The Associated Press has just learned that HHS Secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius has had to "correct" three years worth of taxes after finding "unintentional errors". She had to cough up over $7,000 to remedy the mistake. Admittedly I'm just a reporter with no real assets to speak of (aside from owning possibly the only still functioning G3 ipod in the world), and my tax returns aren't that complicated, but what is up with these people and their taxes? If you're in public office, and there is some likelihood that people are going to snoop around in your personal business, wouldn't you be extra careful? And if you're an administration that's already had one nominee for a post shot down because of taxes, wouldn't you make extra, extra sure that your next nominee has a tax record that's cleaner than virgin snow in Vaile?

Certainly Sebelius' infraction is comparatively minor and, although an even lesser violation cost Nancy Killefer her dream job, it's unlikely this will kill her nomination. Senator Max Baucus, who chairs the committee which will vote on her nomination next week, rushed out a strong statement in support of her nomination. But if there was ever an argument for reform of a complicated tax code it's that not even these high profile wonks can get their taxes right. This is what the AP reports that Sebelius did wrong:

• Charitable contributions over $250 are supposed to include an acknowledgment letter from the charity in order for a deduction to be taken. Out of 49 charitable contributions made, three letters couldn't be found.

• Sebelius and her husband sold their home in 2006 and then took a mistaken deduction for mortgage interest.

• Insufficient documentation was found for some business expense deductions.

The AP also reports that "an administration official said Sebelius filed the amended returns before her nomination papers were sent to the Senate Finance Committee." We're just shaking our heads over this one, and thinking that sometimes not owning anything much or being able to make substantial charitable contributions has it's benefits.

One of our favorite Politicos Lisa Lerer reports on the April Fools antics up on Capitol Hill. Apparently Ben Nelson and Claire McCaskill are having a faux feud:

He’s engaged in an ongoing war of pranks with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). As retaliation for an April Fool’s joke, Nelson snuck into her office when she was on the Senate floor and rearranged all her furniture, hung up a Nebraska banner and taped photos of himself in hunting gear on all of her picture frames. 

 We're looking forward to hearing about McCaskill's next move. She's fiesty, so we expect nothing less than sharpie moustaches and the old hand in a glass of water trick.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Single white coliseum
One California state senator thinks that selling off state properties to private buyers could be the way to rescue the state from the financial brink. San Quentin Prison and the LA Coliseum could, he thinks, rake in billions. The UK had the same idea, minus the flashiness. (LA Times)

Closing the book
Almost every former president has a library to showcase his administration. But George W. Bush's Texas library could be the last one as brick and mortar structures become increasingly obsolete in the digital age. (Dallas Morning News)

Ships in position
Suspecting tests on long-range nuclear missiles, the U.S., South Korea and Japan all mobilized ships in the waters surrounding North Korea over the weekend. Complicating matters, the north half of the peninsula plans to launch a monitoring satellite early next week. (AP)

Vote on this
The election for Kirsten Gillibrand's House seat next month will be the first electoral contest since November. Political strategists see it also as the first public referendum on Obama's policies. (Reuters)

Lands of opportunity
Vulnerable Democratic governorships and house seats suddenly spell opportunity for the GOP in 2010. As many as 21 governors will be up for re-election, many with sinking approval ratings. (Washington Times)

The green medal
The International Olympic Committee has a plan to make the 2010 Vancouver Olympics the first-ever carbon neutral games. But such a plan would require hefty support from the private sector. (Grist)

Your Gaggler has officially arrived in London, the first stop of President Obama’s weeklong trip overseas. We planned on marking this moment by linking to “London Calling” by The Clash, one of the best punk songs ever, but alas, there’s some nasty copyright dispute going on over here in the U.K. that blocks YouTube from playing music videos on this side of the pond. It’s a travesty, we say—although we were able to find some comfort in linking to to one of our favorite scenes from National Lampoon’s European Vacation, a movie that we will likely reference multiple times in coming days. Back in the good ole USA, the president is only now leaving the White House. Your Gaggler rode over on the charter plane for the media covering Obama’s first trip overseas.  Almost instantly, we noticed that there more foreign reporters on the manifest compared to the press corps who followed George W. Bush on his trips abroad. In fact, the plane was virtually sold out, forcing many reporters to fly to Europe on their own.

Already there’s been some grumbling—and not just about all those newbies who don’t know press charter etiquette. (Rule No. 1: Never linger in front of the pre-takeoff appetizers tray unless you want to face the wrath of a hungry cameraman.) Unlike other foreign trips, where reporters are usually cleared through the country ahead of time to speed up the process, the Brits forced the American delegation to physically go through Customs to get cleared into the country. And when Obama leaves on Friday to head to France for the NATO summit, the Brits have put limits on liquids and the size of baggage that can be carried on board the charter—again, rules that have traditionally been waived since the delegation doesn’t usually fly through a normal airport. White House officials told reporters they fought for normal procedures but were turned down. That’s prompted plenty of conspiracy theories, including our personal favorite: That the Brits are getting their revenge for that less than exciting DVD gift set Obama gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown a few weeks ago. Remember, the DVDs that Brown can’t even play? All your Gaggler can say is that it would be priceless to see Obama show up in London later today with an American-made DVD player for Brown so that he can finally watch "Psycho." This international rift must be mended.

Katie Paul, a member of the Gaggle Family in our New York office, was kind enough to bring this amazing PR pitch to our attention. Katie writes:

Stop the presses! This breaking news just in from an enterprising PR flack who apparently lacks any sense of shame whatsoever. The gist: a certain cigar company is promoting its products by claiming that "several inside sources" have identified its brand as the favored choice of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Seriously. Like any self-respecting journalist, I've gotten my fair share of lame, ridiculous, boring, hysterical, and annoying PR pitches completely out of the blue. But this thing explores whole new depths of low. Read. Enjoy. And, please, for the love of all that is holy, boycott.

The email sent to Katie Paul reads:

Hey Katie!

Just wanted to make sure you had this on your radar-what about doing a segment featuring the exact line of cigars Bill Clinton used with Monica Lewinsky in light of the HBO movie that is set to go into production titled "Special Relationship" about Bill's special "friendships" starring Dennis Quaid?

The Gurkha Cigars spokesperson is available to speak about Gurkha's role in the presidential story and we can have you all shoot footage of the exact line of cigars that was used to make-um presidential history?  Can we make this work? 

Um, no thanks. We really don't need any more details in our mental image of the cigar incident. TMI already.

Pollsters around the country would remember the 2008 New Hampshire primary as a low point for their profession. Contrary to nearly every poll, Hillary Clinton pulled out a surprise upset victory over Barack Obama, who had just walloped her in Iowa. Based on available polling, very few people predicted Clinton's success. Your Gaggler was covering the Romney campaign at the time, and remembers Romney staffers betting not on who would win the Democratic primary, but on how much Obama would win by.  In the subsequent days reporters and politicos alike scratched their heads and offered theories about what the pollsters did wrong. Today, after many months of research, the American Association for Public Opinion Research is out with a detailed report describing what they believe went wrong. Mark Blumenthal over at Pollster.com summarizes some of the key findings:

In other words, what happened in New Hampshire wasn't one thing, it was a likely lot of small things, all introducing errors in the same direction. Various methodological challenges or shortcomings that might ordinarily produce offsetting variation in polls instead combined to throw them all off in the same direction. Polling's "perfect storm" did not materialize this past fall, but that label seems more apt for the New Hampshire polling debacle.

The report also produces evidence that rules out a number of prominent theories, among them the so-called "Bradley Effect." The authors claim they saw "no evidence that white respondents over-represented their support for Obama," and thus, no evidence of "latent racism" benefiting Clinton. Fair enough, but they do report evidence of a "social desirability effect" that led respondents to report "significantly greater" support for Obama "when when the interviewer is black than when he or she is white" (although Obama still led by smaller margins among when interviewers were white -- see pp 55-59 of the pdf report).

You can download the full report from the AAPOR's website.

Reporters can't help but rub their hands in glee whenever RNC Chairman Michael Steele gives an interview. There's never a dull moment with this guy. This latest gem comes from the veritable goldmine of an interview he gave to CNN's patient Don Lemon. Here's the exchange. We've highlighted our favorite bits:

Steele: I like the President personally, even though I think he’s got a little thing about me. I haven’t quite figured out what that is.
Lemon: You haven’t spoken to him have you?
Steele: No!
Lemon: And you’ve reached out?   
Steele: Several times and I’m done.
Lemon: So there is no bipartisanism [sic] going on?
Steele: No, not that I know of
Lemon: Is there any professional jealousy?
Steele: Not on my part. What would I be jealous of?
Lemon: He’s the President of the United States.
Steele: I’m chairman of the RNC. So, what’s your point. We both have leadership responsibilities and roles. It’s a little bit different. I’m not equating the two. My point is, you’re on your track, I’m on my track.

Priceless. And props to Lemon for the slightly bemused tone in his voice when he says "He's the President..."

Questions about Obama's socialist tendencies should be put to rest after he announced his plans for Detroit in a serious, no-nonsense statement this morning. The President was firm in his intention to keep the government out of the business of running car companies, saying "Let me be clear: the United States government has no interest or intention of running GM. What we are interested in is giving GM an opportunity to finally make those much-needed changes that will let them emerge from this crisis a stronger and more competitive company." 

At the risk of stating the obvious, dealing with Detriot is a thorny issue for a President who has long recieved political and financial support from unions and workers. Short of nationalization, there's almost no way of mollifying the left on this issue. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, usually a reliable supporter of the President, has already voiced criticism, and we're likely to hear much more from midwestern Democrats and unions in the coming weeks. Which is probably why Obama chose to speak directly to autoworkers:

"I'd like to speak directly to all those men and women who work in the auto industry or live in the countless communities that depend on it. Many of you have been going through tough times for longer than you'd care to remember. And I will not pretend the tough times are over. I cannot promise you there isn't more pain to come. But what I can promise you is this - I will fight for you. You are the reason I am here today. I got my start fighting for working families in the shadows of a shuttered steel plant and I wake up every single day asking myself what I can do to give you and working people all across this country a fair shot at the American dream." 

He's backing up these difficult words with action, announcing that he'll appoint a new Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers. The Director will be charged with ensuring that "the full resources of our federal government are leveraged to assist the workers, communities, and regions that rely on our auto industry."

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

No European vacation
It was common for President Bush to be met by protesters on overseas trips. Now, the loud reception awaiting Obama in Europe this week could dampen hopes for the new diplomatic strategy to win hearts and minds that he campaigned for. (The Guardian)

Paired frenemies
The senate mentorship program -- which is off to a slow start this year -- began in 2004 to match freshman with more senior members. That was the year Barack Obama came to Washington. His first mentor? Joe Lieberman. (Politico)

Shining (not that) bright
Shiny new solar panels on the roof of the White House would be a powerful symbol of national sustainability, but it's been done before -- without success. "Talk to anyone who worked in the West Wing then, and they would say they washed their hands with cool water," says former chief usher Gary Walters. (AP)

Last puffs
On Wednesday, the federal tobacco tax will more than triple -- from 39 cents to $1.01 a pack -- adding a powerful incentive during a recession for smokers to kick the habit. (AP)

Head of the class
Lowering eligibility for student loans has been an unsuccessful staple for past administrations. With the help of stimulus spending, Obama could be the first president to actually do it. (NPR)

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder just posted a document the White House sent to Congress explaining President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy and its goals. Most notable, its conclusion:

There are no quick fixes to achieve U.S. national security interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The danger of failure is real and the implications are grave.  In 2009-2010 the Taliban's momentum must be reversed in Afghanistan and the international community must work with Pakistan to disrupt the threats to security along Pakistan's western border. 
 
This new strategy of focusing on our core goal - to disrupt, dismantle, and eventually destroy extremists and their safe havens within both nations, although with different tactics - will require immediate action, sustained commitment, and substantial resources.  The United States is committed to working with our partners in the region and the international community to address this challenging but essential security goal.

Disrupt, dismantle and destroy--or "disrupt, dismantle and defeat," as Obama said today. I suspect we'll be hearing that a lot in coming weeks.

On the eve of his first NATO summit, President Obama unveiled his new strategy in Afghanistan this morning. Here are the highlights: He’s sending in an additional 4,000 military trainers and advisers to Afghanistan to help the country learn to govern itself. That’s in addition to the 17,000 combat troops Obama recently deployed there. And reminiscent of the U.S. strategy in Iraq, the president announced he would put benchmarks on battling militants there and in Pakistan, demanding both governments step up their efforts to fight terrorists and stop corruption in exchange for U.S. aid. And in what may be the most telling aspect of the plan, Obama is essentially turning away from George W. Bush's long-stated goal of bringing democracy to the region. Your Gaggler noticed this key phrase from Obama's speech today:

As President, my greatest responsibility is to protect the American people. We are not in Afghanistan to control that country or to dictate its future. We are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies, and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have suffered the most at the hands of violent extremists.

In other words, Obama wants to keep Afghanistan and Pakistan from rolling back into a safe haven for terrorists, as it was before 9/11, and he'll send in people to help get the Afghans into a position of governing themselves, but that's it. Another significant policy shift, that Obama hinted at several weeks ago, is that the U.S. will try to make nice with moderate elements of the Taliban. “In Iraq, we had success in reaching out to former adversaries to isolate and target al Qaida,” Obama said this morning. ‘We must pursue a similar process in Afghanistan, while understanding that it’s a very different country.” As the Washington Post reports this morning, Dennis Blair, Obama’s director of national intelligence, estimated yesterday that as many as two-thirds of the Taliban groups are motivated by local concerns and could be pacified through addressing problems like inadequate water supplies or improving education. Yet, as many critics of that idea have noted, many of these so-called moderate Taliban are spread in small patches throughout the country and not in the trouble spots along that Afghan-Pakistan border where the U.S. needs help the most.

Friday feature: Our favorite editorials and opinion musings from around the web:

Owning it
It was both an obvious and vital admission when Hillary Clinton said this week that U.S. drug policy has fueled violence in Mexico. It'll take much more responsibility to ensure the violence doesn't continue to spread north. (LA Times)

Asian influence
Korea experienced its own banking crisis in the late 1990s. Korean President Lee Myung-bak says that what it did to overcome it -- adopting bold government strategies that encourage private capital investment -- should now be a blueprint for the rest of the world. (Wall Street Journal)

Changing of the NASA guard
Doubts about the objectivity of NASA's internal investigator have grown since he started fraternizing with the officials he's supposed to be critiquing. The president should let him go and nominate a new one. (NY Times)

Closing the tent
The national attention this week to a growing tent city in Sacramento was am "embarrassing spectacle" for the city. Disbanding it was the right thing for state leaders to do, but not without following through to actually help the growing number of destitute people. (Sacramento Bee)

Read this verbatim
The teleprompter has always been an embarrassing vice ("the political equivalent of purchasing cigarettes, Haagen-Dazs and a Playboy at the convenience store," writes The Post's Michael Gerson). But it's part of the craft of governing and makes any president -- especially Obama -- a more effective leader. (Washington Post)

The story was already priceless: Eric Cantor, a Republican leader who has been one of President Obama’s most outspoken critics, went to the Britney Spears concert in Washington on Tuesday instead of watching Obama’s primetime news conference. Now, if it we were Cantor, we would have totally embraced this fact. In fact, your Gaggler, in full disclosure, did joke to a fellow reporter after the presser that she likely would have gotten more out of going to the Britney concert. (No offense, Mr. President.) But Cantor is clearly not as snarky as we are. First, his office declined to comment on the record at all. Now, two days later, Cantor is trying to explain it all, and the story just gets funnier and funnier. According to CNN, which, bless em, snagged a Cantor exclusive on this, the House GOP whip, by his account, was basically dragged there to attend a fund-raiser for his leadership PAC—or so he says. He was just trying to “help the team,” Cantor told CNN. The fundraiser was hosted by the American Truckers Association, which has a suite at the Verizon Center, where Spears performed. Baby, one more time? Cantor watched the concert with truckers? Well, not quite, but we’ll stick with that image in our head. Anyway, Cantor refused to bring his own daughter to the show because she had school the next day—a decision he confesses made her “really mad.” Yeah, we would be too. Says Cantor of Spears: “I hand it to the performer, she was something.” You, too, Eric. You too.

NBC in Connecticut is reporting on some deeply disturbing threats being leveled against AIG executives and their families. Some AIG execs have even been receiving alarming calls at their homes. While it is understandable that taxpayers were annoyed by the bonuses (some of which have now been returned), these messages are beyond the pale. Like this one entitled "Death to AIG Executives": "I want them dead! I want their spouses dead! I want their children dead!". There are many more, some scary, some just plain crazy. But we don't really want to repeat them. We just want to register our sorrow and disappointment that it's come to this. If only more people took a leaf out of the President's book and expressed their outrage through coughing fits. Until then, deep breaths people, deep breaths.

Today the President held his first "Open for Questions" event in the East Room of the White House. Basically the White House invited people to submit questions for POTUS online. People could then vote for the questions they'd most like to hear him answer. The whole event streamed live on whitehouse.gov, and around 100 regular folks where invited to the East Room to watch. Over 90,000 people submitted questions and 3.6 million votes were cast. So, you could say it was a pretty successful merger of Campaign Obama and White House Obama.

Most questions weren't particularly surprising. Americans are duly concerned about education, health-care, veterans and the economy, and the President talked at length about these topics. But amid the collapse of the global financial system, raging populism and a near-crisis in health-care, it seems that one group of Americans has mobilized to ask POTUS the tough questions: Stoners. Yep, that's right, in a rare display of motivated activism, stoners managed to make one of a question about marijuana legalization one of the most popular. POTUS, who is not entirely unfamiliar with the topic, had this to say:

"I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy -- (laughter) -- and job creation.  And I don't know what this says about the online audience -- (laughter) -- but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered.  The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy -- (laughter) -- to grow our economy.  (Applause.)"

Dude. Bummer.

(And just to pre-empt all those people about to write me and say that it is a fair issue - yes, there are people legitimately interested in the potential economic and health benefits of weed, but c'mon! We all know most of the voters were college kids in pyjamas.)

Ahh, Hollywood. Jeremy Piven, the actor who plays Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage (a character that just so happens to be based on White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari), has been locked in a battle for months with the producers of a Broadway play he bailed on last fall. At the time, Piven claimed he was sick from mercury poisoning because he had been eating tuna sushi several times a week. That excuse, not surprisingly, was met with wide ridicule and prompted several jokes about thermometers and bad sake that your Gaggler just doesn’t have the heart to repeat here. To say the least, the play’s backers weren’t at all amused, immediately calling on Piven to pay up for abandoning the show.

On Wednesday came word that the dispute will head into arbitration this summer. But just like Ari Gold, Piven has signaled he won’t go down without a fight and took his sushi defense one step further. He officially played the Obama card. According to a statement Piven released to BroadwayWorld.com Wednesday, the actor said that he was looking to testifying in the arbitration so that the “truth comes out” about the dangers of mercury exposure “which the Obama administration has recently described as the world’s gravest chemical problem.”Oh yeah? Your Gaggler didn’t recall any recent White House statements on sushi, so she, well, Googled it, and what do you know? Up pops a February article from the Associated Press: “The Obama administration reversed years of U.S. policy Monday by calling for a treaty to cut mercury pollution, which it described as the world's gravest chemical problem.” Couldn’t have come at a better time for Piven, who, according to those always right tabloids, still enjoys a dish of tuna tartare now and then. Will Piven call an EPA official to the stand? We can’t wait to see.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

This lesson brought to you by...
In a depressing yet creative sign of the times, one Idaho teacher devised a way to offset his district's growing money woes: sell ad space on worksheets and exams. (NPR)

Contemporary glory
Ailing states could sure use a boost in tourism. From a marketing standpoint, redesigning state flags could add needed pizazz and new allure. One idea is an exclaimed Oklahoma! (Reason)

Bypass the press
Vowing to answer questions from ordinary Americans, President Obama will take to the Internet today for his first (and first of its kind) live web-based press conference. (WhiteHouse.gov)

A-list advocates
Since Obama moved to Washington, more celebrities have been visiting town. Those pushing political issues are given surprising credibility. (Politico)

The next bailout?
The U.S. Postal Service is riding on very thin ice, says a postal official. Cutting a day of delivery is inevitable. Without government aid to stop the massive bleeding, so seems bankruptcy. (NY Times)

Two months late and a priceless experience short
Two months after January's swearing-in, congressional leaders finally apologized for logistical mishaps, like the tunnel that trapped thousands of ticket holders while Joe Biden and Obama took their oaths. (AP)

Daniel Stone blogged yesterday about how the eruptions at Alaska's Mount Redoubt have cast an interesting light on Bobby Jindal's criticism of government spending on volcano monitoring. (Warning: Bad Puns Ahead). Today we found that some enterprising Democrats have started a Facebook group to help educate Governor Kenneth, I mean, Jindal about the importance of monitoring volcanoes, and presumably to allow lefties to let off some steam by writing on the wall. Who knew volcanoes were such an explosive issue? (Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.)

I wrote yesterday about Australia's cultural cringe, and how it is often expressed as a desire for validation by bigger countries. Well, today one of Australia's largest newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald, provided some evidence. Here is the lede to their story about Rudd's White House visit, entitled "New Best Friends Have a Great Meeting of the Minds":

Barack Obama delivered Kevin Rudd the ultimate compliment yesterday by citing the Prime Minister while defending his own approach to the global financial crisis. During a live, nationally televised press conference that had been hyped by the US media for days, Obama was asked about criticisms from the Europeans and US Republicans about stimulus packages and the debt they induce.

"I was with Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, today," Obama said, and Rudd was "very forceful" in suggesting countries which could afford to do so should stimulate demand.It was not a bad plug, coming only hours after Obama described their Oval Office meeting as "a great meeting of the minds" and a day after the US Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, in an unscripted moment, described Rudd's approach to the crisis as "incredibly A-plus".

Also - in your face Britain. We totally got a better gift than you. From the SMH:

And while the British were complaining about the lousy gift of DVDs Obama gave Brown last week, there were no such complaints yesterday from either delegation. Rudd gave Obama a personally signed and inscribed copy of Thomas Keneally's biography of Abraham Lincoln, and Obama gave Rudd a rare original printing of sheet music, the Anacreontic Song, by John Smith, nowadays better known as the Star Spangled Banner.

As noted earlier, this Gaggler was really surprised that there were no questions about Afghanistan at last night’s press conference. President Obama and his team are said to be days away from unveiling a new strategy, which they will present to allies at next week’s NATO summit in France. Slate’s Fred Kaplan has a good piece on the internal back and forth at the White House over Afghanistan—namely, how exactly the war (oh wait, excuse me, the overseas contingency operation) should be fought. Here’s Kaplan:

According to close observers, the key debate in the White House is whether the United States and NATO should wage a counterinsurgency campaign—securing the Afghan population, helping to provide basic services, and thus strengthening support for the government—or whether we should devote most of our resources to going after al-Qaida terrorists directly. Obviously, any plan will wind up doing at least a bit of both; the debate is over priorities and emphasis.

It’s not just a White House fight. Your Gaggler traveled earlier this month to Brussels with Vice President Biden, where he met for several hours behind closed doors with NATO officials, pondering this very question. It’s a sensitive subject: Our allies aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of providing more troops than they already do to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban in the region, but some, including Biden, argue if the terrorists aren’t controlled, what chance does Afghanistan have? Yet those on the other side of the argument worry that devoting too much time fighting terrorism there could take away from helping Afghans get stronger to fight back against radicals on their own. It’s a tough decision.

...Obama now has a Commerce Secretary. The news was all but drowned out yesterday in the excitement surrounding the President's press conference, the Financial Services Committee Hearings, and of course the immensely important meeting with Kevin Rudd. Indeed we forgot to blog about it. But yes, former Washington Governor Gary Locke was confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate yesterday. One more confirmation down, just a couple of hundred to go.

Locke was the first Chinese-American Governor. He served two terms. His first foray into national politics was delivering the Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union in 2003. We wonder what Judd Gregg was thinking during the confirmation vote. Probably how glad he is that he can say lots of bad things about Obama's budget, or maybe about his fear of being thrown in the Chicago River.

The Teleprompter. As has been duly noted by other reporters on the scene last night, Obama ditched his usual teleprompter—the two screens at either side of his podium. Instead, Obama did what John McCain used to do during the campaign and read his text from a massive flat screen TV positioned directly below the straight-on camera. Still, a teleprompter at a press conference? It shows how worried Obama is about getting his words exactly right. But we still think it's strange, especially for a statement so short.
 
The Staff. A few minutes before Obama took the podium, more than a dozen of his staffers came into the room to watch, including several press aides, speechwriter Jon Favreau; chief of staff Rahm Emanuel; press secretary Robert Gibbs and senior advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett. From the get-go, Axelrod and Gibbs reminded your Gaggler of baseball coaches in the dugout: Both were chewing gum, frantically at times, and watching Obama intently. Several times, during questioning, your Gaggler spied Axelrod nudge Gibbs and offer commentary, and Gibbs, chewing gum, would nod, rarely taking his eyes off Obama.

The Front Row. The Obama White House has made it clear they will be deviating from the way the Bushies organized the media for their events. While wire reporters and TV correspondents are mostly still on front row just as they were in the old administration, there were again new faces on row one last night—not that they got questions.  They included the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, Mike Memoli of Real Clear Politics and reporters from El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico’s largest daily newspaper, and the Afro-American Newspaper. Liberal radio show host Ed Schultz again scored a front row seat, but this time to Obama’s right instead of head-on.

It was HOT. Just like last month, the news conference was held in the East Room of the White House. But unlike last time, it was super hot in there. A TV reporter seated near your Gaggler worried about sweating his make-up off. It was hard to tell if it was the heat from the all the lights or if it was a thermostat thing. We do know that Obama likes it warm.

The last time we saw President Obama in the East Room taking questions from reporters, his message was far more dire: Unless something was done to stimulate the economy, the nation was inching toward a disaster we might never recover from. But going before reporters on Tuesday night, there was a remarkable sea change. Calm, his voice mostly unwavering, Obama barely smiled all night as he sought to confidently convince the American people that the nation is mostly on the right track but it will take some time for things to get better. What a difference a month and a half makes, at least in tone.

But was anything truly different? In a, let’s face it, not very exciting press conference, we didn’t learn much new about Obama and where he’s going.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Census snag
Counting people seems like an easy task, but the recession has thrown a stick in next year's process. Low funding and high unemployment will make it especially hard to count minority groups. (NPR)

And on your left
With the construction of a new $600 million visitor center, visiting the U.S. Capitol was supposed to become an enhanced experience. But some of the tour guides might not be up to snuff. (Politico)

President Ahnold
Chatting with the LA Times, Arnold says that he's not running for any other office in 2010 when his second term is up. Be he adds one caveat: "until you change the Constitution." (LA Times)

Giving back to the community
Bernie Madoff might be a villainous money sucker, but to one New York construction worker, Madoff's prison number (as seen on TV) meant a big win when played in the lottery. (Denver Post Wire)

Endangered greenback
Finance officials in China are pushing for the country's currency to eventually replace the dollar as the international currency standard. The main reason? It'd be a lot more stable. (NY Times)

Most Australians are affected to some degree by what social anthropologists call "cultural cringe", which is a fancy term for an inferiority complex that infuses our national identity. The cringe expresses itself in many ways - parochialism, bravado, humor - but at the root of it is an often unspoken embarrassment about our place in the world order. We act indifferent to other nations' views of us and claim that we're "the best country on earth" (yep, it's not just Americans who say that). Yet deep down, we're desperate for the affirmation of powerful friends. We ridiculed John Howard for being Bush's lapdog, but loved the spotlight the relationship granted. We lapped it up when the President mentioned us - yes, us! - in a State of the Union address.

Suffering from a bit of cultural cringe myself, I was eager to see how Kevin Rudd would behave at the White House today. Would he be a little bit too enthusiastic, like the dorky kid in middle school who gets invited to the cool guy's party? Would he try to be hip by making nerdy policy jokes? I was completely prepared to make snarky remarks about how Rudd looks like a trendy librarian in his designer glasses. On the surface I was ready to mock, but in reality, I was just really excited to see my Prime Minister - yes, one of us! - sitting down with the most talked about man on the planet. Alas, I got to do neither. I watched MSNBC all day to catch a glimpse of the brief Q & A, and the only thing I saw was Rudd in the periphery of a shot while Obama talked about the financial crisis. Admittedly Obama has some incredibly important issues on his plate right now, but I was still a little disappointed. I guess I'll have to store up my excitement about seeing my guy yuk it up America's really, really important guy until next time. Meanwhile, I'll try to stave off my cultural cringe by making my American fiance wear the Australian flag pyjamas my mum bought for him.

Maybe the secret to President Obama’s humor is that he just needs to stop trying so hard. At the White House today, Obama and a bunch of wild-eyed kids (Yeah, we’re talking about you, Kay Bailey Hutchison) phoned up the International Space Station to talk to the astronauts. From the get-go, hilarity ensued. According to the White House pool report, authored by Gaggle friend Mike Madden of Salon.com, Obama at first tried talking to the astronauts, whom he could see on a video feed, without picking up the phone. “Hello, commander, can you hear us?” Obama said. “The handset, sir,” a White House aide noted, helpfully. “Oh yeah,” Obama said, picking up the phone to try again. “Commander, can you hear us?” he said.

The purpose of the talk was so that Obama could congratulate the astronauts on their work, so there was plenty of talk about stuff like solar and renewable energy research. But it was when Obama got his guests involved—members of Congress and a group of space crazy middle schoolers—that that real serious talk began, including discussion of aliens and what astronauts actually eat. If you think the kids were excited, you should have seen Obama. “Do you guys still drink Tang up there?” Obama asked. “That’s, by the way, before the time of you young people. We used to drink Tang.” Ohhh yeah, we did. The president asked about their fitness requirements—“Some of us remember watching ‘The Right Stuff,’” he said, with a shudder. Then Obama asked astronaut Sandra Magnus, the only woman on board, whether she’d been tempted to cut her long hair. On the video feed, Magnus’s hair wildly floated above a foot above her head. “I think it’s a real fashion statement,” Obama declared. When the call was over, the astronauts began floating away, back to work. "Look, look!" Obama said excitedly to the kids. "That would be a pretty good way to take off."

We all remember last month when, responding to Obama's address to congress, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal cheerfully criticized the president's spending proposals as crazy, futile wastes of money. Things like, oh you know, volcano monitoring. Rather than monitor volcanoes, Jindal said, "Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington." Zing.

Clever, right? Well, from our friends at the SF Chonicle, it turns out that keeping an eye on volcanoes is actually pretty important. Especially in Alaska, where Mount Redoubt (about 100 miles from Anchorage) is near ready to blow. We don't know much about threat levels, but we'll go out on a limb that Code Red might not be good. We'll also venture that a speechwriter somewhere just lost its wings.

We missed this yesterday, but the Washington Post blogs about a Pentagon email that went out Monday asking its staff and speechwriters to officially stop using the phrase “Global War on Terror.” The new name: “Overseas Contingency Operation.” Uhh, come again? Here’s the Post:

"Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill," Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail.

"OMB says: 'This Administration prefers to avoid using the term "Long War" or "Global War on Terror" [GWOT]. Please use "Overseas Contingency Operation.'"

Riedel asked recipients to "Please pass on to your speech writers and try to catch this change before the statements make it to OMB."

This isn’t first time Washington has tried to lose the “war” label. Two years ago, George W. Bush and his aides tried to change the “Global War on Terror” to the “Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism.” And we all know how that caught on. More recently, we’ve noticed that Barack Obama and his aides have barely used "war on terror" at all, in favor of more broad terms like the "ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism." But let’s face it: “Overseas Contingency Operation" does not exactly roll off the tongue. Just as “The artist formerly known as Prince” was always still “Prince," the "war" will probably always be the "war."

Compliments of Sarah Frank and the talented folks at Newsweek video, it's this week's episode of The District. Check out the rundown and check back each week for the next chapter.

If the honeymoon still wasn't over, it sure is now. The AIG mess turns into a finger-pointing game around town that lands everyone's eyes on Barack's money man, Timmy Geithner. But it doesn't matter, because the prez has his back, even when times get rough. To get away from the drama and the wicked cold of DC, the man in charge takes a junket out to sunny California for some pointers on governating from his Demublican pal (and Kennedy in-law) Ah-nold. Then he swings by Jay's desk for some laughs, but quickly learns that even in LA, it ain't all funny business. Click the player to tune in.

In honor of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's first visit with President Obama, Holly has agreed to let me, your resident Aussie pol-watcher, declare it Australia Day at The Gaggle. (She just wants an excuse to blog about The Thorn Birds.) Of course the actual Australia Day is on January 26, and commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney and the declaration of sovereignty by the British.* But to celebrate The Gaggle's Australia Day, I've decided to perform a public service, and explode some commonly held myths about Australians. After five years in this grand country, I've catologued the top five things I get asked about (or made fun of for):

1. We do not say "throw another shrimp on the barbie." Yes, we love BBQ (and by that I mean a cook-out, not something that involves ribs and sauce). We also love seafood. But we do not say the word "shrimp". It's a prawn! The correct phrase would be "chuck another prawn on the barbie". It's not an utterance I've heard often.

2. Fosters is not Australian for beer. Sorry folks, we actually don't drink the stuff at home, and most of us don't even like it much. The Fosters you find in the USA is usually brewed in Canada. Also, while we are on the topic, Yellow Tail is a poor representation of Aussie wine.

3. The "Bloomin' Onion" is a complete mystery to most of us. Like most Aussies, I was surprised and bemused by this "Australia-themed" restaurant: "Outback Steakhouse". My wonderment grew when I heard of a mythical onion attributed to my country-folk. But sorry, the Bloomin' Onion is not an Aussie delicacy, nor will you be able to order when in any real Aussie restaurant.

4. You cannot ride a kangaroo, sit in its pouch or have one as a pet. Kangaroos do not go on violent boxing sprees throughout suburbia. Enough said. You would not believe the questions I get asked about marsupials.

5. We are not all descended from petty thieves and rapists. The number of Australians descended from convicts is relatively small. Australia's population is currently almost 22 million and almost one in four people were born overseas. Around 6.8 million people have immigrated to Australia since 1945. By contrast, only around 160,000 convicts were ever transported to Australia. Although we are proud of our anti-authoritarian streak (and we secretly love that Russell Crowe throws phones and starts bar fights), we do not all have criminal heritage. And people, convict jokes get very old, very quickly.   

* These days, Australia Day is also marked by peaceful "Invasion Day" rallies, that remind us that white settlement had a debilatating impact on much of Australia's indigenous population.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Do the back step
After rage-filled debates on the issue, congress, now realizing the danger of populist-driven laws, appears to be quietly back peddling on the bonus tax -- tabling the measure for at least a few weeks. (Washington Post)

Unhealthy criticism
As a Catholic, Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius has already made her a target of scorn and disapproval from church leaders for her stances on some health issues. (Washington Times)

The new old war
Afghanistan could very well become the new Iraq. A year ago that was a shuddering thought, but in some strategic ways, now it could actually be a good thing. (National Review)

Northeast express
As the GOP searches desperately for electoral chances in 2010, vulnerable pols in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York make the Northeast look more promising than ever. (Politico)

Sugar coating
In another upside of tough times, candy sales appear stronger than ever. "Sugar are comforting," says one sweets buyer. Especially the old classic brands that remind people of better days. (New York Times)

The New York Times today reports on the Swedish Government's refusal to bailout iconic automaker Saab. Sweden, often hailed by the left as a model social democracy,  is renowned for it's generous welfare state. It's interventionist model of dealing with banking crises - essentially nationalizing banks and pumping cash into them before selling - has been much discussed on this side of the Atlantic lately. So the decision (albeit coming from a more conservative government) to hang Saab out to dry is surprising, and will have a deep impact in parts of southwest Sweden where the carmaker dominates the economy.

Saab is owned by GM, and some are questioning whether their influence has been beneficial. The criticisms echo the ones we've heard on Sunday morning talk shows here: That GM has failed to innovate or keep pace in a competitive market. Is poor management in Detroit now having an impact on Sweden? From the NYT:

Saab was always known for its innovative engineering. But analysts say that in recent years, with General Motors’s emphasis on volume rather than individuality, it has lost its edge. “Under G.M.’s ownership, they denuded the intellectual content behind the brand,” said Peter Wells, who teaches at Cardiff Business School in Wales and specializes in the automotive industry. “Its products are not exciting enough, and Saab doesn’t have a strong brand identity anymore.

And this:

Swedish officials...have also been scathing about General Motors, Saab’s owner, and the last thing they want is to seem to be bailing out a despised foreign company. Struggling for its own survival, GM has said it will completely pull out of Saab by the end of 2009, a course that Ms. Olofsson, the enterprise minister, described as tantamount to declaring “that they wash their hands of Saab and drop it into the laps of the Swedish taxpayers.”

Ouch. GM execs might want to postpone their Swedish vacations for the time being.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Verbal momentum
In a New York Times profile, Energy Secretary and science whiz Steven Chu begins to see at least one fault of how Washington works. "I can’t speculate out loud anymore. Everything I say is taken with total seriousness.” (NY Times)

Across the pond
If Europe is America's template for big government, why aren't most western European countries spending nearly as much stimulus money as the U.S? One reason: the global recession is hitting our Atlantic neighbors very differently. (New Yorker)

Keep this between us
While Capitol Hill continues to froth over bonuses of bailout recipients, some lawmakers are quietly accepting campaign contributions from the troubled banks. (Newsweek)

Photo operations
After thousands of miles and at least one serious gaffe, the president's California trip is labeled a success -- at least for his image and the images of other pols involved. (LA Times)

Look into that, would you?
As British troops draw down their operations in Iraq, Prime Minister Gordon Brown vows an inquiry into why the country sent troop in the first place. (Guardian)

Now do you like them?
Still don't understand what toxic assets are? For a while, neither did we. ABC News likens them to how you grow apples -- a few bad ones that quickly taint the whole tree. Or, you know, the economy. (ABC)

Gaggle pal Sasha Issenberg has an interesting profile of Howard Dean in today's Boston Globe. (Read it here). Issenberg wonders if Dean, who is on the outs with Obama's folks, will perform a similar role to Newt Gingrich "who spent the Bush years operating as a freelance visionary and policy entrepreneur, a permanent creature of the political margins credited with having successfully plotted his party's recapture of power but not long trusted to actually wield it."

Issenberg notes that Dean receives a far warmer welcome from Britain's Liberal Democrats than he often does from his own peers. Dean's 50-state strategy was derrided by some party wisemen. Issenberg recalls some of their greatest hits: "Clinton strategist Paul Begala mocked the 50-state strategy as hiring "people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose." His colleague James Carville said Dean's management had been "Rumsfeldian in its incompetence." Statements like those make us wish we could listen in to some of those morning phonecalls that Politco reported on a while back.

But Issenberg gets to the good stuff towards the end of the piece:

"While Dean praises Obama, it is not as a transformative figure, but as one who merely fulfilled the transformations already underway around him. Dean likes to mention repeatedly that his online strategists, now part of the Boston-based firm Blue State Digital, went to work for Obama, whose campaign he lauds not for innovation but for being the "most disciplined" ever waged by a Democrat.

The new president was a better messenger for a fresh political style, Dean concedes, since he "looks and thinks and talks like someone in the new generation" while promising an end to "30 years of anger-based politics, the Slobodan Milosevic approach to governing."

Although Dean made clear he was interested in serving in Obama's Cabinet, he acknowledged shortly after the election that internal forces - including Emanuel's appointment as chief of staff - could thwart his bid, according to one of his brothers."

Is anybody really in charge of this crisis? Barack Obama's off in California doing the "Tonight Show"-- "These financial industries are holding us hostage," the world's most powerful man complained to Jay Leno Thursday night -- and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is under constant fire for his handling of AIG and just about everything else. So it occasionally feels as if there’s a bit of a power vacuum in Washington. But if there is, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is moving aggressively to fill it. Though his interest-rate toolbox is all but empty, Bernanke has managed to find yet new ways of acting with striking speed and force on his own in recent days. Bernanke is basically printing money on a large scale to fortify the financial sector, committing himself to buy $300 billion of Treasurys and committing an additional $750 billion to mortgage-backed securities. This latest effort has annoyed the Wall Street Journal editorial page. "The Bernanke Fed has now dropped even the pretense of independence and has made itself an agent of the Treasury, which means of politicians, " the Journal opined Friday .

In fact it’s much more likely that Bernanke, a scholar of the Depression who from the beginning has pledged never to let it happen again, is doing most of this on his own even though he generally coordinates his actions with the Treasury.

Bernanke is is also taking charge of the nation’s economic future on other fronts. While it was Geithner who announced the "stress tests" of major banks to be completed in April, the Fed is overseeing the process, bringing under its wing other regulators from the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. And, with Geithner’s Treasury badly understaffed, the Fed is dominating the discussion about future regulation. In testimony Thursday to the Senate Banking Committee, newly minted Fed Gov. Dan Tarullo (an Obama appointee, true enough) said the Board is undertaking a major effort "to evaluate regulatory and supervisory changes that could help reduce the incidence and severity of future financial crises." This includes the idea of creating a new "systemic risk regulator." While Tarullo acknowledged that Congress must legislate the new authorities, "effectively identifying and addressing systemic risks would seem to require some involvement of the Federal Reserve." Indeed. With Geithner wounded and Obama off on his latest road show, it looks right now as if Bernanke is minding the store.

Governor Sarah Palin has announced that she won't take all of the stimulus money being offered to Alaska. She's rejecting around $288m of the $931m set aside for her state. The Anchorage Daily News reports:

Palin is turning down money for weatherization, energy efficiency grants, immunizations, air quality grants, emergency food assistance, homeless grants, senior meals, child care development grants, nutrition programs, homeless grants, arts, unemployment services, air quality, justice assistance grants and other programs.

Palin said some funds she turned down have federal strings attached: Up to $64 million in energy funds would require the state to mandate a building code change, her office said, while $15 million in unemployment help requires the state to expand eligibility for benefits. Alaska should decide these things, Palin said.

The item causing the most ire is Palin's refusal to take $170m in education funding, some of which would have been directed toward low income and special needs students. But don't fret Alaska, Palin has changed her mind on government money before. 

In another White House first, the Obamas are planting their own veggie garden! Mrs. Obama will break ground on the plot today. Twenty-three fifth graders from nearby Bancroft Elementry School will help her with the heavy lifting. These lucky kids will also help harvest and cook the White House bounty. According to Marion Burros, who broke the news, the entire First Family will be tasked with weeding, except for First Grandma Marion, who Michelle joked will likely sit back and say "Isn't that lovely. You missed a spot."

The plot is situated close to the brand new swing set (which one of your loyal Gagglers is dying to play on...you can figure out which one....). The veggies will be used in meals for the First Family, and possibly even state dinners. It's another signal of Mrs. Obama's commitment to local, organic food. She's hoping the garden will also educate young people about the importance of fresh, healthy produce.

The NYT reports: "The Obamas will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro, tomatilloes and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach, chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter who is a beekeeper will tend two hives for honey." Yum! (This Gaggler is vegetarian, hence the enthusiasm.) Thai basil mojitos anyone? They're really good.

Sadly for this Gaggler, there will be no beets. POTUS is anti-beet, so he will likely never enjoy a good Aussie hamburger. Sad for him. But we are holding out hope that if there is leftover produce, the Obamas will start a stall at the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market.

In case you missed it, Barack Obama was on The Tonight Show last night. Your Gaggler, officially a fan of anyone but Jay Leno, watched a smidgeon of the interview before instinctively switching back to Adult Swim. (Oh come on! We had the transcript!) Of course, you didn’t have to actually watch the show to know what happened. Hours before actual airtime, we learned that Obama had made a politically incorrect joke about a recent low bowling score (a 129), saying “That was like the Special Olympics or something.” (AP described it as a "gutter ball," haha.)  On MSNBC, CBS Late Show host Craig Ferguson, a host who is actually funny, said it was one of those jokes “you beg them to edit out.” No doubt. Anyway, Leno asked a bunch of softball questions about AIG, etc, that in turn elicited some long serious answers, though nothing the president hasn’t said before. There was also talk of the prospective first dog, Air Force One and the administration’s investigation into why the hell NBC is giving Leno a primetime show—ok, fine, that last part didn’t happen, but you know Conan is secretly lobbying for it. Was Obama’s appearance must see TV? We don’t think so, but judge for yourself. NBC has posted video of the entire interview here.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

The tax man cometh
Whether or not its constitutional is an open question, but with a 90 percent tax on the AIG bonuses, they just got a lot smaller. Which has already lead to lawsuits. (NY Times)

Getting back in the groove
It's tough to head back to work after missing a big promotion. For two months, John McCain's been trying to redefine his role as loyal head of the opposition. (NPR)

Obama out to lunch?
When news of AIG broke, Obama said he wasn't aware, even "stunned," by the development. The pposition pounced that the president isn't aware of everything going on in his administration. (Washington Times)

Nothing to see here
Of all politicians, donation records show that Chris Dodd has received the second highest amount of campaign donations from AIG (the first was Obama), which compounds problems for the Connecticut Senator. (AP)

Don't call me special
It was bound to happen. The moment Obama made a quip about the Special Olympics, a spokesman was already writing a statement of apology. (Wall Street Journal)

Pass the tomatoes
The White House has a new source for fresh organic vegetables and the first family gets a lesson in plant biology? Everybody wins. (NY Times)

We at the Gaggle are highly amused by the recent Gordon Brown gift giving debacle. It occurred to us recently that the British PM might not even be able to enjoy the thoughtful and luxurious gift of 25 American DVDs given to him by President Obama. Indeed, every time we pop our Australian-made Thorn Birds DVD into our laptops, we are asked to change regions. Now, just in case they weren't upset enough already, the British press confirms our worst fears:  

"While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies - including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins on his recent visit to Washington. Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship - or "special partnership", as we are now supposed to call it - by registering a complaint."

Psycho indeed.

Uh oh. It’s not just your Gaggler who has a problem with President Obama’s NCAA bracket. According to Deadspin, Duke head coach Mike Krzyewski got a little snippy yesterday when he learned that the Blue Devils, the former team of Obama’s personal aide Reggie Love, did not make the president’s Final Four:

"Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets," Krzyzewski told a reporter from the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Zing!

Last night the White House announced that the President would be holding a prime time news conference next Tuesday. I tend to think that having the President answer unscripted questions in the most public setting you can get is generally a good thing. You know, sign of a healthy democracy, promoting accountability, fourth estate doing their job yada yada yada. But I'm not a Hollywood producer.

Apparently the President's desire to talk to the folks whose money he is spending has irked some TV types, who are grumbling (anonymously of course) to the Hollywood Reporter.

One "network executive" said that "These repeated interruptions -- and the rumor of even more to come -- really make it difficult to build audience flow and loyalty. We will all lose one or two million dollars for this." Another echoed those thoughts: "These frequent primetime requests are wreaking serious havoc with our schedule and our advertisers. Ratings are down everywhere and the airtime is costing us all significant dollars when we can least afford it."

Is it just me, or are there some sort of serious things going on right now that make it kind of important to hear the leader of the richest nation on earth answer some questions? It's not like it's Kevin Rudd interrupting the programming. (And the Prez drew some pretty decent ratings himself last time round.)

It gets worse: Not only is Obama daring to interrupt American Idol, but this time he will be doing it during sweeps! Gasp! If I were you Mr. President, I'd stay away from the American Idol message boards for the next week or so. In case you haven't heard, Simon Cowell can be real mean.

If there's anything press politics and absurdity have in common, it's that they all converge in The District. It's Newsweek's critically-acclaimed, award-winning, crowd-pleasing, thought-provoking, Oscar-nominated...Well, we could make up hyphenated descriptions for it all day, but you'd probably rather just watch the next installment. This week's rundown compliments of our cultured colleague Sarah Ball, the string-puller behind Newsweek's arts and culture blog, Pop Vox. Check out past episodes below and check back each week for the next chapter.

It's all about the Benjamins, baby -- now more than ever.  We join our hero this week as he realizes that promises are hard to keep, especially after signing a spending bill pizz-acked with earmarks. Yikes.  Some ugly rumors are ricocheting around the marble halls of our nation's capital: Could we possibly be forking over more cash to the banks and -- gasp! -- crafting a second stimulus package?!  Meanwhile, Team Barack starter Timothy Geithner is back for more as he struggles to get his economist friends to believe in his transformative power.  All this drama is set against an aural backdrop of ADHD, Sora An and Joe Echo -- click the player to tune in!

Both The Daily Beast and New York Post are reporting that former President Bush will receive the princely sum of $7 million to write his memoir. Although that's a handsome figure in an era of government bailouts and publishing industry woes, it still pales in comparison to the $15 million paid to Bill Clinton for his memoir or the $8 million Hillary received. Bush's book won't strictly be a bio though. According to the AP:

Instead of telling his life story, Bush will concentrate on about a dozen personal and presidential choices, from giving up drinking to picking Dick Cheney as his vice president to sending troops to Iraq. He will also write about his relationship with family members, including his father, the first President Bush, his religious faith and his highly criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.  

The publisher, Crown, anticipates a 2010 release.

Forget that aging process a president goes through, this Gaggler is betting that Tim Geithner is getting some major grey hair these days. Just look at the picture above from today’s New York Times; The guy seriously looks like he wants to crawl in a cave and hide. Honestly, who wants to be him? As we noted earlier, President Obama came out Wednesday and stood by his man, expressing “complete confidence” in Geithner and said, notably, that it wasn’t Geithner that wrote all these bad contracts. Sure, we get it. But, as the Times notes this morning, it’s a fair question: How in the world did Geithner, who has been working on these issues for months, not know about AIG’s impending bonuses? Edward Liddy, AIG’s government-appointed CEO, told Congress yesterday that he and his colleagues have been telling the Federal Reserve for months about the coming bonuses, assuming that Fed officials, in turn, have been keeping the Treasury in the loop. Guess not—well, at least that’s their story now. Knowing this town, plenty of other shoes are bound to drop. The whole episode just raises a big question: Who in Washington actually knows what’s going on with all the companies taxpayers have been bailing out for months? Anyone, anyone? (Bueller, Bueller?) The public may not be blaming the Obama administration for what president described yesterday as the “bad hand” they’ve been dealt, but that grace period won’t last forever—especially if current officials seem to be totally out of the loop.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Now be constructive
California Sen Barbara Boxer's idea to crowd-sourced the design of her 2010 re-election poster is either a really good or awful idea. The SF Chronicle notes that any politician who has been introduced at a baseball game knows that critics can be brutal. (SF Chronicle)

The world's perfect storm
Of all the world's current or impending crises, former UK science adviser John Beddington forecasts that they'll all converge. When the "perfect storm" of problems including food, water and energy shortages will come: 2030. (The Guardian)

AIG? No, blame DC
The Denver Post Editorial Staff echoes the sentiments of other outside-the-beltway city papers, saying that the outrage over AIG is a reflection of poor leadership in Washington during such a critical time. (Denver Post)

Smoking gun
On the issue of marijuana, Attorney General Eric Holder suggests a coming shift in policy. He told a roomful of reporters Wednesday that he'll prefer to only "go after those people who violate both federal and state law." (Time)

May I have the honor?
How much do titles matter? Former congressmen grapple with how to use the "honorable" title after they leave office. Especially the disgraced ones who some people don't think deserve it. (Politico)

Paint by (a lower) number
Foreclosures might be piling up in Perris, Calif, but the city still has enough money to make the homes look attractive...by physically painting dead lawns green. (NPR)

I posted yesterday about how the President had angered the American Legion and others by considering a proposal to have private health insurers reimburse the VA for treating veterans. Today, the President has decided to drop consideration of it. The White House released a statement late this afternoon from Robert Gibbs:

 "In considering the third party billing issue, the administration was seeking to maximize the resources available for veterans; however, the President listened to concerns raised by the VSOs that this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families' ability to access health care. Therefore, the President has instructed that its consideration be dropped."

There's so little feelgood news this week. (Unless you count the NCAA bracket thingy, but a foreigner, I had no idea what Holly is on about). Which is why I'm turning to funny fake news this afternoon. I've just revisited The Onion's First 100 days blog, which gives a day-by-day recap of a fictitious event at the White House. Nearly all of them make me giggle, but some of my recent favorites include:

DAY 51: Reaching a milestone common for new presidents, Obama spends the afternoon seeing who is the most important person he can get on the phone in under five minutes.

DAY 44: For the third time this week, press secretary Robert Gibbs peeks his head through the Oval Office door to let President Obama know that he's going on a Baskin-Robbins run.

DAY 40: President Obama forwards the link to the new Star Trek movie trailer to the entire staff. Again.

DAY 39: The Obamas sit silently around their Camp David dining table because Malia forgot to pack Scattergories.

DAY 34: During a difficult moment of a televised address, President Obama debuts the evil-looking sock puppet that will speak on all unpopular matters from now on.

DAY 38: Uruguayan Ambassador left in blue room all day. (Note: I'm allowed to laugh at this because I am from a small country.)

DAY 30: At 3 a.m., President Obama sends Judd Gregg a group photo of his Cabinet, just so he knows what he's missing.

DAY 29: A nervous Canada accidentally offers to be annexed during Obama's first foreign visit. (Note: Am also allowed to laugh at this one because I am from a Commonwealth nation.)

DAY 18: In one of many historic firsts, Barack Obama becomes the first black president to TiVo MythBusters. 

I could go on, but then there would be so few left for you to discover.

Forget AIG. Nothing gets in the way of basketball season at the White House. ESPN visited the West Wing yesterday where they scored an interview with the president and watched him fill out his NCAA bracket. Read Obama’s interview here at ESPN and take a closer look at his bracket, courtesy the White House’s blog. The headline for this Sooner, i mean, Gaggler: The president thinks Oklahoma sucks and won't make it past the Sweet 16. Okay, fine, he didn't use those exact words: "The problem with Oklahoma, they have the player of the year [Blake Griffin], but they play, like, seven guys," Obama told ESPN. "I think you start getting worn down." Worn down? Those are fighting words, my friend. Anyway, Obama thanks North Carolina will win the championship this year. We shall see.

Was White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs really in the dark about AIG or was he just not being entirely straight with reporters from the podium?

From Monday’s press briefing:

Q    Did you guys first find out about these bonuses last week?

MR. GIBBS:  I think that's true, based on what I read in the newspaper.

Asked how the White House could not know, considering the government just paid out money to AIG, Gibbs cited "news reports" in his explanation of the contacts that allowed AIG to reward the bonuses. In other words, that's code for "I haven't talked to the boss about it."

But now here’s the official timeline as released by the White House on Tuesday night on who knew what when about the controversial bonuses:

One reason why Alter's solution to the AIG bonus fiasco might be harder than it looks: Some of the employees that the bonuses were supposed to retain are no longer at AIG. Per the NYT:

"Eleven of those who received “retention” bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer working at A.I.G., including one who received $4.6 million, [Cuomo] said."

This morning a couple of knowledgeable DC reporter-bloggers - Marc Ambinder and Mike Allen - both wrote that rumors about the impending resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are false. My question is this: What rumors? There were rumors? Huh? What did I miss?

Now I'm sure there are zealous bloggers out there calling for Geithner's head, but notion seems deeply misguided. After less than two months in the job, Geithner's resignation would be a disaster. It would cast doubts over Obama's judgment, implying he'd given a critical role to someone who couldn't hack it. The Adminstration would have to find and vet a replacement, and judging by their vetting debacles so far, who knows how long that would take. And Obama can hardly afford to have the post empty at this perilous juncture. Of course POTUS is "all in" with Geithner right now, as Allen's source says.

 Also, as Holly pointed out to me via gchat, Geithner's a good fall guy right now. The time critics spend trashing Geithner is time they're not spending trashing Obama.

I hope I'm not proven wrong, but I call BS on these "rumors". 

New Republic Senior Editor Jonathan Cohn is out today with a behind-the-scenes account of the Administration's debates over healthcare reform. You can read it here, but I already read it so you don't have to.

Looks like Cohn got some coveted interviews with White House insiders, but no named sources. Interestingly, Cohn implies that Axelrod was overruled in this debate by the one person that has the power to: POTUS.

"And health care, in the end, might have gotten pushed aside--except that one very senior official in the administration kept insisting that it stay on the agenda. That official was Obama himself. Repeatedly, the president made clear that he was not abandoning health care reform."

It seems that Axelrod and Summers were in one corner; Obama, Orszag and Geithner were in another (along with Daschle, but then, um, you know tax, cars...). Apparently the "tension stretched back to the campaign."

After Obama made it crystal clear that he intended to pursue healthcare this year, the debate centered around how to pay for it. The cost of covering the uninsured is estimated at around $1 trillion. Obama chose a middle road solution, putting aside $634b in the budget and asking Congress  to come up with the rest. Cohn says this illustrates that the Obama White House has learned an important lesson of Hillary's health care adventures: "that the Clinton White House should have let Congress take more ownership over the process."

There's a fun tidbit about Obama's speech to Congress last month: "An early draft of the speech stated that Obama would seek health care reform "this year," which later became a phrase about not permitting "another year" to go by without health care reform. A subsequent draft contained a tiny but significant tweak: "another year" had somehow become "another presidential term." It's not clear who made the change or why, but, after some phone calls and messages, the words "another year" were restored."

Early in the piece, Cohn teases that the process reveals some "surprising" insights into Obama's management style. Unfortunately, I didn't see them. Obama had lots of meetings, encouraged dissent and debate, didn't get feisty, reassured healthcare proponents and then decided on a middle way forward. Surprised? Me neither.

(If you love reading about healthcare, check out my story about Federation of American Hospital's President Chip Kahn here.)

Our favorites this morning from around the Web:

Off the record
In a ironic clash of politics and press, the leader of the Arizona state senate denies reporters a place to work in the state capitol. Which he said during a press conference celebrating the transparency in government. (NPR)

Who's on third?
Vermont begins discussions today for a gay-marriage proposal, which would make it the third state -- behind Massachusetts and California -- to consider it. (NY Times)

Historically inaccurate
Some say that VP Joe Biden's claim that Obama's got it tougher than FDR was historically naive. Peter A. Brown takes him to task. (Wall Street Journal)

Luck of the Irish
We're just tickled by this bit of news. Barack Obama already said he likes the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now that he's appointed former team owner Dan Rooney as ambassador to Ireland, we know how much. (AP)

Me? Worried?
President Obama has admitted to spending some nights worrying. That claim has made Foreign Policy's Will Inboden equally concerned, especially about four countries -- China, Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey -- that he says keep him awake at night. (Foreign Policy)

Taking the blame
In an admirable moment of self admission, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he could have done more to prevent the global recession hitting his country. (The Guardian)

Are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney doing the old good cop, bad cop routine--or do they geniunely disagree? The Associated Press caught up with Bush today in Canada, where the former president kicked off his post-presidential career of making speeches and getting paid for it. Asked about Cheney's remarks about President Obama over the weekend, Bush refused to comment. According to AP, Bush said he wouldn't criticize his successor because Obama "deserves my silence." "I love my country a lot more than I love politics," the former president said. "I think it is essential that he be helped in office."

...

This is officially awesome. Via Kit Seelye at the New York Times, a Manhattan church finds inspiration in the words of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

I do not like Twitter. I think it is inane, annoying and promotes a unhealthy level of self-absorption in those who tweet. A few weeks ago Mark McKinnon wrote on The Daily Beast that Twitter had, after being discovered by members of Congress and DC reporters, officially jumped the shark. It was around that time that I, your dutiful Gaggler, joined Twitter.

To be clear, I only joined so I could read what members of Congress were twittering about and joyfully ridicule it here. I have yet to pen a tweet of my own, and sadly the vast majority of tweets I've read are far too dull to bother mocking. But, like many of my peers, I've been enjoying Senator Claire McCaskill's twitter style. Although many of her colleagues have their staff twitter on their behalf, McCaskill writes her own tweets. She's honest, blunt and often amusing. It's how I imagine Lorelai Gilmore would twitter (but with indie rock references replacing the sports ones). Some of my recent favorites from McCaskill include (unedited):

• Whaaaaa?? I'm at Dem Caucus lunch and there is no corned beef and cabbage. 
  
• ok ok, brain freeze. I know you can only get Diet Pepsi at Taco Bell.
• I had big time fun turnng the tables on some Mo journalists over last week They were startled when I pulled out camera http://bit.ly/GxuqH
• CBS booooo. switched to beginning of NCar game when N Iowa and S Illinois had 53 seconds to go in overtime. Infuriating.

Which is why I was happy to read last night's tweet: Startng tumblr blog tomorrow to give longer replies when appropriate& to post darned spinach recipe that many have asked for! Stay tuned...

McCaskill's blog is now up here. She hasn't posted a lot yet (definitely no spinach recipe, but one of my Newsweek colleagues was very skeptical about whether anyone had actually requested said recipe.) Regardless, I'll be keeping an eye on it.

The Washington Times has a story today about all the unemployed Obama campaign staffers haunting DC coffee shops - a tale that will ring true for anyone who's visited Busboys and Poets lately, or been at a Ivy League alumni happy hour. The number of Obamaphiles who descended on DC post-campaign far outweighs the number of jobs in the Administration. And the Administration's problems with filling senior positions delays filling the more junior ones that will eventually go to younger or less experienced folks. The Times makes a disheartening analogy to aspiring actors in Hollywood, starry-eyed and determined.

But the story doesn't mention one thing that a Democratic lobbyist pal of mine recently pointed out. Apparently there's quite a few lobbying jobs to be had in this town, particularly for liberal organizations and causes that seem more likely to make headway with this Administration than the previous one.  But some organizations have experienced a couple of problems in filling the positions. First, many young people coming out of field organizing jobs don't have the right skills and experience. There may be plenty of unemployed Dems out there, but the skills of a field organizer and a lobbyist don't always match up. Second, many Obama-ites are steering clear of lobbying jobs - regardless of how virtuous the cause appears - out of fear that ties to lobbying might nix them for future jobs with the Obama Administration. 

So, for the time being, unemployed campaign staffers will just have to do their bit to drag the country out of its financial woes by contributing to the local economy, one latte at a time.

One of the biggest questions about the new administration is what kind of judges Barack Obama will appoint to the federal bench and how involved he will be in actually choosing them. Most presidents, recently at least, have relied on the White House counsel and a small group of advisers, including his attorney general, to help make the decisions. Yet Obama brings a somewhat different perspective to the Oval Office. A Harvard Law School grad, the president taught constitutional law for more than a decade at the University of Chicago. In other words, the guy probably has some pretty strong opinions on judicial nominees and will likely pay closer attention than most presidents to the issue.

Though he has said little on the subject since he was officially sworn in, Obama gave plenty of hints during the campaign about what kind of judges he’d look for. In one high profile speech, Obama last summer trashed a Supreme Court decision upholding a ban on partial birth abortion, promising that he’d appoint judges with “heart” and “empathy”—comments that were seized upon by Republicans who believe judges should strictly adhere to the Constitution. But the guessing game may be over sooner than we thought. 

Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who recently underwent cancer surgery, told a group of law school students in Boston that there would “soon” be a vacancy on the Supreme Court. And this morning, the New York Times reports that Obama will name his first candidate to a federal appeals court later this week. According to the paper, he’ll name Judge David Hamilton, a former counsel to Evan Bayh when he was governor of Indiana, to the appeals court in Chicago. Hamilton, according to the NYT, is viewed as a moderate. We still don’t know how involved or not Obama was in making the pick—but the story buries one interesting tidbit of information: Reversing a decision by the Bush White House, Obama and his aides have resumed working with the American Bar Association to vet its judicial nominees before they are publicly announced.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Holding onto the floor
Either side would have done it the same way, but the way Republican members of congress are defending filibuster rules is a complete 180 from what they sought to protect just a few years ago. (Washington Times)

My people should play with your people
Joe Biden has admitted he was lukewarm about the VP job. What pulled him over? When he saw his granddaughters playing with the Obama daughters for the first time. (AP)

Airwaves losing their tint
In California, conservative talk radio could be a dying breed, a victim of the state's troubled economic condition. (LA Times)

Obama on race resonates
A year after Candidate Obama delivers his race speech in Philadelphia, the National Constitution Center hosts an event to commemorate its anniversary -- the first sign a speech may have entered history's annals. (Politico)

A new way to push policy
Obama will be the first sitting president on late night TV when he visits Jay Leno on Thursday. Using humor to sell the budget? It just might work. (NPR)

At this point in his nary two month old Presidency,  POTUS seems to have charmed or disarmed almost everyone who has visited him at the White House. Visitors emerge from meetings with him with a rosy hue and glowing words, or at least not hostile ones. Until yesterday.

Commander David K. Rehbein, leader of veterans' organization The American Legion, was "deeply disappointed and concerned" following his meeting with Obama late yesterday. Admittedly I haven't conducted a full survey, but I think that might be the President's worst meeting review so far.

Rehbein was invited to the White House to discuss a budget proposal that would require private insurance companies to reimburse the Department of Veteran's Affairs for the treatment of military veterans. (Read more about Rehbein's objections in this news release.) According to CNN, the White House says it is "actively working with the veterans community to ensure we get the details of this budget right."

Ah, there’s nothing that Washington loves more than a good feud. At this afternoon’s briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about Dick Cheney’s CNN interview yesterday, in which the former Veep, among other things, said President Obama’s policies were making the country less safe. “Well, I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal,” Gibbs smarted. Oooh, snap! A cabal? That just might be enough to make Cheney jump in his talking car ("Helllllo, Dick"), come down to the White House and bring the pain. Asked if that’s an appropriate tone to use in referencing a former VP, Gibbs admitted, “Sometimes I ask for forgiveness, rather than permission.” I’ll bet Cheney knows exactly what he means.

G'day, and welcome to The Gaggle, a shiny new version of Newsweek's political blog. We are Oklahoma-native Holly and Aussie-born Katie, a pair of Newsweek reporters who disagree on many things (like whether The Dark Knight is an enjoyable film) but share a firm belief that the practice of politics is both fascinating and absurd. Here at The Gaggle, we hope you'll find a place that savors the import and minutiae, the earnestness and frivolity, the flair and the faux pas of the nation's political elite.

We met aboard a rickety campaign plane in January 2008. While John McCain crisscrossed the country seeking votes, we bonded over all things political and pop culture. We educated each other about the quirkier aspects of Oklahoman and Australian life and worked together to hoard hotel points. Holly took Katie on her first trips to Wal-Mart and Graceland. Katie serenaded Holly with songs by Men at Work and put up with Holly’s endless musings about “The Thorn Birds.” Together, they performed an amazing duet of “Easy Lover” by Phil Collins at a karaoke bar in Nashville that went tragically underappreciated by their colleagues.

These days, we cover the White House and Capitol Hill. We're both amused and intrigued by the people that inhabit this town and Google chat about it incessantly. Now with this blog, our g-chats finally find useful purpose.

The Gaggle's manifesto is simple: Politics should be fun to read about. We hope to avoid navel gazing chatter about insidery insiders. Instead, we are a couple of accidental insiders from outside the beltway, looking at politics inside, outside and sideways. We'll try our best to be post-partisan (i.e. we won¹t take sides much, except when it comes to fashion). We'll try to call it as we see it. In a move that could be interpreted as either genius or absolute foolishness, Newsweek’s editors have agreed to let us do whatever we want, within reason.

We've enlisted a little help in this endeavor. California expat Daniel Stone will be the blog's resident sassy Y chromosome, bringing you our favorite things from around the web, with his daily feature "Unturned."

So that's us. Comments, suggestions and tips are welcomed at okieandaussie@gmail.com

Although we've all heard of (and secretly envy) Jon Favreau, Obama's good lookin' 27 year old speechwriting whizz, most Americans don't know that he has a transatlantic partner in crime, Jacob Rigg. Like Favs, Rigg is just 27. He's a tax lobbyist who, according to the London Telegraph, helped Favs dish up some of the most memorable political lines of the last campaign from a flat in London's trendy Notting Hill. Unlike Favs, it seems that Riggs totally makes things up. Obama's team has never heard of him.

The London Telegraph reported in November that:

"The US President-elect's speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago on Tuesday was one of the most widely-watched and repeated political addresses in recent history. It was also partly written in a flat in Notting Hill, West London. Parts of the speech were crafted by Jacob Rigg, a volunteer advisor to the Obama campaign....Having worked in Washington as a lobbyist, Mr Rigg has links with some of Mr Obama's Senate staff, and remained in contact with the campaign this year. Working from home in his own time, Mr Rigg was involved in writing the president-elect's speech, contributing by via phone, email and video conferences."

But White House Spokesperson Tommy Vietor says that Rigg's claims are bogus. "Every word of this story is fabricated. None of us had even heard this individual's name until we read these claims in the paper. Apparently he's a talented fiction writer," Vietor told me via email.

Vietor also pointed out that Rigg told The Guardian that he was the "lead writer" of Obama's "Unity" speech: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2008/may/16/barackobamatheatricalspeake

 Getting credit for history-making speeches without having to lift a pen? Nice work if you can get it.

Fox Business News has procured a copy of a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Geithner from AIG Chair Edward Liddy, explaining why his hands are tied. Thanks to the choices of his predecessors, Liddy simply must give $165m in bonuses to his executives.

My favorite paragraph is towards the end, where Liddy explains his "grave concerns about the long term consequences" of actions which would curtail exorbitent compensation regimes. Apparently, this could potentially impinge on AIG's ongoing ability to "attract the best and brightest talent" to run the company. Seems to me that the "best and the brightest" strategy hasn't been working out too well. I think I'd feel safer with a "mediocre but responsible" hiring policy for the time being.

Our morning picks from around the web:

Surely you know who I am
It used to be bars and hotel rooms where idling lawmakers got in trouble. Add to that list airports. Sen. David Vitter's airport blow-up showed a larger tendency for the elected to feel entitled to the first class treatment, sometimes at their peril. (Politico)

Database diplomacy
Obama won in November because of how he harnessed a grassroots army. Now, for the first time as president, he's enlisting those same troops to help him win a policy fight: passing the budget. (Washington Post)

Are we there yet?
Has the economy hit rock bottom? When will we know when it does? It depends what you want to hear. (NY Times)

You've got a great voice for still photos
Either from party operatives or his own inner conscience, RNC chairman Michael Steele got a clear message over the weekend: stay away from TV for a while. (Washington Post)

Ohhh Dick Cheney. For a guy who really hated talking to reporters while he was in office, we sure have been hearing a lot from him lately. Is someone missing all the attention? On Sunday, the former Veep emerged from his super secret bunker, i mean, brand new home outside Washington, D.C., to gab with CNN about, you know, stuff we mostly already knew. To quickly sum up, Cheney thinks Obama is bad, Rush rules and Scooter Libby got screwed. Confirming recent reports that he had urged President Bush to pardon his former chief of staff, Cheney said that he thought Bush had “left Scooter sort of hanging in the wind.” Hmm.  Interesting analogy. CNN’s John King, bless him, tried to get Cheney to blab more about the Scooter showdown with Bush: Was it tense? Was there shouting? Broken glass? Profanities? OMG, is that really how Cheney ended up in the wheelchair on Inauguration Day? (OK, King didn’t really ask of all that stuff, but it would have been awesome if he had.) But, alas, the former Veep refused to cough up any details about the arguments between him and Bush over the pardon, or lack thereof. How come? You guessed it: Cheney’s saving it for his book. Of course, we did learn some new things about his post-Veep life. For one, Cheney’s got a BlackBerry and a Kindle. But most importantly, Cheney disclosed that he’s now driving himself around these days…in a car that talks to him. It was probably a gift from his wife, Lynne, who needed a break—just kidding!

From all over the web, a morning list of our favorite reads.

Lincoln's timeless time keeper
Since the Civil War, Lincoln's personal pocket watch has carried a secret message and forecast from his then-watchmaker. Passed down as a family legend for generations, the story of the message was finally confirmed yesterday by Smithsonian historians.

Barack O'Bama?
It would sure mean a lot to Irish-Americans, and especially Washington-area Irish pub owners, if the president were to embrace the tiny sliver of his Irish heritage right around St. Patrick's Day.

Count Shriver out for 2010
The California first lady and member of the Kennedy clan says she's "too much of a free spirit" to have a desk job and run for public office. Unlike many of her relatives who had presumably captivated spirits.

How far will the money go?
Since the 1970s, road signs in Arizona have listed distances in kilometers, which was an early attempt to switch to the metric system in the state that didn't catch the rest of the country. Part of the federal stimulus will go toward setting the state's distances straight.

When Hollywood comes to Washington next week...
You'll know, because traffic will be stopped for the filming of Angelina Jolie's new film "Fair Game" about the Valerie Plame outing scandal. We think Clooney might play Novak.

Our roundup of the web's most "hmm"-inducing reads.

A nation in need of Harvard
It's not just Obama who has appointed nearly a dozen Harvard faculty to high levels in his administration. For decades, presidents have relied heavily on the wide-ranging ideologies coming from Cambridge.

Two months in: Obama's eco home run
From scrapping oil shale plans to climate change programs in the budget, the environmental blog Treehugger lists 11 great things the Obama Administration has already done for the earth.

Props to Canada
Contrary to U.S. banks, financial institutions in Canada are actually making lots of moeny -- 18.9 billion in profits last year -- and finally getting some respect from the rest of the world.

Vilsack's farming changes
Responding to alerts that farmers are becoming less profitable, Agriculture Secretary Tom Visack thinks that embracing renewable energy technology, like putting a windmill on farmland, can lead to a huge payday.

Unemployed? Have you considered Washington?
The federal government currently has 40,000 open positions, a number that's not going anywhere but up.

As Limbaugh week continues (see David Frum's nice piece in this week's magazine), a video of Rush Limbaugh, as voiced by the American people:

From here and there, our favorites from around the web.

Where's Bin Laden? No one ever asked science
By applying geographical techniques and satellite monitoring, a group of researchers at UCLA says finding the 9/11 mastermind should be a lot easier than running a military-based manhunt on the ground.

Clarence Thomas dabbles on the left
Thomas might be reliably conservative, but not predictably so. The right winger known for his close (yet silent) scrutiny on the bench wins praise from progressive groups a decision last week allowing consumers to sue drug companies.

A stimulus for con artists?
You've seen the online ads offering free stimulus money. So have we. NPR cautions not to take them seriously, lest you contribute to one of the few industries that's actually booming.

New signs Bush tried to clobber the law
A series of newly-surfaced memos shows exactly what the President Bush's inner circle sought after 9/11. "Their common theme was that no laws can limit the president's power in fighting terrorists," reports the Chicago Tribune. Legal scholars aren't impressed.

Let's find more earths
Sure, this NASA project was devised before the agency received stimulus money, but we're still calling it the most awesome-sounding use of government dough. At least for today.

In both his campaign and his seven-week old Presidency, Obama has tread carefully when it comes to the so-called culture wars, those testy issues that invoke religious and moral imperatives. But today he dove right in, signing an executive order that lifts his predecessor's limitations on the use of federal funds in stem cell research. 

Reading from a teleprompter (drink!), a professorial Obama spoke about the significance of science and the need to draw clear lines between scientific research and politics. The East Room audience seemed particularly appreciative of his promises to restore integrity to decision-making and protect free inquiry.  But the money paragraph is here:

"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values.  In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent.  As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering.  I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research – and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."

While his approach was characteristically cool and reasoned—the statement didn't reference human life or use hot-button language—those strident words about false choices are bound to stir up already simmering Limbaugh listeners. And though his language here is unequivocal, he steered clear of the most contentious aspect of the debate: whether federal funds can be used for experiments on human embryos.

That's right, the fictional communications director for my favorite fictional President was wandering down near the very real White House earlier today. Wearing dark aviators, a gray suit and flashing his pearly whites at nearly anybody who hinted at recognizing him, a very tanned Rob Lowe took a few pictures with some children (two of which were presumably his) before approaching the north west gate, where your humble Newsweek reporter was trying to navigate the anti-Australian security process. But Lowe was about to share my pain - he too was denied, told that tour groups had to enter by a different gate.

"What? Sam Seaborn isn't on the list?" I joked lamely, finding my voice after a brief bout of famous person induced dumb silence. "I know! You'd think after eight years they'd just let me in," Lowe good naturedly replied, and then headed off to find the right gate. He looked pretty darn good for a dude that had a heart attack on Brothers and Sisters last weekend.