While visiting a hardware store in Miami, Jon Huntsman explained his "early state strategy," which includes New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida.

"I would liken it to running for governor in three states simultaneously," Huntsman said. "Obviously Florida, I think will be where the Republican nomination is finally decided. So this will be a key state for us."

Today was his second trip to the Sunshine State this year, and Huntsman is also setting up is campaign headquarters in Orlando, where his wife Mary Kaye was born. Huntsman said when he looked at his options, he knew that his headquarters "should be close to or in a very important early primary state."

"I thought it was time to do something good for my wife," Huntsman joked.

Huntsman also answered questions about his immigration plan which includes "a combination of fencing and technology and also having people on the border" with Mexico.

"I would very much look forward to working with our four border governors in making sure that we have verified from them the fact that we have secured the border," Huntsman said.

And as NBC Producer Erika Angulo reported, Huntsman also responded to questions about President Obama's plan to withdraw 30,000 troops from Afghanistan over the next year.

"The thought that we can draw down totally I think is inconceivable and it's impractical, but leaving behind a force of whatever size, certainly well below what we have today and I think well below what the president has advocated over the next year... I think it's what we want ultimately, but we're not there yet. And I don't believe we're going to be there a year from now."

Video edited by Matt Loffman

Just as it was received among both liberal and conservative members of Congress, President Obama’s down-the-middle decision to draw down the surge troops over the next year was met mostly with criticism on both the left and right sides of the blogosphere.

Liberal AMERICAblog’s Chris in Paris expressed disdain that the rest of the non-surge troops would remain in Afghanistan longer – until at least 2014.  

“What part of ‘we can't afford wars around the world because they are killing the US economy’ is Washington missing? This is hardly the type action one would expect from a candidate who promised to get us out of these inherited wars and who then won a Nobel Peace prize.”

Chris in Paris’ sentiments seemed to be echoed in a post by conservative blogger Jeff Emanuel at Red State, who wrote, “Never mind the fact that, once Obama has accomplished the promised withdrawal of the first 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, there will still be more American service members deployed there than at any time during the Bush presidency.”

He added, however, that Obama seemed to be making a straw man argument when presenting his new, “more centered course” which falls somewhere between isolationism and overextension:

“This ‘more centered course,’ apparently, means more drone attacks on high-value targets around the world (‘When threatened, we must respond with force — but when that force can be targeted, we need not deploy large armies overseas’) and more ‘leading from behind’ while we, the UN, and NATO make fools of ourselves in months-long air campaigns that fail to unseat a single tinpot dictator (‘When innocents are being slaughtered and global security endangered, we don’t have to choose between standing idly by or acting on our own. Instead, we must rally international action, which we are doing in Libya’).  Personally, I would like to have seen one of Obama’s straw men come to life and debate him over such a ridiculous statement.”

Conservative writer Michael Walsh at NRO thought Obama belittled the idea of “victory” by stressing the importance of domestic investment during a speech about a foreign war.

“The president concluded with stirring defense of nation-building — not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but here at home, with such phrases as ‘living within our means, ‘unleashing innovation,’ and ‘new and clean sources of energy.’

‘Let us finish the work at hand. Let us responsibly end these wars and reclaim the American Dream.’ Just after 9/11, is that really what we were fighting for?

Whatever happened to victory?”

Blogger Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic seemed to be in the minority of voices in the blogosphere, asserting that Obama’s moderate approach was the right decision both politically and policy-wise.

“Obama's pragmatism - his refusal to embrace either the Full McCain Jacket or the impulse to just get the hell out of there ASAP - has helped him. His moderation on this has allowed the pro-surge forces to have had their moment and their say, has scattered al Qaeda, and has provoked conservative voices of skepticism to emerge in the GOP to reshape the national debate.

We intervened in a just cause, and, thanks to Obama's calibrated resilience and new focus on al Qaeda, and the brilliance and bravery of the armed forces, we have done our job. We can never care more about a country's future security than the people of that country care about it themselves.”

With demand for gasoline expected to rise during the summer months, the Obama administration announced the country and its partners in the International Energy Agency would release 60 million barrels of oil onto the world market over the next month.

As part of the effort, the United States will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve -- which the White House says is currently at a historically high level of 727 million barrels, a number the Department of Energy says means it is "filled to capacity." Releasing oil from the reserve is extremely rare.

The administration cited the situation in Libya, which "has caused a loss of roughly 1.5 million barrels of oil per day -- particularly of light, sweet crude -- from global markets" to explain their decision. Since the disruption in Libyan oil exports due to the NATO operation there, some 140 million barrels of oil has been removed from the global market, said one senior administration official.

Officials said President Obama's decision was about addressing supply disruptions and that gas prices "will be what they are". Still, they said the move was intended help address a drag on economic growth and high gas prices are one of the "headwinds" the president has said are hampering the recovery and job creation, top concerns on voters' minds.

"The president has been deeply concerned about the impact that the disruption in the oil production and exports from Libya and other countries in the Middle East has had on energy supplies globally, the tightness that that's created in the market and the effect of that tightness on global economic growth at home and abroad," said a senior administration official in a conference call with reporters.

While retail gas prices nationwide have fallen since late April and early May, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration gas averaged $3.652 a gallon as of June 20th -- about 91 cents higher than a year ago and about 10 cents higher than in mid-March, before the conflict in Libya began.

The United States has been in close contact with oil producing and consuming countries about disruptions to the international oil market that could affect the global economy and the administration will continue to consult closely with them, according to the White House release. Today's decision is intended to complement the production increases recently announced by a number of major oil producing countries, like Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries who have said they will increase oil production by up to 1.5 million barrels/day for the remainder of the year to meet market need.

The oil reserve was set in motion in 1975 when President Ford signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), after the 1973-74 oil embargo cut off oil flowing into the United States from many Arab nations and "sent economic shockwaves throughout the nation," according to the Department of Energy. That legislation declared it to be U.S. policy to establish a reserve of up to one billion barrels of petroleum.

Decisions to withdraw crude oil from the reserve, which the department calls "a key tool of foreign policy," are made by the president in the event of an "energy emergency." Prior to today's announcement, the reserve has been used under these circumstances just twice -- during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A notice regarding sales will go out in the next 24 hours, said an official, and the law does not allow purchasers to export the oil from the US without an export license. It also says that export of SPR crude is only permitted if an equal volume of refined product is returned to the United States.

"At end of first 30 days of action by IEA members, we will review the results," he went on to say. "The U.S. stands ready to do more as and if necessary."

From NBC's Luke Russert
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has abruptly pulled out of bipartisan budget talks led by Vice President Joe Biden, saying that an impasse over taxes cannot be resolved without direct negotiations between the president and Speaker of the House John Boehner.

In a statement, Cantor said that Democrats are insisting that tax increases must be part of the debt limit deal but that there is not sufficient support in the GOP-majority House to pass any tax hikes.

"Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue," he said. "Given this impasse, I will not be participating in today's meeting and I believe it is time for the President to speak clearly and resolve the tax issue. Once resolved, we have a blueprint to move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the way things are done around here."

UPDATE: Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona is also pulling out of the negotiations.

At his weekly briefing, Boehner said that he understands Cantor's "frustration" and that he believes the Biden talks can continue if Democrats take tax increases off the table.

Jon Summers, communications director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, quickly countered in a tweet, writing that the stakes of the debt talks are too high for "people to take their marbles & go home. The American public expect more than this."

The bipartisan negotiating group has been trying to hammer out a budget deal in advance of an August 2 deadline to raise the federal debt limit.

Carrie Dann contributed.

Obama takes the middle approach on Afghanistan, grabbing the most aggressive drawdown the military would sign off on… President heads to Fort Drum, NY, where he meets with soldiers from the 10^th Mountain Division at 2:30 pm ET… The response to Obama’s speech was relatively muted… Romney returns to 2007-2008 form on Afghanistan-Iraq?... Pawlenty firmly embraces the McCain/Graham/Lieberman way… Senior administration official fires this warning shot to Boehner and House Republicans: Are you really siding with Khadaffy?... LGBT community warms up to Obama… Bachmann officially launches on Monday… And Huntsman’s Florida, while Gingrich is in Baltimore.

*** Down the unpopular middle: President Obama’s announcement last night to withdraw all 33,000 surge troops from Afghanistan by next year -- 10,000 by the end of this year, the rest by Oct. 1, 2012 -- didn’t please the Nancy Pelosis on the anti-war left. "It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner than the President laid out,” Pelosi said. And it didn’t please the John McCains on the neo-con right. "I am concerned that the withdrawal plan that President Obama announced … poses an unnecessary risk to the hard-won gains that our troops have made thus far in Afghanistan,” he said. But, from the White House’s perspective, the withdrawal decision was the most aggressive Obama could get military commanders to sign off on (which was somewhat contentious). “We must chart a more centered course,” the president told the nation last night. Today, Obama heads to Fort Drum, NY, where he meets with soldiers from the 10^th Mountain Division at 2:30 pm ET.

*** A relatively muted response: Yet while no one on Capitol Hill or the 2012 campaign trail was downright ecstatic about the plan or Obama’s speech, the responsive was relatively muted, at least compared with past policy speeches. Indeed, beyond McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Tim Pawlenty, no one truly criticized the president for withdrawing troops. The New York Times calls this “a remarkable shift in the politics of war.” The paper adds, “Mr. Obama is benefiting from a confluence of factors — a rising strain of Republican isolationism, the killing of Osama bin Laden and deep concerns about spending and the deficit — which provide unexpected flexibility for dealing with Congress and selling his decision to the nation.” Toward the end of his speech, the president focused on the U.S. economy, borrowing a line that Jon Huntsman had used on “TODAY” yesterday morning. “America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home,” Obama said.

*** Romney returns to 2007-2008 form: One of those muted responses was Mitt Romney’s, who said: “We all want our troops to come home as soon as possible, but we shouldn't adhere to an arbitrary timetable on the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan. This decision should not be based on politics or economics… I look forward to hearing the testimony of our military commanders in the days ahead." That statement was consistent with PART of what Romney said at last week’s GOP debate: "It's time for us to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can - as soon as our generals think it's OK." But it was inconsistent with the OTHER PART, when he said: "One lesson we've learned in Afghanistan is that Americans cannot fight another nation's war of independence." So it appears Romney has reverted to his more hawkish 2007-2008 form. Honest question: Was his Americans-shouldn’t-fight-another-nation’s-war-of-independence talk simply a slip of the tongue?

*** T-Paw embraces McCain/Graham/Lieberman: While Romney’s critique was relatively muted, the same couldn’t be said for Tim Pawlenty, who was holding on tightly to the McCain/Graham/Lieberman rhetoric. “When America goes to war, America needs to win,” Pawlenty said on FOX last night, per NBC’s Lauren Selsky. “We need to close out the war successfully, and what that means now is not nation building. What it means is to follow Gen. Petraeus' advice and to get those security forces built up to the point where they can pick up the slack as we draw down.” In other T-Paw news, the Washington Post reports that at least five top advisers to the GOP candidate having been working for little to no pay for several months. But what we’re hearing: Those choices were made long ago, and don’t necessarily signal any true fundraising struggles from the last few weeks, and these advisers didn’t sign up with Pawlenty to make money.

*** Obama White House to House Republicans: Are you really siding with Khadaffy? In his speech last night, Obama declared that “the tide of war is receding.” But one place where war -- and the U.S. debate over it -- isn’t receding is Libya. As Roll Call reports, House Speaker Boehner is “putting forward a strict funding limitation proposal to rebuke the Obama administration for pursuing military involvement in Libya without seeking the endorsement of Congress.” Yet on a conference call previewing last night’s speech, the White House responded with an old argument from the PAST, though it was a new one for THIS administration to use: The political opposition appears to be siding with the enemy. “Astoundingly, there is a move in the House of Representatives to take an effort as it relates to the ongoing effort to stop a tyrant in Libya and to turn it into a political football,” a senior administration official said on the call. The official added that the effort potentially sends “a very negative signal to the leadership of that country, which, as we all know, has over the course of time carried out hateful and heinous attacks against U.S. citizens, including terrorist attacks.”

*** LGBT community warms up to Obama: It’s a relatively quiet day on the 2012 campaign trail. One reason why: Almost everyone is fundraising, with just a few days left in the all-important 2^nd quarter. In fact, after his stop at Fort Drum, Obama heads to New York City for an LGBT fundraiser. While the president’s policies might have lost him so fundraising support on Wall Street, they’ve won him fundraising support in the gay and lesbian community. The Huffington Post: “When the Democratic National Committee hosted an LGBT fundraiser nearly two years ago to the day, the prevailing narrative surrounded who exactly would protest. Thursday, two of the three people who conspicuously skipped that event … will play a supporting role.” More from the article: It's not just activists who are warming up to Obama in the lead up to the presidential campaign. The institutional gay-rights community is getting behind the president's reelection push as well. Obama's advisers are acutely aware of the fundraising prowess of LGBT donors, and they've catered their outreach to reflect that demand.”

*** Bachmann officially launches on Monday: Per NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell, Michele Bachmann officially kicks off her presidential campaign from Waterloo, IA on Monday. After that, she heads to New Hampshire and then to South Carolina.

*** On the 2012 trail: Huntsman spends Day 3 of his announcement tour in Florida, where he makes six stops… Gingrich speaks before the Maryland GOP in Baltimore at 7:00 pm ET.

*** Press vs. Congress -- in softball: And finally, tonight is the third-annual softball game in DC featuring female members of Congress vs. female members of the press. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Dem Sen. Amy Klobuchar are the play-by-play announcers. The benefits from the game go to young breast-cancer survivors.

Countdown to Iowa GOP straw poll: 51 days
Countdown to NV-2 special election: 82 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 138 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 228 days
* Note: When the IA caucuses take place depends on whether other states move up

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“In a prime-time, 15-minute White House address to the nation, Obama simultaneously heralded the achievements of the “surge’’ he ordered 18 months ago and underscored his push for a responsible US exit by 2014,” the Boston Globe writes. “The withdrawal of 10,000 troops by the end of this year had been expected, but the president set a quicker timetable for the rest of the surge forces to come home than some of his top commanders had hoped for.”

The Washington Post: "President Obama charted a middle course Wednesday for ending the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, outlining a departure plan that will remove troops faster than his commanders had requested but more slowly than many of his political allies would like."

“President Barack Obama's decision to start returning U.S. troops from Afghanistan is a gamble that that he can balance two competing realities: demands from the Pentagon that he leave enough boots on the ground to finish the job, and demands from Congress and the American public that he end the longest war in the nation's history,” the Wall Street Journal adds.

The New York Times says that military experts are worried about the 2012 pullback. Mr. Obama’s plan, announced Wednesday, has two stages. In the first, the United States will withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, or about double what the military had desired. In the second, 20,000 additional troops, the remainder of the 2009 surge, will be withdrawn by the end of next summer... 'Bu' putting a September 2012 expiration tag on the rest of the surge raises real concerns,” added General Barno, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a policy research center. 'That’s the middle of the fighting season.'" 

“President Barack Obama’s decision to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan by 33,000 by September 2012 drew mixed reviews on Capitol Hill, particularly from top Republicans who appeared deeply divided over the proposal,” Roll Call says.

The New York Daily News previews Obama’s trip to New York today: “President Obama swoops back into the city Thursday to flex his fund-raising muscle at a slew of cash bashes - and to send a message to his liberal base.” Obama will address the LGBT Leadership Gala, and the Daily News makes the point that with the “current debate on same-sex marriage in Albany,” it will be interesting to see what Obama’s position will be.

The New York Times editorial page: “It was a particular relief to hear him say that “the tide of war is receding” in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But he will need to do a lot more to explain why it is in this country’s strategic interest to stick things out for another three-plus years. And why his drawdown plan has a credible chance of leaving behind an Afghanistan that won’t implode as soon as American troops are gone.” 

The Globe’s editorial page says “Given all the economic, political, and military considerations President Obama had to juggle” his decision “is the least bad option.” But a sound “political strategy” is how success will be measured in Afghanistan, it continues.

Conservative military hawk Bill Kristol: “Why bring home the surge troops by the summer of 2012? It had been widely expected that President Obama would announce the planned removal of some—perhaps even all—of the surge forces by early 2013. No serious person expected a drawdown of all 33,000 troops—one-third of the total force—within about 15 months... Because, one has to conclude, Election Day is November 6, 2012.”

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank: “The policy itself was no triumph, just a split-the-difference compromise between the slower troop withdrawal from Afghanistan sought by the generals and the faster one many congressional Democrats and a majority of the public desired. But Obama packaged it nicely, wrapped it with a bow and declared, perhaps prematurely, that his “surge” in Afghanistan had been a success.”

“Both former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had more hawkish reactions to Obama's speech,” The Hill writes. “Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican running for president who served as Obama's ambassador to China, by contrast chided Obama for moving too slowly, joining with the likes of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the libertarian-minded presidential candidate who's long called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.”

Romney’s position, in particular, on the war is muddled, especially after saying at a debate last week that the United States shouldn’t be fighting wars of “independence.”

The New York Times: “As the nation has grown weary over the cost and toll of war, fault lines have emerged among Republicans, with the longstanding isolationist strain regaining its footing after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the adventurism of the George W. Bush era.”

CAIN: Herman Cain said Obama offered “foggy foreign policy” in his rebuke of both isolationists and hawks, though he did end his statement on a praiseworthy note: saying the president was “correct” in calling for nation-building at home and for the Afghan people to take more responsibility for their country.

GINGRICH: Issuing a statement almost three hours after the president’s address, Gingrich connected the war in Afghanistan to other conflicts in the Arab world, specifically Libya, and criticized Obama for not linking Afghanistan to “a larger strategy for winning the war against radical Islamists.”

Gingrich spoke at the Atlanta Press Club yesterday where he said his campaign staff quit en masse because he is “very different” from mainstream politicians, Reuters writes. “‘Philosophically, I am very different from normal politicians, and normal consultants found that very hard to deal with,” Gingrich said.

HUNTSMAN: “Republican White House hopeful Jon Huntsman has found a way to explain his embrace of cap-and-trade when he was governor of Utah: Everyone was doing it,” The Hill writes. Huntsman said on FOX: “Every governor was talking about dealing with emissions back many, many years ago only to find that with the economic implosion, we can't afford anything that is going to put any kind of hamper on economic growth. So cap-and-trade is not something that is viable today. Everybody talked about it. At least a lot of people did, consulting with CEOs, consulting with all the experts. Everyone took it seriously.”

Huntsman put out a statement on the president’s speech before it happened, calling for an even wider troop pullout than Obama proposed. “Now it is time we move to a focused counter-terror effort which requires significantly fewer boots on the ground than the President discussed tonight.”

While he does not plan on participating in the Ames Straw poll, Jon Huntsman told Politico that he would attend the Fox News-sponsored debate in Iowa in August. He met with potential Republican donors in South Carolina last night, CNN reports. And he will open his campaign headquarters in Florida today, cutting a ceremonial ribbon for his Orlando offices after meeting with business leaders in Miami, the AP writes.

The conservative anti-tax group Club for Growth went after Huntsman yesterday, releasing a “presidential white paper” that praised his tax policies but criticized his record on spending and having once considered an individual mandate for health-care coverage, the Washington Post writes.

PAWLENTY: Pawlenty was at the hawkish end of the candidates’ spectrum of responses, criticizing the president’s statement that the United States needs to end the war “responsibly.” Appearing on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor, Pawlenty said, “When America goes to war, America needs to win.”

A handful of Pawlenty’s top advisers have been working for little or no pay for several months, the Washington Post reports. While some on the staff are temporarily forgoing a bigger salary, Pawlenty aides insist that other consultants signed up with the understanding that they were working pro bono for the long term. “We’re raising exactly what we said we were going to raise. We’re paying our consultants exactly what they expected to be paid right now,” an aide said.

PERRY: Joshua Green writes, “It’s a measure of how unenthusiastic Republicans are about their presidential choices that Texas Governor Rick Perry has become their latest infatuation. … Politicians love getting the Perry treatment, and there’s a good chance that Perry won’t be the last one to get it. … Call it the ‘Heck, why not?’ primary.”

ROMNEY: Mitt Romney “is somewhere in the middle” in terms of the hawkishness of reactions to the Afghanistan announcement, the New York Times writes. “In a statement, Mr. Romney said that ‘we all want our troops to come home as soon as possible,’ but he stopped short of praising Mr. Obama’s speech.”

A new Bloomberg Poll shows Romney with a 59% favorable rating among Republicans.

SANTORUM: Santorum criticized Romney and Huntsman for having “holes in their record” that prevent them from performing well in the Iowa caucus, The Hill writes.

“Setting up a showdown on Libya, House Republicans agreed yesterday to vote on dueling measures, one to give President Obama limited authority to continue US involvement in the NATO-led operation against Moammar Khadafy and the other to cut off funds for military hostilities,” AP writes.

Here’s quite the admission from Mitch McConnell: “The Senate GOP leader conceded Wednesday that if President Obama were a Republican, he wouldn't be getting as much congressional blowback on Libya,” the New York Daily News writes. He said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, "I do think that there is more of a tendency to pull together when you are - when the guy in the White House is on your side," he said at the breakfast briefing. I think some of these views were probably held by some of my members - even in the previous administration - but party loyalty tended to kind of mute them.”

“Suddenly, the debt limit negotiations aren't just about distributing painful cuts. They're also about including sweeteners that could make it somewhat easier for Members to stomach the political risks of such a plan,” Roll Call writes.

“Lawmakers are expressing frustration with the lack of information they have received from Vice President Biden’s debt-limit negotiations,” The Hill reports.

IOWA: Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn is meeting with his New Hampshire counterparts today, in an effort to send a message to states like Florida, which have moved their primaries up past the March 6^th cutoff for states other than the four first primary states, the Des Moines Register reports. “I want to make sure that Florida and any other state that may be out of compliance understand that Iowa and New Hampshire are going to continue to work together,” Strawn said.

The Iowa GOP begins auctioning off space that candidates can occupy at the Ames Straw Poll grounds on August 13th, Politico reports. “The cost of a spot is $15,000 – but not all spots are created equal, with some closer to the main entrance, and the bidding only increases from there. Each campaign is allowed to send two representatives to Iowa GOP headquarters this afternoon for the auction. All the spots will be handed out by the end of the day and the campaigns will have until June 30 to pay up.”

MISSOURI: American Crossroads is hitting Claire McCaskill (D) with $50,000 worth of radio ads.

NEW MEXICO: The Progressive Change Campaign Committee today issued its first endorsement of the 2012 cycle -- for House candidate Eric Griego, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Democrat Martin Heinrich (who’s running for Senate). 

UTAH: “Welcome to extreme makeover, the Sen. Orrin Hatch edition,” Roll Call writes, saying that he’s letting “loose his inner Tea Party.”

Speaking at the Atlanta Press Club this morning, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) addressed the recent staff departures in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

"We made a mistake. We tried to be normal," Gingrich said. "We tried to bring in regular political consultants -- very smart people.  And it turned out they couldn't do it."

"I am very different than normal politicians," he added. "And normal consultants found that very hard to deal with."

Gingrich advised GOP voters to choose a candidate who has the "toughness and perseverance to survive the last four weeks of news media."

Gingrich pointed to Ronald Reagan's time as president to demonstrate how he'll overcome the recent staff shakeups. Gingrich said that in 1980, 13 staffers resigned from Reagan's campaign, but that he went on to "rebuild the American economy."

"So if I have to choose Reaganomics with 13 staffers quitting or Obamanomics with the media fawning over him," Gingrich said. "I think for the average working American, Reaganomics is a lot better deal."

The New York Times gets the scoop on the troop-level news in President Obama's Afghanistan speech tonight:

President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 “surge,” by the end of next summer, according to administration officials and diplomats briefed on the decision.

These troop reductions are both deeper and faster than the recommendations made by Mr. Obama’s military commanders, and they reflect mounting political and economic pressures at home, as the president faces relentless budget pressures and an increasingly restive Congress and American public.

After a briefing by Senate Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters he does not believe that the Biden group can come to an agreement on the $4 trillion of cuts that the Republicans are asking for to offset a raise in the debt ceiling before the August 2nd deadline. 

Instead, the member of the defunct "Gang of Six" sees a two-step process where a "downpayment on the deficit" will give lawmakers more time to craft a larger plan.

"I think we can do it in two steps, but probably not more than two steps -- a serious downpayment on the deficit, and then some serious work to getting to the $4 trillion-plus in deficit reduction that Bowles-Simpson dealt with," he said. "We're just not going to be able to accomplish that by August 2nd.

"So if we can reach a downpayment agreement that gets us past the August 2nd, extends the debt ceiling, with the understanding that we're going to go back and finish the work for $4 trillion debt sooner rather than later, I think that makes sense. I hope Vice President Biden can get an agreement that can get us through the election; I don't know if he can. But what I'm suggesting is if it takes those two steps, I know, having working as long as I did on reaching the $4 trillion number that you can't do it in a matter of days, or weeks. We have to think about how we do this and how we make it work."

We're gearing up to shoot another episode of Inside the Boiler Room. Got a question? Post it below!

From NBC's Shawna Thomas
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) has had at least one meeting with a former congressional aide who is suing Florida Democrat Rep. Alcee Hastings for sexual harassment, according to conservative watchdog Judicial Watch.

The group confirms that it was approached by the ethics office in May of this year, as was the former aide, Winsome Packer.

Packer alleged in a March lawsuit that she was “forced to endure unwelcome sexual advances, crude sexual comments and unwelcome touching” from her boss.

Hastings has vehemently denied the charges, calling them "ludicrous" and "bizarre."

The OCE is NOT the House Ethics Committee, but it makes recommendations to the Ethics Committee on matters that they believe should be investigated further. It is a non-partisan group.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, tells NBC News that the House Ethics Committee itself has not approached the organization and that Fitton's group did not make a formal complaint to OCE.

The OCE "is an independent, non-partisan entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against Members, officers, and staff of the United States House of Representatives and, when appropriate, referring matters to the House Committee on Ethics."

Congress created the OCE in 2008 under Pelosi in an effort to "drain the swamp." Members of the public and outside organizations can suggest to the OCE things or situations that should be investigated. After conducting an initial review, if the OCE decides to to recommend to the House Ethics Committee that the matter should be investigated further, this will be publicly posted.

Neither Hastings' lawyer or chief of staff have responded to inquiries from NBC News.

UPDATE: Hastings' lawyer, Tonya Robinson, tells NBC:

Mr. Hastings is deeply disturbed by the allegations contained in the lawsuit now pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and, in the strongest terms, denies the charges.  Mr. Hastings has stated unequivocally that the plaintiff's claims are untruthful and without merit.

Incidentally, the plaintiff's charges already have been the subject of extensive counseling and mediation, as the plaintiff acknowledges in her complaint.  In that context, the plaintiff's allegations were fully aired and found to be meritless, and will be shown to be meritless in court as well.

Preliminary ethics inquiries are confidential matters under the relevant rules.

From msnbc.com's Tom Curry
In its mid-year long-term budget forecast, the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday renewed its previous warnings that the government faces an increasing risk of a fiscal crisis due its ever-greater borrowing.

The report comes as Vice President Joe Biden and congressional budget negotiators try to reach an accord that would cut spending enough for Republicans to agree to an increase in the government’s borrowing limit.

August 2 is the date on which the Treasury Department says it will exhaust its means of managing cash to avoid hitting the current debt limit.

As it did in a report last January, the CBO said publicly held debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) would reach nearly 70 percent during the current fiscal year which ends on Sept. 30.

The CBO – in its “alternative fiscal scenario” --  predicted that if Congress does not raise taxes to their 2000 level and fails to impose Medicare spending cuts mandated by a 1997 law, by 2035 federal spending would account for more than a third of GDP, up from 24 percent of GDP this year.

Under that same scenario, by 2020 publicly held debt would reach nearly 90 percent of GDP.

CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said many budget analysts think the alternative fiscal scenario “is a more realistic picture of the nation’s underlying fiscal policies” than the “baseline” scenario which by law CBO must use to forecast spending and revenue.

The baseline, for example, assumes that current income tax rates will revert to their 2000 level at the end of 2012.

In Wednesday’s report, the CBO repeated earlier warnings about the risk of a sovereign debt crisis.

A rising level of debt, combined with an excess of spending over revenue “would increase the probability of a fiscal crisis for the United States,” the nonpartisan agency said, repeating a warning it made last July.

“In such a crisis, investors become unwilling to finance all of a government’s borrowing needs unless they are compensated with very high interest rates,” the CBO said, adding that “there is no way to predict with any confidence whether and when such a crisis might occur in the United States.”

But it said, “All else being equal, however, the larger the debt, the greater the risk of such a crisis.”

In his introduction to the report, Elmendorf identified health care costs and demographics as primary causes of the fiscal dilemma.

“Under current law, an aging population and rapidly rising health care costs will sharply increase federal spending for health care programs and Social Security,” he said. “If revenues remained at their historical average share of gross domestic product (GDP), such spending growth would cause federal debt to grow to unsustainable levels.”

In a Rolling Stone article on climate change, former Democratic Vice President Al Gore criticizes President Obama for not leading on the issue.

Gore empathizes will all the other subjects the White House has had to deal with -- the Great Recession, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an intractable Republican Party -- and he praises the green policies it has implemented.

But he goes on to write:

President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change. After successfully passing his green stimulus package, he did nothing to defend it when Congress decimated its funding. After the House passed cap and trade, he did little to make passage in the Senate a priority. Senate advocates — including one Republican — felt abandoned when the president made concessions to oil and coal companies without asking for anything in return. He has also called for a massive expansion of oil drilling in the United States, apparently in an effort to defuse criticism from those who argue speciously that "drill, baby, drill" is the answer to our growing dependence on foreign oil.

[snip]

Yet without presidential leadership that focuses intensely on making the public aware of the reality we face, nothing will change. The real power of any president, as Richard Neustadt wrote, is "the power to persuade." Yet President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis.

In 8:00 pm ET speech on Afghanistan, expect Obama -- in some form or fashion -- to declare success in defeating al Qaeda in the region… While the U.S. military might not like the surge withdrawal, Obama has more political leeway than ever before… Huntsman’s sluggish start yesterday and his stronger appearance on “TODAY” this morning… Yet he was unable to answer why his family’s Huntsman Corporation employs more in China and India than it does in the U.S… Pawlenty goes on the air in Iowa, meaning he’s all-in for the Ames Straw Poll… Our anti-CW on Iowa and New Hampshire… More rough news for Newt… And Huntsman stumps in South Carolina on Day 2 of his official launch.

*** Declaring success: When President Obama announced his troop surge in Afghanistan back in Dec. 2009, he said that the “overarching goal” was to “disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” The president went on to say, “To meet that goal, we will pursue the following objectives… We must deny al Qaeda a safe haven. We must reverse the Taliban’s momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government. And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government, so they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan’s future.” In his 8:00 pm ET speech tonight on Afghanistan, Obama is expected to essentially respond to that paragraph from 2009 and say that progress has been achieved on all three fronts. And he might even say publicly what officials have been privately touting: that al Qaeda has been operationally defeated and essentially destroyed in the Af-Pak region, with the bin Laden kill being the symbolic exclamation point.

*** Obama’s political cover: The troop withdrawal that the president will announce concerns the 30,000 surge troops, not the total force in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that high-ranking officials in the U.S. military, including Gen. David Petraeus, want those surge troops to stay a bit longer there. But politically, Obama has more leeway than he’s ever had before. Just listen to what Mitt Romney said about Afghanistan in last week’s GOP debate. And listen to what Jon Huntsman said on “TODAY” this morning: “We can probably be a little more aggressive [on withdrawal] over the next year… What we need now is a healthy dose of nation-building at home.” One additional point: Tonight’s speech probably buys Obama a little more space on Libya. Why? Because, for another day or two, it puts THAT conflict on A4, and that's all the U.S. wants now is time as they continue to believe they are thisclose to forcing Khadaffy out.

*** But still a challenge for the president: Yet even though Obama can declare success regarding al Qaeda, and even though he has more GOP political cover on withdrawal, Afghanistan remains a challenge for him. As the Washington Post notes, “His prime-time address must remind a skeptical electorate and a concerned Congress that the country’s longest war remains worth fighting — and funding — for several more years.” The New York Times adds, “[B]ehind his words will be an acute awareness of what $1.3 trillion in spending on two wars in the past decade has meant at home: a ballooning budget deficit and a soaring national debt at a time when the economy is still struggling to get back on its feet.”

*** Huntsman’s sluggish start: The bad news for Jon Huntsman was that yesterday's presidential announcement didn't go smoothly (with audio issues, a misspelling mistake, and a flat speech). The good news: There's always another day, and Huntsman today stumps in South Carolina. His sluggish start was striking because the pre-rollout had been orchestrated so well, and it ran counter to the level of hype they were trying to give to the announcement. Yet the biggest shortcoming of Huntsman's speech yesterday was failing to address our question from yesterday: Who is Jon Huntsman? Yes, he wants to run an optimistic and civil campaign. Yes, he has an interesting biography (high school dropout, the band, the work overseas). And, yes, announcement addresses are rarely meaty speeches. But his announcement yesterday was full of generalities. In fact, the Washington Post fact-checker found that there were almost no facts to check in speech, because it was “content-free” and “fact-free.”

*** Huntsman on “TODAY”: Huntsman, however, was much stronger in his appearance on “TODAY” this morning. Regarding his low name ID, he told NBC’s Ann Curry that he’s still got months ahead to introduce himself to voters. “We have every opportunity to get out and talk about our issues.” On President Obama’s performance on the economy: “There is a lot of work to be done.” And on whether he’d raise taxes as president: “We didn’t raise taxes [in Utah]. We created the environment for business growth.” The one question Huntsman didn’t handle well was the fact that his family’s Huntsman Corporation now employs more people overseas than in the U.S. (“We now employ more people between China and India than we do in North America,” brother Peter Huntsman recently said.) Huntsman’s answer to this: If you look at any manufacturing company, it’s building more facilities overseas. But will that answer fly on the campaign trail?

*** Pawlenty goes on the air in Iowa: As we reported yesterday, Tim Pawlenty is going up with a new TV ad in Iowa -- the first Republican presidential candidate to do so. And now the ad has been released. In it, Pawlenty looks into the camera and takes a subtle dig at front-runner Mitt Romney, saying he passed health-care reform in Minnesota "the right way, no mandates, no takeover." At a $50,000 buy, the ad will air on FOX News in the Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Omaha, Ottumwa, Rochester, and Sioux City media markets from June 23 to July 3. Make no mistake: Pawlenty is all-in on the Aug. 13 Ames Straw Poll. His window is closing, and his team probably realizes he can’t afford another missed opportunity.

*** Some anti-CW on Iowa and New Hampshire: Speaking of Iowa… The Conventional Wisdom as we head into the early nominating contests is that Iowa will benefit the social conservatives, while New Hampshire will be where the moderates fare well. But here's a little anti-CW: It's possible that a moderate (say Romney) has a mathematical chance to win Iowa because either 1) the social conservative vote gets split, or 2) the moderate attracts new caucus-goers like Obama did in '08. As pollster Ann Selzer recently wrote, “Iowa is a problem for moderate Republicans only if they believe the 2012 caucus will fit the mold of 2008.” Similarly, in New Hampshire, it’s possible that Romney and Huntsman could all split up the moderate indie vote, leaving a social conservative (Bachmann? Perry?) to overperform in the state. Remember, the moderate BUSH won Iowa in 1980, and the conservative Buchanan won New Hampshire in 1996 (even when there was NO Dem primary competing for the indie vote).

*** Newt’s second line of credit at Tiffany’s: Unfortunately for Newt Gingrich, the stories keep getting worse, not better. Yesterday, we learned that his campaign lost two top finance staffers. And then came this: He “had a second line of credit at the high-end jewelry store Tiffany’s for as much as $1 million dollars,” the Washington Post’s Cillizza reported. “Joe DeSantis, a spokesman for Gingrich, said that the candidate’s personal financial disclosure filing, which is due within 30 days of his formal entrance into the presidential race, will ‘show that the Gingriches had a $500,000 to $1 million line of credit at Tiffany’s, that it has a zero balance, and it has been closed.’ DeSantis added that all debts to Tiffany’s had been paid in full. He offered no details about when the second line of credit was taken out, what it was used for or when it was closed.” How long will Gingrich allow this to go on?

*** On the 2012 trail: In Georgia this morning, Gingrich already delivered a speech on the economy and the Federal Reserve… And Huntsman, in Columbia, SC, visits a local business, holds a media avail, and meets with supporters.

Countdown to Iowa GOP straw poll: 52 days
Countdown to NV-2 special election: 83 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 139 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 229 days
* Note: When the IA caucuses take place depends on whether other states move up

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The New York Times: “President Obama will talk about troop numbers in Afghanistan when he makes a prime-time speech from the White House on Wednesday night. But behind his words will be an acute awareness of what $1.3 trillion in spending on two wars in the past decade has meant at home: a ballooning budget deficit and a soaring national debt at a time when the economy is still struggling to get back on its feet.”

The Washington Post adds, “President Obama will face a stiff political challenge Wednesday in presenting his plan for a gradual end to the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. His prime-time address must remind a skeptical electorate and a concerned Congress that the country’s longest war remains worth fighting — and funding — for several more years.”

“No matter how many troops President Obama announces will leave Afghanistan in his prime-time address to the nation Wednesday night, the United States will be at war on Election Day 2012,” The Hill writes, adding that leaving 60,000-plus troops in Afghanistan carries “a risk for a president who must appeal to both independents and liberals to form a winning reelection coalition in 2012. The left is already disappointed with Obama for sending more troops to Afghanistan last year, even though in doing so Obama largely fulfilled a campaign promise.”

A Bloomberg poll out today finds: “By a 44 percent to 34 percent margin, Americans say they believe they are worse off than when President Barack Obama took office in early 2009.”

BACHMANN: With the national spotlight glaring on her since her strong showing at the CNN debate, Michele Bachmann will have to overcome some challenges to keep other potential candidates from stealing it, the New York Times writes. “[A] Rick Perry candidacy would have the potential to overshadow her. Mr. Perry, a 10-year governor of Texas with a strong economic record, shares her outsider status, and like her, speaks Tea Party lingo and appeals to fiscal and social conservatives.” The Times also mentions Perry and Mitt Romney’s cache with establishment Republicans, which Bachmann lacks.

The Times also examines Bachmann’s role as a foster parent.  

GINGRICH: “Former House speaker Newt Gingrich had a second line of credit at the high-end jewelry store Tiffany and Co. for as much as $1 million dollars, his presidential campaign acknowledged Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.

Gingrich’s spokesman R.C. Hammond characterized the departure of two members of Gingrich’s fundraising team as an “amicable parting,” The Hill writes.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Yesterday “was supposed to be another day where Newt Gingrich could get his struggling campaign for President back on track, but instead of giving a speech in Atlanta that makes news on issues, the former House Speaker faces more questions about his future in the GOP race.”

HUNTSMAN: “Newly declared Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman says the Obama administration's pace of troop drawdown in Afghanistan is too slow,” AP writes. “Huntsman tells NBC's ‘Today’ show ‘what we need now is a healthy dose of nation-building here at home.’ The former Utah governor also said ‘we can probably be a little more aggressive’ about withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan.’” And on the economy, he said there's “no real sign of recovery.” But he added, that raising taxes should be "off the table."

The Washington Post’s fact checker writes that Huntsman’s speech yesterday was fact-free. 

AP’s Woodward finds just a few facts to check, and says they were largely on point. “Huntsman's debut as a presidential candidate Tuesday marked a departure from the norm in the Republican race, if not in politics overall,” he writes. “He made only a few measured claims about his record and based them largely on the facts -- with a bit of wiggle room here and there. By taking Obama-bashing off the table, the former governor and ambassador to China avoided an entire category of rhetorical excesses that has characterized the announcement speeches of his rivals for the Republican nomination. And he tooted his own horn with restraint.”

The New York Times on Huntsman’s announcement in New Jersey: Showing “little noticeable emotion” as he announced his run for president, he “promised a cordial campaign, saying ‘it concerns me that civility, humanity and respect are sometimes lost in our interactions as Americans,’ adding, ‘I don’t think you need to run down somebody’s rep in order to run for the office of president.’”

The Boston Globe writes of Huntsman’s New Hampshire strategy: “Huntsman has decided not to compete in the Iowa caucuses, and the road through New Hampshire will not be easy. He is entering a wide-open Republican field, in which he will probably woo moderate voters who until now have focused much of their attention on former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Huntsman has little name recognition — a recent Globe poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center found he would get about 3 percent of the vote — and has already faced criticism from members of his own party and Democrats. Democrats have criticized him for embracing House Republicans’ plan to change Medicare to a voucher system, while Republicans worry about his service to Obama.”

David Axelrod, the top adviser for the Obama re-election campaign, suggested he noted hypocrisy in Huntsman’s speech, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “I found it slightly bewildering because when I met with him in Shanghai when I traveled with the president, he could not have been more effusive about the president, including the domestic initiatives, health care and so on,” Axelrod said, continuing, “He seemed a little concerned about the direction of his party.”

Huntsman said he won’t sign the anti-tax pledge crafted by Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, as well as the Susan B. Anthony List pledge to limit abortion rights. “My take on all of this is your record should say everything about where you are and where you're going. I don't need to sign a pledge,” Huntsman said, according to The Hill.

Ahead of Huntsman’s visit to South Carolina today, state Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian welcomed “"ambassador, governor, Democrat, Republican Jon Huntsman” in a conference call, Politico writes.

PERRY: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said yesterday that he didn’t believe it was too late for Rick Perry to enter the race and win the Iowa caucuses. As the Des Moines Register notes, Branstad reminded reporters that former President George W. Bush didn’t enter the 2000 race until June of 1999, which would put Perry on a similar time frame.

Newt Gingrich offered effusive praise of Perry yesterday appearing on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, the Houston Chronicle notes. “I wrote the foreword to his most recent book; I think he’s been a great governor of Texas; he will be a very formidable competitor if he gets into the race,” Gingrich said.

PALIN: Palin could be an Emmy winner: “TLC has entered ‘Sarah Palin's Alaska’ for consideration in four Emmy categories -- best reality program, music composition, picture editing, and cinematography,” GOP12 writes. GOP12’s Heinze makes this point: “TLC submitted it into ‘best reality program’” – even though “Palin has repeatedly and passionately claimed it's not a reality show, but instead, a documentary.”

PAWLENTY: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will air the first Republican television commercial for a presidential candidate in Iowa today, introducing himself to voters in the state. According to the Wall Street Journal, airing the ad in Iowa “may reflect some anxiousness on the part of his campaign after shaky performance in last week’s debate.” Here’s the ad.

Pawlenty told Politico that he didn’t take Mitt Romney to task over his health care plan in the CNN debate because he wanted to stay positive for his first impression on many Republican voters, although he added that he could have been “more direct” in answering the question. He also said he’d be bringing back the term “Obamneycare” but that he might change it a little bit, perhaps to “Robamacare.”

Aso in the interview, Pawlenty separated himself from some of his fellow Republican candidates who have expressed a desire to draw down the war in Afghanistan. “I wouldn’t be overly anxious to get the troops out of there until we have enough stability and capacity within the Afghanistan security forces to take up the slack,” he said. “We need to make sure we do not send the message that we are leaving just because we’re tired or just because it’s too difficult.”

ROMNEY: Romney yesterday started a series of closed-door fundraisers over the next several days in California, including a “kick off” lunch at a Sacramento hotel where co-hosts were asked to raise at least $10,000, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The Romney campaign announced yesterday that the candidate will participate in six debates between now and October 18.

SANTORUM: Former Sen. Rick Santorum told a group of Iowa farmers yesterday that he supports phasing out federal subsidies of the ethanol fuel industry, the Des Moines Register writes. 

“Senators John F. Kerry and John McCain, seeking to defuse a contentious debate over funding for US military operations in Libya, proposed a resolution yesterday offering congressional support for President Obama’s policy in the North African country,” the Boston Globe reports. “The senators, both high-profile members of the chamber and former nominees for the presidency, sought to project a united front in support of the NATO-led action to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Khadafy’s forces and curtail the dictator’s ability to wage war.”

“The Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Leon Panetta to be the next Pentagon chief yesterday, handing him a crowded agenda of overseeing the drawdown of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, tamping down congressional unrest over the Libyan conflict, and cutting the budget,” the AP reports.

“A bill to fund the Economic Development Administration (EDA), a measure Democrats characterized as a ‘jobs bill,’ was stopped from advancing in the Senate Tuesday in a 49-51 vote,” The Hill writes. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was unable to find a path forward through nearly 100 mostly nongermane amendments offered by Republicans and Democrats.” More: “Democratic leadership has grown increasingly frustrated in recent weeks as Republican senators have gummed up the Senate’s processes by taking advantage of a deal forged early in the year that allows unlimited amendments to any legislation on the floor.”

“Top lawmakers pushed back Tuesday against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that a short-term increase in the debt ceiling could be needed to buy time for reaching an agreement on entitlement reforms,” The Hill reports. Eric Cantor: “I’m not so sure that if we can’t make the tough decisions now, why we would be making those tough decisions later.”

Speaking of McConnell, he pens a Washington Post op-ed, arguing that all terrorists should be tried at Gitmo. “The Justice Department says Alwan and Hammadi should be tried in a civilian setting because they were caught here. This is ludicrous. The fact that bureaucrats mistakenly allowed two foreign fighters into the United States does not entitle them to all the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens.”

“K Street lobbyists are scrambling to defend industry tax breaks and spending programs from ending up as fodder to reduce the deficit in the debt limit talks led by Vice President Joseph Biden,” Roll Call writes.

“Senators John F. Kerry and John McCain, seeking to defuse a contentious debate over funding for US military operations in Libya, proposed a resolution yesterday offering congressional support for President Obama’s policy in the North African country,” the Boston Globe reports. “The senators, both high-profile members of the chamber and former nominees for the presidency, sought to project a united front in support of the NATO-led action to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Khadafy’s forces and curtail the dictator’s ability to wage war.”

“The Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Leon Panetta to be the next Pentagon chief yesterday, handing him a crowded agenda of overseeing the drawdown of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, tamping down congressional unrest over the Libyan conflict, and cutting the budget,” the AP reports.

“A bill to fund the Economic Development Administration (EDA), a measure Democrats characterized as a ‘jobs bill,’ was stopped from advancing in the Senate Tuesday in a 49-51 vote,” The Hill writes. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was unable to find a path forward through nearly 100 mostly nongermane amendments offered by Republicans and Democrats.” More: “Democratic leadership has grown increasingly frustrated in recent weeks as Republican senators have gummed up the Senate’s processes by taking advantage of a deal forged early in the year that allows unlimited amendments to any legislation on the floor.”

“Top lawmakers pushed back Tuesday against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that a short-term increase in the debt ceiling could be needed to buy time for reaching an agreement on entitlement reforms,” The Hill reports. Eric Cantor: “I’m not so sure that if we can’t make the tough decisions now, why we would be making those tough decisions later.”

Speaking of McConnell, he pens a Washington Post op-ed, arguing that all terrorists should be tried at Gitmo. “The Justice Department says Alwan and Hammadi should be tried in a civilian setting because they were caught here. This is ludicrous. The fact that bureaucrats mistakenly allowed two foreign fighters into the United States does not entitle them to all the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens.”

“K Street lobbyists are scrambling to defend industry tax breaks and spending programs from ending up as fodder to reduce the deficit in the debt limit talks led by Vice President Joseph Biden,” Roll Call writes.

Former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, a member of National War Powers Commission,  said President Obama’s argument that the United States is not engaged in hostilities in Libya “is not supportable. Indeed, it’s a real stretch.”

Just before Hamilton’s appearance on MSNBC’s "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry introduced a bipartisan resolution to authorize the limited use of United States Armed Forces in Libya.

“[Not supporting the mission in Libya] would ignore our real national security interests and help extend the narrative of resentment toward the U.S.,” said the Massachusetts senator.

Regardless, the former Indiana congressman Hamilton says the White House and Congress need to stop arguing over the legality of fighting in Libya and start taking action. "You have, once again, the president and the Congress arguing process [over] 'who has the power to do what?' That's an argument that's gone on for decades if not centuries in this country."

He added that such arguments "divert attention."

Instead of "discussing the...key issue: What the United States should be doing in Libya," Hamilton said, "[We] see this rather arcane legal argument between the White House and the Congress, both of whom have their set talking points."

Hamilton said the United States should focus on protecting the Libyan people rather than ousting Libyan Leader Moammar Khaddafy immediately.

"[When you move] from protecting people to trying to remove Khaddafy, you change the nature of the game, you give Khaddafy no incentive to step down, and you do not really protect the people of Libya."

Though Hamilton said there is a possibility Khaddafy could "eventually" face removal.

When you're the front-runner, you get to set the agenda -- at least on things like debates.

And today, the Romney campaign said its candidate would be participating in six debates between now and the run-up to Iowa and New Hampshire. The six, per its press release:

• August 11, 2011: Iowa Debate Sponsored By FOX News And The Republican Party Of Iowa (the Washington Examiner is also co-sponsoring the debate)
• September 7, 2011: Simi Valley, CA Debate Sponsored By NBC And POLITICO
• September 12, 2011: Tampa, FL Debate Sponsored By CNN And The Tea Party Express
• September 22, 2011: Orlando, FL Debate Sponsored By FOX News And The Republican Party Of Florida
• October 11, 2011: Hanover, NH Debate Sponsored By The Washington Post And Bloomberg
• October 18, 2011: Las Vegas, NV Debate Sponsored By CNN And The Western Republican Leadership Conference