"We have a lot of people … [who have] lost their jobs, who don't have health care, even children that are in homes don't get three square meals a day. But this man sits with guards protecting him, he's receiving free medical, free meals." •  A recently freed Spanish skipper claims that Somali pirates are holding a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl hostage aboard another hijacked ship. Ricardo Black says he met both the girl and her parents. "Her mother begged me to take [her daughter] with me," he told a Spanish paper. • A New York teacher is suing the Department of Education because she claims she suffered injuries after she slipped on garbage, including condoms, that had been left on the floor. She's particularly mad about the condom bit (although there is no news about whether or not they were used): "They caused, allowed and permitted condoms to be distributed by school personnel to the students, many of which were opened during the school lunch period and thrown on the floor," she said in the suit. • Five high school freshmen were arrested in California for the sexual assault of two ninth-grade girls. Police say that the boys accosted the girls at school and groped them during a lunch break. • Forbes has compiled a list of the top earning states for women. Washington D.C. is at the top of the list, with women making an average of $866 a week, only 7.8% less than men. Also high on the list are Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. • Rusty Kanokogi, advocate for women's judo, has died at the age of 74. Kanokogi devoted the past twenty years to making women's judo an Olympic sport, an effort that was recognized by the Japanese government, who awarded her the Order of the Rising Sun last year. • The Virginia Military Institute is facing charges of sex discrimination. The Education Department first brought the complaint against the Military school in 2008, claiming that the "climate and culture" of the school was derogatory and discriminatory towards women.  • According to FBI data released today, reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008. The number of racially motivated hate crimes fell less than 1 percent, but there was an 11 percent increase in hate crimes against homosexuals and a 9 percent increase in crimes against religious groups. • Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, says women should ignore the new breast cancer screening guidelines that delay the start of routine mammograms until 50, because it would save money but not lives. • Senator Harry Reid says that right after the Senate's vote to begin debating health care legislation on Saturday, he got a call from Ted Kennedy's widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. "She believes that Ted was watching," said Reid. "I'll remember the call always. She of course was crying pretty hard. We both felt that he's watching us tonight." • Today President Obama announced "Educate to Innovate," a 10-year campaign to increase American students' achievement in math and science. It involves $260 million in corporate donations, a National Lab Day, and an annual national science fair at the White House "to show young people how cool science people can be." • A reporter for The Guardian visited an Iraqi jail to talk to women who have attempted to commit a suicide bombing. She found many have lost close male relatives, lived in isolated communities dominated by extremists, and felt choosing to be a suicide bomber made them special, even though they couldn't control much else in their lives. But, one detective investigating the women cautioned not to generalize because, "All the cases are different. Some are old; some are young; some are just criminals; some are believers. They have different reasons." • The late Sister Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas is one step closer to becoming a saint after thousands of worshipers gathered in Nazareth for her beatification yesterday. She helped found the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem in the 1880s, which continues to run schools for Palestinian girls in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. • Libby Longino is one of only 32 students to win a Rhodes Scholarship this year, but she won't be lonely at Oxford University: her boyfriend Henry Spelman was also selected. They are both seniors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Longino said, "I could barely hope it would turn out this way." •

Things to watch out for during the Saturday vote which will determine if the health care debate moves forward:

Major Differences

The Politico summarizes:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced his health care reform bill yesterday and moved the debate into its final stage. After a year of multiple plans, proposals and programs we're down to two final, and very different, versions of reform. The House bill costs just over $1 trillion. The Senate bill weighs in at $848 billion. The Senate cuts Medicare spending by $491 billion and the House slashes it $571 billion. The Senate's public insurance option allows states to opt out of the program while the House has a more robust plan. And to fund reform, the Senate relies primarily on taxing high-end health plans while the House taxes the rich. And the gulf between the two bills is not likely to shrink as the bill moves through the Senate. If anything, the gap may widen if Senate moderates force Reid to make the bill more conservative. Besides the daily speculation about whether Reid has 60 votes to move a bill forward, which has been going on for weeks, the next power play to watch will be how Reid, Pelosi and the White House begin to move toward a bill that can pass both chambers and land with a victorious thud on the president's desk. Getting a bill passed through the Senate is difficult, but many insiders think reconciling the differences between the two bills could be hellacious.

Abortion

Now that Pelosi has reversed her stance on Stupak-Pitts, saying the amendment goes too far and embracing Reid's version, Catholic leaders and the GOP have come out swinging.

Catholic bishops are displeased:

A top Obama administration official on Thursday praised the new Senate health care bill's attempt to find a compromise on abortion coverage - even as an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Sen. Harry Reid's bill is the worst he's seen so far on the divisive issue.

The bishops were instrumental in getting tough anti-abortion language adopted by the House, forcing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to accept restrictions that outraged liberals as the price for passing the Democratic health care bill. [...]

Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the bishops' conference Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, said Reid's "is actually the worst bill we've seen so far on the life issues."

He called it "completely unacceptable," adding that "to say this reflects current law is ridiculous."

Meanwhile, the Republicans found a new talking point:

House Minority Leader John Boehner's office has posted a long statement blasting the Senate health care plan, specifically targeting the abortion provisions with an accusation it levies an "abortion premium fee."

A Senate Democratic aide came back with the facts, pointing out that the prevision that Boehner refers to is for something else, and points to all the language in the bill that prohibits the use of public funds for abortion.

But Melissa over at Shakesville points out that Reid's additions are more of a Pyrrhic victory than anything else.

When Boxer's petition against the Stupak Amendment noted it "discriminates against women by taking away health coverage they already have-and tells women who participate in the new health insurance exchange that they can't even use their own funds to buy a policy that includes abortion coverage," I didn't imagine "let them use their own funds!" was going to be regarded as the best solution.

Silly me.

Meanwhile, D-Day notes that this compromise depends heavily on decisions made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as s/he "determines whether or not abortion services are being paid for with federal dollars" and "can choose whether or not abortion services are covered in the public option."

Not only are those wildly enormous decisions to leave in the hands of one person, but, as D-Day points out, "the executive branch may indeed be controlled by a Republican at some point in the future."

Cost

One of the major differences in the two plans is how it will be funded. The House wants to tax millionaires - the Senate bill wants to tax "Cadillac plans." However, taxing these so called plans may not be a good strategy. Politifact delves into the details of the Senate plan:

Under the Senate Finance proposal from Sen. Max Baucus, insurance companies would have to pay a 40 percent excise tax on health insurance policies that exceed $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families; they would pay taxes on the amount that exceeds those thresholds. We spoke with three economists on both the left and the right, and they all agreed that insurance companies will not simply absorb the new tax; they will pass it along in the form of even higher premiums. Employers will then try to avoid the new higher costs by buying cheaper health plans.

Finally, the economists agreed that if employers have to scale back on health plans, they will eventually pay higher wages as they seek to retain workers. At this point, disgruntled workers may say "Yeah, right," but the economists were adamant that it is the case. There are data that we won't get into now that back up their point.

Here's where the analysis that Palin mentioned by the Joint Committee, which is nonpartisan and advises Congress on tax policy, comes in: At the Senate's request, it tried to figure out the effect of the excise tax on federal taxes collected. Like the economists we talked to, the Joint Committee also believes that wages will rise if employers select lower-priced health insurance, and the government gets to tax those higher wages. So the Joint Committee created a series of tables projecting how much additional income tax would be collected over the next 10 years. By 2019, about 87 percent of those people paying higher taxes would make less than $200,000, according to an analysis of the preliminary Senate Finance proposal.

So here's what that means: If workers end up getting paid more, they'll also be taxed more.

Communications Workers of America also ran a separate analysis on what the 'Cadillac' plan tax would mean for workers:

"The Senate Finance Committee excise tax is not a tax on 'Cadillac' plans; it's a pick-up truck tax. It taxes plans that are of great utility to millions of working Americans, but it is bad policy based on wrong assumptions," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Health care reform should be paid for by making employers who don't pay, pay. The House bill does it with an 8 percent payroll tax on employers who don't provide coverage."

CWA recommends the following strategies to avoid penalizing people who fought for better coverage, but are being lumped in with CEO packages:

Rather than impose a new tax on the middle class, CWA supports other revenue sources:

* Require most employers to provide coverage or pay an 8 percent penalty if they do not, as proposed under H.R. 3200 in the House of Representatives. This would raise $163 billion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The Senate Finance Committee bill has no employer mandate.
* Levy a modest surtax on the wealthiest Americans – 1.2 percent of U.S. taxpayers – as proposed in H.R. 3200, raising $544 billion over ten years according to JCT.
* Limit the charitable deductions for individuals earning more than $250,000 and families earning more than $500,000, as proposed by President Obama, which would raise $318 billion over ten years.
* Enact a strong public health insurance plan option to compete with private insurers, as proposed under H.R. 3200, which would lower costs by about $110 billion. The Senate Finance Committee bill has no public option.

Of course, the real party starts Saturday night. Seeing that the last Saturday evening health care announcement brought us Stupak-Pitts, let's hope nothing new comes out of left field.

Live Pulse [Politico]
Pelosi Says Stupak 'Goes Beyond Status Quo', 'Optimistic' It Won't Stop Reform [TPM]
White House at odds with bishops over abortion [AP]
GOP Claims Senate Bill Forces Taxpayers To Pay 'Abortion Fee' [TPM]
Senate Health Bill Answer to Stupak [Shakesville]
Sarah Palin says health care reform will raise taxes on the middle class [Politifact]
CWA Excise Tax Study Finds that One-Third of Health Care Plans Still Will Be Affected By Senate Finance Committee Approach [CWA]

Related: Why the Health Insurance Excise Tax Is a Bad Idea [The Nation]

Senator Reid unveiled his plan last night with both fanfare and steely resolve:

Reid's plan would expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans through a government-run health insurance option - allowing states to opt out - and other features, all while reducing future federal deficits by $130 billion over the next 10 years, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released late Wednesday. [...]

But Reid's plan contains considerable differences from House legislation passed earlier this month - with a more limited public option and different ways to pay for the bill. Reid included an excise tax on insurers who offer "Cadillac" health plans, not the "millionaire's tax" that's in the House bill.

And one of the biggest differences between the bills – on language restricting federal funding for abortion – could prove problematic for Reid. His bill doesn't include as many limits as the House bill and already is drawing fire from anti-abortion activists.

On the issue of abortion, the bill makes the following provisions:

The bill grants the secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to determine whether federal money is being used to fund abortions under the public plans, but doesn't ban those plans from offering the coverage. Reid's bill also explicitly requires insurers to separate private premiums from any public subsidies used to pay for that coverage to assure taxpayer dollars aren't used to fund the procedure - which is prohibited by the Hyde Amendment. [...]

There is a conscience clause that makes it perfectly acceptable for insurance companies to deny that coverage or health care providers to refuse carrying out the procedure. But the bill also requires each exchange to offer one plan that provides abortion coverage and one that doesn't - a major sticking point for critics of the original House language.

California Rep. Lois Capps, who tried to hatch a compromise on the Energy and Commerce Committee, commended Reid's language, saying, "I am pleased that the Senate has adopted a reasonable, common ground approach on this difficult question. It appears that their approach closely mirrors my language which was originally included in the House bill."

In a statement, she went on to point out that the bill "ensures that federal funds do not pay for abortions but allows continued access to this legal medical procedure."

We also have a date: Reid's version of the bill would start exchanges in 2014.

Reid, it should be noted, isn't fucking around with party holdouts.

At a special evening meeting of the Democratic caucus tonight, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined, in broad strokes, the details of his health care bill, which the CBO has found, in a preliminary analysis, will expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans while reducing the deficit. And earlier in the day, during a separate meeting about floor procedure, Reid let three of his party's key skeptics know that if they join Republicans at any stage of the process to block the bill, he still retains the option of passing major parts of it through the filibuster proof budget reconciliation process.

In response to a question from TPMDC Nelson told reporters that, at a meeting this afternoon with Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Reid "talked about process, procedure, discussion about reconciliation and a whole host of issues of that sort."

"Nobody's really jumping up and down to push for reconciliation," Nelson said, "he's not threatening that, but anybody can conclude that if you don't move something on to the floor, that is one of the possibilities."

National Right to Life-rs are, of course, talking shit, but I'm going to ignore them in favor of reason and sanity. The real battle begins on Saturday.

Reid plan ups pressure on moderates [Politico]
Reid's restrictions on abortion [Politico]
Reid Outlines Bill For Caucus, Warns Conservative Dems That Reconciliation Is Still An Option [TPM]
National Right to Life blasts the Reid bill [Politico]

But is the bill good?

Mr. Clinton spoke to a closed-door meeting of Senate Democrats as party leaders were struggling to contain a growing number of conflicting demands and ultimatums from senators.

"It's not important to be perfect here. It's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling," Mr. Clinton said afterward. "And whatever they can get the votes for, I'm going to support."

Which, at this moment in time, includes the Stupak-Pitts amendment.

Luckily, there's Representative Linda Sanchez, who puts the fight in a pop culture context:

Has Congress become like an episode of Mad Men? The Stupak Amendment slams women back to a time of stenographs and unsafe abortions. It represents an unprecedented and unacceptable restriction on women's ability to access the full range of reproductive health services to which they are lawfully entitled.

It is truly disappointing to see women's reproductive rights on the table as a bargaining chip for health care reform. It is equally disappointing that the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was let in the room to bargain, then ended up writing the law.

Speaking of Catholics, Nancy Keenan (president of NARAL Pro-Choice America) and Jon O'Brien (president of Catholics for Choice) teamed up for an opinion piece in the Politico. Their goal? To shame the Catholic Bishops for employing a double standard concerning government funding:

[T]he U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its allies in the House distorted the facts about the health reform proposal by claiming that the proposed system would have used federal dollars to cover abortion care. They're wrong.

The original House bill included a compromise that required all plans to separate public and private dollars in the new system - ensuring that no tax dollars would ever cover abortion services.

In fact, the bishops should be familiar with this arrangement because it reflects the same principle of separation that guides their financial interaction with the federal government. The bishops have a long history of almost unlimited access to enormous quantities of federal funding. When it comes to funding for Catholic schools and hospitals or programs run by Catholic Charities, they accept federal funding with open arms. The bishops never question their own ability to lawfully manage funds from separate sources to ensure that tax dollars don't finance religious practices.

Yet they reject the idea that others could do the same. This is the very definition of hypocrisy.

However, there may be some small hope here - Majority Whip James Clyburn mentions that the Stupak-Pitts amendment may not be as influential as it seems. He claims the bill provided ten needed votes, not the 40 that were estimated.

The Politico explains:

If that is the case, it could change the dynamic of the debate and give progressives a stronger hand than many thought they had. It's easier to reverse a provision that only wins 10 votes — and angers a good chunk of the Democratic caucus — than one that makes or breaks the bill. In other words, it's easier to win four or six votes than it is to grab 38.

Reid Says Health Bill Will Be Done by Christmas [NY Times]
Bill Clinton Presses Senators to Pass Health Bill [Wall Street Journal]
The Arena [Politico]
The Catholic Bishops' Double Standard [Politico]
Clyburn Says Stupak Amendment Won 10 Votes [Politico]

Under the proposal, the public program would only be available to the uninsured and small businesses, and states would be allowed to opt out of it, although it's unclear how that would work, and that still doesn't make Republicans any more interested in supporting it. Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the only Republican who's tried to be anything but a total pain in the Democrats' collective ass about this, says she's "deeply disappointed with the Majority Leader's decision to include a public option as the focus of the legislation" and still thinks the road to "broader bipartisan consensus" is threatening private insurers that if they don't voluntarily bring costs down to a certain level by a certain time, a public option will automatically go into effect. But Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo optimistically points out that Snowe's language, however critical, still leaves room for her to support the bill. "Note, she doesn't say she's withdrawing her support. And note as well that she says she thinks triggers could have been the path to broader bipartisan consensus—i.e. instead of being the path to just one Republican vote (hers), triggers might have won over a few more GOPers."

Reid seems to be shrugging off the lack of GOP support at this point, saying, "We looked for Republicans on this. It's just a little hard to find them." That's probably because they're too busy acting like an unbelievably watered-down attempt to insure every American is part of Obama's plot to make us a socialist country before his first term is over, and/or insisting that this is not what Americans want — even though polls are showing that more than half of us support a public option. A Kaiser Health tracking poll for October puts the number at 57 percent, and finds that "support for the public plan rises to 65 percent when initial opponents are told public plans would be 'a fallback that would only kick in if not enough people had affordable health plans available through the private marketplace'" — which sounds like a description of Snowe's trigger plan on the one hand, but also like a description of the situation we are already in.

Senate To Add 'Public Pption' To Healthcare Bill [L.A. Times]
Snowe 'Deeply Disappointed,' Says Triggers 'Could Have Been The Road' To Broader Bipartisanship [TPM]
Poll: Majority Favors Public Option [UPI]

The GOP is pissed.

Republicans have for weeks grumbled about punishing Snowe should she vote "yes" at any stage of the lengthy process. One option long discussed: denying her the coveted senior Republican seat on the Senate Commerce Committee.

Snowe is also known for crossing party lines:

Breaking with her party is a role Snowe has played many times, from her vote for Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill to her defiance of then-President George W. Bush on a bill to provide health are to millions of uninsured children.

Snowe also was one of the "Gang of 14" Democratic and Republican senators who resolved a standoff over judicial nominations.

Snowe is still in favor of a self-regulating marketplace.

"I think the government would have a disproportionate advantage" in the event of a government-run option, the Maine Republican said on CBS's "The Early Show." But Snowe also said that "at the same time, I want to make sure the insurance industry performs, and that's why we eliminate many egregious practices."

Snowe's leadership could open the door for other Repubs who want to support the bill.

Her endorsement also could give bipartisan cover to moderate Senate Democrats - Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana - who are arguably more conservative than Snowe. It also frees the White House to turn its attention to gathering more Republican supporters. A possible target: Snowe's Maine colleague, Sen. Susan Collins.

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank has the most interesting take on Snowe, weaving both gendered ideas of coyness and flirting as well as comparing her to Brett Farve in his analysis:

Sen. Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, is fast becoming the Brett Favre of the political world: She has trouble making up her mind, but she sure knows how to play ball. [...]

Congress's answer to Favre is Snowe, the wiry New Englander who, for the past several months, has been unable — or unwilling — to take a position on health-care legislation. The longer she held out, the more concessions Democrats made to win her over, to the point where she became, arguably, the single most influential member of Congress drafting the legislation, even though she is a member of the minority party.

Democrats negotiated with her for months; President Obama wooed her personally. Olympia wants amendments? She gets amendments. Olympia needs more time? The Senate Finance Committee delays its vote. Olympia opposes government-run insurance? Voilà — the public option is gone.

The coy routine was working so well for Snowe that, as she walked into the Hart Building on Tuesday morning for the committee vote on the legislation, she claimed she still hadn't made a decision.

"I have certain inclinations," she told the reporters and photographers who mobbed her. And: "I want to hear more." And: "You always learn something new about this bill." And: "I haven't made up my mind." And: "Let's see how the day goes."

Finally, three hours later, the wavering lawmaker was ready to announce her position. Sort of. "Is this bill all that I would want? Is it all that it can be? No," said Snowe. "But when history calls, history calls." After this halfhearted announcement that she was, with "reservations," becoming the only Republican to vote with the Democrats, she added a warning: "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow."

Give that woman a Lombardi Trophy.

Oh, and not surprisingly, the insurance Industry is out for blood.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, opened a fresh line of attack with a multistate advertising campaign warning that senior citizens enrolled in private Medicare plans could lose benefits under the legislation.

"Is it right to ask 10 million seniors on Medicare Advantage for more than their fair share?" the television spot asks. "Congress is proposing $100 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says many seniors will see cuts in benefits."

However, the White House is going to clap back, using the insurance companies as the new foes.

Obama's political operation, Organizing for America, has blasted an email to its massive list targeting the industry as reform public enemy number one. It seizes on that widely-criticized "report" paid for by America's Health Care Plans finding that reform would hike premiums, which handed reform proponents a big opening to cast the industry as a bad-faith actor intent on torpedoing reform to protect profits.

"It's becoming clear that the insurance companies will do whatever it takes to stop progress," reads the email from OFA chief Mitch Stewart, adding that the industry "even commissioned their own slanted analysis of the Finance Committee's legislation in an effort to defeat it."

Most senators appear to be gearing up for a battle royale.

Liberal Democrats, like Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, said they would push for a public insurance plan. Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, both Democrats, said they would seek changes to make insurance more affordable to middle-income families. And Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said he wanted to require employers to provide insurance to their employees.

Proving that they only want you when they can't have you, Harry Reid is now the Congressional It Boy, now that Snowe has tipped her hand.

Lacking the powerful rules of the House speaker or the bully pulpit of the presidency, the majority leader's chief job is to herd cats, in this case Senators, each of whom is a powerful figure in his or her own right. When it comes to health care, nearly every Senator in Reid's own party has a provision or a version he or she would like included; Reid's goal is to keep enough of those cats happy and moving in the same direction so that he can pass something before Thanksgiving.

Obviously, we have a long way to go on reform. Here's Olympia Snowe's speech from yesterday, where she discusses why she opposes the public option, and why she supports the bill over all:

Move over Palin! Maine's Snowe is the female maverick in the GOP [Newser]
Snowe: Health care bill a 'good place to start' [AP]
Vote makes Snowe a key player [Politico]
Insurers emerge as Obama's top foe on health [MSNBC/Washington Post]
She May Be on the Other Team, But She Called All the Plays [Washington Post]
Insurance Industry Emerges As White House Public Enemy Number One [The Plum Line]
Republican's Vote Lifts a Health Bill, but Hurdles Remain [NYT]
After a Key Vote, Health Care Now Turns to Harry Reid [Time]

[Washington, D.C., October 6. Image via Getty]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(C), D-NV, walk away after speaking to reporters in front of the West Wing after a meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan with US President Barack Obama October 6, 2009 at the White House in Washington, DC. Obama Tuesday sat down with senior lawmakers driving a raging debate on US Afghan strategy, as he works towards a decision on whether to send thousands more troops to war. Democratic and Republican leaders plus top members of key congressional committees met the president at the White House touting sharply conflicting visions of the next steps in the unpopular eight-year US military operation. Obama is methodically working through an internal policy review after US commander General Stanley McChrystal warned the war could be lost within a year without more troops, and reportedly asked for 40,000 more men. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

• Rush Limbaugh has his big-boy britches in a wad over the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court because she and President Obama are racists for thinking themselves not only equal to white people but superior to some...like Rush Limbaugh. By that standard, we are all racist! [Time]

• We're also superior to Larry Summers, who fell asleep during a motherfucking meeting again. [NY Post]
• Current Illinois Senator Roland Burris (surprise!) bought his sinecure from former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich just like everyone suspected he did. [Wall Street Journal]
• Burris is now departing on a tour of - wait for it - Central Illinois. [Associated Press]
• Obama, however, is headed to Sin City to help out Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite the fact that Reid will continue to fuck shit up. [LA Times]
• Apparently, the United States is considering a value added tax (VAT). Don't think that means we'll get to stop paying income taxes, though — the point is not to change the system, but raise more revenues. [Washington Post]
• Economists predict the recession will be over by the end of the year. [MSNBC]
• By then, North Korea might actually have re-ignited the Korean War, which actually never technically ended. What else does Kim Jong Il have to do these days? [NY Times]

• Clinton told her supporters to stop talking smack about Caroline Kennedy unless they're going to endorse someone else. She doesn't want people to believe it's coming from her. [Politico]

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has weighed in with New York Governor David Paterson on Kennedy's behalf. [CNN]
• President Bush is backing his brother Jeb's nascent run for the soon-to-be-empty Florida Senate seat currently held by the retiring Mel Martinez. [The Hill]
• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wants the RNC to shut the fuck up already and pull its ads that misleadingly link Barack Obama to corrupt Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. In case you're worried that he's siding with Obama, don't be worried: he's doing at part of the internecine warfare in the GOP. [Huffington Post]
• Hoping to take advantage of that warfare, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius's withdrawal from Cabinet consideration leads some people to believe she might try to run for the Senate when Republican Senator Sam "Snowflake Baby" Brownback runs for her seat. [Politico]
• The 2008 Minnesota Senate race might even be done by then. [The Hill]
• A grand jury is investigating possible corruption in New Mexico that might ensnare Commerce Secretary nominee (and current governor) Bill Richardson. How grabby were those hands? [Huffington Post]
• Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. says he's been snitching to the feds about Blagojevich since last summer, when Blagojevich held up Jackson's wife's appointment to a state board for political donations. [Huffington Post]
• Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer thinks that being a columnist for Slate "sucks" because he used to be a governor. Hey, asshole, with all these media layoffs, I'll bet they could find someone who would happily write a column for them! (My e-mail is on the masthead, by the way). [Politico]

• Democrats have officially told the American auto industry to give them a plan for how they are going to us the $25 billion they want from the U.S. government or they're never going to get it. So the auto makers are getting back on their multimillion dollar corporate jets and will spend the next few weeks huddling with their expensive lobbyists to figure out how to not look like assholes the next time. [Huffington Post]
• Penny Pritzker is definitely not in the running to be Secretary of Commerce, probably because she couldn't have her cake and regulate it, too. [Washington Post]
• Anita Dunn will also not be joining the Administration, but it's far less clear as to why, except for the part where she plans to go back to political consulting. [Washington Post]
• And Obama's people are a little steamed at the Clinton team for leaking like a sieve, since they were apparently not paying attention for the entirety of the Clinton Administration and Hillary Clinton's campaign. [NY Daily News]

• Obama's state director in Iowa, Jackie Norris, is going to be Michelle Obama's Chief of Staff. [Washington Post]
• And Henry Waxman successfully stole Michigan Congressman John Dingell's gavel today and will be the new Chairman of the House Energy And Commerce Committee. The automakers cried in their single malt scotches in their limos on the way to the airports to take their private jets back to their luxurious mansions. [CNN]
• John Zogby, who was perfectly happy to take Nate Silver baiter John Ziegler's money for a crap poll showing Obama's voters were supposedly ill-informed, won't take any more of Ziegler's money to prove whether McCain voters were or were not. Amazing that, after yesterday, Ziegler found someone to look like more of a dipshit than him. [Politico]
• The prosecutor in Texas who got Cheney indicted this week didn't show up for court today. Maybe he went duck hunting? [UPI]
• Rahm Emanuel says that Obama is, like, totally happy to listen to the Republicans' ideas of how to solve the financial crisis and his head didn't even explode in pent-up rage. Hot. [Politico]

ANA MARIE: Good morning!

MEGAN: It does appear to be morning, but I am not going to make any promises about its "goodness" until I, like you, have gotten some caffeine in my system. Also, please type less loudly. Oh, wait, that's me.

ANA MARIE: Fun Jezebel meet up, huh?

MEGAN: Yes, but I was driving so drinking was minimized and then I got home and was like, hey, glass before bed! And it was a big glass. A really, really big glass.

ANA MARIE: That'll do it. Whereas the highlight of my evening was A RAHM SIGHTING.

MEGAN: In tights?

ANA MARIE: Sadly no. But he was with one of his equally brilliant brother, ZEKE, who arrived in the restaurant still wearing his lanyard nametag. Very dorky-cute. They had just been at this.

MEGAN: Oh, man, a conventioneer?

ANA MARIE: A very important powerful conventioneer:

"When it gets rough out there, a lot of business leaders get out of the car and say, 'We're OK with minor reform.' I'm challenging you today, we're going to have to do big, serious things," Rahm Emanuel said, speaking to The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, a conference convened to elicit corporate opinion on the challenges facing the new president.

MEGAN: Also, I love how a CEO's top concern is card check. Fucking U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Like, hello, new Great Depression but you care whether Obama will veto card check? Hint, hint, dickwad, he won't.

ANA MARIE: (WSJ reports on Rahm's presence, this is how I know Zeke was there. ) This threw me a bit:

"The American people in two successive elections have voted for change, and change cannot be allowed to die on the doorsteps of Washington," Mr. Emanuel said.

Until i remembered that he counts 2006 as an election.

MEGAN: Ooh, Zeke works at NIH? And 2006 was Rahm's big victory, of course he thinks about it that way! But can we talk about the softer side of Rahm? :

According to notes taken by leadership aides, Mr. Emanuel choked up when he told the colleagues his decision to leave the Hill and join the Obama administration was "not an easy decision for me."

ANA MARIE: Eh, just because someone has a filthy mouth doesn't mean the waterworks are broken. You and I should know!

MEGAN: I don't cry, I just have something in my contact lens. Even when I'm wearing my glasses.

ANA MARIE: So are you stone hearted or just not much of a crier? And I think that is a great segue to Hillary! Are you tired of talking about her yet? Will doing it again actually bring you to tears?

MEGAN: No, that is exactly how I deal with stuff when I "have something in my eye!" Segue! The whole situation in which she's saying she might not want it really makes me wonder what Clinton was doing jetting around in Air Fuck One.

ANA MARIE: The name says it all. Given all the rumors and speculation floating around, I think I trust Ambinder's take on the situation (Hillary's, not Bill's... or rather, not THAT Bill situation).

MEGAN: Okay, best line in the piece:

On the other hand, it is conceivable that President Obama would hand Sen. Clinton a ticket with the words "Middle East Peace" printed on it, and say: "Go," giving Clinton the flexibility and transitive authority to secure her place in history.

That would be nice.

ANA MARIE: On the other hand, there's this:

She would be Secretary of State in an administration dominated by other foreign policy heavyweights. She will wonder where Joe Biden fits in to all of this; the two senators are collegial and competitive. There is some angst with Joe Biden's circle of confidants about Clinton's serving as Secretary of State. It is not clear whether Biden himself shares the angst.

MEGAN: If Joe Biden wanted to be SecState, he should not have accepted the VP slot.

ANA MARIE: I suspect Biden thought that VP would be like SecStatePLUS.

MEGAN: Welcome to the Greater Depression, Joe Biden, when you get to have a domestic policy function. But if Ambinder is right and the whole thing is collegial and proceeding apace, why all the leaks that she's not gonna do it?

ANA MARIE: Because you can be collegial about vetting and still not be sure you're gonna do it. And we still don't know what the vetting has turned up.

MEGAN: Well, and that's what I meant about what was going on on Air Fuck One. Is it the 'stans? The investments? The foreign donors at the library?

ANA MARIE: Well if everyone is being all discreet as they say, we may never know — Hillary's ambivalence could be a cover for making a graceful exit after they find out that Bill was banging a Pakastani tranny. Or accepting money from a Pakastani warlord. Which is maybe more likely.

MEGAN: Yeah, because I think transvestites are more of an Afghani thing. I have listened to a lot of people talk about homosexuality in Afghanistan over the last year. I'm starting to think people want to do more than fuck OBL up (i.e., down, sideways, back and forth, etc.).

ANA MARIE: Everyone needs a hobby

MEGAN: Especially Ted Stevens now.

ANA MARIE: I understand he makes gigantic fish sculptures in his spare time. Presumably they will become truly gargantuan now. Do you continue to live in Alaska if you don't have to? That's my question.

MEGAN: Mike Gravel says: no. His wife says, aw hell no.

ANA MARIE: I'm not sure if Gravel is the best source on the subject of sane behavior.

MEGAN: Well, what politician from Alaska is?

ANA MARIE: I hope the new guy!

MEGAN: Good luck with that. Begich winning does mean that if they can pull it out in Minnesota (decent odds) and then Georgia (unlikely), the Dems will have their filibuster-proof majority if Lieberman doesn't shank them again. Which he will, 'cause he's Lieberman and now has no fear.

ANA MARIE: Yeah, that is what it means! And I think Lieberman is probably more of a pussy than you think.

MEGAN: I'm sure he's less of a pussy than Harry Reid, but that ain't saying much.

ANA MARIE: Harry Reid, the boxing pussy.

MEGAN: Some dudes do think pussy is a competitive sport.

ANA MARIE: And that boxing is as well. Did you see Bill Kristol is "ambivalent" about keeping his New York Times column?

MEGAN: Man, what a copycat. He sees Hillary playing the expectation-management game and then hops on board? Yeah, Bill, everyone knows you're going to be out on your ass when the contract's up, you should've been ambivalent in, like, January.

ANA MARIE: Or more ambivalent about Sarah Palin! His ambivalence is widely misplaced

MEGAN: A lot of things about Bill Kristol are misplaced. Like any rational thought.

ANA MARIE: In an interview with the New York Observer, he says he's actually only met Palin twice. Which could explain a lot!

MEGAN: Oh, right, like he couldn't have fallen in political love in two meetings? That hair, those eyes, her lips, those thighs and drill, baby, drill? He probably had stronger tingles in his leg for her than Chris Matthews did for Obama.

ANA MARIE: I'm sure Chris Matthews would disagree. Oh, and speaking of Chris Matthews: BEST SENATE RACE OF 2010. Unless, you know, Keith Olbermann takes his competitive streak to New Jersey

MEGAN: Oh, God, that will be so amazing. Has Specter even confirmed he's running yet? Could it be an open seat? Can I be THAT lucky?

ANA MARIE: I totally made up that KO thing, btw. Like, that isn't even a rumor, people. I want to spell that out because I think that it was just such a remark that might give us Sen. Franken.

MEGAN: Yeah, unless Olbermann decides to take on Corzine in the primary for the gubernatorial race, he can't run for Senate for a while yet. That said, can you imagine the smear campaign? The heart races.

ANA MARIE: Every campaign ad would be a SPECIAL COMMENT, with lots of chair spinning.

MEGAN: Hey, remember how al Qaeda endorsed McCain and all the conservatives were like, it's psychological warfare! They really are endorsing Obama? Well, no, it turns out, they really were into McCain. Oh, and Ayman al-Zawahri thinks Obama is a race traitor and a — I swear — "house negro." He's also pissed that Obama has "abandoned his Muslim faith."

ANA MARIE: al-Zawahri reads too many right wing blogs.

• Barack Obama and John McCain met this afternoon in which they talked about combating government waste and bitter partisanship and took some pretty, pretty pictures for us peons. [Washington Post]
• Vetting Bill Clinton's sketchy dealings in Central Asia and the donor list for his library might well cost Hillary Clinton her SecState job and prove that Obama was right to have been demanding those get released during the primaries. [Politico]
• But Obama is firmly against torture and keeping Guantanamo Bay open, so that's good at least. [Washington Independent]

• Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) introduced legislation today to make it illegal to sell the free Inauguration tickets (punishable by a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison) or to forge them. Yipes. Get them legal or watch it on TV, ladies. [CNN]
• Connecticut Senator Joe "Benedict Arnold" Lieberman is now expected to keep his chairmanship but lose his subcommittee chairmanship as his "punishment" for betraying the Democratic party. I guess we know about how hard Harry Reid intends to push back on, like, anything now that he's solidified power. [Huffington Post]
• With that news, former Senator John "The Inseminator" Edwards has decided to stage his own comeback. [Daily Beast]
• Alabama Senator Richard Shelby — who's been the GOP's point person on negging the auto bailout — scolded South Carolina GOP Senator Jim DeMint — who's been gunning for more power in the party — for saying the Republican losses this year were the fault of John McCain's betrayal of the (social) conservative brand of the GOP. Abortion and gay marriage, that's all the GOP should be against, totally. [CNN]
• By the way, New Gingrich says that we are all a part of a "a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it." Yeah, fuck us for being all like "separation of church and state" and trying to take advantage of "equal protection under the law" and exercising our First Amendment rights to assemble and petition the government and shit. What fascists we all are. [Media Matters]

MEGAN: So I have abandoned Williamsburg in favor of Queens, but only because it's easier to get coffee and the subway here. Am I missing anything in D.C. other than a federal holiday I don't believe I've gotten off since high school?

SPENCER: It's really cold.

MEGAN: Like, unusually for November cold? Or just cold-cold?

SPENCER: And Howard Dean is leaving the Democratic National Committee. I hate talking about the weather. I know I brought it up.

MEGAN: It did seem unusual for you. Maybe Howard just misses a real autumn and a snowy winter and wants to go back to Vermont? I know, I crack myself up, too, sometimes.

SPENCER: This is a man who will simply never get his due. Fought at every single step of the way for the Democratic nomination, fought at every single step of the way for the DNC chairmanship, all to say that the time is ripe for a progressive infrastructure in all 50 states, and most importantly at the state legislature levels to build the future of the Democratic Party, and vindicated in every particular. But will he ever be treated as the visionary he is? No, because he's too friendly to dirty fucking hippies like Markos Moulitsas and Duncan Black and Jane Hamsher. Oh, and let's not forget how he was ridiculed for the sin of being right about the Iraq war.

MEGAN: I mean, credit where credit is due, Obama's 50 state strategy really is just Howard Dean's from 2006. And even then Dean was considered a profligate over-spender because what the hell Democratic candidate was ever going to win in Indiana or North Carolina?

SPENCER: But I want to see some inter-party acknowledgment that Dean was right and certain magazines I used to work for were overwhelmingly wrong. These kinds of decisions speak to the heart of what people in progressive circles believe is possible, and good work needs to be rewarded and bad work needs to be... well, if not punished exactly then recognized as myopic.

MEGAN: Wait, you want people in Washington to admit they were wrong about stuff? Man, you are Mr. Rainbows and Sunshine and Unicorns. I mean, fuck, the word today is that if Reid held a secret caucus vote to strip Lieberman of his chairmanship, Lieberman would win. I mean, then there's really never going to be a penalty for being wrong ever again. On the other hand, I guess if there's never a penalty for being or doing wrong, I wouldn't have to apologize for stuff anymore.

SPENCER: I know, here we strip ourselves of Very Serious Personhood by conceding that we make mistakes from time to time. These people need to purge themselves of their inner Bush Administration.

MEGAN: Why, if you admit you were wrong once, you might be admitting that you could be wrong in the future!!

SPENCER: Here's another thing about Joe Lieberman, speaking of. According to TPM's Justin Elliot, Lieberman granted an interview to a McCarthyite in which he smeared American Muslim communities as seedbeds of terrorism — I mean, even the reactionary New Republic knows that's not true. And this guy is the head of a homeland security committee.

MEGAN: What the motherfuck? Jim Webb, I don't call you because I know you carry a gun and I don't want you to pull a Dick Cheney on me (although I'm not a lawyer), but I'm calling you. You got elected on being a tough guy, so be a tough guy. A little metaphorical birdshot to the face won't kill Lieberman, and no one will mind if you aim lower. Anyway, speaking of testicular fortitude, Obama yesterday apparently asked Bush to get off his ass and do something about preventing a GM bankruptcy and Bush reportedly said he would "think" about it as part of a stimulus plan... but only if Dems pass the Colombia FTA as part of said stimulus. You know, one of the things Obama explicitly campaigned against. And so rather than rolling over and capitulating to the least popular outgoing President in modern history — and I actually support the Colombia FTA, don't get me wrong — I think Reid, Pelosi and Obama should just let him veto an economic stimulus package. You know, call his fucking bluff for once.

SPENCER: Josh reported that Obama was like don't give me that shit about your agenda in his meeting with Bush yesterday. I can see Bush being petulant about this sort of thing. Why do you support a free trade deal with Colombia?

MEGAN: Well, for one, I generally support lower tariffs on imports because higher tariffs aren't effective industry savers (it just staves off the inevitable) and because it lowers my prices as a consumer. Rather than trying to save individual industries by an overarching, government-run, slow-moving industrial policy managed by a bunch of wonks and bureaucrats in D.C. with little real-world experience in running or financing businesses, I would rather see our government focus on education, re-training, economic growth writ large and stop trying to pick winners and losers. I also get annoyed at the Democratic rhetoric about how there aren't enforceable labor and environmental standards in the main text of the agreement because it's intellectually disingenuous — the "main text" is literally a list of tariffs and how we have agreed to lower them and everything else including agreements on service and market opening, labor and environment and quote-unquote side agreements that are, indeed, enforceable. Colombia's actually a relatively decent agreement and it's not an economic threat to our economy. But I also understand that Obama just ran on a platform that opposes it.

SPENCER: Aren't the politics of such a thing toxic? Obama needs to pass a stimulus bill first-things-first to stop the fuck-uppage of the economy. Forcing a free-trade fight at the outset seems like a poor idea. Not that you're arguing otherwise. But this is all I can contribute to the conversation.

MEGAN: That is, in fact, my argument. Obama shouldn't let Bush force his hand (my personal feelings on the bill aside) on the FTA to get the stimulus, but it's the sort of thing Pelosi and Reid have been caving on for the last two years. And the unions will scream to the heavens even if he does get an auto industry preservation plan out of it. He should tell both Bush and Chuck Norris to fuck off already.

SPENCER: Wow:

They had come for my wallet./ They wanted my pay/ To give to the others,/ Who had not worked a day!

So now we know that what's behind Chuck Norris' beard isn't in fact another fist but a douchenozzle. It must feel so impotent, to know that individually you can kick anyone's ass, but 65 million Americans kicked yours a week ago.

MEGAN: Technically, I think the Republicans alone kicked his ass back when they didn't vote for Huckabee, so the bitterness has had some time to build.

SPENCER: Oh one last thing: for all you veterans out there, thank you, and may you be blessed with free health care, generous education benefits and friendly golden retrievers forevermore on behalf of a grateful nation.

• Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, a group of supposely intelligent women decided that Barack Obama wasn't sexy enough for them. And thus the world was denied his image in a Harvard Law beefcake calendar. I guess we'll always have People. [Politico]
• Obama has told people he wants Lieberman to continue to caucus with the Dems, something Lieberman is swearing that he won't do if Democrats take his committee assignment away. Let the whiny bitch go, please. "No drama Obama" doesn't have to mean rolling over for Lieberman. [Huffington Post]
• Speaking of the Senate, the difference between Norm Coleman and Al Franken in the Minnesota Senate race is down to 204 votes. One more reason to cut the dead weight, Harry Reid. [MSNBC]

• There's a fake guy who claims to be the one who told Fox News that Sarah Palin didn't know about NAFTA. He claims to be best buds with Randy Scheunemann and "added" that she didn't know the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas, Sunnis and Shi'ites or the IRA and ETA. [Politico, Fake Martin Eisenstadt]
• None of that will delay the start of Palin's comeback tour, which begins this week at the Republican Governor's Association in Miami. [Washington Post]
• She's headed there once she's done sorting through her massive wardrobe to find the clothes the RNC desperately needs back. You know, the clothes she never wore that lived in the belly of the campaign plane after the convention. Those clothes. [Associated Press]
• Howard Dean is going to leave the DNC. [Washington Post]
• Former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is going to run for Governor of Virginia. [Politico]
• And everyone in the world is calling Obama on the phone, including Russian Putin-puppet President Dmitry Medvedev. No wonder he always has the thing up to his ear when he's getting out of a car lately! [Washington Post]

MEGAN: So I am coming to you live from your ancestral homeland, aka, Brooklyn. It's very noisy.

SPENCER: You are not in Brooklyn. You are in Colonial Williamsburg.

MEGAN: Oh, believe me, I know. To get back here at one point, the cab driver insisted that he didn't know where it was (I had been in Park Slope) and drove me over the Manhattan Bridge, to the Lower East Side and tried to make me get out, which I refused to do until he drove me back over the Williamsburg Bridge, cursing me the entire way.

SPENCER: He has good taste.

MEGAN: I curse more profligately. D.C. is good for some things. So, did you spend the weekend worrying about the security of the homeland if Joe Lieberman is removed from his chairmanship? Because we wouldn't want the terrorists to win.

SPENCER: You know it. The terrorists fear no man like they fear the Jowler. To remove him from his chairmanship for the simple choice to campaign against the new Democratic president and for suggesting that a sufficiently Democratic Senate would end the country as we know it would be like blowing up the World Trade Center all over again.

MEGAN: You can't mess with the motherfucking Nutmeg State.

SPENCER: I want to play by Lieberman rules, you know? Not only ought there to be no consequences for my actions, I want to be actively courted, disloyalty rewarded. Josh Marshall had a good post on this on Friday. This isn't a negotiation! You campaign against Obama? You watch the Democrats gain seven seats, at least? You lose your shit, period. Do you think the Republicans would be this accommodating if Arlen Specter campaigned for Obama and the GOP retook the Senate?

MEGAN: I seem to remember them pretty effectively telling Jim Jeffords to fuck off when they fully took the Senate earlier this decade.

SPENCER: Besides, what's he really going to do? The New England GOP went extinct on Tuesday. Lieberman will either caucus with the Democrats, officially or unofficially, or he'll go down in flames in 2012. His state voted for Obama by fucking 22 points.

MEGAN: But Harry Reid thinks he's progressive. So, like, down is up and up is down and Harry Reid doesn't like making unpopular decisions — or, apparently, even popular ones — so I sort of don't understand why he wants to be Majority Leader.

SPENCER: And if there needed to be another reason here, my friend the unkillable Brian Beutler pointed out that Lieberman's gavel has the power to do serious damage to an Obama administration. But are you really sweating Harry Reid for that statement? Reid's people are saying there's no chance for Lieberman to keep his gavel, so who gives a fuck if Reid praises Lieberman?

MEGAN: I'm just sick of Reid being such a pushover all the time. He's the head of the Senate. The reason the executive branch keeps getting more and more powerful — besides the truism that every Senator thinks he or she will be President some day — is because squishes like Reid and Frist before him allow the executive branch to usurp too much power from the legislative.

SPENCER: But if that's the case, don't look at what he says, look at what he does. He's taking Lieberman's gavel away. That's not being a squish, it's defending the caucus and the Obama agenda. If he puts a crony in charge of the government affairs committee, that's bullshit and I said so here. Even the most outwardly-virtuous Obama administration needs congressional oversight and blah blah blah I hate all this goo-goo good government bullshit like Henry says in Goodfellas. What do you think of Larry Summers because I don't know what to think so help me.

MEGAN: I really, really, really cannot believe that the NY Times called him "a leading candidate to be the next Treasury chief." And I hope that when Valerie Jarrett said this weekend that we're all just guessing and that it's not from them that she's specifically talking about Summers. Because they are obviously, I think, floating him to see if they can get away with it, and I don't think they can and I think, worse yet, that they ought not to try.

SPENCER: What's the case against Treasury Re-Secretary Summers?

MEGAN: I think the biggest reason is that this Administration just shouldn't take on his women are innately not good and math and science bullshit that he said when he was President of Harvard. That is just some stupid, embarrassing, sexist shit that, rightly, caused him to lose his job and the trust and support of the faculty and the student body. I think that, given all the sexism charges floating out and around right now, the main guy that's going to be seen as running Obama's economic policy needs not be someone with his sexist head so far up he ass he can watch himself bloviate from inside his own mouth.

SPENCER: So who do you think would be a better pick? Give me your short list.

MEGAN: I mean, I like Moe's idea of Sheila Bair that she floated last week. It doesn't hurt that she's a woman, qualified and doesn't care as much about fucking Wall Street as Summers does — although I think those are good things — but I think picking someone like Bair would resonate more with Obama's themes that the next step has to be bailing out main street. Summers is a big business, Wall Street loving guy and always has been, and I think there's a good argument to be made that getting first and second quarter's earning and dividends back on track doesn't fix our economy. I can also get on board with Tim Geithner.

SPENCER: Oh shit Crappy Hour just went up in the Kutt! That's change I can believe in.

MEGAN: I mean, let's not take this as a sign that I'm on board with everything the all-union EPI is about, but yeah, I went there.

SPENCER: What are the relative merits of Bair and Geithner? Because I'll speak for myself. The true test of whether we have change I can believe in is whether I can buy a Range I can believe in.

MEGAN: Compared to one another, or to Summers? I think Bair would be an interesting choice if Obama is really serious about this Main Street bullshit he keeps talking about that continues to make me want to pound shots whenever he says it. I think Geithner is a choice more in the Summers school of though, though way less free trade-y than Summers, which is an apt criticism of Summers from the left to which Obama repeatedly promised to "have another look" at NAFTA during the primaries and is sending Emanual around to tell everyone to keep the Colombia FTA out of the new stimulus.

SPENCER: Can you explain Bair being better for this "main street bullshit"? Remember, I'm an economic illiterate. MATH IS TOO HARD FOR TEH BOYS

MEGAN: Ok, so, Obama is all about how now that we've giving away billions upon billions of dollars to the banks — and he wasn't even talking about the possibly incredibly illegal tax policy change that Paulson decided to pass to give them more money than Congress even intended — that it's time to turn to bailing out Main Street (drink!). Bair comes from the FDIC, so she's more intellectually engaged in issues on a daily basis that are actually affecting individual Americans than all in the weeds of intellectual economics and the kind of trickle-down stuff that's supposed to happen from fixing Wall Street. For instance, from the Kuttner article:

She has long waged a battle within the administration for direct assistance to homeowners, rather than having stressed mortgage holders be the incidental beneficiaries of bailouts to bondholders and banks. Last week, she went public with her dissenting views, giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal. "[W]e're attacking it at the [financial] institution level as opposed to the borrower level, and it's the borrowers defaulting. That is what's causing the distress at the institution level," she said. "So why not tackle the borrower problem?"

That's in line with what Obama has said about what the government needs to do next.

SPENCER: Is she the sort of Treasury Secretary who'd urge using fiscal policy instead of just monetary policy as a tool to get us out of the crisis? That's the most econ-wonky question I can ask and I don't really know what it means.

MEGAN: It means that instead of trying to manipulate the price of our currency to encourage exports or interest rates to encourage lending, she's try to spend money on stimulus or passing legislation that would restructure aspects of how we regulate or spend money in order to make longer-term economic changes. And, yes, I think she is. Certainly more than Summers. The question is whether this Administration or the Obama Administration can have the intellectual courage to suck it up, admit that there are some hard times a-comin', and rather than continuing to throw money at the problem in the futile hopes of staving off the worst of the collapse, will take measures to help the eventual recovery and prevent the next one. There's a real political risk to long-term policy investments when they might have to come at the expense of short-term political capital or gains. But, as I said, I'm sick of squishes. It's 2 years until the next election, someone should "run around yelling 'Fuck you!'" besides Joe Scarborough.

SPENCER: I want to give Calderone the link on that, since me, him and another friend are taking a bro-trip to New Orleans on Friday. Also, before you drive back to DC, drive to the Flatbush junction — south on Flatbush Ave till it connects with Nostrand — for a beef patty at Golden Krust. That's BKLYN.

MEGAN: Will it last 4 hours? I can bring you one.

SPENCER: Oh fuck yes.

• Though Barack obama told Americans nothing about forthcoming nominations, that doesn't mean there's nothing to speculate about! John Kerry, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson are lead speculative Secretary of State candidates, Robert Gates might stay at the Defense Department, Janet Napolitano could be headed to Justice and former eBay executive Steve Westly, the Governator or Kathleen Sebelius could end up at DOE. Discuss at your leisure — Obama certainly is. [CNN, Politico]
• The President-Elect has included sexual orientation and gender identity in his non-discrimination pledge on hiring, which is awesome. [ACLU]
• Harry Reid is a little pissed about Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's Obama-bashing during his balls-out support of John McCain this election season — to say nothing of his current flirtation with Mitch McConnell and the GOP caucus. He is thinking of allowing the Democratic caucus to strip Lieberman of his committee chair, which Lieberman calls "unacceptable" and everyone else calls "no less than he deserves." [CNN, Huffington Post]
• Unlike the obstreperous Lieberman, Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd is stepping aside as chairman because he's confident of the new Democratic majority and, likely, because of his continuing ill health. Sadly, this means no more "barbaric" speeches. [The Hill, YouTube]

• In what may be the most disturbing charitable donation of all time, some of the clothing items the Palins need to return to the RNC include Todd's silk boxers. And you thought her plane left skid marks when it left Phoenix! [Washington Post]
• To counter that image, Sarah Palin's going to do an interview with Greta Van Susteren. Nope, don't think that image is getting out of my head regardless, sorry. [LA Times]
• Right-wing South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is pissed that McConnell isn't going to expel Senate Ted "McBribe-y" Stevens from the Senate during the lame duck session. Yes, Virginia, some Republicans do have principles. [Politico]
• The best quote that ever has been said or ever will be said about Rahm Emanuel: "Emanuel, on the other hand, is a drama queen; seething, foaming Mamet production; a big mouth; and a calculating mensch who loves nothing more than to stoke the feed bag for press-corps noshers." Oh, this is going to be an epic White House. [Politico]
• Obama's aunt — who the right-wingers discovered far too late has overstayed her deportation order — has decided to fight in court for the right to remain in the U.S. She's not in great health, reportedly, which would seem like humanitarian grounds to let her stay but our immigration system isn't exactly known for being humanitarian in nature. [MSNBC]
• Neither are Americans, two of whom in New Jersey set a cross ablaze on the lawn of an Obama supporter. Racism: officially no longer confined to The South. Please make a note of it. [Editor & Publisher]
• In slightly better news, there is talk about automatically registering every eligible citizen to vote and expanding early voting so that this ACORN-caging-voter challenges nonsense can finally just end. God, how awesome would that be? [NY Times]

Suggesting that Hillary Clinton might make a good Senate Majority Leader isn't exactly a new idea. It was bandied about in 2006 after Clinton spent the better part of 5 years actually working across party lines as a member of the then-minority party to get legislation passed — which is a damn sight harder than the way McCain brags about working across party lines, since he did it as a member of the then-majority party, but whatevs. The point is, before she took all that time off to run for the Presidency, she was already acknowledged on both sides of the aisle as a Senator (and a woman) who could get things done and even work with people that hated her guts.

By comparison, let's take current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He controls a thin Democratic majority less than half as well as Tom Daschle did earlier this decade, and is so damned mealy-mouthed he won't say what everyone knows anyway: that Lieberman is going to be out of the caucus and his committee chair in January. Hillary Clinton wouldn't be kissing Lieberman's ass because she knows what little hope Lieberman has of being re-elected in 4 years rests squarely on his ability to pretend he is mostly a Democrat and that that rests squarely on the shoulders of Democrats willing to cooperate with him. I challenge anyone to find an example of a command performance he's given this year as a politician, speech-maker or Majority Leader. He's best known for caving on FISA, SCHIP and a host of other issues to keep away from Bush's scary veto pen — and for keeping the Senate in session over Christmas to avoid recess appointments. That's not exactly a stellar record.

So, how about them 18 million cracks? How about the thought of the executive branch being helmed by the first African-American President, the House of Representatives helmed by the first woman Speaker and the Senate helmed by its first female Majority Leader? How would that be for change? Too audacious? Rather than letting yet another old white dude in there, why don't we take a woman with some political capital to spend, a large group of national supporters, a willingness to stand up to Republicans while still working with them and the ability to herd Democratic cats into formation and let me be both a great Senator for New York and continue to be a great leader for the Democratic party? It's just an idea.

Clinton Doesn't See Political Role Beyond Senate [MSNBC]
Hillary Clinton: No to Cabinet, Won't Say on VP [Fox News]
Hillary Not Running! [New York Observer
Sen. Clinton Says 2nd White House Run Is Unlikely [NY Times]
Take Two: Hillary's Choice [The Atlantic]

As a result of that patent unfairness, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was put before the Senate yesterday. And it was voted down, 56-42. By a Republican filibuster. And John McCain didn't even bother to show up to vote.

The Ledbetter Act would have allowed people more than 180 days to file claims against their employers, and, according to U.S. News and World Report, "It would have each discriminatory paycheck trigger a new claim-filing period, that is, another 180-day window in which to file a case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission." McCain, however, is against it because, according to the Daily Kos, McCain is "all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what's being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems...This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system."

As Kos points out, "Pay discrimination is already illegal. This legislation would have fixed a bad [Supreme Court] decision that severely limited the ability of workers to hold their employers accountable for breaking the law." Both Obama and Clinton voted in favor of the Ledbetter Act.

The fact that this Act was voted down in the first place makes me want to vomit, but it's especially depressing if you read Ruth Bader Ginsberg's dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court case. Ginsberg, of course, was one of four judges who voted in favor of Ledbetter, and she wrote, "The jury also heard testimony that another supervisor—who evaluated Ledbetter in 1997 and whose evaluation led to her most recent raise denial—was openly biased against women...And two women who had previously worked as managers at the plant told the jury they had been subject to pervasive discrimination and were paid less than their male counterparts. One was paid less than the men she supervised...Ledbetter herself testified about the discriminatory animus conveyed to her by plant officials. Toward the end of her career, for instance, the plant manager told Ledbetter that the 'plant did not need women, that [women] didn't help it, [and] caused problems.'"

What the fuck. On a micro level, Lilly Ledbetter got completely fucked over. On a macro one, Republicans don't give a shit about anyone but CEOs. I'm just as baffled about this as Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who said, "I don't know how anyone would oppose something like this. It just makes sense that people should be treated fairly."

Equal Work, Unequal Pay [US News And World Report]
Republicans Defeat Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act [Daily Kos]
Lilly Ledbetter v. The Goodyear Tire And Rubber Company [Cornell]
Equal Pay Isn't A Partisan Issue. Is it? [Time]