From NBC's Catherine Chomiak
As federal budget negotiations are underway, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) decried the size and scope of the government, comparing federal spending to illegal drugs.

"What we've come up with now is a formula in which the federal government -- by its own nature -- is able to get larger and larger by the granting of federal money to states and cities for programs, often just enough to get them hooked on something. But the long-term money is left to the states and the cities,” he said at the National Press Club in DC. "This whole idea of federal money is kinda like the free sample of heroin that your drug dealers give away. The ultimate effect is you get hooked."

On the subject of budgets, Huckabee poked fun at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is embroiled in his own budget battle in the Badger State. At the beginning of his speech at the National Press Club, Huckabee thanked everyone for coming and joked about billionaire businessman and Republican backer, David Koch. Yesterday, Gov. Walker got a prank call from a blogger pretending to be his supporter, David Koch.

"I was detained for a few minutes, had a phone call from David Koch, and that lasted nearly 20 minutes. But I was finally able to break loose," Huckabee said for a couple laughs.

Later in his speech when a cell phone rang, Huckabee continued the ruse, "That's probably David Koch calling. I already talked to him today. No more."

In his National Press Club appearance, which was to promote his new book, "A Simple Government," Huckabee said the book would help him decide whether to seek the presidency in 2012. The book, he emphasized, would give potential supporters a clear insight as to where he stands and what he believes. He also said it would help him develop his message.

"The question that I have for America is: Do you think this message resonates with you?  If it does, that gives me a whole lot more encouragement to go put myself through the sausage grinder of a campaign," he said.

If he does decide to run he could potentially compete against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Addressing speculation that the two men don't quite get along Huckabee said, "I don't have a big personal issue with Mitt Romney. He and I certainly clashed in the last presidential contest. I don't think that's a big surprise when someone's in a contest with you." 

"If Mitt Romney is the nominee of our party this time, I'm going to support him,” he continued. "Because I'm a Republican and I believe he'll be a better president than Barack Obama."

According to a senior NSC official, here's EVERYTHING that is truly "on the table" when it comes to Libya at the moment. Some of these items are easier to make happen than others, but it's a menu of options on the table:

-- Push for a "stronger" U.N. Security Council "product, possibly a resolution, possibly sanctions, enforcement mechanisms, and accountability measures."
-- Support Mexico's initiative "to suspend Libya from the U.N. Human Rights Council."
-- Issue a presidential executive order "with sanctions, which could include visa and travel restrictions, asset freezes and/or seizures, civil aviation restrictions" that would be coordinated with allies.
-- Suspend the country's export licenses.
-- Create and enforce a no-fly zone.
-- Freeze the assets of certain Libyan individuals (i.e. the entire Khaddafy family).
-- Send in humanitarian relief.
-- Increase the ability to broadcast into Libya.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
While maintaining their stance that any short-term agreement to avert a government shutdown should freeze spending at current levels, Senate Democratic staffers are starting to identify areas to cut spending for the long term in a bill that would fund government operations through this fiscal year.

According to a Democratic source, appropriations and leadership staff are going through President Obama's 2012 budget request to see which of those spending cuts could be applied this year. They're also considering cutting $8.5 billion worth of earmarks, which are included in the current funding bill that passed last December.

The source says Republicans are "trying to confuse people" by suggesting Democrats object to any spending cuts. 

Senate Democrats maintain that keeping spending at the current level provides billions of dollars in cuts when measured against president 2011 budget request. (However, that request was never enacted.)

"Senate Democrats have already agreed to a five-year spending freeze and $41 billion in spending cuts and we're willing to go further," said the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, in a written statement today. "But that requires the sort of good-faith negotiations House Republicans refuse to engage in."

As the standoff in Congress continues over where and what to cut from federal spending for the rest of this fiscal year, the prospects for a government shutdown loom larger. 

But the haggling over the budget could have a very expensive consequence:  A shutdown costs the government money.

A lot of it.

The Office of Management and Budget estimated early in 1996 that the first of two government shutdowns – for six days in November 1995 – cost taxpayers an estimated $100 million per day. The final price tag for that closing and the record three-week shutdown later that year - including back pay to workers who did not go to work over that time: Over $1.25 billion.

Other shutdowns have been costly too. According to the Government Accountability Office, a funding gap of just three days in 1991 rang up a $607 million bill, including $363 million in lost revenue and fees.  

If Congress fails to reach an agreement on a stopgap spending measure before the current funding law expires on March 4, the federal government could be headed for the 16th closure since Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

The costs of shutdown
The executive branch of the federal government currently employs just over two million civilians – about the same number as it did in the mid-1990s – and requires hundreds of millions of dollars per day to function.

But why does it cost so much to keep the lights off?

First of all, pay.

The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies to maintain a contingency plan in case of  a “funding hiatus” – including information about how many employee are essential for “military, law enforcement, or direct provision of health care activities” or otherwise “to protect life and property.” That would include air traffic controllers, national security professionals, key medical workers, and law enforcers, among others. But, in the event of a shutdown, “non-essential” employees would be forced to stay home until the impasse gets resolved.

In the 1990s, the 800,000 employees who were furloughed in November and the 260,000 who sat idle in December received a total of about $1 billion in back pay even though they could not report to work, according to a report by the Office of Management and Budget.

(That was a relief to many employees, who were uncertain for weeks about whether or not they would ultimately be paid. Robert Tobias, who served as the president of the National Treasury Employees Union during the shutdown and now teaches at American University, said that his organization and other federal employee groups dispersed tens of thousands of dollars in loans to workers who were unable to pay their bills without receiving their paychecks on time.) 

There’s also the issue of uncollected fines, fees, and other revenues.

The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, failed to collect $63 million in fines because of cancelled facility inspections during the November shutdown in 1995. Uncollected airline taxes and fees by users of government facilities like national parks also added up.

There are also major potential trickle-down effects for the nation’s economy.

Shortly after the three-week shutdown in 1995, the Interior Department concluded that the shuttering of national parks had cost related businesses and nearby local governments almost $300 million. A study conducted by the by National Parks and Conservation Association found that – even a year after the budget standoff – small businesses were still suffering from a lingering decline in tourism, especially by foreign visitors.

Contractors also suffered during the mid-1990s shutdowns. According to a survey conducted at the time by Signet Banking Corp., a third of federal contractors furloughed some of their own employees in January 1996. Many of those workers never received checks from their private-sector employers to make up for time lost.

Looming threat
It remains unclear whether or not a shutdown will occur, and the Obama administration has been mostly muted in its warnings about the economic effects of a potential budget stalemate after March 4.

"We don't want to do things that would jeopardize confidence in the (economic) recovery,” said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at a  breakfast sponsored by Bloomberg News on Wednesday. But he declined to comment further on the possible impact of a shutdown, saying of the congressional negotiators working on a stopgap bill, “I don’t want to complicate their challenge.”

Still, the potential political and commercial costs of the 1995-96 standoff are on the minds of the shutdown’s veterans and its students.

“What Republicans discovered was that, while people don’t pay much attention to the federal government, they notice a great deal when the services they need are not available,” said Tobias. “That’s why there was a huge backlash.”

From NBC's Pete Williams
The suspicions of a North Carolina chemical dealer have led to the arrest of a college student in Texas, who is accused of plotting to carry out bomb attacks in the U.S.

The FBI arrested 20-year-old Khalid Al-M Aldawsari, a Saudi Arabian college student in Lubbock, late yesterday. Agents say he was in the process of buying chemicals that could be used to make a powerful bomb. They say a search of his home found documents indicating that he has been planning a terror attack in the U.S. "for years" and was inspired by bin Laden's speeches.

Investigators say they found e-mails that Aldawsari sent to himself, one of which was titled "targets." It listed the home addresses of three former U.S. soldiers who served at abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, reservoirs and dams in California and Colorado, and "the Dallas address for former President George W. Bush," court document say.

From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Ken Strickland
Gen. David Petraeus has ordered an investigation into the Rolling Stone report alleging that Lt. Gen. William Caldwell improperly used "Psychological Operations" forces to target visiting dignitaries, including Sens. John McCain, Carl Levin, and even Joint Chiefs Chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen.

Meanwhile, Levin -- chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- issued this statement:

For years, I have strongly and repeatedly advocated for building up Afghan military capability because I believe only the Afghans can truly secure their nation's future. I have never needed any convincing on this point. Quite the opposite, my efforts have been aimed at convincing others of the need for larger, more capable Afghan security forces, and that we and NATO should send more trainers to Afghanistan, rather than more combat troops. I am confident that the chain of command will review any allegation that information operations have been improperly used in Afghanistan.

Déjà vu -- how the situation in Libya and $100-a-barrel oil seem like a flashback to the summer of 2010 (BP spill and Greek debt crisis)… The White House’s decision not to defend DOMA’s constitutionality draws plenty of health care comparisons… Daniels seems to change his tone in Indiana… McCain now the most conservative U.S. senator?... Rolling Stone’s eyebrow-raising Psy-Ops story… Huntsman spotted at the “Jasmine Revolution”… And Huckabee speaks at the National Press Club at noon ET.

A Gas price sign is seen at a station on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. The national average for a gallon of unleaded was $3.19 on Wednesday.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** Déjà vu? Is anyone else having flashbacks to the summer of 2010? As the Obama White House tries to focus on the U.S. economy -- the president holds a meeting at 1:45 pm ET with his Jobs and Competitiveness council -- external events are forcing him (as well as the media) to focus on other matters. The situation in Libya looks more precarious and dangerous than Egypt did. “Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi were reported to be striking back in several cites surrounding Tripoli on Thursday, as rebellion crept closer to the capital and defections of military officers multiplied,” the New York Times says. Next, due in part to Libya, oil prices have now spiked above $100 a barrel for the first time since the summer of 2008. Beyond the violence in Libya, the fear at the White House is that it could end up doing what the Greek debt crisis -- in combination with the oil spill -- did in May of 2010: slow down the economic recovery. The good news for Team Obama is that this isn’t the summer of 2012… 

*** DOMA arigato, Mr. Roboto: One thing that ISN’T an external factor was the Obama administration’s decision yesterday to no longer defend the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which says that marriage can exist only between a man and a woman. It's a full-fledged flip by the president, though one he's been telegraphing. (Late last year, he said he was "struggling" with the issue of gay marriage.) Interestingly, much of the reaction -- from the right and left -- seemed aimed at the health-care law. Some conservatives were saying: If Obama loses re-election, would this give a Republican president the green light not to defend the law’s constitutionality? (Of course, it’s more than likely the Supreme Court will deliver a verdict on the law anyway.) House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith complained, “It is a transparent attempt to shirk the department’s duty to defend the laws passed by Congress.” (Then again, that hasn’t stopped Republicans from trying to eliminate -- and defund -- a law passed by Congress.) As usual, with heavy doses of spin, there's hypocritical holes in multiple arguments. But politically, beyond some folks in the base, will the public care that much after today?

*** Daniels changes his tune? Was someone able to change Mitch Daniels’ mind? Or are his presidential aspirations bigger than many think they are? A day after the Indiana governor called on state Republicans to drop their anti-union legislation, the Indiana governor referred to public employee unions “privileged elite.” And he released a statement calling the fleeing state Democratic lawmakers to come back to work. “The House Democrats have shown a complete contempt for the democratic process... You don’t walk off the job, take your public paycheck with you, and attempt to bring the whole process to a screeching halt. You know, if they persist, the Democratic Party of Indiana will need a rebranding effort because this is as anti-democratic as behavior can be."

AP

U.S. Senator John McCain during a visit to Tunisia. McCain was named among a group of most conservative senators in 2010.

*** McCain’s rightward shift: Is John McCain now the Senate’s most conservative member? So says National Journal, according to its annual congressional vote ratings. From “a comprehensive examination of 96 Senate votes taken in 2010, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. His 89.7 composite conservative score ties him with stalwarts like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and gives him a more conservative score than Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.” More: “From 2002 to 2006, he bounced between the 44th- and 49th-most conservative member, giving him the maverick title. His 89.7 composite conservative score is the farthest to the right of any year he has served in the Senate.” Bottom line: This is what it took to for McCain to win re-election last year. Of course, he also kept opposing Obama initiatives (DADT, START) after he won re-election, which kept his score that high.

*** The Men Who Stare at Goats, Part II: This isn’t your average story -- by a long shot -- but it's already cable TV/internet/Twitter fodder. Rolling Stone writes, “The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in ‘psychological operations’ to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned - and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators. The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops - the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war… Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.” By the way, was this all really psy-ops, or amateur political communication hour?

*** Huntsman spotted at the “Jasmine Revolution”: This isn’t your average story, either. NBC’s Adrienne Mong reports that U.S. ambassador to China (and potential presidential candidate) Jon Huntsman “was spotted last Sunday outside McDonald’s in the heavily-trafficked shopping district of Wangfujing in the capital. His appearance wouldn’t have generated much interest (Huntsman is known here for his unorthodox style as America’s top representative in China) except for the little fact that a would-be revolution [the “Jasmine Revolution”] was under way exactly where the ambassador was standing. In fact, Huntsman’s presence – which the U.S. embassy in Beijing says was part of a ‘family outing’ and ‘purely coincidental’ – has generated controversy on a number of fronts.”

*** More 2012: Mike Huckabee speaks at the National Press Club at noon ET… Rick Santorum is in Iowa, where he’s interviewed by the Iowa press corps in a forum moderated by Mike Glover of AP and Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa… And Newt Gingrich is in Florida speaking in West Palm Beach at 6:00 pm ET. By the way, check out this quote from Huck: “It doesn’t mean that I can wait indefinitely, but it certainly means that I’d be smart to wait for not only the field to develop, but to not walk away from a platform where I get to determine what I want to talk about.”

*** Foxx in the DNC hen house: The Democratic National Committee’s three-day winter meeting begins today in DC. Today’s highlight: In the evening, Charlotte (NC) Mayor Anthony Foxx will talk about plans for the 2012 convention in the city. On Saturday, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine and White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will address the confab.

Countdown to continuing resolution’s expiration: 8 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 257 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 347 days
* Note: When the IA caucuses take place depends on whether other states move up

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The AP’s lead on the prank call: “On a prank call that quickly spread across the Internet, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in and joking that he would use a baseball bat in his office to go after political opponents.”

The call dominated the Wisconsin newspaper front pages. The Wisconsin State Journal: “Walker: Prank won’t distract me.”

The Journal Sentinel below a banner headline of “In it for the long haul” is “Prank call lets nation hear Walker’s plans.”

The Green Bay Press-Gazette: “Walker talks tactics on prank phone call.”

The Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: “Walker tricked in prank call to discuss unions.”

Time's Joe Klein writes, "I think Scott Walker is a reflexive conservative who would probably be trying to bust his public employees' unions even if there were a budget surplus."

The Hill: “Democratic strategists believe their Tea Party moment has arrived. Working with labor unions and liberal groups, they are using the Presidents Day congressional recess to organize a public backlash against billions of dollars in cuts to federal programs.”

The top story in the Boston Globe: “Obama rejects Defense of Marriage Act,” calling it “an unexpected victory” for “gay-rights activists.”

“House Republicans blasted President Barack Obama for deeming a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, calling Wednesday’s decision a political stunt and a distraction from fiscal issues,” Roll Call adds. “ ‘While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the President will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation,’ Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said in a statement.”

(Um, what about Pence’s measure to defund Planned Parenthood?)

The New York Times: "For Mr. Obama, who opposes same-sex marriage but has said repeatedly that his views are 'evolving,' there are political implications as well. Coming on the heels of his push for Congress to repeal the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' law barring the military from allowing gay people to serve openly, the administration’s move seems likely to intensify the long-running cultural clash over same-sex marriage as the 2012 political campaign is heating up."

Journalists not given clearance to report on the unrest in Libya will be considered “Al Qaida collaborators” by the Libyan government, according to the U.S. State Department.

If the United States were a corporation, it would be worth negative $44 trillion. That’s according to the forthcoming Bloomberg News/Business Week cover story by Mary Meeker, which will be out later this morning. The U.S.’s biggest problems, according to Meeker, are entitlement spending, debt, and underinvestment in education and technology. (Of course, government isn't a business…)

Republicans offered a $4 billion, two-week stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown, as NBC’s Luke Russert reported yesterday. But Democrats are not warm to the idea. A Senate Democratic leadership aide tells First Read, “This is not going to draw the votes from Democrats that they hope, certainly not enough to get 60. It’s their same bill, in disguise as a prorated version. They are just trying to throw different versions of the same proposal out there so they can look like they are making repeated attempts to avoid a shutdown. But privately they are signaling they will not go below the 61 billion, even it comes to a shutdown.”

Why are they rejecting it? As NBC’s Ken Strickland reports, “[T]he $4-billion two-week short term fix is equal to a pro-rated amount of the $61-billion worth of spending cuts in the long-term Continuing Resolution the House passed last week. In other words, if you divided $61-billion into the remaining weeks of the fiscal year, it would be about $2 billion per week. For two weeks--the likely length of the short term stopgap bill -- that would be $4 billion.”

The Boston Globe affirms that: “The $4 billion figure is roughly equal to the pace of cuts in a bigger bill passed by Republicans last week that slashes $61 billion from the budget over the remaining seven months of the fiscal year.”

Here’s Majority Leader Harry Reid’s statement: "The Republicans' so-called compromise is nothing more than the same extreme package the House already handed the Senate, just with a different bow. This isn't a compromise, it's a hardening of their original position. This bill would simply be a two-week version of the reckless measure the House passed last weekend. It would impose the same spending levels in the short term as their initial proposal does in the long term, and it isn't going to fool anyone. Both proposals are non-starters in the Senate.

Yet Republicans believe Democrats should and will accept it. Roll Call: “The goal, aides said, was to craft a bill that makes enough cuts to appease conservatives but cherry-picks reductions that Democrats and Republicans already support to make it palatable to the minority and the White House. That, Republicans hope, will put enough pressure on Senate Democratic moderates that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will be forced to accept the bill. The reductions will be ‘things [Democrats] identified they’re willing to cut,’ a GOP leadership aide said.” (Though the proposed cuts haven’t been publicly itemized.)

Since members of Congress love polls… The Hill writes, “A USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 60 percent want Republicans and Democrats to ‘agree to a compromise budget plan, even if that means they pass a budget you disagree with.’ Thirty-two percent want lawmakers to ‘hold out out for the basic budget plan they want, even if that means the government shuts down.’”

An “analysis released by Goldman Sachs' forecaster Alec Phillips on Wednesday that said the GOP spending plan for $61 billion in spending cuts could reduce Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points later this year,” The Hill writes. Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer capitalized: "This analysis puts a dagger through the heart of their ‘cut-and-grow’ fantasy," said Schumer. "We need to reduce the deficit, but we must do it by striking the right balance between cutting spending and growing the economy," he said. Republicans, though, dug in. "We don't need more ineffective 'stimulus' spending — we need to get our economy growing again and help the private sector create jobs," Michael Steel said in a statement.

A new Gallup poll finds that “Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have no clear favorite for the party's 2012 presidential nominee at this point, with Mike Huckabee (18%), Mitt Romney (16%), and Sarah Palin (16%) in a statistical tie for the lead.” 
 
The Hill’s take: “Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) would draw 9 percent, Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) would get 5 percent, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) would get 4 percent; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty checks in at 3 percent, as do Govs. Haley Barbour (Miss.) and Mitch Daniels (Ind.). Two percent would back former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.). This was the first time Bachmann was included, as well as former Utah governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman (R), who received support from 1 percent of Republicans. Fourteen percent of Republicans said ‘none’ or had no opinion.” 
 
BARBOUR: “Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) will be in Washington next week for a Chamber of Commerce breakfast. He's speaking as part of an event called ‘The Impact of State Employment Policies on Job Growth: A 50-State Review,’” the Washington Post says. 
 
CHRISTIE: “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Wednesday he does not have a favorite candidate in the field of potential 2012 Republican presidential aspirants,” The Hill writes. “ ‘Listen, I don't think there is a front-runner right now,’ he said on NBC's ‘Today’ show. ‘I think the field's really wide open. I don't even know who the field's going to be entirely.’” 
 
DANIELS: Speaking at the Hamilton, OH, Republican party’s Lincoln-Reagan dinner, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels called public employee unions “privileged elite,” the Cincinnati Enquirer writes. 
 
HUCKABEE: Mike Huckabee said he will used his book tour, launched yesterday, “help him determine how interested party activists are in his possible candidacy and whether there is the financial support to sustain a bid, he told reporters on a conference call,” the Des Moines Register recounts.

AP

FILE - In this Sept. file photo, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks in Washington.

Huckabee will not stop in New Hampshire on his book tour, the Boston Globe writes. “‘You ever been to New Hampshire in February?’ he told reporters this afternoon at a tea hosted by the Christan Science Monitor. “My Southern blood isn’t acclimated.’”

“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is making more positive noises about making a 2012 run–and touting how he’s the guy to beat President Barack Obama,” the Wall Street Journal writes. “In a Fox News interview that he is trumpeting on his Twitter account and his own website, Mr. Huckabee cites his recent favorable poll numbers and says Mr. Obama is more vulnerable that many people think. ‘Here’s the reality: I think he can be beat,’ he told Fox’s Sean Hannity. He goes on to say that ‘I frankly think that I would be in a very good position to do it.’”

But Roll Call says “don’t hold your breath waiting for Mike Huckabee to announce his plans for 2012.” Does this sound like someone running for president? “If I run, I walk away from a pretty good income. I don’t want to walk away any sooner than I have to because frankly, I don’t have a lot of reserve built up. Most of my life was in public service. Therefore I didn’t come away wealthy,” he said during an afternoon tea organized by the Christian Science Monitor. “In order to run for president last time, I cashed in my life insurance, my annuities, I pretty much went through everything that I ever had as an asset that I thought I might someday live on. One thing I committed to myself, to my wife and God, was that if I do this I’m hopefully going to be in a position that I’m not so completely destitute at the end of it, that I have no idea what to do if I get sick. ...”

Politico: “In his new book, Mike Huckabee trashes ‘RomneyCare’ – saying it’s ‘socialized medicine’ that has exploded costs, worsened care for patients, and proves why President Obama’s unpopular health care reform plan won't work.”

And he expressed doubts on the war in Afghanistan. Here’s Huffington Post’s Sam Stein: “Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) became one of the most high-profile Republicans to express skepticism with the war in Afghanistan, telling reporters on Wednesday that he sees no ‘end game’ in sight, has no confidence in President Hamid Karzai, thinks the country looks ‘like the surface of the moon’ and believes the time has come for an honest, non-political conversation about the next steps.”

PALIN: “Sarah Palin is traveling to India next month to rub elbows with Indian politicians and Bollywood stars,” Politico reports. “The former Alaska governor is scheduled to speak at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on March 19.”

PAWLENTY: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's PAC is launching a video and petition drive today supporting Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), embroiled in a showdown over unions’ collective-bargaining rights. Here’s the video and petition.

SANTORUM: "Nationally syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage is formally reviving his Internet war with likely presidential candidate Rick Santorum," Roll Call says. "Savage’s disdain for the former Senator from Pennsylvania reached epic levels in 2003 when the writer launched one of the first successful Google bombs in the modern political era. This bomb ensured that one of the top Google search results for the Republican’s last name is a sexual definition that can’t fully be repeated here."

More: "The feud had grown rather stale until last week when Roll Call published an interview with Santorum about his continued 'Google problem.'... 'The website that’s still giving Rick Santorum fits — www.spreadingsantorum.com — hasn’t been updated since 2004. But we will be re-launching the site in the next few weeks,' Savage wrote. 'Stay tuned!'"

IOWA: “The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party sought to downplay the importance of social issues in his state's presidential caucus Wednesday, defending the state's GOP voters as an electorate that can pick electable candidates,” Politico writes. State GOP chairman Matt Strawn’s comments on MSNBC’s Morning Joe “came amid murmurs that some of the less socially conservative presidential hopefuls — particularly Mitt Romney — may downplay the first-in-the-nation caucus contest out of fear that they can't win evangelical Christians, but Strawn strongly advised against that mentality.”

MISSOURI: “Missouri lawmakers are considering moving back the state's presidential primaries in 2012,” the St. Louis Dispatch reports. “A bill by Republican Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, would change next year's primaries from Feb. 7 to March 6. Missouri held its 2008 presidential primary on Feb. 5.”

From NBC's Luke Russert
A GOP aide tells NBC News that the House GOP Leadership along with the House Appropriations Committee is working on a temporary funding measure for the nation's budget that would cut current spending levels and still have a real chance of passing the U.S. Senate.

The compromise would call for $4 billion in spending cuts from current fiscal year 2011 spending levels over two weeks from March 4th through March 18th.

Right now, the current continuing resolution (the funding of the U.S. government) expires on March 4th at 11:59pm.

Republicans contend the cuts would come from non-controversial areas of government and also touch on things that President Obama has said could be cut in the past.

"Senator Reid and Senator Schumer's position that they will force a government shutdown rather than cut any spending is indefensible," a GOP aide said. "It'll be very hard for them to oppose a reasonable short-term funding measure that will cut spending over a two-week period."

The aide also tells NBC News that the GOP leadership doesn't expect their 87-member activist freshman class to derail the two-week budget proposal. The timeline as to when it would be voted on in the House would be in the middle of next week.

Late last week the House passed at budget for the rest of fiscal year 2011 that included $61 billion dollars in cuts through September. That budget will likely not go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Speaker John Boehner has rejected any compromise from Reid that would keep current spending levels frozen temporarily until a longer budget bill could be worked out between the House and the Senate.

The bill being crafted by the GOP leadership is aimed at attracting support from moderate Democrats in the Senate. A GOP aide speculated that the compromise bill might appeal to Sens. McCaskill, Tester, Manchin, and Warner.

The hope of the GOP leadership is that the two-week compromise would prevent a government shutdown and give the House and Senate some time to agree on a budget that cuts spending for fiscal year 2011.

*** UPDATE *** NBC's Ken Strickland notes that the $4-billion two-week short term fix is equal to a pro-rated amount of the $61-billion worth of spending cuts in the long-term Continuing Resolution the House passed last week.

In other words, if you divided $61-billion into the remaining weeks of the fiscal year, it would be about $2 billion per week. For two weeks--the likely length of the short term stopgap bill -- that would be $4 billion.

That does not sit well with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said in a statement:

"The Republicans' so-called compromise is nothing more than the same extreme package the House already handed the Senate, just with a different bow. This isn't a compromise, it's a hardening of their original position. This bill would simply be a two-week version of the reckless measure the House passed last weekend. It would impose the same spending levels in the short term as their initial proposal does in the long term, and it isn't going to fool anyone. Both proposals are non-starters in the Senate.

From NBC's Michael Isikoff:  Thinking he was talking to one of his major campaign backers, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker yesterday compared his stand against Wisconsin public employee unions to Ronald Reagan’s 1981 firing of the air traffic controllers, saying that it was a moment that changed the course of history and led to the fall of communism.  

“This is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history,” Walker says, talking about his fight with the unions in a phone call that was secretly taped by a Buffalo man posing as billionaire oilman David Koch.

Walker’s office today confirmed that it was indeed the governor’s voice on the taped phone call.

In the conversation, the man posing as Koch — Buffalo Gonzo journalist Ian Murphy — says he’s got a “vested interest" in the success of the governor’s efforts and, when its all over, offers to fly Walker out to California and “show you a good time.”

“All right, that would be outstanding,” Walker says in response. “Thanks for all your support.”

Here are some excerpts from the closing portions of their 20 minute conversation, as transcribed by NBC News:

Walker recounts to Koch/Murphy a dramatic talk he gave to his Cabinet over dinner on the evening of Feb. 6, the Monday night after the Green Pay Packers victory over the Super Bowl. It was, Walker, says, the “last hurrah before we were going to drop the bomb.”

Walker notes that 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan — “whose hundredth birthday we just celebrated the day before — had one of the most defining moments of his political career when he fired the air traffic controllers. …That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of communism because from that moment forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagain wasn’t  a pushover.”

“And I said, ‘this  may not have as broad world implications, but in Wisconsin’s history, little did I know how big it would be nationally. This  is our moment , this is our time to change the course of history.’”

Walker continues: “I had a cabinet  meeting this morning. I reminded them of that – for those who thought I was being melodramatic."

At that point, Murphy posing as Koch says: “I tell you what Scott. Once you crush these bastards, I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.”

“Allright, that would be outstanding," Walker replies.  "Thanks for all the support and help ... moving the ball forward and we appreciate it. … We’re doing the just and right thing for the right reasons. Its all about getting our freedom back."

Murphy/Koch: “Absolutely, and you know, we have a little bit of vested interest as well” (he then laughs).

Walker: “That’s just it. The bottom line is were going to get the world moving here because it’s the right thing to do…Thanks a million.”

From NBC's Pete Williams
In a major reversal, the Obama administration has notified Congress that it will no longer defend the federal law that says marriage can exist only between a man and a woman.

Attorney General Eric Holder says he has recommended, and the president has agreed, that the law unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex couples who are legally married but whose status is not recognized by the federal government.

"Given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination," Holder wrote in a statement, the administration has concluded that classifications based on sexual orientation must be subject to a higher constitutional standard than ordinary laws. And the federal Defense of Marriage Act does not meet that test, he says.

Read the full statement here.

Here's the immediate practical effect of this change:

-The Defense of Marriage Act remains in effect unless a federal court strikes it down or Congress repeals it.

-The government will stop defending the law in two court cases, in New York and Connecticut, where the law has been challenged, and in any other cases challenging the law.

-If the law is to be defended, members of Congress would have to step up and join those lawsuits.

In the statement, Holder argued that the legal landscape has changed since the Defense of Marriage Act was passed 15 years ago and signed into law by President Clinton. He mentioned the Supreme Court's ruling striking down criminal laws against homosexuality, the repeal of the military's Don't Ask/Don't Tell policy, and the fact that several lower courts have found the DOMA law unconstitutional.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), embroiled in a battle over public workers’ collective bargaining rights, was pranked by someone posing as conservative money man David Koch. The person, as identified by Mother Jones is Ian Murphy, works for the Web site Buffalo.Beast.com (which was down at last check, but Mother Jones also posted the audio.)

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargeant reports that he confirmed with the governor’s office that the call is, in fact, real, that Walker is the person on the call.

Walker reveals his strategy for dealing with Democrats in the state, including a plan to try and lure the 14 Democratic-state legislators back to the state, to talk at the state Capitol in an effort to move the legislation forward.

“But I’m not negotiating,” Walker says. The fake Koch and Walker joke about bringing a baseball bat to the meeting. "I have one in my office,” Walker says, “you'd be happy with that. I've got a slugger with my name on it."

Walker’s not the only politician to be pranked. Remember, Sarah Palin took a call from someone she thought was French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The caller was really from a Canadian morning show. (Audio here.)

*** UPDATE *** NBC News has also confirmed with Gov. Walker's office that the prank call is authentic. It is Walker. Here's a statement from his office:

The Governor takes many calls everyday.  Throughout this call the Governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse.  He continued to say that the budget repair bill is about the budget.  The phone call shows that the Governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having.

How the political conversation has changed from “Where are the jobs?” to “Where are the cuts?”… And how the White House is still talking about (targeted) spending… Walker seems more isolated today than he did yesterday… Did Boehner blink?... Mayor-Elect Rahm… With Thune not running, we might not have a sitting U.S. senator in the presidential field… Thune’s decision benefits T-Paw, Santorum, and Barbour… And Dems create their Super PAC.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** Where are the cuts? Yesterday, President Obama was in Cleveland, OH talking about small business and the economy -- and thanks to a number of big news events, it went largely unnoticed. But elsewhere in the Midwest and the country, the political debate is no longer about the economy but rather the budget. In his televised speech last night, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) didn’t back down from his plan that would force public employees to pay more for their benefits and strip their collective-bargaining rights. In Indiana yesterday, Democratic lawmakers, following the lead of their peers in Wisconsin, fled to Illinois to avoid voting on similar union-rights legislation. And yesterday, New Jersey Chris Christie delivered a heavily covered speech on the budget situation in his state, which landed him an interview on “TODAY” this morning. The question the Obama White House and Democrats need to be asking themselves is this: How did the political conversation so quickly turn from jobs to cuts? 

*** How the GOP and Tea Party have changed the dialogue: According to the 2010 midterm exit polls, 63% said the economy was the most important issue facing the country. In our NBC/WSJ poll last month, 49% said unemployment was the nation’s top economic concern, while the federal budget deficit was second at 17%. But “Where are the jobs?” has been replaced by “Where are the cuts?” As E.J. Dionne wrote on Monday, "No matter how much liberals may poke fun at them, Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue." Indeed, many might be surprised to discover that overall employment actually DECREASED in New Jersey in Christie’s first year as governor. Yet that hasn’t stopped Christie from becoming the GOP’s biggest star right now and the inspiration to the new governors in Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The political danger for Republicans is that they aren’t talking about creating jobs right now; in fact, the cuts they’re proposing -- and the infrastructure projects they’re eliminating -- would only increase unemployment.

*** And how the White House is still talking about spending: The White House has an opening, but is struggling to grab it. They’ve been trying, thanks to the creation of this new jobs advisory board, but other than press releases announcing the addition of another CEO to the list, it's looking like a little more than simply cheerleading the economy. And as long as the conversation is about cuts and not the economy, that’s a conversation that Republicans are going to win. Indeed, the White House is the only one talking about targeted spending -- in “winning the future” -- but we’ve barely heard it brag about a spending cut. They wonder why the public that does care about spending and the deficit gives the president very little credit? Find a single event about the budget held by the White House that's been about a spending cut in the last three months.

*** All by myself: Turning back to the budget standoff in Wisconsin, it’s worth pointing out how Walker appears more isolated today than he did yesterday. Consider: Indiana Gov. (and possible presidential candidate) Mitch Daniels refused to back the legislation in his state that would limit union negotiations. "For reasons I've explained more than once, I thought there was a better time and place to have this very important and legitimate issue raised," Daniels said, and it appears the state Democrats have won that battle -- for now. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott passed on a fight with organized labor. “My belief is as long as people know what they’re doing, collective bargaining is fine,” he said. What’s more, a new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Americans oppose stripping away public employees’ collective bargaining rights, with 61% opposing a law like Wisconsin’s and 33% supporting it. Walker still seems like he will win the legislative fight -- the state Democrats have to return at some point -- but increasingly it seems that he’s losing the PR war.

*** Did Boehner blink? In a statement yesterday, House Speaker Boehner said, “If Sen. Reid refuses to bring it to a vote, then the House will pass a short-term bill to keep the government running -- one that also cuts spending.” Now, you have to read between the lines there, but it appears that House Republicans will accept any kind of temporary fix, as long as it cuts some kind of funding. It’s pretty clear they don’t want a government shutdown, and the statement by Boehner underscores that. It's amazing that one statement by Senate Majority Harry Reid was enough to get Boehner to pledge to send ANOTHER continuing resolution plan to the Senate before their initial offer was even taken up. If you are setting odds on a government shutdown this year, you should lower them today. Boehner's actions are making it crystal clear he'll do whatever it takes too avoid one.

*** Mayor-Elect Rahm: Last night, former White House Chief of Staff and former Congressman Rahm Emanuel won Chicago’s mayoral election, surpassing the 50% needed to avoid an April 5 run off. With 99% of precincts reporting, Emanuel grabbed 55% of the vote. The second-place finisher, Gery Chico, got 24%; Miguel Del Valle got 9.3%; and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun finished in fourth at 9%. (One has to ask: Could CMB even win her old job of "Cook County recorder of deeds" back?) Per the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel “won the predominantly white wards of his former congressional district on the North and Northwest sides. And the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama also scored substantial margins in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.”

*** Where are the senators? If you’ve spent enough time on Capitol Hill, you’ve probably heard this saying: “Every U.S. senator looks in the mirror and asks, ‘Why not me for president?’” Yet when John Thune yesterday said he won’t run for president next year, it raised the possibility that -- for the first time since at least 1904 (so in the modern era) -- no sitting U.S. senator will make a bid for the White House. In ’08, we saw a slew of senators like Obama, Hillary, McCain, Biden, Dodd, and Brownback all run. In ’04, we had Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, and Graham. In 2000, it was McCain. In 1996, it was Bob Dole. Etc. So just three years after Obama became the first sitting senator since JFK to be elected president, we probably won’t see one in the 2012 field. It says a lot about the baggage of D.C. Thune voted for TARP; it's likely a non-starter with most Republican primary voters.

*** Benefiting Pawlenty, Santorum, and Barbour: The big winners from Thune’s decision are the folks who seem likely to run for president and plant their flags in Iowa: Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Haley Barbour. In fact, the big winner might be Pawlenty, since he could very well be the only Midwesterner in the GOP field (if Mitch Daniels doesn’t run). Thune’s no-go clears some space and should help someone like Pawlenty financially in a VERY big way, as Thune was getting a lot of interest (along with Daniels) with Wall Street Republicans looking for a Romney alternative.  

*** The Dem response to American Crossroads: “Top Democratic operatives are quietly building an aggressive campaign machine to battle huge Republican third-party spending and sway critical Senate races in 2012,” Politico reports. “The strategists, including pros like longtime advisers to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are putting the finishing touches on a group called the Majority PAC, a ‘super PAC’ that can raise unlimited money to attack or support candidates. It is modeled on the third-party operation, Patriot Majority PAC, which ran bruising TV ads against tea party candidates like Reid’s opponent, Sharron Angle, last year and mocked one of his prospective challengers, Sue Lowden, for suggesting she would be open to bartering chickens for health care.”

Countdown to continuing resolution’s expiration: 9 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 258 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 348 days
* Note: When the IA caucuses take place depends on whether other states move up

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“With their Senate colleagues still in hiding, Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly began introducing a barrage of 100 amendments yesterday to try to stymie the Republican governor’s plan to strip unionized public employees of most of their bargaining rights,” the AP writes. “Turning up the pressure on the Democrats, Governor Scott Walker warned that state employees could start receiving layoff notices as early as next week if the bill isn’t passed soon. The layoffs couldn’t take effect immediately — existing union contracts could forestall them for weeks or months — and Walker wouldn’t say which jobs he would go after first.”

Politifact gives Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a “false” for saying that he “campaigned on” the proposals at the heart of the controversial bill before the state Senate that would eliminate collective-bargaining rights for some public employees. 

Waking the sleeping giant? “The labor movement is marshaling support for what it expects to be a nationwide fight over the collective bargaining rights of public workers,” The Hill writes.

Make it 3-2 now for the administration in the health-care lawsuit-o-rama. “A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit claiming that President Barack Obama's requirement that all Americans have health insurance violates the religious freedom of those who rely on God to protect them,” the AP’s Pickler writes. “U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, on behalf of five Americans who can afford health insurance but have chosen for years not to buy it.” 

The New York Times says Kessler “became the third appointee of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, to reject a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Two other federal district judges, both appointed by Republican presidents, have struck down the law’s keystone provision, which requires most Americans to obtain health insurance starting in 2014.”

The Boston Globe’s editorial page: “Whatever ambivalence may have colored President Obama’s cautious response to uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain, he should offer full-throated support for Libyans who are risking their lives to shake off dictator Moammar Khadafy. Sad to say, Washington and certain European governments, avidly pursuing oil contracts and business deals, have curried favor with a “reformed’’ Khadafy over the past few years. But despite this new relationship, the United States shouldn’t hesitate to stand with protesters and against Khadafy’s all but unchanged regime.” 

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) urged House Republican leaders on Tuesday to stand up to far-right Members and negotiate long-term spending cuts to avoid a government shutdown,” Roll Call reports.

House Speaker John Boehner rejected Reid’s proposal for a 30-day continuing resolution, but he said in a statement posted on his Web site, “If Senator Reid refuses to bring it to a vote, then the House will pass a short-term bill to keep the government running – one that also cuts spending.”

“House Republicans and Senate Democrats pregamed a government shutdown Tuesday, shifting their messaging machines into top gear to assign blame to the other side,” The Hill writes. “Each accused the other of refusing to negotiate in good faith to prevent the lights from going out on March 4.”

“Top Democratic operatives are quietly building an aggressive campaign machine to battle huge Republican third-party spending and sway critical Senate races in 2012,” Politico writes. “The strategists, including pros like longtime advisers to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are putting the finishing touches on a group called the Majority PAC, a “super PAC” that can raise unlimited money to attack or support candidates. It is modeled on the third-party operation, Patriot Majority PAC, which ran bruising TV ads against tea party candidates like Reid’s opponent, Sharron Angle, last year and mocked one of his prospective challengers, Sue Lowden, for suggesting she would be open to bartering chickens for health care.”

“Senator Harry Reid took aim at the world’s oldest profession yesterday, telling state lawmakers the time has come to ‘have an adult conversation’ about Nevada’s legal sex trade if the state hopes to succeed in the 21st century,” AP reports.

“Sen. John Thune’s decision to pass on a 2012 White House bid could set off further jockeying for top Senate Republican leadership positions, which began prematurely this month when Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) announced that he would retire next year,” Roll Call reports.

“Boehner runs the House with a shrug and a smile and, more importantly, has not adopted the top-down approach of his predecessors,” The Hill writes. “The new Speaker, who is more likely to cry than scream, said Friday that his ‘No. 1 goal’ is to ‘have a healthy institution where there is real debate, where there is real action, where members are working together to solve America’s problems.’”

“Some House Republicans fear that a new coalition is forming between Tea Party-backed GOP freshmen and liberal Democrats to slash funding for the Pentagon,” The Hill writes.

Rep. David Wu (D-OR) says he’s getting mental-health treatment and that he behaved erratically, leading to staffers quitting.

Nine members of Congress were in New Zealand hours before the massive earthquake struck. 

“More than a third of the states have early Republican presidential primary elections scheduled next year that would violate national party rules, throwing the campaign calendar into disarray and risking sanctions that would diminish their influence at the nominating convention,” the Boston Globe reports, adding: “Nineteen states are violating party rules with primaries or caucuses scheduled before March 1, 2012, as state GOP leaders seek to boost their state’s influence by being among the first to hold primary votes. The move puts them at odds with national GOP leaders, who seek an orderly and extended primary season.”

(Here’s a good calendar with the current dates of the primaries.)

“Perhaps daunted by taking on incumbent Obama, many Republican up-and-comers either have said they think they can be more effective as governors or, like Thune, as senators,” the Argus Leader writes. “In this way, the Republican field of 2012 is shaping up like the Democrats' field in 1988. Then, big names such as Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., declined to run, and newcomers such as an obscure governor from Arkansas named Bill Clinton decided to wait four more years.” 

(Or, as we’ve written before, the field also might look like the Dem field from 2004…)

“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are even or just a few points behind Obama, respectively, in the race for the White House, according to a Newsweek/Daily Beast poll,” The Hill reports. (But if Donald Trump trails Obama by just three, can we really take this poll seriously?)

BACHMANN: GOP 12’s Heinze writing at The Hill: “Over the weekend, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) visited the critical primary state of South Carolina, where she incorporated into her appearances two themes that have been central to her message since aides acknowledged that a presidential run might be in the works. Both of these — the president and the process — give a good indication of how she might cast a run over the next year.”

BARBOUR: “In one of his first official trips since becoming head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus traveled to Mississippi on Tuesday to praise Gov. Haley Barbour and the GOP,” the Clarion-Ledger reports. “‘He's a real hero to Republicans across the country,’ Priebus said of the governor, without formally endorsing him for the job. ‘At the end of the day, we will have a lot of really great candidates.’”

DANIELS: “Members of the Democratic state House caucus in Indiana have found an unlikely ally in their quest to stop the GOP majority from pushing through a bill that critics say would destroy union organizing in the state,” TPMDC reports. “Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) took to the airwaves today to call on members of his party to drop the controversial "right to work" bill that led to Democrats going AWOL.”

Of Daniels’ decision, conservative NRO blogger Jim Geraghty writes, “color me extremely disappointed with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels right now.”

GINGRICH: “Newt Gingrich's speech at the University of Pennsylvania Tuesday night quickly took a turn for the dramatic when the first student to question him brought up his admitted extra-marital affair and accused him of being ‘hypocritical’ for espousing moral values,” Politico reports. “‘I've had a life which, on occasion, has had problems,’ he added. ‘I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that their primary concern,’” Gingrich responded.

Appearing on Fox News Tuesday morning, Gingrich “escalated his previous suggestions that Obama has coddled hostile regimes like Libya,” Real Clear Politics writes. “‘There's almost a conspiracy of silence if it's an anti-American government,’ Gingrich said. ‘Libya and Iran - to take those two examples - are clearly active opponents of the United States, and finding a way to replace them would be enormously to our advantage, and the people of both countries are prepared to risk their lives. But they get almost no support from either the United States or any serious interest in the United Nations Security Council.’”

HUCKABEE: “Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee pushed back against the notion Tuesday that he's leaning against a 2012 bid for president,” the Sioux City Journal writes. “‘How could they know that? I haven't made that decision,’ Huckabee said Tuesday in an interview with the Quad-City Times.”

“Mr. Huckabee said time and energy spent on debating Mr. Obama’s birthplace is wasted,” The State Column notes of Huckabee’s appearance on “Good Morning America.” “‘If there was any shred of truth to it, Hillary Clinton and her wonderful investigative opposition (research) machine would have found it and would have used it …I think is a waste of energy and time,’” he said.

PALIN: “It looks like Sarah Palin is a really big fan of…herself,” the New York Daily News writes (as broken by Wonkette). “The ex-Alaska governor appears to have a secret, personal Facebook account that she uses to publicly praise her widely-trafficked and much-analyzed Facebook page.”

PAWLENTY: The former governor posted this message on his Facebook page: "Far too often, when President Obama is confronted by significant foreign policy challenges, he wavers, leaving those fighting on the side of freedom to question America's commitment to their cause. This was the case with the administration's response to recent events in Egypt.  It was only after Hosni Mubarak’s fate was clear that the President got behind the courageous men and women gathered in Tahrir Square.  Now, the Libyan people have taken to the streets to free themselves from the despotic reign of Muammar al-Qaddafi and peaceful protesters have been literally gunned down.  Yet the President remains silent, unwilling or unable to speak with moral clarity about America's interest in supporting the aspirations of all who seek freedom.”

SANTORUM: Speaking at a private Christian school in South Carolina, “Santorum talked to a group of more than 200 students, faculty and community members about how divine law informs man's law,” the Spartanburg Herald Journal recounts. That same day, Santorum had lunch with Republican activists from across the state at the state GOP chairwoman’s home, meeting one-on-one with two of the four announced candidates to succeed her.

“A former lobbyist who pleaded guilty to treating congressional staffers to a World Series jaunt in 2003 is now helping ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum organize events in South Carolina as Santorum tests the water for a possible presidential bid,” the Herald Journal reports. “Jim Hirni, who was convicted of one count of ‘honest services fraud’ in 2008, accompanied Santorum to multiple public and private events in the Upstate this week.”

THUNE: “But the statement Tuesday by the Republican junior senator from South Dakota, indicating that he’s going to spend the next two years focusing on his current job, rather than campaigning for the Big Job, does heighten the suspense over Campaign 2012. As in, when will a big name, or even a reasonably serious one, finally announce for the Republican nomination?” the Christian Science Monitor asks. 

From NBC's Shawna Thomas
The names Rivera and Lee have already given the new GOP House majority headaches when it comes to ethical behavior, either alleged or real. And now you might be able to add another name: Hanna -- as in Rep. Richard Hanna.

Hanna, a freshman congressman from New York’s 24th District, published a commentary in the Syracuse Post-Standard on Feb. 20 explaining why he didn’t vote for extensions of certain provisions of the Patriot Act when it was brought to the floor last week. Congressional commentary explaining one’s position is standard. But what about publishing a piece where sections appear to be lifted from a CATO Institute blog?

For example, Hanna wrote in his commentary:

As drafted currently, the Patriot Act includes “lone wolf” authority that allows non-citizens in our country who are suspected of involvement in terrorist activities to be monitored under the broad powers afforded by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), even if they are not connected to any overseas terror group or other “foreign power.”

And here's the CATO blog, penned by Julian Sanchez:

So-called “lone wolf” authority allows non-citizens in the U.S. who are suspected of involvement in terrorist activities to be monitored under the broad powers afforded by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), even if they are not connected to any overseas terror group or other “foreign power.”

Here's another passage from Hanna:

Finally, the Patriot Act expanded the authority of the FISA Court to compel the production of business records or any other “tangible thing.” Previously, such orders were limited to narrow classes of businesses and records, and required a showing of specific facts that the records sought pertain to an agent of a foreign power.”

And CATO's Sanchez:

Section 215 expanded the authority of the FISA Court to compel the production of business records or any other “tangible thing.” While previously such orders were limited to narrow classes of businesses and records, and required a showing of “specific and articulable facts” that the records sought pertain to an agent of a foreign power, Patriot stripped away those limits.

Hanna’s office maintains that this is not plagiarism. “Representative Hanna reaches out to a lot of policy experts, and he and Mr. Sanchez are closely aligned on the issue of the Patriot Act. Mr. Hanna sought Mr. Sanchez’s expert advice on this issue, and he offered his assistance for this particular piece.”

Sanchez backed up that claim on Twitter and in a follow-up email, in which he stated, “My post at Cato’s blog on the three expiring Patriot Act provisions drew on a short summary I wrote up for congressional offices—Rep. Hanna’s among them—that had asked me to help pinpoint the central issues in the renewal debate. Rep. Hanna’s office asked if they could adapt that summary for an op-ed, which I happily gave them permission to do after seeing a draft of the piece (this was on the 16th, I believe). As far as I’m concerned, this is a pretty routine case of legislators adapting analysis from outside experts in explaining policy issues to their constituents.”

But should Hanna's commentary still have cited Sanchez, or at least disclosed his role in the piece? James Thurber, a professor at American University’s Center for Congressional Studies thinks it is, in his words, “a question of ethics.”  

He said that members of Congress and their staffs have orientations on ethics, and he even helped co-author some of the member handbooks detailing the behavioral rules of Congress.  During the latest orientation, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) stated clearly in a document prepared for new Members that it was the job of the Republicans to “bring real reform to the House and not tolerate the mistakes and ethical lapses of our previous majority.” And in the much longer handbook, The Hill reported last year that there was advice such as “Don’t tolerate or enable ethical missteps. They are one of the easiest ways to short-circuit a congressional career.” And: “If you don’t want to see an activity or event reported on the front page of the local newspaper, don’t do it.”

Thurber reiterated that this is something members and their staffs have to be “exceedingly careful about... He’s a public figure that should be careful.” Thurber continued, “It's certainly not something that the congressman would want to have his children doing... He should be setting a much higher standard."

It's a standard Speaker John Boehner has said he expects from his members. “I believe that members of Congress should be held to the highest ethical standards, that's what the American people expect," he said after former Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) resigned after the married congressman sent a shirtless photo of him to a woman he met on a CraigsList dating site. 

Boehner’s office had no immediate comment on Hanna’s situation. The Syracuse Post-Standard confirmed that they are researching this story and confirmed that that the commentary posted on their Web site is the same that appeared in the physical newspaper Sunday. 

Interestingly, this may not be Congressman Hanna’s first time cribbing CATO. Last year, the National Interest published a piece by Benjamin Friedman, in which he accused Hanna of stealing a line from a paper he co-wrote that was published in 2008.

Said Friedman: "In February 2008 Cato published 'Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq,' a paper I wrote with Harvey Sapolsky and Chris Preble... One line in the paper summed up our view this way: 'The military gives us the power to conquer foreign countries, but not the power to run them.'"

More from Friedman: "I remember thinking that was a good line when I wrote it. So, evidently, did Richard Hanna, a Republican who just got elected to Congress representing New York’s 24th District. In the speech he gave announcing his unsuccessful candidacy for the same seat in 2008, he said: 'The military gives us the power to conquer countries but not the power to run them.'"

Hat tip to Taegan Goddard, who first noted this Hanna-Sanchez controversy.

From NBC's Lauren Selsky
Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this afternoon delivered his 2011-2012 budget to a joint session of the New Jersey State Legislature.
 
He introduced his new "bottom-up" approach to budgeting -- stopping old commitments, and setting new priorities to meet New Jersey's 21st century challenges -- as the "new normal" in the state, and pointed out that New Jersey has become a "leader in fiscal discipline."
 
He also seemed to strike a bipartisan tone as he mentioned -- multiple times -- that states with Republican and Democratic governors are now looking towards New Jersey as a national model.
 
"Democratic governors and Republican governors now look to New Jersey as a beacon of hope for what can happen when leaders lead and a people sacrifice as one for the future of our children. I thank the people of New Jersey for standing with me in turning our state into a national model."
 
"Democrat or Republican, it doesn't matter. We are all facing the same problems. These problems are bigger than either political party. The promises of the past are too expensive, and the prospects of the future are too important to stay on the old, failed course."
 
"Today, states as diverse as California and Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida, New York and New Mexico are following the New Jersey model we fought for last year."

Below is a good Politico story about the president's choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel -- foreign policy aide Dan Shapiro. Talking to my own sources on this indicates Shapiro is a popular pick among those folks who are hoping to jumpstart the peace process. The idea is to send the message to the Israeli government that Shapiro has a direct line to the White House, and that he's not a State Department guy first -- but someone who can deal directly with the president.

From the Politico story:

The Obama administration plans to nominate a top White House Middle East advisor to be the next U.S. envoy to Israel, POLITICO has learned.

President Barack Obama intends to nominate one of his most trusted Middle East aides, the National Security Council’s Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa Dan Shapiro, to be his ambassador to Israel, administration officials said.

Shapiro has earned Obama's trust as a Middle East and Jewish outreach advisor going back to the campaign, and one who uniquely seems to get along well with everyone else. Shapiro has worked closely with all the key inter-agency players including National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, the NSC’s top Iran and regional strategist Dennis Ross, as well as Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, and has a good rapport with Congress, where he previously served as a staffer. Shapiro also has good ties with the Jewish community, having served as a key White House point of contact for the Jewish community, and helped head up Jewish outreach for the Obama campaign.

From NBC's Athena Jones
CLEVELAND, OH -- In a bid to show the American public he's focused on jump-starting the country's economic recovery, President Obama hosted a small business forum here to tout his administration's efforts to help support the nation's main job creators.

President Obama participates in a breakout session during the Winning the Future Forum on Small Business at Cleveland State University in Cleveland today.

The president was joined by several members of his cabinet, who held breakout sessions with 100 to 120 small business leaders to discuss topics ranging from workforce training and export assistance to providing companies with more access to capital.

Obama and officials like SBA Administrator Karen Mills, who also traveled to Ohio for today's event, have called small businesses the "backbone" of the U. S. economy and say that helping them expand and hire is key to speeding America's recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

"The big companies generally get most of attention in our economy, and the success of large companies is critical to the success of medium and small businesses as well," he said during brief remarks before the breakout sessions. "But it's small business like yours that help drive Americas economic growth and create two of every three new jobs. You're the anchors of our Main Streets."

Obama told the group gathered in a college gymnasium here in the economically hard-hit battleground state -- the unemployment rate in Ohio stood at 9.6% -- that he did not come here to talk but to listen, and said he hoped the people in attendance would express their feelings candidly.

"We're here to hear from you directly," he said. "We want your stories, your successes, your failures, what barriers you're seeing out there to expand, what you've learned along the way, what would make it easier for you to grow, what would make it easier for you to help create new jobs?"

Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said she hoped the working session here today -- which she dubbed a "laboratory" -- would provide a national model and help the administration learn how better to help these businesses.

One of the chief concerns expressed in the breakout sessions was trouble getting loans, an issue the White House has sought to address by eliminating capital gains taxes on key investments and encouraging more lending by community banks -- though it was clear that not everyone was aware of those measures. When session participant Philip Davis suggested the administration allow people to invest in small businesses without having to pay capital gains, the president smiled, saying “That is such a good idea that we implemented it last year.”

Officials say the Obama administration has put in place 17 tax cuts that will benefit small companies, including a provision that allows companies to write off 100% of investments in equipment this year. Obama's 2012 budget includes an additional $650 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program that supports early-stage research into clean energy technologies.

But today's event was held against the backdrop of an ongoing battle in Congress over funding for the rest of this year -- not to mention the 2012 fiscal year, which doesn't begin until October.

Over the weekend, House Republicans voted on a continuing resolution that would fund the government through September, but that would include more than $60 billion in cuts. The Democratic-controlled Senate is sure to reject that bill in its current form, and the two sides have until March 4 to reach an agreement and avoid a government shutdown.

Part of the president's "Win the Future" argument is that the country must make "sensible" budget cuts and work to put the country on a stronger long-term fiscal path, while also investing in areas like education, infrastructure, and innovation to boost America's ability to compete globally.

The sessions ended with a live Q&A on www.whitehouse.gov and Facebook, in which the president and Austan Goolsbee, chair of the Council on Economic Advisers took part.

"When the bet concerns America, you've always gone all in," Obama told the small business leaders during his closing remarks before the group. He added that the breakout sessions had brought out some good ideas, including a proposal to provide tax credits for angel investors' who provide early investments that can make or break a company.

Also on the road with the president today were Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Gene Sperling, who replaced Larry Summers as director of the National Economic Council. AOL Co-Founder Steve Case, who heads up a new White House public-private partnership "Startup America," was also on hand. The president has named Case to his White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is set to meet for the first time on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

Obama was met on the icy tarmac upon landing here by Republican Gov. John Kasich and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH). The president last traveled to Cleveland in the days before the midterm elections to try to help then-Gov. Ted Strickland, a strong ally during his own campaign for the presidency, hold on to the state's governor's mansion.