Finally we see Joe Biden kick in. Uncharacteristically quiet and behind the scenes during much of the transition, the Vice President-Elect is beginning to reveal the prominent role that he is likely to play in the new administration.

For starters, Biden is playing the tough cop against adding congressional pork to the economic stimulus package:

"I know it's the Christmas season. But President-Elect Obama and I are absolutely determined that this economic recovery package will not become a Christmas tree."

How funny that the woman Caroline Kennedy sabotaged in the 2008 nomination campaign, Hillary Clinton, is now the woman she emulates in her quest for the Senate. Kennedy has no elective experience, as Clinton did not, and now embarks upon a listening tour and other tactics borrowed from her presumed predecessor's play book.

Questions About Kennedy Recall Clinton's First Race

What is it with Barack Obama and preachers? First, he sits in Jeremiah Wright's congregation for two decades and finds himself defending, then distancing himself from what amounts to hate speech.

Now he's picked a bigot to give his invocation at the inauguration. Rick Warren's anti-gay invectives stirred Rep. Barney Frank, a leading gay member of Congress, to denounce Obama's plans for the preacher to bless his inaugural.

Obama needs to find a preacher who offends no one. Surely someone else will do.

For those who might be missing me in our comments section or on television (and for those who say 'good riddance'), a word of explanation. I am in the final days of writing a book with Helen Thomas and won't be getting much of a holiday this season. 

Our working title is "Listen Up Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do." (Publisher: Scribner, an imprint of Simon and Schuster).

From the publisher: "Brilliantly culling advice and cautionary examples from recent and historical Presidents. Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford let former occupiers of the White House provide the best lesson plan for running the country -- for this and future national leaders."

Happy Holidays to Trailmixers -- don't miss their latest collective work in progress: A Trailmix Solstice Carol

Winter Solstice over Ames, Iowa

CQ Politics looks at how past lame duck presidents have handled -- or mishandled -- international and domestic crises.
(Reported by Adriel Bettelheim, Produced by Andrew Satter)

Short on Southerners and with fewer Republicans than first advertised, Barack Obama's Cabinet is mostly picked and likely to give him a reasonably good start at governing from the center. If anything, liberals have reason to worry that his choices suggest less change than the rhetoric of his campaign had indicated. Or perhaps now that he has assembled a fairly conventional roster, his intention is to use them as protection for governing from the left. Time will tell.

Yikes, not only does Karl Rove approve of Barack Obama's national security team. So does Dick Cheney. What is going on here? As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama could not have been more scathing in his critiques of George W. Bush's foreign policy. But as president-elect, Obama appears to be installing a continuation of the incumbent's agenda. Wow, what happened to change? Or did Obama learn something in those secret intelligence briefings that perhaps the rest of us would be better off not knowing?

• VP lauds Obama's choice of national security team
• David Corn: Cheney Still Speaking Falsely on WMDs
• New Study Calculates the Costs of the War on Terror
• Poll Tracker: Public Overwhelmingly Wants Obama to Pull Troops from Iraq 
• Name by name, Obama's Cabinet taking shape
• Politics (Un)Seriously: Best of the Bush Shoe-icide Parody Videos

Caroline Kennedy being anointed is just the beginning of what amounts to the un-democratic ways of the Democratic Party. Efforts to hand pick replacements for Barack Obama's senate seat, along with the talk of naming Caroline to Hillary Clinton's seat smacks of nothing but insider politics. Voters be damned. So be it. Add to the mix Charlie Rangel's ethics challenge and William Jefferson's issues, and you've got nothing but politics as usual.

While the debate rages over auto industry debt, home foreclosures and financial failures, the scale of those losses in raw dollars hardly compares to the federal government's rising tide of red ink.

As we embark upon spending billions in taxpayer funds to bail out those with the clout to get relief -- and the likelihood of growing deficits in order to expand health insurance while cutting taxes -- you have to wonder how much longer the federal government can keep borrowing with no plan to pay it down.

Today the Treasury Department releases its annual financial report of the United States. One part of those sober figures is the swelling public debt. CQ takes an in-depth look at the debt: past, present, and the troubles that lie ahead . . .

Click here for CQ's interactive
guide to the national debt

Barack Obama's inauguration is still weeks away, but already thousands of enterprising individuals are taking to the Web to connect people, plan parties and even make a quick buck off of the event. (Produced and reported by CQ's Andrew Satter)

What's the gain for Barack Obama in talking so much about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's apparent efforts to sell the President-Elect's Senate seat? If it is to show managerial skill at handling a crisis, better to stick to managing what most Americans really care about - the economic meltdown.

Fielding questions about Blagojevich at his news conference on Thursday with lengthy responses seemed to do nothing more than draw Obama into the abyss, as reporters and pundits parse every word. Why not just go with the tried-and-true dodge: It's a matter for the courts and I have no comment.

How weird that Obama is doing the talking while his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is dodging questions. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Presidents should not have to do their own bleeding. That's what staffs are for.

Or perhaps Obama has no choice but to get ahead of the story because he knows that some on his staff or on the transition team were somehow in the mix, even though he publicly says otherwise. Still, keeping his distance would seem the better option -- or risk derailing his transition into a messy stumble through the corruption of Illinois politics.

The permanent campaign hardly took a breather. In both parties, strategists and candidates are already in the hunt for 2010 -- especially for those super-expensive Senate races. Republicans are hoping that the natural midterm advantage for the out-of-power party kicks in. It does look like a better cycle for them than the last couple turned out to be. Everything depends on how Barack Obama fares. The GOP is praying that he gets over this centrist binge and moves quickly to please his Democratic base by boosting taxes and spending. Also, look for Republicans to game some of the cultural stuff if Obama gives them an opening on gays in the military or the like. Some things never change.

CQ Politics' Early Line on 2010 Senate Races: Republicans Have More Level Playing Field in 2010 | | Outlook for the Republicans | Outlook for the Democrats | CQ Politics' Senate Election Map

Isn't it remarkable how our President-Elect built his political career on the favors of Chicago criminals and yet remains as pure as the driven snow? I'm not being sarcastic. It really is phenomenal. Barack Obama relied on one of the nation's most corrupt political machines to boost him to the top and never once seems to have gotten even a bit of dirt on his own hands. The Democratic Illinois governor's craven attempts to sell Obama's Senate seat, resulting in his recent arrest, illustrates the sort of political milieu that spawned our next president. You have to give Obama a lot of credit for figuring out how to harness Chicago's political wagon without really getting on board.

• Illinois Governor Accused of Trying to Sell Senate Appointment
• Blagojevich Quotes
• CQ Top Docs: DOJ Press Release |
Criminal Complaint Against Blagojevich (pdfs)
• Ballot Box Blog: Blagojevich's Arrest and the 2010 Illinois Governor's Race

Economists seem to agree that the best way to quickly create jobs is to do exactly what politicians consider the least sexy projects -- fixing potholes, repairing bridges and repaving roads. Naming new stuff after themselves might appeal to politicians, but that's not necessarily what infuses the economy as quickly as needed.

Barack Obama says he doesn't want politics to rule in deciding where he spends more money on infrastructure than we've seen since FDR. Whether he can persuade governors and state legislators to fund quick-fix items will test his leadership skills.

Instead of building new schools, bridges and the other long-range projects, the imperative is to repair what's already there. And guess what, that's exactly what most voters are likely to personally expericence and appreciate the most. For making voters happy, there's nothing like fixing the neighborhood potholes.

Barack Obama gently withdrew the helping hand that he's been offering to George W. Bush, telling NBC's Tom Brokaw on Sunday that the outgoing administration is moving too slowly on the mortgage crisis.

"I'm disappointed that we haven't seen quicker movement," Obama said on "Meet the Press."

It was a rare bit of criticism from the President-Elect, who has held his punches against Bush since winning the presidency. Both men have been trying to present a united front on economic issues, but Bush stands to gain more by advancing joint solutions in order to claim some of the credit if things improve next year.

Obama's subtle jab on Sunday suggests that he will smartly preserve the option to blame Bush for not doing enough during the transition and before. That might be handy once Obama takes power - and responsibility.

My CQ Politics blogger pal Jeff Stein floats an interesting idea for CIA chief -- Bill Bradley. Noting that Barack Obama is facing some difficulty finding a qualified candidate who is not tied, even if remotely, to the agency's post-9/11 torture policy, Stein raises Bradley as a prospect based upon his well-regarded work on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Mention of Bradley's name drew mostly slow nods of approval in my soundings Friday," writes Stein (Spy Talk).

• Spy Talk: Send Dollar Bill Bradley to the CIA
• In Transition Blog: Obama Faces Test on Power to Detain "Enemy Combatants"
• In Transition Blog: Hillary Clinton Gets Help from Mom
• Politics (Un)Seriously: The Transition in Two Minutes
• Cabinet Maker

HOLIDAY BARGAINS

Craig Crawford's
"The Politics of Life"
$12.21 Hardcover

Craig Crawford's
"Attack the Messenger"
$12.11 Paperback

As CEOs of the Big Three Automakers and the President of the UAW move to the House Financial Services Committee today for a hearing, reviews for Thursday's Senate session hardly boost chances for their plea to get $34 billion in emergency federal aid.

The only broad consensus so far, says Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd, is that "inaction is not the option here."

That's about as optimistic as anyone on Capitol Hill sounds -- that something must be done. But Dodd also warned that "we've got to be a lot further along than where we are today."

Giving away taxpayer money to failing companies is looking less and less like such a great idea. The bailout to financial firms is in shambles, as no one seems to be able to guarantee that the money will really help anyone other than the executives who screwed up in the first place.

"We're seeing some areas where we can be doing better in making sure this money is not going to CEO compensation, that it's protecting taxpayers, that it's effective in shoring up financial markets," President-Elect Barack Obama said.

Meanwhile, those auto executives sent packing last week for lack of a convincing plan to effectively spend the $29 billion in tax dollars they wanted are back on Capitol Hill with a plan this time -- for an additional $9 billion.

Geez, it was cheaper when they didn't have a plan.

If Karl Rove is warming to Barack Obama's emerging administration, don't liberals have something to worry about?

Obama's national security team inspired George W. Bush's political guru to conclude that "continuity exists, particularly in our foreign and international relations." Rove pointed to the retention of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the naming of James Jones as national security adviser, who served as military chief of NATO during the Bush administration.

Rove also offered kind words for Obama's "reassuring" economic team. "He's generally surrounded himself with intelligent, mainstream advisers."

We are still waiting -- and there's still time -- for Obama to demonstrate whether or not he duped the left during the campaign into thinking that he was on their side. No signs yet of much change in foreign policy. And the economic crisis could give Obama cover to go slow on big-ticket items like national health insurance.

African-Americans got a warning sign that Obama is not planning a specific focus on their issues. In an upcoming issue of Ebony magazine, Obama says, "When we spend all our time just focusing on things that are unique to us, it becomes harder for us to build the broad coalitions to deal with the problems that we have in common with everybody."

Still, the left seems content so far to give Obama this running room.

Who knows, maybe Rove and other conservatives saying nice things about the President-Elect are just trying to provoke a fight among liberals.

Barack Obama's choice to shun the Democratic senatorial candidate in Georgia can be viewed as reaching across the political aisle, I suppose, but what a wimpy move to avoid helping his party by personally campaigning there.

Apparently, the Obama team thinks there is too little chance for defeating Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in today's vote to risk having the President-Elect show up there. That's smart politics for Obama, perhaps, but what a lesson it is for Democrats who think that he might ever risk his own winning image to help political friends in dire need.

Obama's Democratic sin of omission in Georgia, along with the rightward leanings of his major Cabinet appointments, suggests that the ideological left got much less than advertised in this election. In his first campaign politics choice after the November election, Obama opted to help the Republicans.

• Celebrities Stump in Georgia Senate Runoff
• Poll Tracker: Chambliss Leads In Georgia on Eve of Runoff Vote
• VIDEO: Events that led to today's Georgia Senate runoff

Has George W. Bush lured Barack Obama into validating his presidential legacy? By playing ball with the incoming president, the outgoing president has created an opportunity to argue that he has been a player in any short term success for saving the economy.

If the American economy rights itself in the next six months, look for Bush to claim partial credit - thanks to Obama.

Talk of a seamless transition from Bush to Obama could serve the outgoing administration at the expense of the incoming administration.

If all goes well before next summer, expect Bush to claim credit.