Absence clearly isn't making hearts grow fonder in the health care debate.

The Obama administration on Monday showed its irritation with remarks Wyoming Republican Sen. Michael B. Enzi made as part of the weekly GOP address on Sunday -- particularly lines about how Democratic proposals in Congress would restrict medical choices and make the nation's "finances sicker without saving you money." Enzi, you'll recall, is part of the "Gang of Six" Senate Finance Committee members who've been meeting for months to craft a bipartisan health plan.

President Obama during recent town hall meetings singled out Enzi as one of a handful of Republicans who's still working constructively to achieve results. But Enzi on Sunday said town hall meetings he's held with constituents revealed widespread anxiety over Obama's efforts to reshape the U.S. health system.

Strong signs that the Obama administration is close to declaring that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants are prompting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to request the EPA conduct a public hearing on the scientific evidence underpinning the belief that rising temperatures threaten public health and welfare.

Last week, the powerful business lobby filed a request that the agency provide a venue to rebut "largely undocumented and, in the chamber's view, insupportable claims" about the effects of climate change. Chamber officials said they are concerned that any rules capping greenhouse gas emissions could be unduly influenced by what it contends are spurious claims, including assertions that climate change may cause mental illness and that 150,000 people die every year from the effects of global warming.

The request is part of the widespread jockeying by business groups and environmentalists in anticipation of a finding that would trigger a requirement that the federal government regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549), with or without new legislation.

Lost in all the tributes to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is the role he played asserting congressional prerogatives and curbing presidential power in the early 1970s, by limiting chief executives' ability to employ what has come to be known as the pocket veto.

Recall from civics class that the Constitution gives the president 10 legislative days (excluding Sundays) to sign a bill into law or return it to Congress. Bills that are neither approved or vetoed after 10 days automatically become law. But if Congress adjourns before the 10 days pass and the president has not yet signed the bill, the bill dies, forcing Congress to start over in its next legislative session, if it wants to try again. Taken literally, the president "pocketed" the bill rather than acted on it.

Since the pocket veto is a classic passive-aggressive behavior and doesn't require direct action, it has become a periodic source of friction between the branches, usually because the president and Congress can't agree over what precisely constitutes "adjourment." Such was the case during President Richard M. Nixon's first term, when he pocket vetoed a bill that would have provided funds for medical training during the six-day Christmas recess in 1970, arguing that the short recess was akin to an adjournment sine die, marking the end of a two-year session.

Just five years after assuming his brother's Senate seat at age 30, Edward M. Kennedy helped enact the Medicare and Medicaid programs, beginning a 40-plus year involvement with federal health care issues. Kennedy was so passionate about extending coverage to the uninsured and fortifying the social safety net, that he made then-candidate Barack Obama pledge to make health care a first-tier priority in return for his support -- a promise the president fulfilled by staking much of his first-term agenda on an ambitious and controversial plan to retool the U.S. health care system.

Kennedy's colleagues in Congress -- including Obama's campaign opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain -- have lamented the progressive warrior's absence from the Senate during this year's health care debate and speculated how his presence might have by now helped forged consensus on the broad contours of a plan.

"Had his own health allowed him to fully participate, we would be far closer to consensus today on a path to health care in America," Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., said on Wednesday.

In the hours after Kennedy's death, progressive interest groups wasted little time invoking his legacy, in an effort to rally Congress to enact a sweeping health plan when lawmakers return on Sept. 8.

Kennedy's passing could yet alter the tenor of the debate, now mired in fierce partisan battles over how to pay for an overhaul and what role the government should play in a retooled health insurance market.

As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke was preparing to accept President Obama's offer of a second term, the central bank was losing a federal court case over its ability to keep details about emergency lending to banks and other financial institutions out of the public eye.

U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska on Monday ruled in favor of Bloomberg LP, the New York-based company majority-owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which filed suit last November on behalf of its Bloomberg News unit over the Fed's refusal to disclose documents detailing the identities of borrowers, the amounts of loans or the assets put up as collateral under 11 relief programs.

Bloomberg argued taxpayers were entitled to know the terms of Fed lending intended to keep the financial system afloat, because the public had become a de facto investor in big financial institutions that the government decided to rescue.

Monday marked the deadline for states to submit applications for some of the $8 billion in high-speed rail funding contained in the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5). You'll recall how the Obama administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., muscled the rail money into the financial recovery bill during a House-Senate conference last February, in spite of watchdog groups' concerns that it could benefit construction of a long-planned magnetic-levitation, or "maglev," train connecting Las Vegas, in Reid's home state, and Southern California.

Now, the debate seems to be pivoting around whether the sum is enough to build rail networks of any consequence, and whether high-speed rail will deliver on environmental promises its proponents are promiting.

The Obama administration envisions a series of 100-600-mile corridors consisting of upgraded lines and entirely new track that could allow trains to sweep between cities at speeds between 150-250 miles per hour. Amtrak Acela trains operating on the line between Boston and Washington currently have the capability of running at more than 150 miles an hour, but the tracks will not accommodate such speeds.

With the leading presidential candidates each claiming they're ahead in the balloting, allegations of vote fraud swirling and U.S. public opinion increasingly turning against his Afghanistan strategy, President Obama was a bit circumspect sizing up the nation's elections Friday as he headed off for a weeklong summer vacation.

Before boarding Marine One for a short flight to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Obama praised the Afghan people for turning out to vote in Thursday's contest ''in the face of intimidation'' from the Taliban and added the plebiscite was an ''important step forward" for a nation that's struggled to tamp down violence and establish rule of law. He also renewed his commitment to beat back Islamic militants that carried out election day attacks in at least 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

"There is a clear contrast between those who seek to control their future at the ballot box, and those who kill to prevent that from happening," Obama said. "Once again, extremists in Afghanistan have shown themselves willing to murder innocent Muslims -- men, women and children -- to advance their aims. But I believe that the future belongs to those who want to build -- not those who want to destroy. And that is the future that was sought by the Afghans who went to the polls, and the Afghan National Security Forces who protected them."

The message has been sent: President Obama is deliberately not ruling out a Democrats-only strategy to break the deadlock on health care.

At an online “strategy session” this afternoon sponsored by Organizing for America — formerly the grass-roots mobilization arm of his presidential campaign — Obama promised to move ahead on a health care overhaul “one way or another,” regardless of whether the Senate Finance Committee can reach an agreement that can win the support of three Senate Republicans.

Responding to a question about whether the bipartisan talks are doing any good, Obama said he wants “a good product that includes some Republican ideas.” But, he added, “I have no control over what the other side decides is its political strategy. My commitment to the American people is, we’re going to get this done one way or another.”

Liberal Democrats and progressive groups have been increasingly frustrated at how far the Obama administration, and particularly Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, have been going to win Republican support — especially if the effort means getting rid of a proposed government-run health plan to compete with private insurers. They’ve noted that even Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, one of the three Republicans Baucus has been negotiating with, has said he might not support a deal if it can’t get substantial GOP support — a remark that has convinced them the Republicans aren’t negotiating in good faith.

With prospects for a bipartisan health care agreement growing slim, the Obama administration is weighing the idea of splitting a health care overhaul into two pieces and passing more contentious provisions -- including those that would create a government-run health plan -- under a congressional procedure known as budget reconciliation that would make them immune to filibuster in the Senate.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to comment on the possibility on Thursday, saying President Obama remains committed to working with Republicans and Democrats on a comprehensive plan. A bipartisan group of six Senate Finance Committee members that has been involved in talks for several months is scheduled to hold a conference call tonight to evaluate next steps.

However, individuals familiar with the administration's thinking say the White House is increasingly comfortable with a strategy that could push some aspects of an overhaul through the Senate without Republican votes. Administration officials began seriously considering the option last month, after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a health plan by a party-line 13-10 vote.

So did Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius get taken to the wood shed on the White House grounds for remarks she made Sunday that seemed to imply the Obama administration is ready to ditch the public option in the proposed health care overhaul?

Administration officials on Tuesday stuck to their contention there's been no change in White House policy, and that Sebelius was simply articulating a longstanding desire for any overhaul to bring choice and competition in private insurance markets.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs instead attributed any misunderstanding to media reports that overinterpreted the ex-Kansas governor's remarks, asserting "we've been boringly consistent" on the public option.

Heeding the concerns of Congress and the real estate industry, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department on Monday extended for three months an emergency program designed to unfreeze the market for mortgages and other consumer and business loans.

The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, uses Treasury seed money to leverage $1 trillion for the purchase of securities backed by a variety of consumer loans from banks that were impaired by contagion from the mortgage crisis. The expectation is that the purchases will cleanse balance sheets and free the lenders to make new loans. Monday's action extends the program to June 30 for newly issued mortgage-based securities, instead of year's end. The program previously was extended to March 31 for non real estate-backed securities.

Commercial real estate interests implored the Obama administration and the Fed to extend the program, saying it was taking longer than expected to get going because of the time involved in packaging loans into mortgage-backed securities. The concerned were echoed by 41 members of Congress, including House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who sent Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner a July 31 letter asking for a one-year extension, through December 2010.

Charges that President Obama and House Democrats want to authorize "death panels" in their health care overhaul evoke a debate 19 years ago in which lawmakers first took up sensitive right-to-die issues.

The catalyst then was a controversial Supreme Court case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, in which a 5-4 ruling upheld a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that it was acceptable to require "clear and convincing evidence" that a young woman in a persistent vegetative state would not want to remain on life support for years. The court held "that the evidence adduced at trial did not amount to clear and convincing proof of Cruzan's desire to have hydration and nutrition withdrawn."

Then as now, lawmakers who wanted to make sure people knew about their rights to execute "living wills" or other advance directives clarifying their wishes in such a situation tried to insert language in a sweeping bill dealing with Medicare and Medicaid policy. And opponents quickly charged that the effort would inject government into sensitive personal care decisions.

Still trying to make good on President Obama's vow to shut the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year of taking office, an interagency team from the Pentagon, Justice and Homeland Security departments visited a maximum security prison in Standish, Mich. on Thursday to evaluate whether it could be used as a combination courtoom-lockup for 229 al Qaeda, Taliban and other foreign fighters now in U.S. custody.

With unemployment in the area north of Saginaw hovering around 17 percent, you'd think the locals would welcome the prospect of a corrections-based stimulus program. The prison in the town of 1,580 is due to close soon, and local officials were concerned enough about the loss of 300 jobs to recently invite California to export some of its inmates, because the state can't afford to upgrade its prison health facilities.

But the prospect of turning Michigan into what one congressman called a "terrorist penal colony" is bringing out the NIMBY spirit -- and posing some delicate political calculations for elected officials. .

The politically sensitive issue of executive pay has provided much fodder for President Obama and Congress during the economic downturn.

The president in early February made a populist-tinged statement about corporate excesses by placing a salary cap on top executives at firms receiving "exceptional assistance" from the government. Congress followed suit days later by quietly slipping language into the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) that limited bonuses for senior executives at companies that participate in the federal bailout program. Lawmakers have since taken other steps that apply to companies not receiving government aid; before the August recess the House passed a bill that would give shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive pay and allow fregulators to restrict incentive-laden compensation packages if they threaten the health of larger financial institutions.

The scrutiny enters a new phase on Thursday, when seven large companies that received bailout packages will present compensation plans to Kenneth Feinberg, Obama's "special master" on executive compensation.

American International Group Inc., Bank of America, Chrysler LLC, Chrysler Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., General Motors Corp. and GMAC Inc. will detail how they play to pay their top 25 earners in the coming year. Feinberg's response, due within 60 days of the submissions, will probably influence the pay practices of much of the financial industry.

Well, that was civil.

After a series of flak-filled town hall meetings during which members of Congress were shouted down by voters angry about the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama on Tuesday presided over a gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., that was noteworthy for its lack of drama.

Maybe it was the fact that most of the 1,800 attendees in the Portsmouth High School gym supported Obama's goal of retooling the U.S. health care system. Tickets were distributed by local congressional offices (all in Democratic hands) and by sympathetic groups. The audience applauded broadsides the president fired at insurers. And when Obama asked for a skeptical question, one man responded by asking why Obama doesn't chastise members of Congress more for having access to better care than their contituents.

Other politicians should have it so good.

The White House is weighing in on the question of what's appropriate behavior and what isn't when constituents confront their elected officials about health care in town hall meetings.

Deputy press secretary Bill Burton was asked Monday afternoon about the health rage sweeping the nation and comments by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., casting aspersions on the patriotism of citizens who have shouted down members of Congress at health care forums.

Speaking on Air Force One as the president returned to Washington from the summit with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico in Guadalajara, Burton said President Obama supports "a spirited debate" and "a real vigorous conversation" about health care. "I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," Burton said. "So if people want to come and have their concerns and their questions answered, the president thinks that's important."

Cross immigration off President Obama's short-term to-do list.

At the the three-way summit with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico in Guadalajara, Obama on Monday predicted immediate priorities like health care and new financial regulations would crowd out a comprehensive effort to secure borders and figure out what to do about the 12 million people estimated to be in the country illegally this year.

Obama said that he expects to see draft legislation for immigration overhaul by the end of the year. But anything resembling a fix will likely come in piecemeal fashion. Witness the Senate's decision last month to use the appropriations process to require federal contractors to use an electronic employee eligibility verification system and to set construction standards for the fence now going up along the border with Mexico.

President Obama moved his previously scheduled remarks on the economy from a gym at Fort Myer, Va. to the Rose Garden on Friday after the Labor Department reported that unemployment fell in July for the first time since April 2008, to 9.4 percent, in another sign the recession might be easing.

Sunshine, singing birds and colorful flowers surely evoke better times ahead, and helped put an exclamation point on a jobs report that exceeded the expectations of most economists and even the White House.

Obama took a victory lap of sorts, crediting the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) and other Democratic initiatives for bringing the nation back from the brink. And he again plugged overhauling the health system, creating green jobs and bolstering education as necessary for building a sustained recovery.

"We have a lot further to go. As far as I am concerned we will not have a true recovery as long as we are losing jobs," Obama said. The president went on to rhapsodize about Americans he's met who are facing adversity but managing to keep their faith in the country and the future.

Such lofty talk doesn't mean Obama is finished playing the blame game, however.

He probably wasn’t deputized to shoot down health care ideas anyway, but White House senior adviser David Axelrod passed up a clear chance this afternoon to express concerns, on President Obama’s behalf, about the health care co-ops that might be in the Senate Finance Committee bill instead of the government-run “public option” Obama wants.

“He’s eager to talk to people and hear what their ideas are on that,” Axelrod told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats at the Capitol. “But he believes a public plan would end up with costs coming down.”

It was the standard Obama approach to these kinds of questions: We’ll listen to other ideas; we prefer ours, but we’re not going to say no if someone has a better plan. The problem, though, is that the co-op approach being considered by the bipartisan “Gang of Six” group of Finance Committee senators — who met with Obama at the White House earlier today — strikes most Democrats as way too big a compromise. Congressional Democrats, like White House officials, want to institute a public plan that could give private insurers enough competition to lower everybody’s costs.

By all accounts, President Obama didn’t use yesterday’s White House meeting with Senate Democrats to pressure Finance Chairman Max Baucus of Montana to hurry up and finish his health care bill. And the second-ranking Democrat on the committee, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, said this afternoon that he doesn’t think Baucus will ultimately win the votes of the three Republicans he’s negotiating with.

But Rockefeller said Obama “very skillfully handled” a discussion of the most likely scenario: that sometime in September, Baucus will have to give up and the Democrats will have to try to pass the health care bill by using budget reconciliation procedures, which only require a 51-vote majority.

At a press conference on the health care bill, Rockefeller — who is not part of the negotiations on a bipartisan bill, even though he chairs the health care subcommittee — made it clear he doesn’t think Baucus will get anything except a weaker health care bill. “You just watch as the bill diminishes in its scope and its coverage and its ferocity to try to attack the problem,” Rockefeller said of Baucus’s talks with Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming.

So that worked out well. The White House, fighting back against various disinformation campaigns now circulating in conservative circles about the health care bill, set up an e-mail address to allow sympathetic people to report e-mails or Web site claims that seem “fishy.”

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care,” the White House said in a blog post this morning. “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help.”

That’s one way to stop disruptive activity. There’s just one flaw with that strategy: conservative bloggers read the White House Web site too. So this afternoon, NetRightNation.com, a conservative blog aggregator site run by Americans for Limited Government, sent a mass e-mail urging “fellow bloggers” to — you guessed it — disrupt the e-mail address by flooding the inbox.

The team that announced Barack Obama's running mate via text message during last year's campaign apparently is ready to place some curbs on the ubiquitous technology.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday announced he will host a distracted driving summit on a yet-to-be-announced date next month with public officials, safety advocates and law enforcement to address the dangers of text-messaging and other distractions behind the wheel.

LaHood pointed to a number of fatal incidents, including a 2008 commuter train crash in California that killed 25 people and involved an operator who was texting on a cell phone, and another incident in which a Florida truck driver admitted to texting moments before a collision with a school bus.

President Obama will host the entire Senate Democratic caucus for lunch at the White House Tuesday in what's likely to include a renewed pitch for his health care overhaul and an appeal to refinance the popular "cash for clunkers" program.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday said the gathering was in lieu of Democrats' customary weekly Senate caucus lunch on Capitol Hill and predicted a wide-ranging discussion before the chamber breaks for its August recess.

The gathering will be "to continue to talk about the priorities that they have . . . I don't doubt health care will be discussed . . . the economy will be discussed," Gibbs said.

One front-burner issue is the cash for clunkers program, which was left in limbo after the House on Friday passed a bill (HR 3435) to transfer $2 billion to the program from renewable energy loan guarantees in the stimulus bill enacted earlier this year (PL 111-5). The money would be available until the end of fiscal 2010.