made the point that Crist would still have been a good recruit -- even if he loses, because he kept the Democrats' potentially best statewide candidate out of the race.

"The good news is, by Gov. Crist getting in the race early," Cornyn said, "he was such a powerhouse and such a formidable candidate that it kept Alex Sink out of the race. She decided to run for governor, and I think it's shaped the playing field in a way that advantages us regardless of who wins the primary."

Cornyn also said he had no problem with Rubio going to campaign and raise money in South Carolina next week with Sen. Jim DeMint for three days.

"I'm for all of our candidates raising all of the money they can anywhere they can," Cornyn said.

He also sought to shoot down speculation that Crist could switch parties and run as either an independent or a Democrat.

"I've heard nothing to confirm that -- at all," he said.

Roll Call points out that Cornyn's statements seem "to be a far cry from how Crist described the primary on May 12, when he released a statement announcing that he was endorsing Crist. 'Governor Crist is a dedicated public servant and a dynamic leader, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee will provide our full support to ensure that he is elected the next United States Senator from Florida,' Crist said 10 months ago."

NOTES: Cornyn said that the Massachusetts result and the administration's "tin ear" on health care has helped Republican recruiting. It has "created a sense of opportunity for a lot of people," Cornyn said. "So I think we're going to see other candidates step up in the coming months." …

ARKANSAS: Cornyn didn't endorse any of what he said are 10 candidates running to challenge Blanche Lincoln on the GOP side. He did say, though, that he met with the head of an Arkansas Tea Party group to try and convince him to put his energies into supporting the Republican candidate and not to run as "Tea Party."

MISSOURI: Democrat Robin Carnahan can't bill herself as the outsider, Cornyn said, but neither can Roy Blunt, he acknowledged. He said Blunt and Carnahan are the "two best-known names in Missouri." He said Blunt would concede a "slow start" but has come on "like gangbusters."

NEVADA: He said Majority Leader Harry Reid has been losing to generic Republican since 2008.

NEW YORK: Cornyn promised Republicans will have a "significant, candidate," a "substantial candidate to run in New York" -- a place, like Washington state, he described as Republicans having a "hole in our dance card." (Calling George Pataki?)

WASHINGTON: "I have talked to Dino Rossi, he's contemplating the race." Rossi was a two-time candidate for governor in 2008 and 2004. He also mentioned Susan Hutchison, the King County Executive, as a potential candidate.

WISCONSIN: "Tommy Thompson … is still contemplating the race." Thompson is the former Repblican governor of the state. ...

And count Cornyn among those who do not rebuke Sen. Jim Bunning for his one-man hold on an extension of unemployment benefits, a move that sparked bipartisan ire. Bunning had a "good point," Cornyn said, that "deficit spending has to stop somewhere."

From NBC's Will Brown
In a conference call this afternoon, the liberal-leaning group Health Care for America Now (HCAN) announced it's airing a new TV ad (in the DC area) that lists health insurance rate hikes across the country in an effort to encourage Congress to pass reform.

[Youtube:IxYRWVS4zsM]

HCAN national campaign manager Richard Kirsch used the call to attack "the right-wing corporate agenda handicapping health care and climate change legislation" and asked: "Will Congress listen to the insurance companies or the American people?"

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined Kirsch on the call to promote the week's events and echo HCAN's criticisms of the health insurance industry.

"The simple reality is that middle-class families and small businesses can't afford these kind of rate hikes when insurance companies are posting massive profits," Shaheen explained.

Tomorrow, HCAN plans to hold a "mock arrest" at the DC Ritz-Carlton, where insurance company executives are gathering to meet. The coalition expects 3,000 people to participate in this week's events.

From NBC's Mark Murray
The New York Times magazine is the latest to profile White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been the subject of a fair amount of attention in Washington lately. Here are a few nuggets...

On the contradictory criticism he receives:

He is the bête noire of conservatives who see him as the chief architect of Obama's big-government program and of liberals who consider him an accommodationist who undermines the very same agenda. The criticism has been searing and conflicting. He didn't work enough across party lines. He tried too hard to work across party lines. He pushed for too much. He didn't push for enough. The crossfire underscores his contradictions — how can Emanuel be so intensely partisan without being all that liberal and so relentlessly pragmatic without being bipartisan? And just as salient these days, how can he be so independent-minded and still remain loyal to a team operation?

On how he cannot fail:

Emanuel, who declined to talk to me on the record for this article, generally shrugs off most of the commentary, scorning armchair critics who haven't spent time in the White House or Congress actually trying to accomplish something. But at least some of this is bravado. "He is obviously going through a tough patch," William Daley, a former commerce secretary and a close friend, says. "Everybody wants to dump on him because they don't want to dump on the president." Daley told me it is eating away at Emanuel: "Contrary to what he says, this stuff does bother him. He cannot fail. And if he thinks people think he failed, it depresses him. He can't stand the thought that he's failed, and he's hearing that from too many people now."

And on Rahm's short-term future:

Does he want to run for mayor of Chicago someday? Of course. With House speaker now off the table, Emanuel would like to lead his hometown and openly communicates that to people, including his friend Richard Daley, the incumbent mayor. But Emanuel would not run against the mayor, and William Daley told me that he thinks his brother will probably run again next year when his latest term expires.

So that leaves Obama and Emanuel together in Washington, for as long as the president wants him there. If they manage to pull off health care despite the odds, Emanuel will be hailed as a savior. If not, well, he does not even allow for that possibility.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
A year ago, the economy was the one and only issue that mattered. It certainly remains the overarching one. But Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee made it clear he wants his candidates to focus on health care.

Because Democrats have said passing their health-reform bills would lower costs, the question Cornyn said that should be asked of voters will be, "Are your health-care costs lower now in Nov. 2010 by virtue of passing this health care bill," the Texas Republican, wearing his signature black cowboy boots under a dark pinstripe suit, told a roomful of reporters at a Monday morning briefing about the 2010 Senate landscape. "And I think the answer to that will be, 'No, they're not.'"

Whether that's a fair question, however, is one to be debated, since the Congressional Budget Office said the Democrats' bill would lower costs. Observers have noted that because of the bill's design much of the benefits, however, would not take effect for years after passage. Republicans would therefore be benefiting from something politically in the short term that could wind up having positive effects later.

Cornyn seemed to tacitly acknowledge that. "Of course, most of the pain will begin immediately," he said, "and the gain, if you look at it as gain, will come years down the road."

He also said that if a bill passes, Republican candidates should campaign on repealing the bill. "I think that's surely one of the things that they should and will run on," he said, adding, "My personal preference would be to run against the bill and to stop it."

He said he agrees with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell when he says, "Democrats think by passing a bill, they'll be able to basically get it behind them, change the subject to something else like jobs. This [passing it] will do the opposite. This will make that health care is the No. 1 issue that the election is won or lost on in November."

He added, "If they pass the bill, then this will be the main issue in Nov. 2010. If they don't pass the bill, and they move on to jobs and other things, then I think there is at least a fighting chance something else might be the issue in November, but this whole idea of rubbing the nose of the voter in a bill that they find unpopular and thinking it won't be bad for them is just to me a conscious suspension of your power of disbelief."

Asked why then Republicans don't just get out of the way, he said, "And let the train wreck occur?" Cornyn asked. "There's politics, and there's policy. … I would say my hope is we are able to accomplish good policy, and that's why I thought the summit was so important for the American people to see -- the Republicans do have constructive ideas to solve this problem. Our position hasn't been solely to stop the bill; it's been to shelve the bill and start over."

President Obama seemed to respond to this notion today at an event at Arcadia College in Pennsylvania before a friendly audience. "I've got all my Republican colleagues saying, 'Well, no, no, no. We want to focus on things like cost,'" he said. "You had 10 years. What happened? What were you doing?"

But Cornyn said Democratic candidates, like Charlie Melancon in Louisiana, are "running away from the bill" while others are silent or embracing it. He said it will be a particularly potent issue against Michael Bennet in Colorado, who he said embraced a public option -- and that it will be a factor as well in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

He claimed that health-care reform will be "deeply damaging" for Democrats in 2010 and that Republicans have grabbed leads in most, if not all of the close races and open seats.

Cornyn also tried to stoke the divide between House and Senate Democrats, saying there was no guarantee that Democrats could pass the "fixes" they want via reconciliation in the Senate, since every items needs to be tied to the budget and that Republicans would be right there with objections. This has been a sore spot with House Democrats looking for guarantees from Senate Democrats before passing the Senate version of health reform.

"If you're the White House," Cornyn said, "why in the world would you care whether reconciliation passes at all once you've got the House to pass the Senate bill, once the president signs that bill into law. There is no rationale other than keeping promises to the House members. But with an administration, which has made so many promises on health care which have not been met, I think there's a great risk that the White House would embrace the House passage of the Senate bill and then forget about reconciliation and forget about those Democrats who voted for it and walked the political plank."

*** UPDATE *** The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sends along this response: "Republicans in Washington want their Senate candidates to run on the repeal of health care reform, and many like Mark Kirk, Kelly Ayotte, and Trey Greyson have succumb to the pressure from the establishment," spokesman Eric Schultz said. "Others, like Mike Castle, Jane Norton, and John Boozman have dodged the question. We believe that every Republican should be clear if they would support the repeal of health care reform if elected to the Senate. If Richard Burr is going to look voters in the eye and pledge to repeal health care reform which will have afforded coverage to 1.7 million North Carolinians, eliminated the doughnut hole for seniors, offered tax credits to small businesses, lowered the deficit, and ended appalling insurance practices -- then good luck to him."

From NBC's Athena Jones
GLENSIDE, PA -- A fiery President Obama delivered his most straight-forward, energized message in months in support of his proposal to overhaul the health-care system, spelling out what his plan would do and arguing that it is time for members of Congress to hold an up-or-down vote on the bill.

The administration has acknowledged this is their final push -- and their last best hope -- to get a health-care bill to the president's desk after a long and winding political saga.

Obama shed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves here at Arcadia University outside Philadelphia, as he explained in simple terms what his plan would do and asked his supporters to hit the streets to campaign for its passage.

"We need to give families and businesses more control over their own health insurance and that's why we need to pass health care reform, not next year, not five years from, now not 10 years from now, but now," Obama said. "If not now, when? If not us, who?"

The president believes his opponents have distorted the bill in an attempt to scare "the daylights" out of the American public. He has long argued that revamping the health-care system is key to long-term deficit reduction, and has sought to explain in plain terms -- not always successfully -- what his proposal would mean for people who have insurance and those who don't. In his remarks today, the president stressed the rising premiums that threaten to price policy holders out of the market, quoting from a conference call on health insurance organized by Goldman Sachs.

"Insurance companies know they will lose customers if they keep on raising premiums," he told the crowd of roughly 1,800 people. "But because there's so little competition in the insurance industry, they're ok with people being priced out of the insurance market. Because first of all, a lot of folks are gonna be stuck. And even if some people drop out, they'll still make more money by raising premiums on the customers that they keep and they will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it."

He said failure to pass this bill would mean more Americans would lose their insurance; more businesses would drop coverage; and the skyrocketing costs of Medicare and Medicaid would crush the federal budget.

Obama's proposal would expand coverage, adding some 30 million people to the health insurance rolls, ban discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, expand Medicare prescription-drug coverage, and provide subsidies to low-income people to help them buy coverage. It would pay for these changes by taxing high-cost health plans and reducing Medicare spending.

Many of the proposals in the health care bill won't kick in for a few years, and part of the president's pitch today focused on highlighting the parts of the plan that will start to take effect this year -- like tax credits for small businesses to buy health insurance and money for senior citizens to help them pay for their prescriptions.

Drawing a page from the campaign playbook, Obama closed by asking his supporters to knock on doors, talk to their neighbors, and let their representatives in Congress know what they think as they face this tough vote.

"Health care is a hard issue," he said. "It's easily misrepresented. It's easily misunderstood so it's hard for some members of Congress to make this vote, there's no doubt about that."

He went on to describe the challenges faced by families and small businesses struggling to pay rising health insurance premiums "because we allow the insurance companies to run wild in this country."

The White House hopes to get the bill through Congress in the coming weeks. The first step is House passage of the Senate bill, plus fixes to that legislation -- which they hope will take place before the president leaves for Indonesia and Australia on March 18. Then the Senate must pass the fixes through reconciliation, which requires a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Today, Obama returned to a favorite theme, telling members of Congress that they were elected to take on tough issues like health care, despite the political pitfalls.

"I don't know how passing health care will play politically, but I do know that it's the right thing to do," he said. "If you share that belief, I want you to stand with me and fight with me. I ask you to help us get over the finish line this next two weeks."

From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
On MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" this morning, Chuck Todd asked GOP Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the GOP Senate campaign committee, whether he was encouraging his Republican candidates to run on repealing health care -- if it ends up becoming law.

Cornyn hedged a bit. "In one form or the other, it will be a referendum on the health-care bill," he said.

"Daily Rundown" co-host Savannah Guthrie followed up with the same question: Will you make repeal a specific platform?

Cornyn's answer: "One way or the other, whether you call it repeal whether you call it a referendum... This is going to be the issue on which the November 2010 elections will be decided."

 

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However, about 30 minutes later at a NRSC pen-and-pad session, reporters asked Cornyn whether GOP candidates should run on repeal, he replied, "I believe so."

Also on the MSNBC program, Cornyn said he hopes Kay Bailey Hutchison -- after her failed gubernatorial bid -- doesn't resign from the Senate. "I'll hope she'll continue to serve, perhaps for the remainder of her term" -- which expires in 2012.

Obama hits the road to talk health care at 11:00 am ET… The New York Times' one-two punch at the White House's communications woes… Profiling bureaucratic "superstar" Tim Geithner… Yesterday's voting in Iraq… Massa resigns from Congress at 5:00 pm ET. What the frack? And FOX's Wallace puts Romney on the defensive on health care.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** On the road again: Do you remember the last time President Obama was on the road -- outside the DC Beltway -- for the sole reason to sell health-care reform? This might surprise you: It was Sept. 12, 2009 in Minneapolis. Of course, Obama almost always talks about health care, in some form or fashion, at every event inside or outside the Beltway.) But this is the first time in six months he's done an outside event OUTSIDE DC solely on health care. Well, Obama is back on the road, today talking about the issue at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA at 11:00 am ET. And on Wednesday, he goes to St. Louis, MO to promote his health-reform plans. The question we have today: Is Obama going to make more news on health care, or on the BCS (when he meets with the University of Alabama football team at 1:50 pm ET)? We noticed he did NOT invite Boise State today…

*** Message in a bottle: As Obama tries to sell health reform to a public that has increasingly become skeptical about the overall plan -- though perhaps not its individual components -- the New York Times delivered a one-two punch on Sunday regarding the White House's communications woes. The first was a profile of the White House's message impresario, David Axelrod: "The Obama White House has lost the narrative in the way that the Obama campaign never did," Brown University political scientist James Morone said in that piece. "They essentially took the president's great strength as a messenger and failed to use it smartly." Second was this Frank Rich column: "In governing, Obama has yet to find a theme that is remotely as arresting to the majority of Americans who still like him and are desperate for him to succeed. The problem is not necessarily that Obama is trying to do too much, but that there is no consistent, clear message to unite all that he is trying to do." (Did anyone else notice a silent Frank Rich in the middle of an "SNL" skit on Saturday night, er, Sunday morning?)

*** National Treasure? Speaking of the administration's communications problems, two new profiles of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner reach a similar conclusion: Geithner and the Obama administration helped save the U.S. economy, but they are getting little credit for it. Here's Josh Green's profile of Geithner in The Atlantic Monthly: "[I]t's possible to view him as someone who was indispensable in halting the crisis … while still doubting whether someone so steeped in the institutional cultures of Washington and Wall Street has the necessary distance to direct their reform." And here's the New Yorker's: "'My basic view is that we did a pretty successful job of putting out a severe financial crisis and avoiding a Great Depression or Great Deflation type of thing,' [Geithner] said. "'We saved the economy, but we kind of lost the public doing it.'"

*** Bureaucratic superstar: Green's piece, by the way, has the best description we've read about Geithner: "He lacks the fully realized public persona most government officials develop by the time they're chosen for important Cabinet positions. He doesn't look like a Treasury secretary. He lacks presence. He's trim and small, practically elfin, and, at 48, young for the job (he looks even younger). He doesn't fit the Treasury secretary's typical profile, either, since he is neither a businessman nor an economist nor a party eminence serving out a comfortable valedictory. Geithner is something else entirely—a superstar of the bureaucracy, whose rapid rise during the 1990s came in the Treasury Department he now runs. At heart, he's an institutionalist."

*** Votes and violence in Iraq: The big news over the weekend was Sunday's election in Iraq. "Defying a sustained barrage of mortars and rockets in Baghdad and other cities, Iraqis went to the polls in strength on Sunday to choose a new Parliament meant to outlast the American military presence here," the New York Times writes. "The shrugging response of voters could signal a fundamental weakening of the insurgency's potency. At least 38 people were killed in Baghdad. But by day's end, turnout was higher than expected, and certainly higher than in the last parliamentary election in 2005, marred by a similar level of violence." Said Obama yesterday: "Today, in the face of violence from those who would only destroy, Iraqis took a step forward in the hard work of building up their country. The United States will continue to help them in that effort as we responsibly end this war, and support the Iraqi people as they take control of their future."

*** The Massa mess: At 5:00 pm ET today, embattled Rep. Eric Massa officially resigns from Congress (which, it turns out, brings the magic number on health care back to 216). In fact, in a radio interview yesterday, Massa -- who voted against health care back in November -- suggested that Democratic leaders wanted him out of Congress because of that vote. "Now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass," Massa said. (And we assume that Democrats are eager to lose his seat to the GOP, right?) Also in that radio interview, Massa described the salty language that started the controversy that led to his resignation. At a recent wedding, Massa said a "staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that," Massa said. "And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, 'Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you.' And then [I] tossled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn't right for me to be there. Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes." 

*** Previewing Romney's primary fight? Last week, we noted the similarities between Romney-care and Obama-care -- and how they could be a political liability for him in the 2012 GOP primaries. On "FOX News Sunday" yesterday, Chris Wallace put Romney on the defensive on this issue. WALLACE: "But, Governor, let's look at the plan that you signed into law in Massachusetts in 2006. You have an individual mandate. You have an employer mandate. You have subsidiaries for some of the uninsured. You set minimum insurance coverage standards." ROMNEY: A big difference -- a state plan versus a federal plan. No new taxes, unlike his plan. No cut in Medicare, unlike his plan. And no controls over insurance premiums, price controls, cost controls like his plan. So very, very different in that regard." Still, you can see the line of attack that is going to develop on Romney in conservative circles… Of course, let's remember, as bad as immigration was for McCain in 2007, it didn't end his bid; he still got the nomination. But there are a lot of similarities between Romney and health care and McCain and immigration.

*** Harding to TSA: Per NBC's Athena Jones, the White House confirms that Obama plans to appoint retired Gen. Robert Harding -- a former senior Army official with a career in intelligence -- as head of the Transportation Security Administration.

*** More midterm news: In Arkansas, today is the filing deadline… In California, Carly Fiorina (R) officially files her Senate candidacy… In Nevada, Harry Reid officially files his candidacy, too… And in New York, embattled Gov. David Paterson yesterday said "he was the victim of innuendo and lies and that he would finish his term to 'fulfill the mission in which God placed me,'" the New York Times says. Paterson also holds a town hall today.

Countdown to OR, PA filing deadlines: 1 day
Countdown to CA, NV filing deadlines: 4 days
Countdown to IA, UT filing deadlines: 11 days
Countdown to Election Day 2010: 239 days

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The Washington Post on yesterday's election in Iraq: "On a day that began with the thundering explosion of insurgent mortar rounds and ended with outbursts of celebratory gunfire by hopeful political activists, millions of Iraqis voted Sunday to elect lawmakers who will rule this country for years as U.S. forces withdraw."

Said Obama: "On behalf of the American people, I congratulate the Iraqi people on their courage throughout this historic election.  Today, in the face of violence from those who would only destroy, Iraqis took a step forward in the hard work of building up their country.  The United States will continue to help them in that effort as we responsibly end this war, and support the Iraqi people as they take control of their future."

The Boston Globe goes to Richmond, Va.: "Here in the former capital of the Old Confederacy, where resistance to the supremacy of federal law has a long and tortuous history, a new battle is being waged over a question that could undercut a key part of President Obama's health care proposal: whether Washington can require that most Americans have health insurance. The Virginia Legislature this week is poised to become the first state to pass legislation that says citizens cannot be required to have medical insurance. Dozens of other states are considering similar measures, possibly setting the stage for one of the greatest tests of federal power over the states since the civil rights era."

And the Washington Post goes to Iowa. "The state that launched Barack Obama toward the presidency just two years ago is looking like a tough sell for Democrats in 2010. Culver is in trouble, Rep. Leonard Boswell (D) is threatened and President Obama's popularity has dropped by one-third since he took office."

Nancy Pelosi as John McCain? "As they try to reclaim the ethical high ground during a difficult stretch, House Democratic leaders are considering a dramatic move: declaring a party-wide ban on earmarks this year. The idea, floated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a leadership huddle Tuesday, is for House Democrats to outflank their Republican counterparts, who have mulled and rejected such a moratorium in recent years." 
 
Eric Massa, resigning effective today at 5 p.m., "suggested [during an interview on a New York radio show] that the ethics dust-up may have been orchestrated by Democratic leaders to get him out of office before the health care vote," Roll Call writes. He also details his side of the story of what happened that resulted in the ethics complaint:
 
"On New Year's Eve, I went to a staff party. It was actually a wedding for a staff member of mine; there were over 250 people there. I was with my wife. And in fact we had a great time. She got the stomach flu," he said. Massa explained that he then danced first with the bride, who was not identified, and then with a bridesmaid. He said multiple cameras recorded the incident. "I said goodnight to the bridesmaid," Massa continued. "I sat down at the table where my whole staff was, all of them by the way bachelors." "One of them looked at me and as they would do after, I don't know, 15 gin and tonics, and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne, a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that," Massa said. "And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, 'Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you.' And then [I] tossled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn't right for me to be there. Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes."

"The RNC will launch a new TV ad featuring chairman Michael Steele next week, taking the unusual step of appealing for donations via the airwaves in heavily GOP markets," Hotline reported Friday. "The 60-second spots will run in Tulsa; Oklahoma City; Cincinnati; Greensboro, NC; and West Palm Beach, FL. Steele will follow up the ad with personal visits to each market, where he will hold fundraisers. 'Pres. Obama and Nancy Pelosi are experimenting with America. Massive government expansion, government takeovers, redistribution of wealth, and staggering debt to countries like China and the Middle East,' Steele says in the ad. 'It's wrong, we can't afford it. It threatens our freedom.'" He continues: "But if people pull together, people can take our government back. Go to OurFreedomMatters.com. Make a donation. Washington is not listening. The President is not listening. Make them listen. Join with us. Go to OurFreedomMatters.com. Or dial 1-800-524-9004. Make a donation today, because our freedom is worth fighting for."

On the Sunday shows, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) expressed their disapproval over the RNC's fundraising material: "I don't like it and I don't know anybody that does," McConnell said, adding, "Typically, the way parties raise money is because people believe in the causes that they advocate. I think the way we raise money from donors across America is to stand for things that we think are important."
 
Hatch said there is "no excuse for that type of stuff... It shouldn't have happened. I'm ashamed of that." But "he doesn't believe RNC Chairman Michael Steele knew about the presentation and he said he still has faith in Steele's leadership."

*** UPDATE *** Just to clarify, McConnell and Hatch were criticizing the RNC's controversial fundraising pitch that used that Obama-as-the-joker drawing, etc. -- not the RNC's new TV ad above. Apologies for the confusion.

Meanwhile, the DNC has a TV ad hitting the RNC.

"Saturday Night Live" parodied Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in their opening bit this weekend: President Obama, played by Fred Armisen, "brushed off the notion that a vote for this legislation is political suicide: 'Does anyone seriously think Nancy Pelosi could lose in her San Francisco district? A place where Republican candidates often finish fourth, behind professional dominatrixes and homeless people.' He was more skeptical of Reid's chances, as the health care bill is 'angry mob unpopular' in Nevada," the Huffington Post recaps. 
 
ARKANSAS: The New York Times profiles the challenges in her home state that Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces as she runs for re-election: "Caught in a surge of antigovernment sentiment, Mrs. Lincoln has been blasted by conservatives for allowing health care legislation to proceed, and has already attracted a slate of potential Republican challengers. At the same time, in a state with a more centrist tradition than most others in the South, she has become a target of the left for opposing a government-run public health care option, easier organizing rules for unions and regulation to fight global warming." 
 
And Lincoln's primary challenger, Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, went up with his second ad this weekend. 
 
CALIFORNIA: " Former congressman Tom Campbell on Friday used the first debate in the California Senate race to demand that his challengers [Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore] not engage in a "whispering campaign" claiming he is against Israel or is an anti-Semite," the AP reports. "Campbell requested the debate after his opponents began questioning his support for Israel. Their attacks were based on his voting record when he served in the House of Representatives and on campaign money given by a donor who later was revealed to have ties to a U.S.-listed terrorist organization." 
 
ILLINOIS: "After a month of political wrangling, Illinois State Sen. Bill Brady was named the Republican challenger for the governor's office in the November election," the Christian Science Monitor writes. Brady won the GOP nomination by a slim 193 votes. 
 
MASSACHUSETTS: "The Democratic field to succeed retiring Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) began to shake out just hours after he made his retirement announcement official on Friday," CQ writes, noting at least five Democratic candidates who are expected to or already announced their plans to run. 
 
NEVADA: "It promises to be one of the most-watched election races in the country. On Monday, the senator from Searchlight will throw his hat in the ring," local affiliate KTNV reports. "Senator Harry Reid is expected to file for re-election Monday morning at the Grant Sawyer State Building in Las Vegas." 
 
NEW YORK: "Speaking before a church congregation in Brooklyn, Gov. David A. Paterson declared on Sunday that he was the victim of innuendo and lies and that he would finish his term to "fulfill the mission in which God placed me," the New York Times reports. "'I will keep governing to the end of the year, in the spirit of making the tough decisions and trying as hard as I can to fulfill the mission in which God placed me,' Mr. Paterson said." 
 
Paterson will hold a town hall discussion in Brooklyn today, Politics Daily reports. 
 
Stu Rothenberg is high on Richard Hanna, challenging Democrat Michael Arcuri in NY-24. 
 
PENNSYLVANIA: "Local Democratic officials Saturday picked Mark Critz, a former top aide to the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), as their preference to be their nominee for the special election to replace Murtha on May 18," Roll Call reports.

A look at the Week Ahead in politics.

FULL VIDEO HERE: The Week Ahead turns 1 year old. We celebrate with a First Read After Dark Party at the manor, Obama pushes health reform outside the Beltway in Philadelphia and St. Louis, Bidens to the Middle East, Scott Brown campaigns for McCain, McCain in NH for Ayotte, Santorum to Iowa, Palin hits Canadian speakers' circuit, Karl Rove's memoir's out, Romney's tour continues in Florida, Michigan, and California.

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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
President Obama delivers his weekly address on Saturday as usual.

But Republicans are rolling out Congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama, who switched parties in December, to deliver the GOP response.

Democrats remind us of the following ad Republicans ran against Griffith -- when he was running as a Democrat -- in which they accused him of "warehousing cancer patients" and saying he "can't be trusted."

From NBC's Ali Weinberg
The Washington Post's report today that "President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal" instead of civilian court has both sides of the blogosphere criticizing the White House for what is alternately an abuse of presidential power or an admission of weakness.

Matthew Yglesias, who writes for the liberal Center for American Progress' blog ThinkProgress, suggests that President Obama's possible overruling of Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Mohammed in civilian court would represent a dangerous blow to the checks and balances system: "When what you have is an opposition that's pressuring incumbent officials to seize more power for themselves the incentive structure is nuts and the constitution is going to be shredded."

Yglesias also warns that Republicans would not relent in their criticism even if the White House were to move KSM to a military tribunal; as he sees it, bowing to political pressure: "anyone in the White House who thinks the right-wing can't just gin up some new 'soft on terror' talking point is living in a dream world," he writes.

David Waldman, writing at Daily Kos, voices a similar sentiment. With a touch of sarcasm, he writes of a possible court switch,"This would officially mark the end of Republican attacks against President Obama on terrorism and detainee policy! And that's awesome!"

A post by MyDD's Charles Lemos also notes that the decision to heed protestations against KSM's civilian trial might backfire against Democrats: "the Administration should also consider the political consequences of alienating perhaps irrevocably those for whom civil liberties are non-negotiable as well as the certainty that Cheney-led right will use the reversal to further paint the President as a dangerous neophyte who is weak, indecisive and who lacks the proper judgment to be Commander-in-Chief."

Which is exactly, it seems, what former Bush administration press secretary Dana Perino and former Bush deputy counsel Bill Burck, go on to write at NRO: "No amount of spin could make this story look good, but the White House will try to claim victory if they get a deal to close Guantanamo. But that would be "victory" achieved by PR stunt because that's all closing Guantanamo would amount to — an appeal to the hearts and minds of jihadists and the far Left overseas, at the expense of common sense and our national security. And we've got a bridge to sell anyone who believes this crowd will fall in love with America once Guantanamo is closed."

Perino and Burck also write that the trial decision-making process began in the Justice Department as misguided as it now seems to be ending in the White House: "With stunning arrogance, Holder imposed his will on New York without consulting the mayor or the police chief. After all, Holder doesn't feel it's necessary to consult with the intelligence services when a terrorist is captured trying to blow up an airplane, so why would he consult with mere local officials? Well, those local officials were more than Holder bargained for, and once they realized how expensive, disruptive, and totally unnecessary a civilian trial in New York would be, they told Holder to take his trial somewhere else."

Writing at the conservative Red State, David Poff expresses disappointment that a White House decision to try KSM in a military tribunal would be driven by economic, rather than ideological, motivations, citing White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' statement that options were being reviewed "based on New York City logistical and security concerns."

"A lot of us out here believe this animal doesn't deserve to enjoy the same freedoms as those he successfully plotted to kill on 9/11, and that ALONE should be enough to try him like every other enemy of the State," Poff writes. "It would be nice to think Obama finally came around to our way of thinking on this topic. Sadly, his motivation is solely in deference to the "bottom line."