Biden in Cleveland: LeBron coming back

by Lisa Mascaro

Facing stiff Republican opposition, Congressional Democrats will try again this week to pass an extension of unemployment benefits for the more than 1.2 million jobless Americans whose aid expired earlier this month.

The House is likely to vote tonight, and the Senate Thursday, in an exercise that is as much about policy as politics. Democrats seek to illustrate for voters the stark differences between the two parties heading into the November mid-term elections.

"We are doing something that's very American - helping people in an emergency," said Sen. Harry Reid, (D-NV), the majority leader, on Wednesday. "It is the right thing to do."

Twice this month the Senate has been unable to pass a benefits extension, but the new stripped down bill, shorn of other domestic spending, has drawn support from two Senate Republicans, Reid said.

Still, with the death this week of Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), the bill faces an uphill climb in the Senate, where Democrats now control 58 votes. To overcome a filibuster 60 votes are needed.

by Mike Memoli

President Obama will use a town hall meeting in Wisconsin today to challenge the man who would become speaker of the House -- if Republicans win back a majority in Congress this fall -- over comments about the economy.

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Monday, House Minority Leader John Boehner slammed Democrats for a governing agenda that he said Americans see as arrogant and overreaching. He said a financial reform proposal Democrats are pushing is an overreaction to the economic crisis, equating it with "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."

Since the interview was posted online, Democrats have seized on that and other remarks, including Boehner's proposal to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 for those with 20 years remaining before retirement.

But the "ant" remark has been driving Democrats' attacks, with some saying it is a gaffe that rivals Rep. Joe Barton's (R-TX) apology to BP's CEO earlier this month. The party has already released a web video on the matter. Now Obama will specifically reference the comment as well.

by Lisa Mascaro

The man who spent a lifetime in the Senate will be memorialized there on Thursday, as the late Sen. Robert Byrd lies in repose in the chamber as the West Virginia Democrat had requested.

Members of Byrd's family will receive lawmakers from the House and Senate in the morning and the public galleries will be opened throughout the day to those who wish to pay their respects to the longest serving member of Congress.

It has been more than 50 years since a senator has lain in state in the chamber, a tradition that was common in an earlier era when lawmakers lived alone in Washington and modern travel did not yet allow for easy transit around the nation, said Betty Koed, the associate historian of the Senate.

More than 40 senators have lain in repose in the Senate, the most recent being Sen. William Langer (R-ND) in 1959 and Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) in 1957. Memorial services have also been held in the Capitol rotunda, where Sen. Henry Clay laid in state in 1852 and more recently Ronald Reagan and Rosa Parks were memorialized in repose.

The service for Byrd is scheduled from 10:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. on Thursday.

That evening, the senator's casket will be flown to Charleston, West Virginia. A public procession will be held from the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse to the state Capitol, where viewing will be held in the rotunda.

A public memorial service is scheduled for Friday in Charleston, at the state capital, and the White House said both President Obama and Vice President Biden are expected to attend.

Public funeral services are scheduled for Tuesday at a Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia.

by John Chase

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk today acknowledged he was twice counseled by the Pentagon for politicking while on active duty.

The remarks came as the five-term congressman offered another mea culpa for embellishing his military record at his first news conference since disclosures about his military career surfaced about a month ago.

Kirk said he was "careless" in describing his career as a reservist in the Navy and apologized to the public for it. When the questions first came up, Kirk appeared before the Tribune editorial board, where he also apologized.

"I have made mistakes concerning certain aspects of my accomplishments and experiences, and I apologize for those mistakes and I pledge to correct those errors," he said today. "I am not perfect and was careless. I will do better and I will make sure this never happens again."

Since the disclosures, Kirk has been under fire in his nationally-watched Senate contest against Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias for the seat once occupied by President Barack Obama. Last week, Kirk dodged reporters who wanted to ask him about the military record controversy by darting through a kitchen of a downtown Chicago hotel after speaking at a public event.

Continue reading over at Clout Street.

Note: you can follow continuously updated coverage of the Kagan hearings here.

by Mike Memoli

In pointed questioning, the Senate Judiciary Committee's leading Republican accused Elena Kagan of treating the U.S. military in a "second-class" way during her time as dean of the Harvard Law School, banning military recruiters from campus because she opposed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the first Republican to engage in direct questioning of Kagan on Tuesday, accused the nominee of creating a climate on campus "that was not friendly to the military."

At issue is the 1996 Solomon Amendment, which required universities to allow military recruiters access to students as a condition for federal funding. When the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Solomon was unconstitutional in 2004, Kagan banned the military from recruiting through Harvard's Office of Career Services.

"I thought it appropriate at that point to go back to what had been the school's longstanding policy, which had been to welcome the military onto the campus but through the auspices of the veterans' organization, rather than through the offices of our Office of Career Services," Kagan said.

Sessions said Kagan acted "without legal authority."

Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

by David Cloud

The July 2011 deadline for beginning U.S troops withdrawals from Afghanistan "is the beginning of a process, not the date when the U.S. heads for the exits," Gen. David H. Petraeus said in remarks to be delivered Tuesday.

At a hearing on his nomination to take command of the U.S.-led effort in Afghanistan, Petraeus emphasized his support for the deadline set by President Barack Obama, but he also reiterated that that pace of any U.S. withdrawals next years should be "responsible" and determined by conditions on the ground at the time.

His careful explanation reflects the ongoing tension between the military, which is concerned that too rapid a withdrawal next year could jeopardize efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, and some within the Obama administration, who favor a rapid drawdown and a shift to a smaller military footprint.

Petraeus was chosen last week by President Obama to take command in Afghanistan after the previous commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was fired over comments he and his several aides made in a Rolling Stone article.

Petraeus is expected to be easily confirmed, perhaps later this week.

He offered a mixed assessment of the progress of the war, predicting that violence would get worse in coming months but asserting that the coalition has made progress in in Helmand Province and other areas.

by Mike Memoli

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant announced today that a special election to fill the Senate seat held by Robert Byrd will not be held until 2012, settling some initial confusion about when a permanent replacement would take office.

Because the state filing period for the November 2010 election has already passed, Gov. Joe Manchin's (D) appointed replacement will serve until November 6, 2012, Tennant's office explained. On that date, two elections will be held -- one for the unexpired term ending January 3, 2013, and the second for the full six-year term beginning that same day.

It would represent the first special election contest for a Senate seat in West Virginia since 1958, when Jennings Randolph was elected to the seat that had been held by the late Matthew Mansfield Neely. Byrd was elected to his first full term the same day, defeating Republican incumbent William Chapman Revercomb. Revercomb is the last Republican to represent the Mountain State in the U.S. Senate.

Byrd's death has already triggered another Senate election -- that for the post of Senate President Pro Tempore. Hawaii's Daniel Inouye, now the longest-serving member of the upper chamber, was sworn into the ceremonial office this morning, becoming third in line to the presidency after Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Three hundred individuals have been elected or appointed to the Senate since Inouye first took office in 1963.

Lisa Mascaro and Richard Simon report on the legislative impact of the passing of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.):

The death of Congress' longest serving member has thrown into doubt the ability of Senate Democrats to achieve their goal of pushing a sweeping Wall Street reform package through the chamber and to the president's desk by week's end.

As tributes to the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) flowed throughout the capital Monday, Washington reassessed whether Democrats would have to postpone this week's vote on regulatory reform until a successor could be named.

Democrats are now left to scramble to secure a range of election year priorities - most immediately, what was expected to be a narrow victory for the financial reform package in the face of Republican opposition. President Obama wants the bill on his desk before Congress adjourns Friday for a weeklong Fourth of July holiday recess.

You can read the full piece here.

UPDATE: Sen. Russ Feingold, one of several Democrats who had yet to sign on to the Wall Street reform legislation, issued a statement today saying he still plans to vote no. "While there are some positive provisions in the final measure, the lack of strong reforms is clear confirmation that Wall Street lobbyists and their allies in Washington continue to wield significant influence on the process," he said in a statement.

The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan are now under way, following the opening statement of Judiciary Committee chair Pat Leahy.

We'll be feeding live updates on the hearings as they carry on, beginning with opening statements from members of the committee that are expected to last throughout the afternoon, ending with Kagan's introductory statement. You can find the continuously-updated feed here.

The Tribune's Jim Oliphant had a scene-setter this morning. D.C. Now answers some of the questions about the hearings as they begin.

And be sure to check out this podcast with Tribune's David Savage, who has covered the confirmation hearings for every sitting Supreme Court justice except John Paul Stevens, the man Kagan would replace if confirmed.

by Mike Memoli

Washington begins the week in mourning after the passing overnight of Robert Byrd (D-WV), the longest-serving senator in U.S. history. He was 92.

The president pro-temps of the Senate, Byrd represented the Mountain State since 1959. From the Tribune obit:

Byrd's death marks another milestone in the demise of a postwar generation of "Old Bulls" who ran Congress for decades. Many of them -- such as Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and John Warner (R-Va.) -- have retired. Ted Stevens (R- Alaska) lost his 2008 bid for reelection in the face of corruption charges. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) died last year.

...

Renowned for carrying a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his left shirt pocket to brandish at colleagues and constituents, Byrd had a deep commitment to history. A master of Senate rules, he was by turns protective and disruptive of procedure, slowing debate with long, florid orations that invoked Greek philosophers, Roman generals and the Founding Fathers. But he could also pierce debate with a pointed comment.

Byrd's passing comes at a precarious time for Democrats, who needed every one of their 59 votes in the upper chamber to move on financial regulation and energy legislation, for starters. West Virginia law allows for the state's Democratic Governor, Joe Manchin, to make an appointment to replace Byrd; that person would serve through 2012, when Byrd's term was set to expire.

Manchin himself would likely be favored to fill that seat, but he may be disinclined to appoint himself. The early talk is that Manchin, whose own term expires in 2012 and is term-limited, would appoint a caretaker and then potentially run for the seat in the regular election. A statement from Manchin made no mention of any appointment plans, with Manchin saying simply that Byrd "made a significant mark as a member of Congress in both our state's and nation's history. His accomplishments and contributions will define history for eternity."

Democrats dominate the state government, but Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) would be looked at as a potential Republican nominee in two years.

Photo Credit: AP

Here's a look at what you may have missed while fretting over the U.S. World Cup defeat this weekend.

* The DC bureau team covering Elena Kagan's confirmation process has a must-read profile of the Supreme Court nominee. The confirmation hearings begin Monday afternoon.

* Christi Parsons is covering President Obama at the G20 Summit in and around Toronto. She notes that "the leaders gathering to offer their views on the best way to prop up the shaky global recovery risk sending a message of disunity and disarray by the time they adjourn Sunday."

* Richard Simon is on top of the developing news of Sen. Robert Byrd's (D) hospitalization. "The 92-year-old lawmaker was admitted to a Washington-area hospital late last week suffering from what a spokesman said was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as a result of the high temperatures in the nation's capital."

* Peter Nicholas confirms that the White House is, indeed, planning to mount a challenge to the Arizona immigration law. "Obama administration officials declined to reveal the basis for the suit. But legal experts say the challenge is likely to include the argument that in passing the law, Arizona violated the Constitution by intruding on the federal government's authority to regulate immigration."

* Ken Dilanian has an interesting piece looking at a seeming conflict in the Obama administration's immigration policy. "Even though the president supports the Dream Act -- which would provide a path to legalization for illegal immigrants brought here as children who enroll either in college or the military -- his enforcement bureaucracy continues to pursue deportation cases against the increasing number of students who would be protected by it."

by Mike Memoli

The pool reporter covering Vice President Biden's remarks at a fundraiser in Wisconsin today noted near the beginning of his dispatch that the veep joked "he didn't rely much on a speech that was prepared for him." That's always good news for those looking for fodder from the loquacious former senator, in Milwaukee today to boost Sen. Russ Feingold's campaign warchest.

During 47 minutes of remarks, Biden defended the Obama administration's record on working to turn around the nation's economy, something that has become boilerplate for him at these party functions. The pool reporter -- Dan Walker of the Journal Sentinel -- did flag this particularly blunt assessment, though.

"There's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession," he told about 150 people at a $500-per-plate luncheon.

The quote itself is not necessarily out of line with any administration talking points. The Recovery Act that Biden is tasked with administering was sold with the goal of saving or creating at least 3 million jobs. But given the push by the administration in the "Recovery Summer," and Obama's own bullish comments today about what the administration was further poised to do, they were indeed worth flagging.

Biden did, however, give a defense of the administration when it comes to fiscal restraint in a year when spending is polling higher than usual amongst voter concerns.

by Jim Puzzanghera

Ending more than two weeks of often-contentious negotiations, House and Senate lawmakers reached agreement early Friday on the most far-reaching rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression.

The final details, including creation of an agency to protect consumers in the financial marketplace and new regulations to reduce risk-taking by large banks and limit their trading of complex derivatives, were hashed out in a marathon 20-hour session that began Thursday morning.

Lawmakers on a joint conference committee labored until dawn reconciling House and Senate versions of the legislation in time for President Obama to brief foreign leaders on the completed deal at a major economic summit in Canada starting Friday.

The House and Senate are expected to approve the bill next week, meeting Obama's July 4 deadline for passage of his top legislative priority heading into November's midterm elections. Lawmakers christened the bill the Dodd-Frank Act after the two main architects, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.)

Continue reading 'Deal reached on financial reform bill'

UPDATE: President Obama commented on the agreement just before heading to Toronto for meetings of the G-20.

"We are poised to pass the toughest financial reform since the ones we created in the aftermath of the Great Depression," he said. "Our economic growth and prosperity depend on a strong, robust financial sector, and I will continue to do what I can to foster and support a dynamic private sector. But we've all seen what happens when there's inadequate oversight and insufficient transparency on Wall Street."

The provisions in the bill "will hold Wall Street accountable so we can help prevent another financial crisis like the one that we're still recovering from," he added. Asked if the final draft could pass in both chambers, Obama replied simply: "You bet."

by Lisa Mascaro

Moved by photos of the devastation from the Gulf oil spill, Democratic senators emerged this afternoon from a caucus-wide meeting determined to tackle a comprehensive energy bill this summer -- regardless of legislation's ability to win the 60 votes needed to pass.

Senators called the meeting "motivating" and "almost like a little revival - a lot of clapping, a lot of yelling" as one speaker after another voiced a desire to debate the thorny issue.

"It's one of the best caucuses I've seen and I've been here over 25 years," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

"There is an incredible moment in front of us that has in many ways unified the public -- and that is how do we stop the terrible thing that happened in the gulf from being repeated," he said. "Even if we lose, we carry a message that has meaning."

What remains to be seen are the details of a bill that Senate leaders plan to craft from various measures and whether it would contain a provision to cap carbon - essentially a tax on polluters.

by Michael Muskal

There was a time when a visit from the president of Russia to the president of the United States was full of protocol set amid an air of great historical forces at work.

On Thursday, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev skipped the formalities and dashed out for a quick hamburger.

Medvedev got a chance to go where Obama has taken his vice president -- to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Va. According to pool reports, the pair took off their suit jackets and sat down to the house specialties.

Obama had a cheddar cheeseburger with onions, lettuce, tomato and pickles, washed down with an iced tea. Medvedev selected a cheddar cheeseburger with onions, jalapeno peppers and mushrooms. He ordered a Coke, in an echo of the days when another cola played a crucial role in U.S.-Russia relations.

Continue reading at D.C. Now

Photo Credit: AP / Charles Dharapak

Here is a transcript of President Obama's remarks today regarding the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, as released by the White House.

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Today I accepted General Stanley McChrystal's resignation as commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. I did so with considerable regret, but also with certainty that it is the right thing for our mission in Afghanistan, for our military, and for our country.

I'm also pleased to nominate General David Petraeus to take command in Afghanistan, which will allow us to maintain the momentum and leadership that we need to succeed.

I don't make this decision based on any difference in policy with General McChrystal, as we are in full agreement about our strategy. Nor do I make this decision out of any sense of personal insult. Stan McChrystal has always shown great courtesy and carried out my orders faithfully. I've got great admiration for him and for his long record of service in uniform.

Over the last nine years, with America fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has earned a reputation as one of our nation's finest soldiers. That reputation is founded upon his extraordinary dedication, his deep intelligence, and his love of country. I relied on his service, particularly in helping to design and lead our new strategy in Afghanistan. So all Americans should be grateful for General McChrystal's remarkable career in uniform.

But war is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general, or a president. And as difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe that it is the right decision for our national security.

The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general. It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system. And it erodes the trust that's necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal leaves the White House Wednesday morning after resigning as commander of Allied forces in Afghanistan. (AP/Evan Vucci)

by Julian E. Barnes, Christi Parsons and Peter Nicholas

President Obama ousted his top commander in Afghanistan Wednesday after officials determined that comments he and his staff made in a Rolling Stone magazine article amounted to insubordination, a White House official said.

Obama accepted Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's resignation and, in an equally stunning move, has appointed Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who once led U.S. forces in Iraq, as his successor.

The decision to remove McChrystal puts the war effort in Afghanistan in a precarious position as the military struggles to execute a complicated strategy.

But officials concluded that keeping McChrystal in his job was not a viable option after he and his staff were quoted making comments that denigrated U.S. civilian leaders who oversee the war effort.

The remarks in Rolling Stone angered the White House and deeply displeased top Defense officials, who have insisted repeatedly that military officers must respect civilian leadership and keep their advice and views private.

By Christi Parsons and Julian Barnes

After a half-hour private meeting with President Obama this morning, Afghanistan war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal climbed into a car and left the White House compound -- about an hour before he was scheduled to attend a situation room summit of the president's war team. McChrystal had been summoned to the White House to answer for controversial comments attributed to him and his staff about their superiors in a recent Rolling Stone magazine article.

There was no immediate word on McChrystal's fate. But he had been scheduled to attend the national security meeting on Afghanistan and his exit from the White House was a potential signal that he had been relieved of duty by Obama.

A statement by Obama is expected shortly.

McChrystal met earlier in the day with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

by Mike Memoli

The headline from Tuesday's primary and run-off elections last night was South Carolina state Rep. Nikki Haley's victory in the GOP gubernatorial primary runoff. With a nod to the history her candidacy represents and in recognition of the national support that bolstered her in a tough race, Haley appeared on several cable shows this morning to mark the victory.

"We've got a lot of Republicans that learned the talking points but haven't learned the conservative actions related to the talking points," she said this morning on Fox News Channel.

Haley's opponent in the runoff was U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett (R), who now joins what could prove to be a long list of members of Congress who have failed to make the transition from service in Washington to the statehouse back home.

Already this year, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) lost to incumbent Gov. Rick Perry (R) in the Texas primary, a race in which her votes in Washington proved to be an easy target. Rep. Artur Davis (D) lost in a stunning result in Alabama's gubernatorial primary on June 1.

by David S. Cloud

As President Obama weighs whether to relieve his Afghanistan commander over inappropriate comments in a magazine article, he is also wrestling with the future of a war that he has taken on as his own.

If he fires Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, Obama will be forced to consider revising his strategy, which relies on large numbers of U.S. troops and a far-reaching counterinsurgency effort to promote governance and development in Afghanistan.

The White House now has to decide whether stability at the top of the war effort outweighs the need to discipline a commander who twice has seemed to publicly challenge civilian oversight of the war.

Although some of Obama's closest advisors have warned that McChrystal's approach risked getting the U.S. bogged down in an unwinnable war, the president has shown no interest in revisiting the course he set last December.

With the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, continuing economic woes and congressional midterm elections looming in the fall, Obama is unlikely to want to take on reassessment of the war strategy so soon after choosing this course.

For that reason alone, McChrystal, the chief advocate of the administration strategy, may survive, despite the ignominy of being summoned to Washington for his comments to Rolling Stone magazine.

Firing McChrystal would also probably ignite fierce debate in Congress, with some Republicans charging that Obama had sacrificed an effective wartime commander because of comments that, while intemperate, did not challenge the course set by civilians. Opponents in Congress of the current strategy would probably respond by pressing even harder for a shift in strategy.

Continue reading "McChrystal decision linked to Afghan strategy"

by Mike Memoli

President Obama said this afternoon that comments attributed General Stanley McChrystal in a magazine profile showed "poor judgment," but that he would wait until tomorrow's scheduled meeting before determining whether to replace his top commander in Afghanistan.

The comments came late this afternoon after a meeting of the president's Cabinet. Obama added that whatever decision he makes would be guided entirely by whether the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is the right one.

"Even as General McChrystal is on his way here, I want everyone to keep in mind what our central focus is. And that is success in making sure that al Qaeda and its affiliates do not attack the United States and its allies," Obama said.

Earlier, press secretary Robert Gibbs said that "all options are on the table" with regard to McChrystal's future, including firing. Asked specifically if McChrystal's job was safe, Gibbs responded: "We'll have more to say after that meeting."

McChrystal, who is still en route to Washington for meetings at the White House and Pentagon, has reportedly offered a letter of resignation.

Obama was measured in his statement to reporters, though Gibbs described the president's initial reaction to the Rolling Stone article as "angry." On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, reaction has ranged from guarded to furious.

Our friends at Clout Street cover today's testimony at the Rod Blagojevich trial in Chicago, where former chief of staff John Harris outlines how the then-governor hoped to turn his Constitutional duty to appoint a U.S. senator into a personal money-making scheme.

[Harris] recalled two conversations with Blagojevich in late October 2008. In the first, Harris said, Blagojevich talked about how much "he might get for the Senate seat" from wealthy people with political ambitions such as multimillionaires Blair Hull and J.B. Pritzker. Harris said Blagojevich also floated the notion of getting money for his campaign fund or some advocacy group he would champion in exchange for the pick.

Harris said he and general counsel Bill Quinlan, also in on the meeting, both told Blagojevich he shouldn't even consider such ideas. A few days later, however, Blagojevich brought it up again, Harris said. This time, Harris said, Quinlan cautioned Blagojevich, "Don't even joke about things like that."

Harris also related Obama's request, through then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, that longtime friend Valerie Jarrett be considered for the appointment.

Almost immediately, Blagojevich asked, "We could get something for that, couldn't we?"

Later on the recorded call, Blagojevich asked Harris, "What do I have a shot at getting?"

by Noam Levey and Mike Memoli

Ninety days after he signed the landmark healthcare overhaul, President Obama pledged to defend the law against what he said was a Republican platform of rolling back important consumer protections.

"We're not going back," he said at an event in the East Room this afternoon. "I refuse to go back. And so do countless Americans."

The president met earlier with insurance regulators and consumers to highlight a series of new protections in the law designed to rein in insurance company abuses that the White House is calling a Patient's Bill of Rights.

The insurance rules, all of which are set out in the new law, were put in the bill by the Obama administration and its Democratic allies to provide Americans with some early protections until the insurance market is completely overhauled in 2014.

In his remarks, Obama also invoked an earlier attempt by Anthem Blue Cross to raise insurance rates on California customers in a warning to insurers not to use this interim period to pass "unjustifiable rate increases." Anthem's planned increase was a major part of the administration's final push to pass the legislation.

Photo Credit: Jason Reed / Reuters

by Julian Barnes

General Stanley McChrystal has not yet left for Washington but he is expected to depart by 1 pm, Eastern. McChrystal will be meeting in the Pentagon with Secretary Gates as well as meeting in the White House.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates issued a statement Tuesday expressing concern for the article, and calling it a distraction that detracted from the war effort.

"I believe that Gen. McChrystal made a significant mistake and exercised poor judgment in this case," Gates said.

Gates statement did not included an explicit statement of support for McChrystal, as some defenders of McChrystal had hoped it would say. Instead, Gates made clear that McChrystal had been recalled to Washington to discuss the article and defend himself.

You can read the full statement after the jump.

by Julian Barnes and Peter Nicholas

President Obama summoned his top commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, to the White House to explain a series of comments in a magazine article in which the general and his advisors appeared dismissive of civilian oversight of the war.

Obama directed McChrystal to attend a scheduled monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan at the White House on Wednesday in person, rather than participate by teleconference, according to an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

At the meeting, McChrystal will be told to "explain to the Pentagon and the commander-in-chief his quotes in the piece about his colleagues,'' the official said.

The summons is a rare public rebuke of a top military commander -- and a sign of intense White House unhappiness over the conduct of McChrystal and other military figures directing the war in Afghanistan.

At the Pentagon on Tuesday, Defense officials were wondering if McChrystal would be able to survive the fallout from the article, or if he would need to resign.

McChrystal's allies said they were unsure what Obama would do, but there was clear concern among military officials that he could be relieved.

"If precedent is followed, it could be bad," one senior military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

by Julian Barnes

In a new magazine profile, the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and his advisers appear to ridicule Vice President Joe Biden and are portrayed as dismissive of civilian oversight of the war.

The article, in Rolling Stone, says McChrystal's staff frequently derided top civilian leaders, including special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. One anonymous aide calls White House national security adviser James Jones a "clown."

The detailed report on the top command in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate tensions with the White House, which in the past has felt boxed in by military commanders anxious to get more troops for the war effort.

The article says that only Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received good reviews from McChrystal's inner circle.

McChrystal is reported as visibly exasperated by e-mails he receives from Holbrooke, appointed by Obama to oversee developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," the article quotes McChrystal as saying after receiving one message. "I don't even want to open it."

by Mike Memoli

Vice President Biden acknowledged today the symbolism that would come with Republican victories in the Senate races in Delaware and Illinois this fall, potentially taking the seats once held by President Obama and himself. But at least in the former instance, Biden said the GOP would come up short.

"I came with a message: Alexi Giannoulias is going to win," Biden told an audience in Chicago today as he raised money for the Illinois treasurer.

The afternoon event at the Union League Club was the first significant effort from the White House in support of Giannoulias' Senate candidacy since he won the primary in February. Many believed the administration wanted to keep its distance from someone they saw as a flawed candidate (officials failed earlier to recruit state Attorney General Lisa Madigan into the race).

But polling shows the race a dead heat, as GOP nominee Mark Kirk has come under intense scrutiny over apparent misrepresentations of his resume. Our counterparts in Chicago note that Kirk scurried out of a nearby event today in an attempt to duck further reporter questions.

According to a pool report, Biden acknowledged that his party is "most vulnerable" right now, but repeated his refrain that "the reports of the demise of the Democratic Party are premature." He then gave an overview of administration initiatives on the economy, health care and, notably, the war in Iraq.

"We are going to bring back 95,000 combat troops, including my son," he said (Beau Biden returned from Iraq after serving as a JAG officer with the Delaware National Guard). "And we're going to leave a stable country behind, keeping a promise the president made."

by Lisa Mascaro

After his Oval Office address was largely panned by pundits, President Obama took his push for energy legislation directly to supporters today in a video message reiterating his pledge to round up the votes needed to pass a bill.

"In the coming days, I will work with both parties to find the necessary votes to move comprehensive energy and climate change legislation forward," Obama said in the video sent to supporters from Organizing for America at the Democratic National Committee.

Obama is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with a bipartisan group of senators in a high-profile effort at bridging the political divide over energy legislation.

Finding the 60 votes needed to move an energy bill in the Senate is a difficult political task as even the president's own party is divided over various elements, especially a possible price on carbon emissions that scientists believe are causing climate change.

The president has talked tough before, most notably during an early June speech in Pittsburgh when he similarly said he would work to get the votes. He also has asked supporters in recent emails to back his efforts to legislate a carbon price.

by Christi Parsons

The Obama administration will purchase the Thomson prison in rural western Illinois even if Congress doesn't approve the president's plan to lock up terror suspects there, a key official at the Justice Department said Monday.

Lawmakers are threatening to scotch Obama's proposal to move terror detainees to the unused state prison, a critical part of his plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Even if lawmakers make good on that threat, a letter from Justice Department suggests, the federal government will simply use the facility to hold federal inmates.

Writing to members of the Illinois delegation in Congress, Asst. Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich reaffirmed the administration's "commitment to acquiring the facility this year," and provided details about steps planned for the next few months.

The Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons plans to hire and train employees while other administration officials "work with Congress to obtain authorization and funding for a portion of the Thomson facility," Weich wrote in the letter, obtained by the Tribune Washington bureau.

President Obama moved to shut down the controversial Guantanamo prison shortly after taking office, saying it had become a lightning rod for anti-American sentiment around the world and thus was a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.

Closing the prison has been difficult, however, as members of Congress decline to grant approval for transferring the Guantanamo detainees.

by Mike Memoli

It was just two years ago this month that Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination for president to Barack Obama. Theirs was an epic battle that was very good for the business of political reporting, and especially good for cable news.

It is with that caveat that we note an uptick in speculation about what the ticket might look like for Democrats in 2012. Yes, it seems we in the media just can't quit the Hillary-Obama intrigue.

Specifically, two notions have bubbled up among the Beltway chattering class - much of it attributed to unnamed sources, if at all. The first was floated by the Washington Post's Sally Quinn, who started a recent column by bluntly suggesting: "Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden should switch jobs." Her reasoning begins with the idea that Clinton has established herself as a loyal cog in her former rival's administration and that Biden, while "rehabilitated," would not be quite as potent a political force in the Obama re-election effort.

An early version of the story posted online said that this scheme "is being discussed in administration circles" -- a line that is now omitted (a Post spokeswoman says editors removed the line "because we were not going to name Sally's sources"). Regardless, Quinn still implores us to: "Take it seriously," and at least one reporter who attended a recent availability at the State Department apparently did. CNN's Jill Dougherty asked Clinton about the idea at the end of a longer question about the situation in Kyrgyzstan.

"Let's stick to Kyrgyzstan," Clinton replied with a laugh.

Quinn isn't alone -- the Wall Street Journal's Les Gelb talked of the merits of Clinton as veep in a column that led with the idea of her moving to the Pentagon after a term in Foggy Bottom.

Of course, Biden himself mused during the '08 campaign that Hillary might have been a better pick, telling a New Hampshire crowd that she "is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America." These new columns have now given cable news segment producers new license to discuss the Clinton-Obama dynamic -- it's scheduled on Sean Hannity's primetime Fox News show tonight, for instance.

Photo credit: Pete Souza / White House

by Mike Memoli

Two indicators to watch today that should concern Democrats greatly with just 134 days until the November elections.

My colleague Michael Muskal writes about Gallup's new survey measuring enthusiasm among Democratic and Republicans

Enthusiasm among Republicans and their allies has hit the highest level for a midterm election year since pollsters began tracking this measurement, Gallup announced on Monday.

The finding that an average of 59% of the Republicans and those independents leaning to them are enthusiastic about this year's election spells trouble for Democrats. Traditionally, the GOP counts on the enthusiasm of its voters to offset Democrats' edge in registered voters.

The findings also mean that Democrats can be expected to spend much of the summer appealing to independents, likely using the danger of a conservative takeover of Congress as a whip to get out their voters. "Tea party" favorites such as Rand Paul, the Senate candidate in Kentucky, and Sharron Angle, the Senate candidate in Nevada, will be the likely targets.

Also today the national committees boosting the major party candidates in House and Senate races released their monthly fundraising totals, reflecting that Republicans are increasingly speaking with their wallets as well. The National Republican Senatorial Committee says it raised $3.6 million in May, giving it $18.1 million cash on hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised more -- $5 million -- but spent more, and now has $17.6 million to spend. It's the first time the NRSC has had a cash on hand advantage.

On the House side, the National Republican Congressional Committee outraised its Democratic counterpart for the second month in a row , $5.4 million to $5.1 million. That's notable since the NRCC has lagged its Republican counterparts; it still faces a steep cash on hand deficit compared with the DCCC.

UPDATE: The exception, as pointed out by Paul West, is at the national committee level. The DNC outraised the RNC in May by just over $100,000. But if debts are included, the RNC does have more cash on hand.

By Christi Parsons

President Obama pledged a series of new initiatives to support responsible fatherhood on Monday, but called on fathers to recognize the limits of government to achieve what only they can do in the home.

In his annual Father's Day event, Obama urged fathers to mentor their own children - and to reach out to those in the community who don't have strong parental or guardian support.

"We can't legislate fatherhood," Obama told a crowd gathered on the southeast side of Washington. "But what we can do is send a clear message to our fathers that there is no excuse for failing to meet their obligations."

The message echoed that of a noted Obama campaign speech from 2008, when he told absent fathers to stop making excuses and take economic and emotional responsibility for their children.

Last year, Obama launched what he called a national conversation about fatherhood, and on Monday he unveiled some of the ideas his administration has come up with as a result.

Photo credit: AP / Susan Walsh

by Mike Memoli

On Friday we noted here that even a trip to the ballpark can be the stuff of controversy for President Obama lately. Ultimately he did take in Friday night's matchup between the hometown Nationals and his favored White Sox, joined by his daughters.

Sure enough, the RNC is criticizing the president not just for a night at the ballpark, but a few hours on the golf course the following day. Party chairman Michael Steele even linked the outings to BP CEO Tony Hayward's trip to a yacht race Saturday, something the White House itself joined in criticizing.

"As oil continues to spill in the Gulf and unemployment hovers at ten percent, the President can no longer take his eye off the 'oil,'" Steele said in a statement. "While it is fitting and appropriate to look at the yachting activities of the BP CEO, with incredulity, it is equally incredible that President Obama finds himself on yet another golf course as oil continues to spew into the Gulf. Until this problem is fixed, no more golf outings, no more baseball games, no more Beatle concerts, Mr. President. The stakes are too high for President Obama's lackadaisical approach to both his responsibilities and the challenges we face."

The DNC, for its part, prefers to keep the focus on Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). It's been sending a steady stream of reaction to his ultimately retraced apology to Hayward last Thursday. Jim Tankersley also notes the criticism from the White House chief of staff in a piece this morning on the spill.

UPDATE: At today's White House briefing, deputy press secretary Bill Burton responded to the RNC:

"I don't think that there's a person in this country that doesn't think that their president ought to have a little time to clear his mind. And so after a week where the president was taking on the oil spill, got an historic agreement with B.P. to put aside $20 billion to pay claims; after a day on Friday when he strengthened lobby and ethics rules in the White House; after going to Ohio to talk about the economy and see the progress that's being made and some of those stimulus projects that are happening around the country -- all the different issues that the president is dealing with, I think that a little time to himself on Father's Day weekend probably does us all good as American citizens that our president is taking that time.

A Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Here's a look at headlines you may have missed from the Trib's Washington bureau this weekend.

* Jim Tankersley profiles Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, playing a lead role in the Obama administration's response to the Gulf spill. "Since taking over Interior, the 55-year-old native of Colorado's San Luis Valley has elbowed his way into some of President Obama's highest-profile initiatives, some outside the traditional parameters of his job," Tankersley notes.

* Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger look more closely at Rep. Joe Barton's (R-Texas) ties to the oil and gas industry, following his controversial comments at a House committee hearing Thursday. "Since 1990, Barton has received about $27,300 from BP officials and political action committees. The amount places him among the top recipients in Washington but well below President Obama, who has been the leading recipient of BP cash."

* Doyle McManus wrote about a potential turning point for the White House with the Gulf crisis this week. The deal reached with BP, McManus says, showed "Obama had finally embraced the wisdom of his fellow Chicagoan, Al Capone: You get much further with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."

* Janet Hook reported from Capitol Hill on the latest tweak to a jobless bill, after the Senate voted to postpone a scheduled cut in physician pay under Medicare. The bill has "bogged down in the Senate because of complaints about its cost," a factor in the vote Thursday that fell short of ending a GOP filibuster.

* Jim Oliphant keeps up with the paper trail on Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan. E-mail messages released late Friday revealed little in the way of controversy, though some showed "flashes of personality," as she acknowledges a tendency to lose her cool at times.

by Mike Memoli

Knowing that President Obama is an avowed White Sox fan, it may not have been a coincidence that Major League Baseball scheduled a Washington visit for the South Siders on the interleague slate this year. Whether Obama will make the short trip to see a game this weekend is still something of an open question, however.

"We'll just have to see," deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One today.

Ordinarily, a presidential trip to the ballpark would hardly be controversial. President Bush, former owner of the Texas Rangers, was known to sneak in a ballgame or two after baseball returned to the capital city in 2005. But the unfolding tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico means every move the president makes is all the more scrutinized.

As the president's level of engagement became a matter of political debate, critics pointed to traditional presidential events like a visit with the NCAA men's basketball champion Duke Blue Devils or a send-off of the men's World Cup team as questionable uses of Obama's time. It's a fact that kept Obama from straying too far from his Chicago home on Memorial Day weekend, when some suspected he might attend a Stanley Cup Finals game.

Burton also said today that Obama will again visit the Gulf "at some point." But the week-ahead guidance included no such trip through next Friday, when the president heads to Toronto for the latest G-8 meeting.

Photo credit: Getty Images

by Mike Memoli

A panel of Democratic party officials in South Carolina Thursday reluctantly accepted results of a June 8 primary won by a complete unknown candidate who's become something of a national embarrassment. The candidate expected to win, Vic Rawl, protested the results as he and other Democrats suspect foul play. But the consternation obscures one undeniable reality: the party never realistically felt it had a chance to give incumbent Republican Jim DeMint a real challenge.

The situation in the Palmetto State speaks to a larger problem for Democrats. In two election cycles, the party went from minority to supermajority in the U.S. Senate. But now, the party is leaving as many as a dozen Republican-held seats on the table with either no credible challenger, or no candidate at all.

Initially, things looked bright for the party. The leadership was confident for most of 2009 that most, if not all of its incumbents were seeking re-election and mounting strong campaigns. Meanwhile, Republican incumbents in Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and New Hampshire headed for the exits. Though recruiting efforts stalled in North Carolina and Illinois, the party felt strong about its candidates in the newly-vacated GOP seats, as well its challengers in places like Louisiana.

But Scott Brown's victory in the special election in Massachusetts started a chain of events that now has pundits looking at the possibility, albeit a slim one, of Republicans forcing a 50-50 Senate next term. With little notice, Senators Evan Bayh, Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan decided against seeking re-election - in the latter case with no clear candidate to run in his place. Beau Biden, expected to run for his father's former seat in Delaware, chose instead to seek re-election as attorney general. And once-safe incumbents in Arkansas, California and Washington began to seem increasingly vulnerable as the Republican fields grew.

For Republicans, the field of play moved almost completely to Democratic terrain. Of 11 seats where the party's incumbent is still eligible to seek a new term, eight are ranked as "Solidly Republican" by the respected non-partisan handicappers at the Cook Political Report, meaning that they are not considered competitive. The other three are ranked as "Likely Republican," not considered competitive now but with "the potential to become engaged." No seat now held by a Republican, even the open seats, is ranked any worse a Tossup, while four Democratic-held seats are either ranked as Lean, Likely or Solidly Republican.

by Mike Memoli

Ah, summer. A season that brings to mind beaches, barbecues and maybe an afternoon at the ballpark. Well this year, the White House wants to add highway construction, home weatherization and water purification projects to the mix.

President Obama today heads to Ohio where he'll kick off what the administration is calling "Recovery Summer," in recognition of what it says is a significant ramping up of job-stimulating projects made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed last year.

"This summer, a lot more people are going to be working on highways, building clean water projects, weatherizing homes, and they'll be drawing paychecks that they wouldn't have otherwise drawn," Vice President Biden said Thursday during a rare appearance in the White House briefing room. "That means a lot more money, again, into the local economies."

Obama heads to Ohio -- a state he's visited seven times already, more than all but three others -- to meet with workers at the site of a road improvement project in Columbus. The White House says this is the 10,000th Recovery Act project to get underway, "the first of many significant Recovery Act milestones coming this summer."

Skeptics continue to argue that the stimulus program was high in cost with little bang for the buck, as the national unemployment rate remains just under 10 percent. Biden countered that there is no doubt things would have been worse without the program, and pointed to both GDP growth and several months of job growth as signs a real recovery is underway.

by Jim Tankersley and Jennifer Martinez

Oil and gas companies have told the Obama administration that environmental regulations for deep-water drilling rigs do not immediately need to be toughened because the Deepwater Horizon explosion was an unforeseeable event, not a failure of federal oversight, according to documents filed last week with the White House.

The industry's chief lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, submitted written comments to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The council is reviewing whether the federal Minerals Management Service -- the now-splintered and much criticized agency charged with regulating oil drilling -- has appropriately conducted reviews mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, known as NEPA.

"One accident does not mean that the practice and procedures of MMS are inadequate to implement NEPA's requirements, especially when the cause of the accident has yet to be determined," wrote the lobbying group, which represents 400 oil and gas companies, including BP.

Anadarko Petroleum, which owns a quarter share of the leaking BP well, wrote in a separate filing that it believes the government's enforcement of environmental laws has not "in any way played a role" in the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Since the April 20 explosion, the MMS has drawn fire from environmentalists for routinely exempting hundreds of offshore drilling projects from detailed environmental analysis, including the one for the Deepwater Horizon rig. The practice is known as granting "categorical exclusions." That practice is a specific focus of the White House review.

Continue reading: Big oil: oversight not the problem

by Mike Memoli

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), whose comments alleging a "shakedown" of BP this morning prompted widespread criticism -- especially from Democrats, has now apologized for what he says was a misinterpretation of his statement.

"I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident, should be held responsible and should in every way, do everything possible to make good on they consequences that have resulted from this accident," he said after questioning BP CEO Tony Hayward this afternoon." "And if anything I have said this morning has been misconstrued in opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstruction."

In a difficult political environment for the party, Democrats can barely contain their delight at what the perceive to be a monumental gaffe from the Texas Republican. The party's campaign committees have been flooding reporters' inboxes with statements on the matter, and demanding other Republicans to say whether they agree with his sentiments.

The reaction is no different at the White House, where Vice President Biden echoed an earlier rebuke from press secretary Robert Gibbs. Briefing reporters in the last hour, Gibbs also shared President Obama's reaction upon hearing of Barton's morning statement, saying the president "shook his head and couldn't understand why anybody would say that."

But it's not just Democrats who are criticizing Barton. Rep. Jeff Miller (R), who represents a Pensacola-based district in Florida that's feeling the impact of the oil spill, called Barton's comments "out of touch with this tragedy," and suggested he should consider stepping down as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

UPDATE: Barton has released yet another clarification in which he retracts his use of the word "shakedown" this morning. You can read it in full after the jump.

Photo credit: AP / Haraz N. Ghanbari

by Mike Memoli

A new poll conducted after Tuesday's Oval Office address finds that Americans are less confident in President Obama's handling of the Gulf oil spill.

Forty-one percent of respondents in the CNN/Opinion research survey say they approve, down from 46 percent in a May survey, while 59 percent now disapprove, up from 51 percent. Two in three respondents also say the president has not been tough enough in dealing with the crisis.

Overall, only one-in-four voters surveyed approve of how the federal government in general has handled the crisis. But asked who they trust more to improve the situation, 54 percent say the government while 32 percent chose BP.

The survey does find overwhelming support for the idea of a fund created to compensate those impacted by the tragedy, something the White House and BP agreed upon Wednesday.

The survey finds Obama's overall job rating still in positive territory, with 50 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving, down slightly since late May. Conducted Wednesday, the survey of 534 adults has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.

by Paul Richter

Confidence in President Obama among the world's Muslims is slipping, according to a poll of global attitudes that also found widespread concern that the United States remained a go-it-alone nation even under the new administration.

The survey, by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, found support for Obama had remained strong in most nations even while his approval rating at home had slipped. But in five of seven Muslim nations that were polled, he was regarded with approval by about one-third or less of respondents, and his popularity had slid over the last year.

The finding is likely to be of concern to the White House, which has worked hard to improve the American image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world.

Obama got his worst grades for his handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of 22 nations polled, a majority supported his approach to the issue in only three -- France, Nigeria and Kenya.

Obama administration officials have been concerned about damage to the White House image in the Muslim world stemming from developments in Gaza, where Israel, a staunch U.S. ally, has been tightly restricting the flow of goods, citing the need to prevent Hamas militants in charge of Gaza from obtaining arms.

In Pakistan, the number of Muslims who approved of Obama fell from 15% to 8% over the last year. Among Muslims in Egypt, which receives billions of dollars in U.S. aid, support for Obama has fallen from 41% to 31%, and in Turkey, it has dropped from 33% to 23%.

Many of those polled said the United States didn't give enough consideration to the views of other countries when making decisions on international issues. The median number who said the United States acted unilaterally was 63%, down slightly from the 67% who used the same description in 2007, when George W. Bush was president.

In most countries, especially wealthier ones, Obama won strong support for the way he had handed the international economic crisis. The exception was the United States, where the number of those who approved of his approach was the same as those who disapproved.

by Mike Memoli

Eager to go back on offense after weeks of scrutiny for its response to the Gulf oil spill, the White House has offered a quick strike against Rep. Joe Barton (R), who called the deal with BP a "shakedown."

"What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction," press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments."

Today's subcommittee hearing has taken a brief recess to allow members to vote. BP CEO Tony Hayward has just offered his opening statement, and will face questions when the members return after noon.

UPDATE: During an appearance at the daily press briefing to promote the Recovery Act, Vice President Biden was asked for his reaction to Barton comments. He called them "incredibly sensitive, incredibly out of touch." "There's no shakedown," he said. "It's insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something that they caused." If that wasn't enough, he added "outrageous" and "astounding" to the list.

Gibbs later said Republicans should consider whether Barton should remain as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. And he shared President Obama's reaction upon briefing him about the remarks, saying, "He shook his head and couldn't understand why anybody would say that."

by Mike Memoli

The agreement reached between the White House and energy giant BP emerged as an early partisan flashpoint at a Congressional hearing this morning, as a Republican Congressman apologized to the company's CEO for what he called a "shakedown."

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) told BP's Tony Hayward at today's hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee for Investigations and Oversight. "I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is -- again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown."

Barton called the agreement to create an independent escrow account, funded by BP to the tune of at least $20 billion, "a tragedy of the first proportion," saying it had "no legal standing" and sets "a terrible precedent for the future." He also raised concerns over the participation of Attorney General Eric Holder, who is conducting a criminal investigation of BP over the incident at its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, at yesterday's negotiations with company executives.

"There is no question that ... BP made decisions that objective people think compromise safety. There is no question that BP is liable for the damages. But we have a due process system, where we go through hearings, in some cases court cases, litigation, and determine what those damages are and when those damages should be paid," Barton said.

The Texas Republican said he was speaking only for himself, not his Party or any other member of Congress. Indeed, House Minority Leader John Boehner seemed to distance himself from the statement in an interview on Fox News Channel, saying: "I don't know what context Mr. Barton was making that remark, but, I'm glad BP has accepted responsibility for their actions."

His comments also invited a prompt retort from fellow subcommittee member Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Rather than a "shakedown," he called the agreement "the American government working at its best."

As BP CEO Tony Hayward gets ready of his turn in the hot seat on Capitol Hill, here's a snapshot of the bureau's reporting on the oil spill this morning.

* Richard Simon reports on Hayward's expected testimony, quoting from prepared remarks that he will say, "I fully grasp the terrible reality of the situation. ... I hear the concerns, fears, frustration -- and anger -- being voiced across the country."

* Peter Nicholas wraps up the announcement following yesterday's White House meeting between the Obama administration and the company's executives. In an interview, press secretary Robert Gibbs tells Nicholas, "We got everything we wanted."

* Jim Tankersley answers some of the big questions about how this $20 billion escrow account would function. For instance, "It's unclear whether people suffering indirect damage from the spill will succeed in making claims."

Jim also co-writes a piece on the huge undertaking ahead of the White House as it has pledged to restore the Louisiana wetlands.

* Lisa Mascaro looks at the legislative impact of this week's developments, and notes that Obama "has summoned eight senators to the White House next week for broad, bipartisan talks" about the path forward on energy legislation.

* D.C. Now has a good scene-setter.

Photo Credit: AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta

by David S. Cloud

U.S. military officials Wednesday damped expectations for quick results from offensives in Afghanistan and played down a year-end review that the Obama administration had portrayed as a major evaluation of the U.S.-led war.

"I would not want to overplay the significance of this review," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees U.S. forces in the Mideast and Afghanistan, told members of the House Armed Services Committee, referring to plans by the administration to evaluate progress in Afghanistan in December. "We would not make too much out of that."

Administration officials announced the review last year when President Obama ordered 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. At the time, officials characterized it as an opportunity to evaluate whether it would be possible to begin handing off security responsibilities to Afghan forces in July 2011, the deadline set by Obama for beginning a U.S. drawdown.

"If it appears the strategy is not working, and we will not be able to transition to Afghan security forces by 2011, we will take a hard look at the strategy," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said at the time.

But Petraeus emphasized Wednesday that December would be too soon to make a far-reaching evaluation, noting that all of the additional U.S. forces would have been there for only a few months.

A senior administration official said that showing progress by December remains important because of the need to reassure many wavering NATO allies that the U.S. strategy is working.

It was the second day of testimony for Petraeus, whose appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday was cut short after he appeared to faint while answering questions.

Continue reading "Officials downplay Afghan review"

by Tom Hamburger and Mike Memoli

Newly obtained documents reveal that months before the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig, British Petroleum was telling the Obama administration that the regulatory process run through the now widely-criticized Minerals Management Service was working fine.

The documents, obtained by the Tribune/LA Times from Congressional investigators, reveals the company's perspective at a time the Obama administration was developing its policies on offshore drilling.

In June 2009, the White House created an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, tasked with developing recommendations for "a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes." In the September 2009 letter, the oil giant told the administration that the Minerals Management Service regulation had been "effective" and didn't need to be expanded.

"While we support the initiative to begin establishing a national ocean policy, we would be concerned about policy that significantly increases bureaucracy in a way that could lead to confusion, conflict, and delay in obtaining necessary permits for projects, limits access to explore for and develop oil and natural gas, and discourages important refining, distribution, and other industrial commercial use," wrote Margaret Laney, the senior regulatory affairs director for BP America, in an August letter to the task force.

Laney outlined several areas of particular interest to BP as it sought to discover potential new energy sources, pointing first to the Gulf of Mexico.

"It is essential that access to the OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] - including the Eastern Gulf of Mexico - be encouraged to ensure vast untapped resources are available to support the country's economic and energy security," she wrote.

BP argued that the existing management and regulatory process run through the Minerals Management Service was sufficient, and "should be used as a basis for regulatory efforts without realigning the agencies' regulatory authorities."

"The MMS five-year planning process ... has proven to be an effective and deliberate public process that provides area residents with extensive opportunities for comment and consultation," Laney wrote. "The process of incorporating marine spatial planning into existing regulation should not result in its use as a tool to delay development of offshore energy projects or be used as a de-facto moratorium that precludes access to areas that have significant natural resources."

Not only is Congress now investigating BP practices that may have contributed to the April explosion, but the White House has now pledged a major overhaul of MMS, which President Obama said Tuesday night "has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility - a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves."

by Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger

Two House committees will question government and oil industry officials about worker safety aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig the day it exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, focusing in part on worker complaints that the vessel was undermanned and had a confusing management structure, with the Captain in a subordinate position to the drilling manager.

These concerns were outlined this week in a Chicago Tribune/LA Times story that focused on the ship's registration with the Marshall Islands, which classified the vessel in such a way that a drilling manager rather than a captain was in charge of the vessel while it was drilling.

A top Coast Guard official, Rear Admiral Kevin Cook, will testify Thursday before the House Transportation Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and is expected to be closely questioned on Coast Guard safety and inspection requirements.

A member of the subcommittee, Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat and Coast Guard veteran, is expected to ask particularly pointed questions. In a recent interview, he faulted his former branch of the service for allowing foreign and privately regulated entities to proliferate in U.S.-protected waters, many operating with standards that may not be embraced by the Coast Guard.

"They should have spotted this problem," said Taylor, whose district includes the shipbuilding center of Pascagoula. "They should have come to us and said, 'You need to tighten up the law,''' making clear what U.S. standards are - and enforcing them.

If the Deepwater Horizon were flying a U.S. flag, some maritime experts say it likely would have been classified in such a way that a licensed captain was in charge at all times. However, the ship was flagged to the Republic of the Marshall Islands and that nation allowed a drilling manager to be in charge of the vessel while it was seeking oil in the Gulf.

While the Marshall Islands fleet is generally well regarded, this classification has raised questions from lawyers about whether the ship's owner, Swiss-based TransOcean, deliberately sought less rigorous manning requirements, a charge the company has denied.

by Mike Memoli and Peter Nicholas

The Obama administration has reached a preliminary agreement with BP executives that would see the oil company pay $20 billion over several years into an independently-controlled escrow account to be established to compensate Gulf residents impacted by the disastrous oil spill.

The agreement was negotiated in a meeting at the White House this morning, the first face-to-face gathering between President Obama and senior BP leadership. A White House official says that under the terms of the deal, the fund would be administered Kenneth Feinberg, currently serving as the special master for executive pay under the TARP program. Feinberg ran a fund that compensated families of the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001.

The meeting comes 57 days after the initial explosion at BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Prior to today, Obama had yet to speak with BP CEO Tony Hayward. A half dozen other BP executives joined a phalanx of Cabinet and senior administration officials in the Roosevelt Room meeting, though it was not yet known how long the president remained. Obama was scheduled to address reporters in the Rose Garden this afternoon.

Today's session was the final piece of a choreographed three-day series of events intended to showcase Obama's handling of the Gulf oil crisis. He made his fourth visit to the Gulf region, with stops Monday in Mississippi and Alabama and Tuesday in Florida. After returning to Washington he delivered his first address to the nation from the Oval Office, outlining what he called a "battle plan" for cleaning up the spill, providing assistance for those effected, and ultimately to, as he put it, "make sure that a catastrophe like this never happens again."

BP executives are in Washington for several Congressional committee hearings on the oil spill. Hayward is scheduled to testify Thursday morning at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing specifically on the role of BP.

by Mike Memoli

Reaction to President Obama's Oval Office address has not been kind, even among traditional allies of this White House. Here's a sampling from Beltway tipsheets and other opinion-shapers reacting to last night.

Newsweek's Howard Fineman says the speech "fell flat."

Having just made a tour of the battlefield earlier today--a two-day trip to the four hard-hit gulf states--and having scheduled a meeting tomorrow with his putative but not-to-be-trusted allies, the top officials of BP, the president should have delivered a report full of specifics and fighting spirit.

Instead, there was far too much of: a dissertation on the inscrutability of the future; a discussion of the commissions and studies he planned to set up; the fine credentials of his advisers; and a partial admission that he had been way too credulous in accepting "assurances" earlier this year that it was safe to ramp up off-shore drilling off the American coasts.

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, who has been a prominent critic of Obama's personal style in handling the crisis, tosses another tar ball at the White House:

President Obama's bloodless quality about people and events, the emotional detachment that his aides said allowed him to see things more clearly, has instead obscured his vision. It has made him unable to understand things quickly on a visceral level and put him on the defensive in this spring of our discontent, failing to understand that Americans are upset that a series of greedy corporations have screwed over the little guy without enough fierce and immediate pushback from the president.

Real Clear Politics captures the unfriendly instant reaction of typically-friendly pundits on MSNBC. Keith Olbermann says at one point, "This seems to me to have been a speech that was committeed to death."

The take is different at NBC's First Read:

Everyone is frustrated, everyone is upset. And right now everyone in the Conventional Wisdom world/chattering class, etc. is taking it out on this president, good speech or not. What's particularly telling is that the pundit class pretty much demanded that the president give last night's speech (the White House caved to that pressure, perhaps before they had something more to announce), and some of them immediately criticized it. Talk about a no-win situation.

NBC's political team adds that it suspects the speech played better in the Gulf states than in Washington and New York.

by Mike Memoli

The final piece in a choreographed three-day series of events intended to showcase President Obama's handling of the Gulf oil crisis is now underway, as BP executives finally sit down with senior White House officials to discuss future steps to contain the spill and provide relief for all those effected.

Among those representing the White House in this morning's meeting are National Incident Commander Thad Allen, White House energy czar Carol Browner, economic adviser Larry Summers and Bob Bauer, the White House counsel. BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and CEO Tony Hayward lead the team of six from the energy giant. The daily White House guidance indicated President Obama would only participate in today's meeting for 20 minutes; he'll later address the press in the Rose Garden.

In his speech to the nation last night, Obama used strong language as he announced that he would demand that BP "set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness." An escrow fund would be run independently, tasked with dispensing at least $20 billion from BP.

"There'll be no upward cap there," White House senior adviser David Axelrod told the "Today" show this morning. "If they owe more money, they'll have to pay more money. This is not a get-out-of-the-situation-free card."

BP executives are in town for Congressional hearings on the matter. As Richard Simon reported today, the company was "subjected to a tongue-lashing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday during a five-hour hearing by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee." The fact that it has taken nearly two full months for senior BP leadership to sit down with White House advisers has become something of a political problem for the administration, one this week's events aimed at overcoming.

Christi Parsons and Janet Hook have the A1 piece on President Obama's speech.

Seeking to reassure Americans that his administration can handle the growing Gulf Coast oil crisis, President Obama promised Tuesday in his first address from the Oval Office to hold BP accountable for all costs and to "use everything we've got" in the federal response to the calamity.

Hours earlier, the scale of the problem widened dramatically when federal officials said in new estimates that the spill is at least 50% greater than previously known.

Obama, answering the catastrophe with an activist government philosophy, described a series of steps to overhaul federal oil industry oversight and to restore the Gulf of Mexico region.

The president also made a politically risky request that Americans accept a measure of responsibility by recognizing the need to change the country's consumption of oil.

"For decades, we've talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires," Obama said. "The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight."

Jim Tankersley has more on that energy pitch.

President Obama on Tuesday night capped his Oval Office address on the massive gulf oil spill with a call for new efforts to reduce U.S. dependence on oil, saying "the tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean-energy future is now."

In a bow to political reality and the still-troubled economy, however, he stopped short of spelling out specifics for dealing with a problem that has bedeviled presidents since Richard Nixon in the 1970s and goes straight to the heart of such bread-and-butter issues as consumer prices, jobs and the viability of major industries.

"The one approach I will not accept is inaction," Obama said.

Photo credit: Pool / Getty Images

President Obama's address, as prepared for delivery, is available after the jump.

by Mike Memoli

Hours before tonight's Oval Office address, the White House announced the appointment of Michael Bromwich to "lead the effort to reform the Minerals Management Service." He replaces Elizabeth Birnbaum, who left MMS on May 27 as finger-pointing escalated over the Gulf oil spill.

The announcement says that Bromwich will be tasked with developing plans for a new oversight structure, with "a mandate to implement far-reaching change."

"For a decade or more, the cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked. That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans, but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore," President Obama says in the release.

Bromwich is a former inspector general in the Justice Department, serving in the Clinton administration. He currently works in the Washington and New York offices of Fried Frank. The White House calls him "a national leader in taking broken agencies, applying rigorous reforms and oversight, and seeing positive results." But he has no relevant experience on oil drilling issues.

Also this afternoon, the White House released a new estimate of the oil flowing from the Deepwater Horizon site. Independent scientists working with the federal government say oil is flowing at a rate of 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, an increase from earlier estimates of 12,600 to 50,000 barrels.

by Lisa Mascaro

Hours before President Obama is to address the nation about the oil spill in the Gulf, the administration released an analysis of a Senate cap-and-trade bill showing such a system would cost less than $1 a day in higher household energy costs.

The bill's authors, Sen. John Kerry (D-Ma.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) welcomed the Environmental Protection Agency's assessment, saying they believed Obama would make a push tonight for comprehensive energy and climate change legislation like theirs.

"The American Power Act will decrease energy bills for families and protect consumers while offering the most effective cost containment measures of any previous climate legislation," the senators said in a joint statement. "We look forward to hearing from the President this evening on just how critical passing a comprehensive solution is for our country."

The EPA's analysis showed American's household energy costs would rise an average of $79-$146 annually through 2050. The senators also pointed to a separate analysis out today from the ClimateWorks Foundation showing the bill would create 540,000 jobs annually through 2030, as well as an economic analysis released in May showing the legislation would reduce American oil consumption by 1.8 million barrels a day - many times the amount gushing in the Gulf.

"If Americans want to take a stand, this is the time," Kerry said.

Even though the House passed a climate change bill last year, the legislation faces a tougher climb in the Senate where Democrats are regionally divided and unable to collect the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.

You can read the EPA analysis here.

by Mike Memoli

As pointed out by Peter Nicholas, tonight's Oval Office address is the first for President Obama, nearly 17 months into his administration. That is historically later than most in the modern era - George W. Bush's first came in his eighth month. But it points to a more recent trend in which presidents have gone not just beyond the West Wing, but outside of the White House altogether to send a message to the American people.

Data compiled by Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor at Towson University and an expert in White House communications, finds that Ronald Reagan had at this point in his first term spoken to the nation from the Oval Office five times, George H. W. Bush twice, and Bill Clinton four times. The younger Bush also only used the Oval Office once in the same span as Obama, coming on the night of September 11, 2001.

It turns out that the reason for using the president's ceremonial office less often may be technical as much as strategic. According to Kumar, the Clinton administration obtained funding for a modernization project that made live transmission possible in far more locations in the presidential mansion.

Ultimately, Clinton addressed the nation from the Oval Office 15 times; Nixon did so 37 times, CBS' Mark Knoller points out. But given the capability to broadcast from elsewhere in the White House, Bush did so just six times.

The Bush administration used that greater flexibility to their advantage, experimenting with various White House locations depending on the message Bush was delivering. He announced the first airstrikes on Afghanistan in October 2001 from the Treaty Room, for instance. But it also allowed them to put "the president in a scene that he's comfortable in," Kumar said.

"[For] Bush - being in the Oval office was seen as a passive setting," she said. The administration instead particularly liked to use Cross Hall, on the main floor of the executive mansion, which showcased "the magisterial setting of the White House" but also allowed the president to appear more active. "And he was much more comfortable doing that."

Photo Credit: Eric Draper / White House

by Peter Nicholas

PENSACOLA, FL - President Obama previewed part of his Oval Office address in an appearance here this morning, saying he will talk about the need for British Petroleum to pay out claims "quickly and fairly'' to compensate victims of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Speaking to reporters at a beachside restaurant, Obama said that he wanted a more "nimble'' response to the oil spill. He said he would appoint separate commanders for Florida, Alabama and Louisiana to give residents of these states a more direct point of contact with federal officials presiding over the recovery.

Obama sat on a picnic bench at the Fish Sandwich Snack Bar, his back to Pensacola Beach. He was surrounded by aides, local officials, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the owner of the business, Mike Pinzone. He said Pinzone and other business owners have suffered a dramatic fall-off in revenue since the spill began and have not been made whole by BP.

In his Oval Office speech, set for 8 p.m. eastern time, Obama said he will discuss how "businesses need help right now.''

He said, "I will be their fierce advocate to make sure they are getting the compensation they need to get through what is going to be a difficult season.''

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs previewed President Obama's address to the nation tonight in a series of appearances on the morning talk shows today, saying the president will outline a long-term plan to restore the Gulf coast.

"It's not something that can happen overnight. It's something that's going to take years to accomplish. But something that the president is committed to," Gibbs told CNN.

Gibbs signaled on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the president would name a "recovery czar" -- though he seemed hesitant to use that term --- who would oversee the plan, after cleanup efforts along the span of the coast effected by the BP rig explosion. He said that plan would be "to restore the Gulf not to where it was the day this accident happened, but to restore this Gulf to where it was years ago."

The White House spokesman also focused on action the administration was prepared to take to set up an escrow account that BP would pay into to ensure all those impacted by the crisis would be "made whole."

"The president possesses the legal authority and will use it to make this claims process independent, to take it away from BP and to ensure that those who have been harmed economically have their claims processed quickly, efficiently, transparently, and that they're made whole again from the disaster caused by BP," he said on CBS' "The Early Show."

by Julian E. Barnes

General David Petraeus, the top American commander in the Mideast, slumped forward appearing dazed while he was testifying before the U.S. Senate Tuesday.

While being questioned by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Petraeus slumped over, looked dazed and aides rushed to his side. It is not clear whether Petraeus lost consciousness, but he quickly sat upright again and left the room on his own power.

Petraeus returned to the committee room at shortly before 11 a.m., smiling.

"A little bit light headed, it wasn't Sen. McCain's questioning," Petraeus said.

Petraeus said he had become a dehydrated and had become light headed. He had been under intense questioning from both McCain and Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) Tuesday morning on U.S. plans to begin drawing down forces from Afghanistan next year.

A few minutes after Petraeus collapsed, Levin announced Petraeus was fine and was getting something to eat.

Last year, Petraeus received treatment for early-stage prostate cancer. But the general is obsessed with physical fitness, and prides himself on his endurance.

After returning to the committee hearing, Petraeus was greeted with a standing ovation.

"You are one of America's greatest heroes, glad you are recovered," McCain said.

Photo Credit: Alex Wong / AP

by Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico was built in South Korea. It was operated by a Swiss company under contract to a British oil firm. Primary responsibility for safety and other inspections rested not with the U.S. government but with the Republic of the Marshall Islands -- a tiny, impoverished nation in the Pacific Ocean.

And the Marshall Islands, a maze of tiny atolls, many smaller than the ill-fated oil rig, outsourced many of its responsibilities to private companies.

Now, as the government tries to figure out what went wrong in the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, this international patchwork of divided authority and sometimes conflicting priorities is emerging as a crucial underlying factor in the explosion of the rig.

Under International law, offshore oil rigs like the Deepwater Horizon are treated as ships, and companies are allowed to "register" them in unlikely places such as the Marshall Islands, Panama and Liberia -- reducing the U.S. government's role in inspecting and enforcing safety and other standards.

"Today, these oil rigs can operate under different, very minimal standards of inspection established by international maritime treaties," said Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Some offshore drilling experts, as well as some survivors of the explosion that led to the massive spill, say foreign registration also permitted a confusing command structure and understaffing -- factors that may have contributed to the disaster.

Senior members of Congress -- including Oberstar and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.) -- have begun looking into the inspection and staffing issues. The House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation will hold a hearing Thursday on foreign-flagged rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Different types of rigs are classified differently, and the Marshall Islands assigned the Deepwater Horizon to a category that permitted lower staffing levels.

"Over the years, the manning dwindled down and down," said Douglas Harold Brown, chief mechanic aboard the Deepwater Horizon, who had been assigned to the floating drilling rig since shortly after it was manufactured in 2000. "I believe that safety was compromised by this," he said in an interview.

Continue reading "Foreign registration of BP rig factored in explosion"

Peter Nicholas sends this update on President Obama's visit to the Gulf

THEODORE, ALA -- Even as he warns of the unfolding catastrophe in the Gulf, President Obama is fine-tuning his message so as not to scare off visitors and imperil a tourist season that is emerging as another casualty of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Obama returned to the Gulf region on Monday for a two-day, three-state tour -- part of a week aimed at showing he is fully in command of a crisis now in its 56th day. Obama will discuss the oil spill in a televised address from the Oval Office on Tuesday, the first time he has spoken to the nation from these iconic surroundings. A White House spokesman said Obama personally made the decision to deliver the Oval Office address.

In the speech, Obama will lay out the steps taken thus far to stanch the flow, the plan for capturing as much oil as possible until the hole is plugged, and the procedures for ensuring that British Petroleum pays out damages in a "fast, efficient, and transparent'' fashion, according to a White House official.

Obama will meet with BP officials the following day in the White House. One issue expected to come up is his call for a special escrow account -- a means of ensuring BP doesn't renege on its financial responsibilities.

Facing criticism that he seemed too detached from the spill's consequences, Obama is now signaling that he is both in charge and profoundly disturbed by the tragedy. At every turn he is spending time in the company of local fishermen and store owners whose lives were upended when the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, releasing up to 40,000 barrels of oil a day. Obama confided to NBC's Matt Lauer last week that he wanted to find out whose "ask to kick,'' a rare off-color comment from a president who weighs every syllable.

Photo Credit: Charles Dharapak / AP

by Mike Memoli

North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge (D) has apologized for his actions captured in a YouTube video that went viral today.

"I deeply and profoundly regret my reaction and I apologize to all involved," Etheridge said in a statement. "Throughout my many years of service to the people of North Carolina, I have always tried to treat people from all viewpoints with respect. No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become, this does not justify a poor response. I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse."

There are many questions about the video, but this much is known. It was said to be shot in Washington outside of a fundraiser held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which Etheridge attended. He is asked whether he fully supports the "Obama agenda," and responds by repeatedly asking the group, "Who are you?" It is unclear whether the video was edited. It was featured today on a conservative website that is known for its video sting of the group ACORN; the post is heavily promoted by the Drudge Report.

Etheridge has represented North Carolina's 2nd district since 1997. Among his former staffers is none other than White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who sent this response to the home-state Raleigh News & Observer:

"I've known Bob Etheridge for more than a thirteen years and I am proud to have worked for him. He is one of the most honorable people I know. Everyone makes mistakes, and I'm proud of Bob for taking responsibility and apologizing for his."

by Kathleen Hennessey

In South Carolina, the election drama rolls on. In the wake of his loss to a first-time candidate who is charged with a felony sex crime, Democratic Senate hopeful Vic Rawl has filed a protest against last Tuesday's primary results.

Rawl's campaign says there are too many irregularities in the results to let the election stand uncontested.

"At this point, the people of our state do not have the basic confidence that their vote will be counted," the Democrats' preferred candidate said in a statement issued Monday. "The strange circumstances surrounding Tuesday's vote require a thorough investigation."

The strangest circumstance is the very presence of the newly anointed Democratic nominee, Alvin Greene. Greene is an unemployed veteran, who lives with his father, didn't campaign and didn't file papers with the Federal Election Commission. Greene also is fighting a felony obscenity charge for allegedly showing pornography to a college student last fall. At the time he claimed to have no assets. A few months later, he paid the $10,400 candidate filing fee.

Greene won by nearly 20 percentage points, leaving the state party embarrassed and some making allegations of political chicanery.

Rawl's campaign says experts have found the voting pattern highly unusual. It also says it has received reports of voting machine malfunction.

Under South Carolina law, Rawl's protest will be reviewed by his party's executive committee. If the committee finds sufficient evidence that the election was invalid, it can decide to hold a new primary.

If that happens, Rawl said he's not yet certain he would run again. His full statement is after the jump.

by Mike Memoli

President Obama has arrived in Mississippi for the first stop of a two-day visit to the Gulf region. He was set to receive a briefing on the BP oil spill at the Coast Guard station in Gulfport before meeting local residents there. This afternoon, he travels to Theodore, Alabama, where he'll tour a staging facility and speak to the press.

This trip comes at a time when the president was scheduled to have begun an overseas visit to Guam, Indonesia and Australia. Instead, the White House is engaged in its most significant effort to date to shape the message about the domestic crisis, to be capped off by Obama's first-ever address to the nation from the Oval Office Tuesday night. The decision to deliver that address came from the president himself, a spokesman told reporters this morning.

"What we're seeing in the gulf is a catastrophe the likes of which we've never seen before," deputy press secretary Bill Burton said on Air Force One en route to the Gulf.

Our friends at DC Now have a good rundown on the White House's PR effort.

by David Savage

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and decide whether the state can be forced to release 46,000 inmates -- more than one-fourth of its prison population -- to relieve overcrowding.

The court's intervention is a victory for the governor and state prison officials, and it puts a judicial order on hold, at least until this fall.

At issue is whether federal judges have the power to order the release of state prisoners as a necessary means of curing a constitutional violation.

A special panel of three judges ruled last year that inmates in the state's 33 prisons were being denied adequate medical care as required by the Constitution. Because overcrowding was the "primary cause," they ordered the state to cap its prison population at 137% of capacity. That would require releasing about 46,000 inmates over the next two years.

Currently, California has about 165,000 inmates in its state prisons.

Good Monday morning from Washington. Here's a look at headlines you may have missed from the Trib's Washington bureau this weekend.

* Democrats are now optimistic about passing long-stalled energy legislation, which "seemed virtually impossible a few weeks ago." The reason: public anger over the gulf oil spill. "A new energy bill could be shorn of its most controversial feature -- the costly and complex 'cap-and-trade' system, which would set a declining limit on emissions from power plants and factories and force emitters to buy permits for the release of heat-trapping gases. But even without cap and trade, the measure contemplated by Senate Democratic leaders could bring far-reaching change, including new renewable energy requirements, tougher liability caps on oil companies and stronger energy-efficiency measures," Lisa Mascaro writes.

* Jim Puzzanghera reported on the latest Treasury Department report on TARP repayments. "For the first time, the amount repaid by banks and other recipients has surpassed the outstanding balance," something the department hailed as a "milestone in the history of the controversial $700-billion bailout fund."

* Security experts are raising concerns about the new fleet of body imaging machines being rushed into service at the nation's airports, Ken Dilanian wrote. "Officials hastened deployment of the scanners after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly smuggled a powdered explosive sewn in his underwear onto a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam last Christmas, but failed to detonate it. However, Stephen M. Lord of the Government Accountability Office told Congress in March that the TSA's classified testing shows it's unclear whether the technology would have detected Abdulmutallab's bomb."

* More on the oil spill from Richard Simon, as the U.S. Coast Guard "demanded that BP come up with a speedier plan within 48 hours to contain the oil gushing from its broken Gulf of Mexico well and to base its new actions on revised flow estimates that are up to double previous projections."

* Is a college degree still worth it? Don Lee looks at the question being asked as commencement season has ended, and notes that "government surveys indicate that the vast majority of job gains this year have gone to workers with only a high school education or less, casting some doubt on one of the nation's most deeply held convictions: that a college education is the ticket to the American Dream."

* Republicans are targeting a provision in legislation to expand unemployment aid that would boost Medicare reinbursements to physicians in metropolitan areas. Per Noam Levey, Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma argues that California is getting a special deal; supporters point to GAO studies that show the reimbursement formula "has depressed Medicare payments in parts of many states, but most prominently in California."

* And Katherine Skiba talked to former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, who has returned to Chicago with no regrets about her time in Washington. She "turned aside questions about party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi by saying she doesn't want to make more difficult the work of her 'many good friends' in the administration."

by David Savage and Richard Fausset

In an effort to seize greater control of the gulf oil catastrophe, President Obama is prepared to compel BP executives to set up a multibillion-dollar escrow account to pay damage claims in the region, a senior White House official said Sunday.

The Obama administration could use its legal authority under the federal oil pollution act -- the landmark legislation passed a year after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill --- to force BP to set up such a fund to cover damages that are likely to be astronomical and could prove to be a burden even for BP, which posted a $6.1-billion profit last quarter.

"Our mission is to hold them accountable in every appropriate way," Obama advisor David Axelrod said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "He is going to be very clear about what our expectations are in terms of taking care of the people who've been damaged by this crisis."

In a letter to BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward on Sunday, 54 senators, nearly the entire Democratic caucus, called on the company to set aside $20 billion for cleanup and damages, to be administered by an independent trustee.

The push for an escrow account is one of several strategies planned by the administration this week in an apparent effort to rebut mounting criticism from the left and right that Obama has failed to respond to the disaster with sufficient adroitness or passion.

Before meeting with BP executives Wednesday, the president will travel to the gulf on Monday for his fourth visit since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 men and starting what has become the largest oil spill in U.S. history. On Tuesday night, the president plans to deliver a nationwide address on the spill and the government's response.

Continue reading "Obama seeks BP escrow account" >>

by Mike Memoli

The White House this afternoon released more details of President Obama's scheduled trip to the Gulf of Mexico next week, announcing that he will stop in Gulfport, Mississippi, Theodore, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, "to survey the response efforts, visit with gulf residents impacted by the spill, and meet with area officials."

The administration response continues to be debated, as does the president's personal style in handling the crisis.

"I don't always have time to perform for the benefit the cable shows," he said earlier this week in response to a question about his "cool, calm and collected" demeanor.

In advance of his fourth trip, the White House today also offered a rare glimpse at Obama during his last trip to Louisiana a week ago. In footage of a meeting with residents who've been impacted by the spill, the president spoke candidly about what he is able to do.

"Even though I'm president of the United States, my power is not limitless," he is shown saying in the "West Wing Week", a video produced by the administration's new media team each week. "I can't dive down there and plug the hole. I can't suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hard-working, smart people in place like Thad to implement this thing."

by Michael Muskal

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday again called for an independent investigation into the White House actions in trying to protect incumbent senators facing tough Democratic primaries.

In a letter to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., the Republicans argue that recent reports of the White House's role in primaries in Pennsylvania and Colorado "have created new suspicion and a new set of questions. We do not believe this suspicion or these questions will diminish until a proper investigation clears the air and restores the public's confidence."

The letter was signed by Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee's ranking member, and six other Republicans.

The White House has acknowledged that it asked former President Clinton to approach Rep. Joe Sestak to discuss an unpaid job with the administration if he decided to remain in his House seat. Sestak, who says he cut off discussion about any job offer, went on to beat Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary.

Continue reading at D.C. Now.

by Mike Memoli

Throughout the year Democrats have been cheering the victories of tea party-backed candidates in frontline races, hopeful that Republican primaries have produced nominees less capable of attracting broad appeal in the general election. This week provided yet another example as embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will now face Nevada Assemblywoman Sharron Angle instead of a better-funded and more broadly-known GOP candidate.

A key question in November is whether Democrats, whose majorities seem more tenuous by the week, invite such challenges at their own peril. It's a notion that's all the more striking given how Democrats are in some cases adding fuel to the tea party's fire. The thinking goes like this: even in cases where the conservative insurgency is unsuccessful in unseating a so-called establishment candidate, the ultimate winner was forced to move further right and emerges wounded from an unexpectedly strong battle.

A curious example from this week came in Iowa, where Terry Branstad won the Republican primary for governor by nine and a half points. It was seen as a disappointing margin considering he faced two challengers who together raised a quarter of Branstad did this