From NBC's Mike Viqueira
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it's time for everyone, including Democrat Alan Grayson, to cool it.

"We have to have a debate that is not distracting" from what they are trying to accomplish in health care, she said, adding later, "The points have been made."

But she isn't calling on Grayson to apologize. Instead, she accuses Republicans of holding Grayson to a higher standard than they do their own members. Several accounts over the last 24 hours have noted similar rhetoric used by Republicans during the health-care debate.

A reporter at her weekly news conference was going through the whole Grayson litany as a prologue to a question. But when he got to "knuckle-dragging neanderthals," a quote from Grayson on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show late yesterday, Pelosi cut him off.

"Let's not go through all this," she said, exasperated. It came off as funny, and the room erupted in laughter.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

Congressional Budget Office chief Douglas Elmendorf's contention this morning the so-called "cost curve" will bend upward and not downward as a result of reform currently being formulated by Democrats is going to go off like a stink bomb in Congress today.

Along with covering the 50 million Americans who are uninsured, the raison d-etre of this whole thing is to do something about the runaway costs of health care, which is closing in on amounting to one-fifth of gross domestic product and is considered a drag on the economy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded minutes later by asserting that the legislation will change during the course of the legislative process, now underway in earnest today on the House side as committees take up and mark up the bill.

"I think we can bend the curve more," Pelosi conceded, but not before taking a shot at the CBO for declining to count savings afforded by expanded preventive care. Notwithstanding the current to-ing and fro-ing, Pelosi says, "I am confident that the president can sign a bill in the fall."

Before Elmendorf spoke, House GOP whip Eric Cantor reprised the Republican attack on the president's policies at a press conference.

"This stimulus plan has been a flop," he said, adding, "This is President Obama's economy."

Video: The Financial Times' Chrystia Freeland joins MSNBC's Carlos Watson and Richard Wolffe to debate whether President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus package is actually working.

Next up is House Minority Leader John Boehner for his weekly session with reporters.

Cantor appeared with a small group of House Republican freshmen who took turns blasting the health-care bill as placing an onerous tax burden on small business. The GOP line of attack is basically this: that the $280/350k surcharge will hit small businesses the hardest because of the way that many are structured for tax reporting purposes.

That assertion is under dispute.

*** UPDATE *** Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement:

The Director of the Congressional Budget Office confirmed today what we have been saying for weeks: the health care spending plan that some are trying to rush through Congress would actually make things worse. Americans want reform that makes health care more affordable and accessible, not a so-called reform that leads to rising costs and a government takeover of the whole health care system. Americans saw what happened when some in Congress rushed through the trillion-dollar stimulus bill earlier this year. They don't want us to make the same mistakes on something as important and personal as health care. Today's CBO testimony should be a wake-up call. Instead of rushing through one expensive proposal after another, we should take the time we need to get things right--especially at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing jobs every month.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that the framed legislative resolution brandished at the Michael Jackson memorial by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee will not be taken up by the House.

House Resolution 600 -- "Honoring an American legend and musical icon" -- praises the life and work of Mr. Jackson and is sponsored by Ms. Jackson Lee. The measure has exactly one co-sponsor, Rep. Dianne Watson (D-LA.)

While Pelosi

says that she encourages members to use to the floor of the House to express sympathy or praise for various individuals that they deem worthy of special notice, she doesn't think it's necessary to have the Jackson resolution on the floor.

"If the idea is to praise the life and work ... then why not do that [in some other way]?" Pelosi said. "A resolution, I think, would open up to contrary views that are not necessary at this time to be expressed in association with the resolution, whose purpose is quite different."

This is not a surprise for folks around these parts, but just so you know.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

Capitol Police have shut down the Capitol Rotunda due to a protest group, numbering about three dozen who have lied down.

They were chanting, "Clean needles save lives."

*** UPDATE *** There were 26 demonstrators arrested -- 15 males, 11 females -- in the Capitol Rotunda and charged with Unlawful Assembly, Disorderly Conduct Loud and Boisterous.

More context... There were about 30 AIDS activists who lied down in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, chanting, "Clean needles save lives."

The Rotunda, normally full of tourists at this time of day, in this time of year, was cleared by the Capitol Police, who then began to handcuff the protesters and lead them away.

A flyer handed out by an individual, who was with the protesters but standing amongst the press, indicated that the group "decried the Obama administration's failure to make good on a range of AIDS campaign promises," including a pledge to lift a federal ban on funding syringe exchanges. They demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rectify what they see as an oversight in Congress.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
House Minority Leader John Boehner is golfing out at Congressional Country Club today with Tiger Woods. The occassion is the pro-am before the annual tournament sponsored by Woods, known as the AT&T National.

For at least one hole, anyway, all those hours that the 7.5 handicap Boehner logs on the golf course paid off. Boehner sank a 35-foot putt for birdie on the 8th hole. The near-immortal Woods made a mere par.

Many have speculated that the leader's deep tan is a product of his many hours on the course. He often plays Burning Tree Country Club, about a mile down the road from Congressional in Bethesda, Md.

The foursome today included Tony Romo, quarterback of the locally reviled Dallas Cowboys.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

A House leadership source says that, as of right at this moment, the votes are not there yet to pass the energy bill that the president is talking about this afternoon.

A full-court press in effect. House Democrats want to vote tomorrow, but won't put it on the floor if the votes aren't there to put it over the top.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

Al Gore's scheduled appearance at a Democratic leadership rally promoting the energy bill has been canceled.

The official reason is that there is now a comfort level with the bill's prospects in the House that was not there just yesterday, and therefore Gore's presence both at a closed-door Dem caucus meeting and subsequent rally is not needed.

"It's a question of what was energy efficient for the vice president," said House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

There is also the feeling that a splashy rally might not be productive in terms of convincing fence sitters to vote "yeah" on the measure, as many of the holdouts are either moderate Dems or Republicans who might either wouldn't be at the caucus to begin with, or who might not be comfortable having Gore parachute in and be seen as having their arm twisted by the former veep.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

The House is on course to take up the energy bill on Friday, after a deal was struck between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Colin Peterson.

The pair appeared late today at a presser to announce their agreement. Peterson had been an influential holdout as he sought the best possible deal for farmers.

Now, suddenly, the push is on for the energy bill, which many had originally given a smaller chance of passing than the ballyhooed health-care legislation.

Video: President Obama explains the benefits to his proposed clean energy bill by saying it will 'create a set of incentives that will spur the development of new sources of energy, including wind, solar, and geothermal power.'

Al Gore will appear tomorrow with Pelosi and other Dem potentates at 2:00 pm ET to rally for cameras.

So put down those actuarial tables you have been studying in preparation for the health-care debate, and dust off phrases like "cellulosic ethanol," "woody biomass," etc.

One other thing: The Democratic leadership is threatening to come in on Saturday to get this bill done if they have to. This is the last week before recess, and they don't want the deal to sit out there for a week.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Anybody out there in the market for cheap metaphors or metaphysical omens, let it be known that for the first time since 2000, Democrats defeated Republicans in the annual Roll Call baseball game last night.

The score was 15-10. This afternoon on the House floor, the manager for the victorious Democrats, Rep. Mike Doyle, brandished the sizable trophy.

"They played like Republicans," said a good-natured Rep. Joe Barton, who was at the helm of the losing Republican squad.

There was much hooting and mirth.

The game was played down the street at Nationals Park (only a slight drop off in the usual quality of play to be found there), and benefited the Washington area Boys and Girls Clubs and the Washington Literacy Council.

One other thing, the Republican staff ace in recent years has been Sen. John Ensign. He did not play last night.

NBC's Katelin Schartz was there and had this game recap:
The Dems took an early lead in the bottom of the third, scoring six runs. But the Republicans quickly countered back with six runs of their own in the top half of the fourth. 

The Dems tacked on nine more runs in the next half and held the lead -- despite a few more runs put up by the Republicans. 

There were several missed catches and some short-ended throws, but there wasn't much else that happened outside of those two innings.

The players kept it civil and were good sports, but partisanship reigned in the crowd and was distinctly divided. Dems were along the third baseline (the left – if you will), and Republicans were along the first baseline (the right).

From NBC's Mike Viqueira and Mark Murray
President Obama today will nominate Republican Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) to the post of secretary of the Army.

Video: President Obama introduces Republican Rep. John McHugh as his choice to become the next secretary of the Army.

McHugh is the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

Strikingly, McHugh wrote a recent op-ed in The Hill, in which he outlined his view of the ways in which Republicans can serve as the "loyal opposition" to Obama. He argued that the GOP must be more than "the party of no," and put forward a set of national security principles that he said the party should pursue.

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza writes that McHugh's departure from Congress could "set off an extremely competitive special election for" New York's 23rd congressional district. "According to Swing State Project calculations, Obama carried the 23rd district 52 percent to 47 percent over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008 and four years earlier George W. Bush won it by a similar 51 percent to 47 percent margin."

From NBC's Mike Viqueira and Mark Murray
Here's the latest in the back-and-forth between the House Democratic leadership and the Central Intelligence Agency: House Appropriations Chairman David Obey has fired off a letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta, pointing out that the CIA mistakenly listed that an Appropriations staffer sat in on a key CIA briefing in 2006.

Of course, the CIA listing House Speaker Pelosi sitting in on a similar 2002 briefing -- and suggesting that she learned of controversial interrogation techniques like waterboarding there -- is at the heart of the dispute over what Pelosi knew about the practices and when she knew it.

The full letter:

May 18, 2009
The Honorable Leon Panetta
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505

Dear Director Panetta:
In light of current controversy about CIA briefing practices, I was surprised to learn that the agency erroneously listed an appropriations staffer as being in a key briefing on September 19, 2006, when in fact he was not. The list the agency released entitled "Member Briefings on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs)", shows that House Appropriations Committee defense appropriations staffer Paul Juola was in that briefing on that date. In fact, Mr. Juola recollects that he walked members to the briefing room, met General Hayden and Mr.Walker, who were the briefers, and was told that he could not attend the briefing. We request that you immediately correct this record.

Sincerely,
David R. Obey

From NBC's Mike Viqueira

Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that if AIG folks are really coughing up their bonuses, "then we have accomplished what we set out to do."

Recall that it was Pelosi who last week rushed the 90% bonus tax to the floor of the House, only to see congressional ardor for legislation fade this week in the Senate. It now appears that the Senate won't even get to its own version of the "clawback" measure until late in April, after the spring recess.

Pelosi says the goal was "to get the taxpayer money back," yet it is unclear just how much will be returned by AIG bonus recipients.

ON another front, Pelosi is supportive of Geithner's proposal for new power to "unwind" companies like AIG through a broadening of federal power. "It is a good step in the right direction," she said.