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  • Obama agenda: The Eyes of Texas are upon you

    The Austin American-Statesman previews today’s speech on higher education that Obama will deliver at the University of Texas. “President Barack Obama's speech at the University of Texas this afternoon will emphasize that increasing the number of young people with college degrees is crucial to achieving overall economic prosperity, according to some of his top advisers. ‘President Obama's top priority has been to turn around our economy,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Sunday in a conference call with reporters. ‘He knows we have to educate our way to a better economy. He understands that the country that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.’”

    Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News looks at Obama’s fundraising stops in the Lone Star State. In Austin, “Obama will head to the Four Seasons, to headline a Democratic National Committee luncheon expected to raise $750,000 to $1 million. Tickets start at $5,000 per couple… After an event focused on higher education at the University of Texas at Austin, Obama will fly to Dallas for a dinner at the Highland Park home of plaintiffs' lawyer Russell Budd. That's just a few miles from the Preston Hollow home of his predecessor, whom Obama routinely invokes to warn voters away from Republicans in November.”

    “Gov. Rick Perry will meet with President Barack Obama on Monday to discuss border security issues, the governor's office and the White House confirmed Friday,” the Dallas Morning News adds.

    Also today, the president meets with Super Bowl champs, the New Orleans Saints at the White House. “The Saints will hold a football clinic with Washington-area children before the event with Obama. After their White House meeting, the Saints players will visit wounded troops and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.”

    “Iraq’s military is ready and able to take over security operations as the United States ends its combat role and prepares for a major troop withdrawal, the commander of US forces in Iraq said yesterday.”

    “The United States has had three female secretaries of state -- but until now has never had a woman lead one of its 16 major intelligence agencies,” the AP writes. “Letitia A. Long is being elevated Monday to director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in a ceremony at the agency's half-built, high-tech campus in Springfield, Va.” The agency is considered “one of the ‘top computer geek shops’ in the national security world. The NGA synthesizes satellite imagery, using everything from the number of electric lines a city has to the density of the soil, to create three-dimensional, interactive maps of every spot on the planet. They're used by everyone from invading troops gauging whether a country's roads or deserts can handle tank tracks, to oil spill cleanup crews trying to decide where to deploy resources.”

    The Hill looks at efforts in other states on immigration similar to that of Virginia’s. “Just days after the Obama administration filed suit to block the Arizona law, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox filed a brief in federal court supporting the law on behalf of Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia,” The Hill writes.

    Hoop Dreams: The Washington Post writes up Obama day playing hoops with current and former NBA all-stars. “Obama … played Sunday with a stunning list of all-stars, including Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Derek Fisher, LeBron James, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, Maya Moore, Alonzo Mourning, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Bill Russell, Etan Thomas, Dwyane Wade and David West… The presidential pickup game, in front of an audience of wounded veterans and participants in a White House mentoring program, was closed to the media.”

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  • Congress: Is the Senate really broken?

    Roll Call: “Senate Republican defenses have stiffened as the 111th Congress has progressed, creating more obstacles for Democrats and forcing them to make concessions on major pieces of their legislative agenda,” Roll Call reports. “The enhanced GOP unity has given Republicans 10 victories on 20 filibuster attempts over the past four months. The GOP’s ability to stick together comes after the minority blocked Democratic legislation only five times in the previous 15 months.”

    And how about this bald admission of playing politics by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell? “McConnell said it was harder to keep his caucus together on cloture votes earlier this year and last year because ‘the president was sitting on a 70 percent approval rating and his situation and his ability to influence things was at a high point. And you’ve seen that kind of deteriorate over the course of the last year and a half, thereby creating a difficult problem for the majorities in the House and Senate in keeping their own Members together, because you end up having a larger number of nervous Nellies who are afraid they’re taking a career-ending vote.’”

    All of that said, Politics Daily’s Jill Lawrence counters the emerging C.W. about a “broken Senate.” She writes, “Since President Barack Obama's inauguration in January 2009, the Senate has confirmed two Supreme Court nominees, revamped the student loan system and removed obstacles to women and others pursuing equal pay. The Senate also has approved three laws – the economic recovery act, the health care overhaul and financial regulatory reform – that contain within them scores of achievements. Had the major items in these bills been passed separately, the last 18 months would have been crammed with one success after another (or one tough defeat after another, depending on your party). This fall the Senate appears poised to pass a bill to help small businesses, and another to boost clean energy jobs and respond to the BP oil spill.”

    “It's an impressive record, but it has not been treated that way. Part of the reason is that the journey has been ugly. McConnell and his crew are on track to match their 2007-08 record of forcing 139 cloture votes to end filibusters, while Democrats are taking the usual steps -- compromises, cajoling, cringe-worthy deals -- to forge onward. Every move by each side is dissected 24/7 by countless armchair analysts on blogs, talk radio and cable TV.”

    The Hill says unions will ramp up action against those who oppose the $26 billion state aid package that will likely pass the House tomorrow.

    “Rep. Charles Rangel told Harlem leaders Saturday he signed a plea deal on ethics charges but that the GOP pushed for a trial,” The New York Daily News reports. “ ‘He said he had signed an agreement. He was ready to go but I guess politics came into play,’ said Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Manhattan), one of about 50 leaders gathered for a Harlem district meeting Saturday.”

    Mike Pence said on “Meet the Press”: “If the allegations against Charlie Rangel are true, he should step down from Congress.”

    The Washington Post dives into the September primary challenge Rangel is receiving from Adam Clayton Powell IV -- and notes the irony of the contest. “Forty years ago, a Harlem political legend named Adam Clayton Powell Jr. refused to step down from his House seat in the face of an ethics scandal. Rather than allowing Powell to retire on his own time, an ambitious New York assemblyman took on the incumbent -- and won.”

    “Now the onetime assemblyman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), finds himself charged with 13 violations of ethics rules of the House of Representatives. He is being challenged by a state assemblyman named Adam Clayton Powell IV, the youngest son of the man Rangel vanquished in 1970.”

  • GOP watch: Avoiding the stampede

    “The Republican National Committee approved a plan on Friday seeking to avoid a stampede of early primaries in the next presidential campaign by pushing back the contests one month to extend the nominating season and produce a nominee who is tested in all parts of the country,” the New York Times writes. “For the first time, Republicans would award some delegates on a proportional basis, abandoning the winner-take-all approach that often brought an early end to the primaries. The new rules represent a major shift in how Republicans will select their nominee and the biggest overall change to the system since 1968.”

  • The midterms: Previewing the CO primaries

    The Boston Globe looks at the troubled freshmen Democrats: “The freshman Democrats face a conundrum: They have few of the trappings of incumbency (longtime name recognition and a list of accomplishments) but many of its downsides (being portrayed as part of a broken system in Washington).”

    Stu Rothenberg looks at what he calls “The Dangerous Dozen Open House Seats.”

    ARKANSAS: In an interview with Arkansas News, Bill Halter, who lost a primary bid to unseat Sen. Blanche Lincoln in a runoff election, said it was “not an easy thing” to endorse his onetime opponent.

    COLORADO: The New York Times says Tuesday’s Democratic and Republican Senate primaries in Colorado “have turned into roaring Rocky Mountain shootouts that could provide the best test yet of how deeply anti-establishment, anti-Washington sentiment is running this year.” More: “With the outcomes set to be settled on Tuesday, independent analysts and party operatives say the contests between the Republicans, Ken Buck and Jane Norton, and the Democrats, Michael Bennet and Andrew Romanoff, are close, making it uncertain who will be left standing to compete in November for a seat that appears up for grabs.”

    The best idea? “Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton has been criticized throughout her campaign for being too cozy with Arizona Sen. John McCain,” AP writes. “Two days before the contest ends, though, the former Colorado lieutenant governor launched a cross-state sweep promoting her association with McCain, whom she called an ‘American hero.’ Conservatives in Colorado have griped that Norton, who co-chaired McCain's 2008 presidential campaign here, was hand-picked by party leaders and McCain for the nomination. McCain said he didn't urge Norton to run until she and her husband called and asked his advice. … Norton told reporters Sunday she ‘won't always agree’ with McCain, but she thanked him for supporting her.”

    “McCain (R-Ariz.) headlined two campaign rallies for Colorado Senate candidate Jane Norton (R) Sunday,” The Hill writes. “McCain steered clear of trashing Buck directly Sunday, but did reference Norton's rival at a stop in Grand Junction when he implored the crowd to help get out the vote on primary day to ensure ‘the Buck stops here.’”

    “Scott McInnis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, has reached a settlement to repay the Hasan Family Foundation over accusations that he gave the group a plagiarized report on water rights as part of a $300,000 fellowship,” the AP reports.

    “Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes on Thursday said that if elected, he would lay off 2,000 state employees ‘just like that,’ despite the fact that many of those terminations could be prohibited by state laws and rules,” the Denver Post reports. “He also said he would ignore federal law and let energy companies drill even if the Interior Department tried to stop it. ‘If (Interior Secretary) Ken Salazar doesn't like it, he can come see me in Denver,’ Maes said.”

    KENTUCKY: Time recounts some of the colorful moments at the annual Fancy Farm picnic, where both Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway and his Republican opponent Rand Paul spoke: “A bearded man wandered around bare-legged, carrying a club and bearing a sign on his back: NEANDERPAUL. Paul supporters carried red boxes meant to represent the unwieldy tax code…Two men got into fisticuffs while debating the merits of the candidates and the police had to intervene.”

    MARYLAND: The Washington Post has the latest look at the “Palin effect,” this time examining the impact of her endorsement of previously little-known gubernatorial candidate Brian Murphy: “In the 72 hours after Palin's announcement, Murphy braced for a surge in campaign contributions, particularly from out-of-state Palin supporters... Privately, [rival Republican candidate Bob] Ehrlich aides have said that getting shunned by Palin could help him in the general election.” http://bit.ly/c58xu4

    MISSOURI: Roll Call jumps into Ike Skelton’s race in MO-4, one First Read has dubbed a “Majority Maker,” one of the races that if Republicans win, they likely take back the House. “The last time Rep. Ike Skelton had a competitive election was 1982, not long after fellow Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) celebrated his first birthday,” the paper writes.

    NEW HAMPSHIRE: “There is an unusual storyline playing out between the endorsements, fundraisers and political attacks in New Hampshire,” Roll Call reports. “When the 112th Congress convenes in January, the Granite State could be represented by the nation’s first all-female Congressional delegation. New Hampshire already has the distinction of being the only state this cycle with active female candidates left in each of its Congressional races.”

    OHIO: Looking at Democrat-held congressional districts that McCain won in ’08 – which the GOP believes are prime pick-up opportunities – the Sunday New York Times profiles OH-16, Rep. John Boccieri’s (D) seat. Boccieri “outperformed Mr. Obama by seven percentage points, but how voters react to his and other Democrats’ support for three administration priorities — the economic stimulus, the health care overhaul and climate change legislation — will help determine whether they can survive the fierce headwinds facing the Democratic Party.”

  • Will same-sex marriages be allowed today in Calif.?

    From NBC's Pete Williams
    Written briefs from lawyers on both sides of the Prop 8 dispute are due today in Judge Vaughan Walker's court in San Francisco. The judge has indicated that after they're submitted, he'll decide whether to extend or lift the temporary stay he put on his ruling Wednesday that struck down the law.

    If he lifts his stay, an action which would allow same-sex marriage to resume in California, the Prop 8 supporters would immediately ask the federal appeals court in San Francisco for a new stay. And if they get turned down there, they could seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Don't expect, though, that if judge Walker extends the stay the opponents of Prop 8 would ask the appeals court to vacate it. There are tactical legal reasons for them to want to keep the stay in place while the case is on appeal, and courts are reluctant to vacate stays that have the effect of maintaining the status quo.

    As for the appeals court, it won't hear the case until January at the earliest. The court issued a scheduling order Thursday, requiring the last of the written briefs to be submitted by late December.

  • Steele: Pelosi 'in the back of the bus'

    From NBC's Joel Seidman
    Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, wearing a red baseball cap emblazoned with the words "Fire Pelosi," invited Republicans to join him on a "Fire Nancy Pelosi bus tour" Friday.

    During remarks at the summer meeting of the RNC in Kansas City, Steele announced that the 6-week tour would commence after Labor Day.

    Rallying the GOP to win in November and urging supporters to "get on the bus," Steele capped off his call to action by predicting that "Nancy Pelosi will be in the back of the bus."

    "It's time to stop messing around and get the people's business done," he added.

  • Blog Buzz: Few jobs created (and one in particular lost)

    NBC's Ali Weinberg writes: The economy dominates the Friday morning blog conversation, with July's unemployment numbers (unchanged at 9.5%) and Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman Christina Romer's imminent departure from the White House driving the dialogue among blogs on the left and right.

    Liberal blogs were more likely than their conservative counterparts to find the silver lining in today's jobs report, pointing primarily to limited private-sector growth, but those bright spots were easily overshadowed by discouraging news.

    Liberal blogger Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly wrote, "The relatively good news is that private-sector job growth exists, and it was a little higher in July than in the previous two months. In May, private-sector job gains totaled 51,000; in June the number was 31,000; and in July it was 71,000. We've now seen seven consecutive months of job growth in the private sector, a streak we haven't seen in a long while."

    The glass is still half-empty, Benen continued: "The bad news is this isn't remotely good enough to help generate a sustained economic recovery."

    "No amount of lipstick will perk this pig," wrote blogger Meteor Blades at the liberal Daily Kos. "However, Census hiring and firing has distorted the jobless numbers for several months. The place to look is the private-sector. But there’s no comfort there today. Only 71,000 new jobs created, according to the seasonally adjusted report from the Department of Labor.

    "That is well under the consensus of experts and less than the 99,000 average of new private-sector jobs created in the first six months of the year," Meteor Blades concluded.

    Quashing another of his own attempts to glean good news from the report, Meteor Blades continued, "To be sure, today’s numbers are far better than July 2009 when 344,000 jobs were lost. Indeed, better than every month of 2009 except November, when 64,000 new jobs were created in both the private and public sectors. The problem, the very big problem, is that July marks the end of the first year of what the conventional definitions label a recovery. Yet so far, in the seven months of 2010, fewer new jobs have been created than were lost in January 2009 alone."

    Liberal blogger Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog also seemed to think the limited growth in the private sector represented mixed messages about the definition of a recovery. "Not exactly great news about jobs. Overall, there was a job loss, but private employers added 71,000 jobs... Earlier this week, Tim Geithner said we're in a recovery," he wrote.

    Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey at HotAir also notes that growth in the private sector is "still not enough to claim overall job creation gains when considering population growth."

    Morrissey also questioned Geithner's characterization of a recovery, noting the sluggish climb out of the recession: "This isn’t a Recovery Summer," he wrote. "It’s a slow slide, certainly better than the rapid disintegration of 2009, but we haven’t replaced those jobs yet, either. Job losses are cumulative. In a normal recovery with proper economic policies of lower barriers to investor entry, we would see a rapid replacement of jobs in this time frame that would take us back to somewhere around 80% of what was lost, with the remaining 20% being the most difficult to recover. We have not yet even begun that ascent."

    Both sides of the blogosphere used Romer's departure as a chance to decry the White House's economic policies. Liberal sites wrote that the White House should have heeded her advice to increase the size of the stimulus, while conservatives linked her leaving with Peter Orzsag's as evidence of the president's failures on the economy.

    "Christina Romer, chairwoman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, is leaving. Which is ironic, since she was the only one in the White House who seemed to understand, at the time, that we needed a larger stimulus than the one the President asked for," liberal blogger John Aravosis wrote at AMERICAblog. He links to an article cited by many other liberal bloggers today, which New York Times columnist Paul Krugman used last year to help make his own case for a larger stimulus: an October 2009 profile on the White House economic team by the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza.

    In it, Lizza wrote of Romer's recommendation for a bigger stimulus package, which was not included in a report on economic recovery for the president: "Romer’s analysis, deeply informed by her work on the Depression, suggested that the package should probably be more than $1.2 trillion. The memo to Obama, however, detailed only two packages: a five-hundred-and-fifty-billion-dollar stimulus and an eight-hundred-and-ninety-billion-dollar stimulus. [Larry] Summers did not include Romer’s $1.2-trillion projection," Lizza wrote.

    "Before folks at the White House say '$800bn (really $600bn, as Krugman points out), is all we could get politically,' let me remind you - $500bn was Congress' opening offer in the negotiation. You don't just cave at the beginning of the negotiation because the other guy says 'no.' You especially don't cave when the life and death of the entire country's economy is in the balance. You tell the other guy, 'if you won't do what's necessary to save the country from going into a second Great Depression, we'll go to the American people and tell them,' Aravosis wrote.

    He continued: "But the White House didn't do that. They caved. At the beginning of the negotiation. Then they caved again, giving 35% of the remaining stimulus to near useless tax cuts. And now we have 10% unemployment, the public disapproves of the President, and we're in danger of losing the House in the fall elections. This isn't an academic point that we all need to 'get over.' Rather, the White House screwed up, and we're all in deep @!$%# as a result. And now the only person in the White House who seems to have understood what was needed, is leaving. And the people who got us into this mess, are staying."

    Added Daily Kos' Jed Lewinson, who also linked to the Lizza article, "At a time when many of the President's advisers, including Summers, have urged him to put on the brakes to mollify the (fictitious) 'bond vigilantes,' Romer was a beacon of sanity. To the extent that her departure makes it less likely that the administration will push Congress to accelerate jobs creation, losing her voice will be a double whammy, jeopardizing the economic recovery and the White House's political fortunes along with it."

    On the conservative side, Hot Air's Morrissey took the exact opposite tack, suggesting that the White House actually got rid of Romer, in order to, as Morrissey wrote, "clean house and argue for a fresh start just before the midterms," noting that Peter Orszag, "who presided over the biggest deficit expansion in modern history, hit the road for family obligations earlier. "

    But, he continued, personnel changes do not necessarily mean policy changes: "Until that 'fresh start' begins to reduce spending, taxes, and regulatory burdens, though, the composition of Obama’s economic team isn’t going to make any difference at all."

  • Dean predicts demise of insurance mandate

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    Carrie Dann writes: On MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, former DNC Chairman Howard Dean told Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie that a key part of the federal health care bill – the requirement that almost all Americans must purchase insurance or pay a fine – is not essential to the overhaul.

    He predicted that the so-called “individual mandate” – which has been called unconstitutional by a group of state Attorneys General who are challenging the new reform law – will be stripped out before the legislation goes into effect in 2014.

    “By the time this thing goes into effect in 2014, the mandate will be gone, either through the courts, or because it’s unpopular,” he said. "You don't need it."

    Backers of the bill argue that the requirement that all Americans purchase insurance is a central tenet of the overhauled system that brought and kept insurance companies at the negotiating table during the protracted health care debate.

    But Dean argued that the mandate only benefits insurance companies, not consumers.

    “The truth is that the mandate’s not essential to the plan, anyway,” he said. “It never was essential to the plan.”

    Dean, who served as a spokesman for progressive Democrats who advocated unsuccessfully for a public option, was a vocal critic of several parts of the health reform bill throughout the overhaul effort.

    He penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in December 2009 blasting the Senate version of the bill, including the formulation of the individual mandate. He wrote then:

    “The bill was supposed to give Americans choices about what kind of system they wanted to enroll in. Instead, it fines Americans if they do not sign up with an insurance company, which may take up to 30 percent of your premium dollars and spend it on CEO salaries -- in the range of $20 million a year -- and on return on equity for the company's shareholders.”

  • First Read's 2010 Senate Ratings

    From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
    Your First Read team presents our first Senate ratings of the 2010 cycle:

    THE TOSSUPS:
    Pure Toss-up: Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania
    Toss up/Finger-on-Scale D: Colorado, Nevada, Washington, Wisconsin
    Toss up/Finger-on-Scale I: Florida

    Lean D: California
    Lean R: Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire

    Probable D: Connecticut, West Virginia
    Probable R:     Delaware, Arkansas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Iowa

    Solid D: Hawaii, Maryland, New York (Schumer), New York (Gillibrand), Oregon, Vermont
    Solid R: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah

  • First Read's Top 10 Senate takeovers

    *** SPECIAL NOTE *** Please vote on the poll on the right side of this post for which state you are watching most closely. We will leave the poll live through the weekend, and whichever state wins, NBC's Chuck Todd says he will do an extended segment on that state on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown. Vote Early. Vote Often. Vote NOW!

    From NBC's From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
    Note: On Fridays during this month of August, we’re scaling back our morning note. But we’re still providing something to read as you head to the beach or take advantage (hopefully) of a long weekend.

    *** First Read’s Top 10 Senate takeovers: If it’s Friday, it’s time for another First Read Top 10 list. Today, we release our monthly look at what we consider the top Senate seats to change parties in November. The number in parentheses is our ranking from last month.

    1. North Dakota (1): Republican John Hoeven (H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A) is coming to Washington.
    2. Delaware (2): Republican Mike Castle (R) remains the front-runner for Joe Biden’s old Senate seat. But he has a primary challenge on Sept. 14.
    3. Arkansas (3): Democrat Blanche Lincoln didn’t really get a bump after her surprise run-off victory against Bill Halter, and Republican John Boozman is the clear favorite to knock off the incumbent.
    4. Indiana (4): It will be interesting to see if Brad Ellsworth (D) is able to make political hay out of his proposal to completely bar senators from later becoming lobbyists. That, of course, is a dig at front-runner Dan Coats’ (R) past lobbying work. This is the race for Evan Bayh’s (D) seat.
    5. Pennsylvania (6): Joe Sestak (D) hits the campaign trail with Bill Clinton on Tuesday. Does that wake up his (so far) sleepy general-election campaign vs. Pat Toomey (R)?
    6. Florida (7): In almost every poll, Charlie Crist (I) remains in the lead in the three-way contest for this GOP-held seat, and C.W. points to him caucusing with the Dems. The Aug. 24 Meek-Greene primary could end up playing a VERY big role in how many Democrats support Crist in November.
    7. Illinois (8): Right now, this race is 50%-50%. The question is what will be the next shoes to drop for either Alexi Giannoulias (D) or Mark Kirk (R), both who have proven to be flawed nominees. This is the race for the seat that Roland Burris (D) currently holds.
    8. Nevada (5): Once near the top of our list, this race continues to drop. And there’s really only reason why: Sharron Angle (R). Harry Reid (D) remains vulnerable, but Angle continues to hurt her cause (example: her jaw-dropping interview with FOX’s Carl Cameron).
    9. Ohio (10): Rob Portman (R) has MUCH more money, and is probably the better candidate, but Lee Fisher (D) continues to lead the race to succeed George Voinovich (R).
    10. Washington (9): Patty Murray and Dino Rossi are on air and fully engaged on the politics of bringing home the bacon. One man's pork is another woman's jobs….

    Others to watch (in order): Wisconsin, Kentucky, Colorado, Missouri, California, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Connecticut, Louisiana

  • Romer to quit as Obama adviser

    National Journal's Victor will have the scoop in tomorrow's edition of the National Journal magazine that Obama economic adviser Christina Romer is quitting the post. It all stems from her feeling -- despite her title as chairwoman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers -- that Larry Summers has more influence with the president.

    Victor quotes "a source with insight into the White House economics team," who says:

    “She has been frustrated. She doesn’t feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers [director of the National Economic Council], who does have a direct line to the president. She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn’t seem to be playing that role."

    And he quotes banking consultant Bert Ely, who faults Summers for the missed jobless rate projection. (The administration posited that it would be just 8% if the stimulus passed, yet it is nearly 10% now.)

    “You have to wonder why Summers isn’t the one that should be taking the fall," Ely says, per Victor. "But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter.”

  • Hodes camp accuses Ayotte of relying on special interests

    From NBC's Ellie Hall
    Calling the most recent TV ad against New Hampshire Senate candidate Paul Hodes (D) "false, misleading and just plain wrong," his campaign today accused Republican candidate Kelly Ayotte of relying on special interests groups to save her senatorial campaign.

    The ad -- which Hodes communications director Mark Bergman called "right off the Glenn Beck chalkboard" in a conference call today -- is sponsored by the conservative American Action Network, and it ends by urging voters to support Kelly Ayotte, the GOP front-runner in the race. American Action Network also has sponsored ads against Patty Murray (D) in Washington state and Charlie Crist (I) in Florida.

    "We're gaining momentum," Bergman continued. "We've surged, cutting Ayotte's lead in half as more voters find out her record. We've been successful and special interests are getting worried and attacking Paul."

    Citing American Action Network chairman Fred Malek's close ties to Sarah Palin -- and the former Alaska governor has endorsed Ayotte in New Hampshire's Senate race -- Hodes campaign manager Valerie Martin claimed that the organization's board "is run by Kelly Ayotte donors."

    Bergman defended Hodes' vote on cap-and-trade, the subject of the American Action Network ad. "We need to wean our influence off of foreign oil," he said. "We need to stand up to the big oil special interests and create a 21st century economy that's based on alternative energy."

    "Kelly Ayotte cannot possibly be an independent voice," Martin concluded, "If her campaign has to be rescued by outside groups."

  • Kagan wins confirmation, 63-37

    AP

    From NBC's Ken Strickland, Pete Williams, and Mark Murray
    By a 63-37 vote, the U.S. Senate today confirmed Elena Kagan to become the Supreme Court's next justice -- and the fourth woman overall to serve on the high court.

    It was a mostly party-line vote. The exceptions: Republicans Collins, Graham, Gregg, Lugar and Snowe voted for her, and Democrat Ben Nelson voted against her.

    The 63 votes Kagan received are fewer than President Obama's first nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, got. But they are more than George W. Bush's last nominee, Samuel Alito, received.

    Here's the comparison:

    Aug. 2010: Elena Kagan, 63-37
    Aug. 2009: Sonia Sotomayor, 68-31
    Jan. 2006: Samuel Alito, 58-42
    Sept. 2005: John Roberts, 78-22

    It's likely Kagan will be sworn in Saturday at the U.S. Supreme Court, following the novel procedure used a year ago to swear in Sonia Sotomayor.

  • The confirmation wait

    To those who’ve watched the steady progress of Elena Kagan’s confirmation process, it might seem that the march toward the inevitable thumbs up from the Senate today has dragged on for ages. How long has it really been?

    President Barack Obama picked Kagan for the high court on May 10, making today the 88th day that she’s awaited final approval from the United States Senate. According to the Congressional Research Service, that’s the longest Senate confirmation process since 1991, when Associate Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed 52-48 after 99 days that included the famously divisive Anita Hill hearings.

    (The man that Kagan is replacing had it pretty easy, by comparison. Retiring Justice John Paul Stevens was nominated by President Ford the day after Thanksgiving, 1975. He was unanimously confirmed a week before Christmas.)

    Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the last nominee to grab one of the nine seats on the bench at One First Street, was confirmed after 72 days.

    Since the time of Justice Thurgood Marshall's confirmation in 1967, the amount of time between the announcement of a court pick and final action on a high court nomination was about 69 days, according to CRS. (That calculation includes withdrawn nominations, like the three-week internecine political struggle that ensued after President George W. Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the highest court in the land.)

    The honor of the longest successful Senate confirmation process ever technically belongs to Potter Stewart, who was confirmed by the Senate 108 days after President Dwight Eisenhower nominated him to the court in 1959. But here’s the catch: Stewart was actually appointed when the Senate was in recess. Recess appointments to the court used to be somewhat routine - there have been 12 in the nation’s history – although they’re a politically unthinkable notion now.

    After the long wait, Kagan will join her colleagues in time for the first day of oral arguments on Monday, October 4. But even as the attorneys file into the courtroom for the first oral argument of the day, she’ll have to wait a few additional hours to hear a case that she'll actually rule on.

    That’s because the first case of the year, Abbott v. United States, is one of those that Kagan has pledged to recuse herself from ruling on because she worked on the case in her previous job as Solicitor General.

  • San Francisco, some Dems originally opposed Prop 8 judge

    From NBC's Chris Donovan and Pete Williams
    San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed Wednesday's court decision striking down Proposition 8, "a big day for fundamental rights, for American values," and he specifically praised "the words set forth by Judge Walker."

    But Vaughan Walker, who wrote the federal court decision on same-sex marriage, would never have become a federal judge in the first place if San Francisco's wish had been granted when he was nominated by President Reagan 22 years ago.

    In February of 1988, the city's board of supervisors adopted a resolution opposing him, citing "his limited experience as an attorney, his lack of judicial experience, his seeming lack of integrity, and his lack of compassion."

    The supervisors were angered by Walker's role as a lawyer in helping the US Olympic Committee fight a former Olympian's plan to organize an athletic competition and call it the "Gay Olympics."

    Walker represented Olympic officials in suing Tom Waddell, a former member of the US decathlon team, over the rights to use the name "Olympics." When a federal court ruled against Waddell, Walker filed legal claims, known as liens, against Waddell's home and other property to collect $96,000 in attorney's fees.

    The liens were not removed until six days after Waddell died of complications from AIDS.

    The San Francisco Board of Supervisors said Walker's "sole experience with respect to civil rights legislation was to aggressively pursue the lawsuit."

    Walker faced tough questions on the case from Senate Democrats, including Patrick Leahy (now chairman of the Judiciary Committee) during a five-hour confirmation hearing in June 1988, and his nomination expired when the Judiciary Committee refused to vote on it. The following year President George H.W. Bush re-nominated him for the same position, and the San Francisco supervisors repeated their opposition. After another hearing he was voted out of the Judiciary Committee favorably and confirmed in November 1989. Two committee Democrats opposed his nomination -- Paul Simon and Ted Kennedy.

  • Scott Brown will vote 'no' on Kagan

    From NBC's Mark Murray and Ken Strickland
    We still do not have an exact time for SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation vote today. The Senate leaders have yet to reach an agreement.

    (This is more than likely because Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are struggling to strike a deal of other non-Kagan related matters and have lumped the timing of Kagan's vote into the mix.)

    That said, the best guess is that the vote will happen sometime between 5:00-7:00 pm ET.

    But whenever the vote takes place, one Republican who won't be voting her is Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R). His rationale: experience.

    First, let me say that I have a great deal of respect for Elena Kagan. She has an impressive resume, and in my private meeting with her I found her to be brilliant, as you might expect from a former dean of Harvard Law School. However, I cannot vote to confirm Elena Kagan. The reason is simple. I believe nominees to the Supreme Court should have previously served on the bench. Lacking that, I look for many years of practical courtroom experience to compensate for the absence of prior judicial experience. In Elena Kagan's case, she is missing both. When it comes to the Supreme Court, experience matters. No classroom can substitute for the courtroom itself, where decisions are made that affect the day-to-day lives of American citizens, and where one's judicial character and temperament is shaped in favor of the fair and just application of the law. The best umpires, to use the popular analogy, must not only call balls and strikes, but also have spent enough time on the playing field to know the strike zone. Therefore, I cannot support Elena Kagan's nomination.

    However, it's striking that Brown doesn't seem to believe that actually arguing cases before the Supreme Court -- as Kagan has done from 2009-2010 as the administration's Solicitor General -- is spending time "on the playing field."

    *** UPDATE *** As NBC's Domenico Montanaro reminds us, Brown helped INTRODUCE Kagan at her confirmation hearing.

  • Kirk's ex-wife will still vote for him

    AP

    Mark Kirk with his then-wife Kimberly Vertolli-Kirk. Tuesday Nov. 4, 2008.

    From NBC's Mark Murray
    Earlier today, we noted that Illinois Senate GOP nominee Mark Kirk's ex-wife, Kimberly Vertolli, told Chicago Magazine "that she will not 'advocate' for her ex in his Senate run because she fears he is too influenced by a 'Svengali figure' in his life—a former staffer named Dorothy 'Dodie' McCracken.

    But that was only part of the interview Chicago Magazine released. Here's an exchange from the second installment:

    Chicago Magazine: If you were still registered to vote in Illinois could you see yourself casting a ballot for Mark Kirk?
    KV: Oh, absolutely. Great leaders have foibles, they're not perfect, they're human beings, they disappoint us sometimes. The best we can do is use our best judgment with the choices we have and do our best to influence them to go on the right path. If I had the choice between Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias, it's not hard. I'm really disappointed that Obama is going to be coming out and campaigning for Giannoulias. I think it's beneath [the President.] [Obama] knows about those risky lending practices [of the Giannoulias family's Broadway Bank]. Giannoulias has horrible judgment, and the President knows it.
    Chicago Magazine: Do you think Mark Kirk will win in November?
    KV: I feel pretty confident he's going to win.

    So what's the difference between "advocate for" and "vote for"? Kirk's ex-wife is disappointed in Kirk's opposition to overturning "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." From the first installment:

    Chicago Magazine: How has he done so far on exercising that moral conscience on issues?
    KV: I'll give you one solid example. I lobbied him on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign, [an organization that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, of which Vertolli is a member, donor, and volunteer]. I passionately support their drive to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Mark voted against the Murphy amendment [to repeal DADT, named for Pennsylvania Democrat Patrick Murphy, passed by the House this past May]. Therefore, he voted in favor of maintaining a discriminatory policy against gays and lesbians who are serving us in the military. I privately withdrew my support because to me that's a basic human right. I will not support a candidate who upholds a policy that discriminates against gays and lesbians.
    Chicago Magazine: That's where you are now?
    KV: No. He assured me that when the issue came up again, he's going to do the right thing and support overturning that policy. He has a very good rating with the Human Rights Campaign. He's one of the most pro-gay rights Republicans we have.
    Chicago Magazine: So at this moment, with that promise, is it your intention to support him and campaign for him?
    KV: No, I will not because there's a person who is a very pernicious force on his team who is wielding a disproportionate amount of negative influence on him. As long as she's there, I can't be his moral conscience.

  • Obama touts car industry successes

    AP

    From NBC's Athena Jones
    During his third visit to a major American auto plant in a week, President Obama touted the recent rebound of an industry whose survival his administration argues was due in large part to federal help.

    Today's trip to a Ford Motor Company assembly plant here comes as the administration highlights a "substantial" rebound in auto exports, which showed a 57% increase during the first few months of 2010 (Jan. to May) compared to a year ago, according to the White House.

    The president set a goal in his State of the Union address of doubling American exports over the next five years.

    "We're tired of just buying from everybody else," Obama told some 1,700 Ford employees, industry representatives, elected officials, and community and labor leaders after touring the plant. "We want to start selling."

    Calling the factory here a "part of American history" and the "backbone of the community," Obama announced a new loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States that the White House says will finance $3.1 billion of export sales for more than 200,000 vehicles being sold in Canada and Mexico. The vehicles will be made at plants in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. The Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO) will provide the funding for the revolving $250 million loan backed by Ex-Im's guarantee. The loan, fees, and interest will be paid off in one year, according to the administration.

    "The year before I took office, this industry lost hundreds of thousands of jobs; sales plunged 40%," Obama said, during his roughly 17-minute speech. "Because of your efforts and the sacrifices that have been made across this industry over the past year, this industry is growing stronger. It's creating new jobs; it's manufacturing the fuel efficient cars and trucks that will carry America towards an energy independent future."

    He went on to say that all three U.S. automakers were operating at a profit for the first time in six years.

    Ford was the only one of the Big 3 U.S. car companies not to receive billions in federal aid in a bailout that began under the Bush administration. The Republican National Committee emphasized the fact that Ford had not taken federal money in an email sent out this morning subtitled "Desperate To Claim Economic Victory, Obama visits Ford Plant To Tout Success He Had Nothing To Do With."

    When the Obama White House extended additional help to General Motors and Chrysler last year, they also required both companies to undergo a restructuring aimed at making them more nimble and more competitive. The administration says the move saved a million jobs at the companies, at related manufacturers and at auto dealerships nationwide. While not a direct beneficiary of federal help, Ford supported the bailout for the two companies and was helped indirectly as the money allowed auto parts suppliers and other related firms essential to the interdependent industry to stay afloat.

    The industry has added some 55,000 jobs over the past year -- the first time the industry as a whole has done so since 1999, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Brian Deese told reporters on a conference call to preview today's event. The Obama administration says it expects taxpayers to eventually recoup the money invested in GM and Chrysler.

    This is a success story the White House is eager to highlight as the midterm election season approaches -- given the slow recovery of the overall economy and the still-high unemployment rate. In fact, initial claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to their highest level since April as hiring remained weak and firms continued to cut jobs. Claims have risen twice in the past three weeks, according to the Labor Department.

    The 2.8 million square foot-Ford plant here is set to begin production of the new, more fuel efficient 2011 Ford Explorer, with the help loan guarantees provided by the Department of Energy. The loan guarantees -- aimed at helping companies retool their plants to make more fuel efficient vehicles -- allowed Ford to bring back a second shift of 1,200 workers, to help build the new Explorer.

    Obama visited Chrysler and General Motors Plants in Detroit and Hamtramck, MI on Friday. After today's speech at Ford, he was set to attend fundraisers for Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias -- who was on hand at the event -- and the Democratic National Committee, before heading home to Washington tonight.

  • First thoughts: Will gay marriage be an issue in the fall?

    AP

    As a rainbow appears in the background, Jeff Key holds the flag as advocates for gay marriage rally on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City after a federal court judge overturned CA's same-sex marriage ban Wednesday Aug 4, 2010.

    Will yesterday's gay marriage ruling measure on the political Richter scale this fall?... Obama, in Chicago, makes remarks on the U.S. auto industry at 11:15 am ET and stumps for Alexi Giannoulias after that… MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" interviews David Axelrod and Rick "One Tough Nerd" Snyder… The House -- on its August recess -- is set to come back to work to pass $26 billion in state aid… Senate is set to confirm Elena Kagan… It's primary day (on a Thursday!) in Tennessee; polls close at 8:00 pm ET… Profiling Rick Santorum's inner circle… Previewing KS-3… And Rossi and Didier disagree on Afghanistan.

    From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
    *** Will gay marriage be an issue this fall? Yesterday's ruling by a federal judge striking down California's gay-marriage ban produced political and legal tremors that could be felt here in Washington at some point. Here's the San Francisco Chronicle: "When a judge struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday, he handed gay rights advocates a historic and invigorating victory, but also a temporary one in a long fight that may be heading toward a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court." The political question everyone is asking is, "What does this mean for the 2010 midterms?" But we're unsure if it will still measure on political Richter scale in the fall. Why? Because while gay marriage has been a base motivator for Republicans, it doesn't seem like the GOP base needs help motivating this year. As for swing voters, in elections where the economy is issue No. 1, social issues tend to take a back seat. In fact, the White House would probably love nothing more for the fall to be a debate over gay marriage and the 14th Amendment. Do GOPers take the bait? http://bit.ly/cGAfsB

    *** Obama's day in Chicago: For the second time in a week, President Obama will make remarks highlighting what he believes are administration-assisted successes of the U.S. automotive industry. At 10:55 am ET, the president tours a Ford assembly plant in Chicago, and he makes remarks at 11:15 am. (The president will sit down with CNBC's Phil Lebeau to talk about the administration's role in the rebuilding of the auto industry. Highlights of the interview will be on CNBC late today and then on the NBC Nightly News.) Then, later in the day, he speaks at a fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. And finally, at 7:00 pm, Obama hits a low-dollar DNC fundraiser before returning to Washington. Per the Giannoulias campaign, Alexi will accompany the president at both the Ford plant and the DNC fundraiser. Pegged to Obama's event for Giannoulias today, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has produced a Web video going after the Democratic candidate. By the way, we assume the White House hopes the Blago verdict doesn't come while the president is in Chicago…

    *** Programming note: MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" this morning interviews White House adviser David Axelrod, as well as Rick "One Tough Nerd" Snyder, who won Tuesday's GOP gubernatorial primary in Michigan.

    *** The House comes back to work: After the Senate beat back a GOP filibuster -- with crossover votes from Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe -- blocking a $26 billion bill in state aid to save teaching and other jobs from the budget chopping block, the House is temporarily ending its recess to pass the measure next week. "As millions of children prepare to go back to school -- many in just a few days -- the House will act quickly to approve this legislation once the Senate votes," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement yesterday. As the Washington Post writes, "House members left town last week, and many rank-and-file Democrats looked forward to the break as a chance to defend dozens of seats at risk in the November elections. But aides said many lawmakers will welcome the interruption, viewing it as a chance to score a fresh legislative victory for teachers and public-service unions, an important Democratic constituency."

    *** Kagan gets her vote: The Senate is poised to vote on Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination today. And while her confirmation is a sure thing, she's likely to receive fewer votes than Sonia Sotomayor got a year ago. The AP: "Her confirmation assured, Elena Kagan is on the brink of becoming the fourth woman ever to serve as a Supreme Court justice. The Senate is set Thursday to confirm President Barack Obama's nominee, whose addition to the court will mark the first time three female justices have served concurrently."

    *** Don't throw stones in glass houses: Given all the attention Charlie Rangel's and Maxine Waters' ethics woes have received, don't forget that another person is potentially facing even more serious charges -- GOP Sen. John Ensign. Both the Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department are investigating these matters relating to Ensign's affair with a staffer whose husband was a top Ensign aide: 1) the allegation that Ensign promised to set up the cuckolded husband as a lobbyist after he confronted Ensign about the affair, and 2) that Ensign's parents wrote a $96,000 to the couple. For Ensign, the attention being given to Rangel and Waters is not a good development. As Republicans attempt to make hay over Rangel and Waters, they'll be forced to defend the Ensign situation -- something that makes Senate Republicans, in particular, very uncomfortable. By the way, it's being reported that Ensign has registered his legal defense fund as a 527…

    *** If it's Thursday… : Two days ago, mainstream made a bit of comeback in GOP primaries when moderate Rick Snyder won the gubernatorial nomination in Michigan, and conservative Jerry Moran won the Senate nomination over the more conservative Todd Tiahrt in Kansas. Will today's Tennessee primary for governor -- taking place on rare Thursday! -- make it three in a row? As we mentioned earlier this week, three top Republicans are vying for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Bredesen (D). The three are Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, and Rep. Zack Wamp. (The fabulously great Basil Marceaux is also in the race.) http://bit.ly/bwsK8K

    *** Will another GOP moderate win … in Tennessee? Ramsey drew national attention by describing Islam as a cult, while Wamp has a TV ad in which he says, "I believe God is the center of the universe. He made us to serve him and to serve others"; Wamp also suggested succession before backtracking from that. By comparison, Haslam is the moderate in this race (think Bob Corker, circa 2006). The winner will take on Democrat Mike McWherter in the fall; McWherter is the son of a former TN governor. There are also some House primaries of note, including the GOP primaries in TN-6 (the open seat being vacated by Dem Bart Gordon) and TN-8 (an open seat being vacated by Dem John Tanner), and the Democratic primary in TN-9 (between incumbent Steve Cohen, who is white, and challenger Willie Herenton, who is black). Polls close at 8:00 pm ET.

    *** 2012 Thursday: The latest in our weekly look at the emerging 2012 race is a profile of Rick Santorum's inner circle. The team: media consultant John Brabender; former chief of staff Mark Rodgers, a senior adviser on policy/operations; finance director Nadine Maenza; and spokeswoman Virginia Davis. By the way, it does appear that Santorum is running. Since 2009, he's made four trips to Iowa, three visits to New Hampshire, and another four trips to South Carolina. And he heads back to Iowa Aug. 16-18. In fact, by the end of this year, Santorum probably will be the Republican who will have spent more time in the big three early states than either Pawlenty or Romney.

    *** 75 House races to watch: KS-3: This is an open seat vacated by eight-term Rep. Dennis Moore (D), and the Democratic nominee is Moore's wife -- Stephene. The GOP nominee is state Rep. Kevin Yoder. Yoder (as of June 30) has $510,000 in the bank, while Moore has $237,000. In 2008, Obama won 51% in this district, while Bush won 55% in 2004. Stephene Moore's husband voted for the stimulus, cap-and-trade, and health care. Both Cook and Rothenberg rate the race as Lean Republican.

    *** More midterm news: In Illinois, Mark Kirk's ex-wife told Chicago Magazine "that she will not 'advocate' for her ex in his Senate run because she fears he is too influenced by a 'Svengali figure' in his life—a former staffer named Dorothy "Dodie" McCracken… In Kentucky, it turns out that Rand Paul never received an undergraduate degree, though he did graduate from medical school… Also in Kentucky, Dan Mongiardo FINALLY endorsed Jack Conway… In New Hampshire, Norm Coleman's American Action Network is targeting Paul Hodes in a new TV ad… And in Washington state, Dino Rossi and Clint Didier disagree on Afghanistan, with Didier wanting troops instead on the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Countdown to CO, CT, and MN primaries, plus GA run-off: 5 days
    Countdown to WA and WY primaries: 12 days
    Countdown to AK, AZ, FL, and VT primaries: 19 days
    Countdown to Election Day 2010: 89 days

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  • Congress: Jobs saved or created

    "After months of grousing that the Senate was unable to get anything done on its jobs agenda, House Members will now have to interrupt their summer break to pass a $26 billion package of aid to states that the Senate is poised to clear later this week," Roll Call writes. "House Members will likely have to cut short trips abroad or interrupt packed district schedules as they gear up for the midterm elections, but they see it as a chance to help reframe the political debate and force Republicans to play defense." The measure saves the jobs of teachers and firefighters across the country -- and is paid for.

    Here's the headline from the New York Daily News: "Teachers' jobs saved by Senate."

    And even the New York Post: "DC coming to NY's re$cue."

    And the Boston Globe's top story: "Massachusetts stands to receive $655 million in federal Medicaid and education money under an aid package that narrowly cleared a key congressional hurdle yesterday despite opposition from the Bay State’s Republican senator, Scott Brown."

    But Republicans are opposed to the aid. "The American people don't want more 'stimulus' spending - particularly spending for labor unions attached to a job-killing tax increase,” emailed Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. “Democrats would be better off listening to their constituents, who are asking, 'where are the jobs,' rather than returning to Washington, DC to vote for more tax hikes and special interest bailouts."

    The New York Times: “The legislation would provide $10 billion to retain teachers who might otherwise lose jobs to cutbacks, and an additional $16 billion to help states struggling to close budget deficits. While the move will interrupt summer campaigning, the vote will give Democrats a concrete accomplishment that they can trumpet at a time when unemployment remains high. Republicans, in turn, immediately criticized the bill as catering to teachers’ unions and another example of irresponsible spending by Democrats.”

    Congress is expected to take up whether or not to extend the Bush taxes in September, the New York Times adds.

    "Embattled Rep. Maxine Waters has always been an agitator who is more than willing to pick a fight when she thinks she’s right," Roll Call reports. "And that’s what makes her such a potential liability for Democrats. The California Democrat’s long history of taking on her party establishment has convinced leaders that she will follow through on her pledge to fight ethics charges, whatever the cost to the party in November."

    What's with this? "Sen. John Ensign registered his legal expense fund as a 527 political organization Monday, according to documents filed with the IRS. The Nevada Republican received Senate approval in May to establish a legal expense fund to pay attorney fees stemming from Senate Ethics Committee and Justice Department investigations into his alleged attempts to cover up his extramarital affair. Campaign finance experts called the decision unusual and possibly unprecedented, noting that Members of Congress do not typically register legal expense accounts in such a dual fashion."

  • Obama agenda: Kagan to get her confirmation

    The AP: "Her confirmation assured, Elena Kagan is on the brink of becoming the fourth woman ever to serve as a Supreme Court justice. The Senate is set Thursday to confirm President Barack Obama's nominee, whose addition to the court will mark the first time three female justices have served concurrently."

    “President Barack Obama will announce a $250 million loan guarantee today to finance Ford Motor Co. exports, as he defends his administration’s bailout of the U.S. auto industry, according to a White House statement,” Bloomberg News reports. “Obama will tour an automobile factory in Chicago, where Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, the only Big 3 U.S. automaker that didn’t take bailout money, will begin assembling the new 2011 Explorer later this year.”

    "The commander of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan issued updated rules of battle yesterday, repeating his predecessor’s curbs on use of air power and heavy weapons when civilians are at risk but stressing the right of troops to defend themselves," the AP writes.

    The Secret Service didn’t allow the birthday boy a birthday cake yesterday, the New York Times notes.

  • The midterms: McMahon closes in on Blumenthal

    CONNECTICUT: Linda McMahon now trails Richard Blumenthal (D) by just 50%-40% in the latest Quinnipiac poll. She also leads Rep. Rob Simmons by 17 points and Peter Schiff by 33 points ahead of Tuesday's primary.

    KENTUCKY: Dan Mongiardo (D) finally endorsed Jack Conway (D).

    MASSACHUSETTS: "Governor Deval Patrick, who this spring became the state’s first sitting governor to visit a mosque, lent his support yesterday to an Islamic Center proposed near ground zero, stepping into the middle of a growing national furor over locating a Muslim house of worship so near the site of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," the Boston Globe reports.

    PENNSYLVANIA: "There are many states that will have ballots chock-filled with exciting and competitive races, but if you are looking for a place where a big GOP political wave might show up early in the evening of Nov. 2 -- or for evidence that it won’t be as big as some Republicans hope -- you could do worse than focusing on Pennsylvania," Stu Rothenberg writes.

    TENNESSEE: Roll Call's McArdle previews the House primary races today: "Of the five districts to keep a close eye on tonight, only two are expected to be competitive come November, and both are Democratic districts that Republicans have hopes of picking up during a GOP-friendly cycle."

  • Judge strikes down CA's gay-marriage ban

    NBC's Pete Williams is reporting that a federal judge has ruled California's ban on same-sex marriages as unconstitutional.

    Here's Reuters' write-up:

    A federal judge Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriages as unconstitutional, handing a key victory to gay rights advocates in a politically charged decision almost certain to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The highly anticipated ruling by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker marked a major turning point for a social debate that has sharply divided the American public and its political establishment.

  • What recess? House to return for state budget vote

    From NBC’s Shawna Thomas
    With just a tweet, it's back to Washington for members of the U.S. House.

    The House will return from its August recess next week to vote on legislation to send $26 billion to cash-strapped states for Medicaid and education funding.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the decision to bring the Congress back into session via her Twitter account. “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers' jobs and help seniors & children,” she tweeted Wednesday.

    Per the House Historian, the last time that the House was called back into session during the summer recess was September 2005 for a vote on emergency supplemental funds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Before that, the House returned early in August 1991 to vote on domestic spending measures.

    The domestic spending measure overcame its last major hurdle in the Senate earlier today, with Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voting with the Democratic caucus to break a GOP filibuster.

    Republicans say that the education funding in the spending package amounts to a handout for public employee unions. “Democrats would be better off listening to their constituents, who are asking, 'where are the jobs,' rather than returning to Washington, D.C. to vote for more tax hikes and special interest bailouts,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner.

    Msnbc.com’s Carrie Dann and NBC's Ken Strickland contributed.

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