CQ Politics' Web Picks

Starting today, CQ Politics "Web Picks" will be handing off the job of bringing you the round-up of the political news you need to know to a master of the trade, Taegan Goddard, whose Politicalwire website is our new partner and has long been the place to go for those looking for the most important and intriguing stories of the day.

We've given Taegan prominent position on our homepage, right below the main story in the left column, and the same one click will take you there to see Taegan's selections and his commentary on them.

Washington Post: Battle Lines Quickly Set Over Planned Policy Shifts

Battle lines are rapidly hardening over the broad policy shifts, massive deficits and tax increases President Obama unveiled last week in his first budget request, a 10-year spending plan thick with political friction points.

Los Angeles Times: Wind-power Industry Seeks Trained Workforce

As in previous recessions, this economic downturn is boosting enrollment at community colleges and vocational schools. Educators say the difference this time is the surging interest in so-called green-collar jobs. President Obama wants to create 5 million of them over the next decade. What isn't clear is how the United States is going to prepare this workforce.

New York Times: Liberal Groups Are Flexing New Muscle in Lobby Wars

The rush of activity, particularly as it relates to health care, is illuminating a realignment of interests and a shift in the public debate, with liberal interest groups rising up to run vigorous -- and expensive -- campaigns in support of President Obama's agenda in a way they did not for the Clinton White House. And they have brought to their side some unexpected corporate support.

Billings (Mont.) Gazette: Physicians Take Step to Future

After more than a decade in medicine, Dr. David Chavez is learning how to text. He has to if he wants to prescribe drugs using his office's new electronic prescription program. The federal government has mandated that all medical providers who bill Medicare use electronic prescribing by 2013.But paying for that tool and its technical support, including software licensing fees, can be a challenge for independent medical practices that do not have the buying power of large hospital systems.

The (Raleigh) News and Observer: High-speed Rail on Faster Track

The Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor, roughly 450 miles from Charlotte, N.C., to Washington, is one of 10 speedy train projects formally designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation since 1991. Others serve bigger urban centers, but transportation experts say few have advanced as far along the path from concept to construction as the North Carolina-Virginia plan.

TPMMuckraker: Jindal Admits Katrina Story Was False

Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims? Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true. In the last few days, first Daily Kos, and then TPMmuckraker, raised serious questions about the story, based in part on the fact that no news reports we could find place Jindal in the affected area at the specific time at issue. But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later."

Daily Beast: Jindal's Eruption of Hot Gas

In a bizarre moment from Bobby Jindal's speech, the Louisiana governor dumped on President Obama for funding "something called 'volcanic monitoring.'" Top geologists tell the Daily Beast that the governor needs to do his homework.

Wall Street Journal: Was George W. Bush the Worst President?

Several polls of historians have named George W. Bush the worst president in American history. This baffles me. I've been writing about presidents for a long time. What I know, and what I presume these gentleman know, doesn't connect, writes historian Thomas Fleming. Maybe it's time to suspend the rush to judgment on George W. Bush for 10 or 20 years. I suspect we will decide Mr. Bush's first term, with his decisive response to 9/11, deserves some praise, and that his second term succumbed to an awesome amount of bad luck, from his generals' disagreements on how to fight the war in Iraq to the Wall Street collapse of 2008.

Washington Post: Top Officials Expand The Dialogue on Race

With the federal government's annual African American History Month celebrations as a backdrop, the attorney general, the first lady and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency spoke more frankly about race recently than any of Obama's surrogates did during the hard-fought campaign.

Los Angeles Times: Taxing for Fairness or Class Warfare?

From front to back and on nearly every page, President Obama's new budget plan delivers a stark message: It's time for the rich to lighten the load on the middle class. In education, healthcare and an array of other proposals, the budget focuses more benefits on middle-class and lower-income Americans and looks to the affluent to help pay for them.

Washington Times: Charity Tax Limits Upset Many

Democrats and Republicans poured cold water on President Obama's budget plan to cut down on wealthy taxpayers' charitable giving tax deductions, the second of his ambitious cost-savings plans to earn lawmakers' scorn, and underscoring the legislative minefield he is entering.

New York Post: Top Democrat Says Obama Budget Needs a Scrub

President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget came under criticism from an unexpected source yesterday - Sen. Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who vowed to give the spending plan a "thorough scrubbing." The blast from within the ranks of Obama's own party comes as Congress is girding for battle over the budget document - which pays for health reform, clean energy and other programs with $1 trillion in tax hikes over the next decade.

USA Today: Michelle Obama's Right To Bare Arms

Michelle Obama's decision to go sleeveless again is stirring up a debate. The tribute to Stevie Wonder was the second time in as many days that the first lady bared her arms: She wore a plum Narciso Rodriguez dress when her husband addressed Congress on Tuesday night. She appears on the latest issue of People magazine in a sleeveless magenta Tracy Reese frock and also went sans sleeves on her recent Vogue cover. But should people be up in arms about Obama baring hers?

New York Times: Iraq Withdrawal Plan Gains G.O.P. Support

President Obama won crucial backing on Thursday for his Iraq military withdrawal plan from leading Congressional Republicans, including Senator John McCain, the party's presidential nominee, who spent much of last year debating the war with Mr. Obama.

Washington Post: Under Obama, National Security Council Will Grow

President Obama's first presidential directive, outlining the organization of his national security structure, adds the attorney general, the secretaries of energy and homeland security, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to the formal National Security Council.

Los Angeles Times: Student Loan Companies' Shares Plunge on Obama Proposal

President Obama's proposal for direct government funding of student loans -- cutting out private industry -- sent shares of Sallie Mae, Student Loan Corp., Nelnet Inc. and other college loan companies plunging Thursday. For-profit vocational schools, such as Corinthian Colleges Inc., DeVry Inc. and ITT Educational Services Inc., also saw their stock prices drop. Their students often rely on government-backed loans from private lenders.

Reuters: Financial Crisis Sparks Unrest in Europe

Thousands of Opel workers from around Germany took part in a mass rally on Thursday demanding parent General Motors (GM.N) scrap plans for plant closures in Europe. The global financial and economic crisis has sparked many protests in parts of Europe

Chicago Sun-Times: Burris' Son Got State Job from Blago

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state's housing authority Sept. 10 -- about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

Wall Street Journal: Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals

Industries from health care to agribusiness to mining that stand to lose under President Barack Obama's policy agenda are ramping up lobbying campaigns to derail or modify his plans. The day after Mr. Obama formally laid out his policy goals in his first address to Congress, the former chief executive of HCA Inc. unveiled a $20 million campaign to pressure Democrats to enact health-care legislation based on free-market principles. "What you see is when the government gets involved, you run out of money and health care gets rationed," former CEO Richard Scott said Wednesday.

Washington Times: Lawmakers Reject Obama Plan to Cut Farm Aid

Top Democrats and Republicans are already shooting down President Obama's plan to cut farm subsidies, dealing a blow to one of the cost-savings promises he laid out in his congressional address Tuesday night. "We'll have to see what specifically the president is talking about, but we just finished the farm bill last year, and I don't think we'll open it up," said Rep. Collin C. Peterson, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

Dallas Morning News: $16 Billion Stimulus Windfall Dividing Texas Legislature

Texas lawmakers, given a $16 billion windfall from the federal stimulus bill, are forming two camps. One sees "great danger" of government creep, as Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, warned the House on Wednesday. The other sees great opportunity for very practical advances, but only if the Legislature can see through "red herrings" being raised by conservative demagogues, said House Democratic leader Jim Dunnam of Waco.

Daily Beast: Bobby Jindal's Secret Past

Did you know about the exorcism? The name that came from The Brady Bunch? Those and other surprising facts about one of America's fastest rising young politicians. His folksy speech last evening is meeting with mixed reviews. But with GOP politicians already jockeying for the 2012 primary, the first-term governor and a 37-year-old Indian-American Rhodes Scholar is emerging as a top contender.

Chicago Sun-Times: Translating Durbinspeak on Burris Fiasco

Illinois just cannot catch a break, writes columnist Carol Marin. Tuesday afternoon, just as the nation's eyes were trained on our historic new president preparing to make a historic first address to both houses of Congress -- a lofty moment by any measure -- what the heck happens? The senior senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, takes the junior senator from Illinois, Roland Burris, to the woodshed, that's what.

London Times: Bush Embarks on Lucrative International Speaking Tour

George W Bush will embark next month on an international speaking tour aimed at making him hundreds of thousands of dollars and reshaping his battered image abroad. The former president plans to make about ten speeches over the next year -- the first of what he hopes will be many more -- at various venues in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia.

New York Times: Sully in the House

What more can anyone ask from Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot who safely landed a jetliner in the Hudson River last month, saving 150 passengers and four other crew members? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had one request for Mr. Sullenberger on Tuesday: his autograph. During a meeting with the Ms. Pelosi this afternoon, he signed the copy of People Magazine she provided and said he was "grateful for the outcome" of US Airways flight 1549 on Jan. 15 Sullenberger was one of the guests in Pelosi's box when President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress.

Louisville Courier-Journal: Bunning Criticizes GOP Senate Campaign Chief

Sen. Jim Bunning all but declared war this morning on his own party's Senate campaign committee chairman and threatened to sue the GOP if committee officials recruited an opponent to run against him in Kentucky's 2010 Republican primary.

Los Angeles Times: Compromise on Iraq Timeline Appears Near

The Obama administration is close to deciding on a 19-month withdrawal plan for the bulk of U.S. troops in Iraq and could announce a timetable this week, military officials said Tuesday. The plan would represent a compromise between the 16-month withdrawal timetable President Obama advocated during his campaign and the military's proposal for a 23-month time frame.

Wall Street Journal: Mardi Gras Revives, but Shooting Scars Party

Against grim predictions -- given the drop in travel during the economic downturn -- New Orleans officials, hoteliers and others say Mardi Gras lodging and retail sales exceeded last year's marks, and streets overflowed even on the slower days of parading that began on Feb. 8. The strong turnout, particularly for a city whose commerce has depended almost entirely on tourism after the hurricane, confirms for many locals that New Orleans finally is on the mend. The city will release formal figures in the coming days.

San Francisco Chronicle: Effort Seeks to Scrap Two-Thirds Vote Rule

California opinion leaders who turned out Tuesday at a forum on government reforms said their top priority is getting rid of the Legislature's requirement for a two-thirds vote to approve state budgets and taxes, which has been blamed for record-long budget delays.

USA Today: Some Lawmakers Have Ties to Bailout Recipients

Two dozen members of Congress with substantial financial ties to the banks and other companies getting a piece of the $700 billion financial rescue package, according to a USA TODAY analysis of disclosure reports covering 2007, the most recent available. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, and three other House members have spouses who work for recipients of the money, and seven senators and 13 representatives had investments worth more than $100,000 in at least one of the companies that received funds, their reports show.

Los Angeles Times: Taxing Pot Could Become Political Toking Point

Could Cannabis sativa be a salvation for California's fiscal misfortunes? Can the state get a better budget grip by taxing what some folks toke? An assemblyman from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to do just that: make California the first state in the nation to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.

Boston Herald: Romney Supports House Republicans Against Stimulus

Mitt Romney has his own version of an economic stimulus bill: sending $1,000 checks to a group of Republican House members targeted by the Democrats for voting against the president's economic stimulus bill.

St. Paul Pioneer Press: Coleman Plans to Wrap Up This Week, then It's Franken's Turn

Republican Norm Coleman's recount case is almost complete. For more than a month, his attorneys have presented thousands of absentee ballots and hours of testimony to bolster his claim that Minnesotans voting last November gave the Senate seat to him, not to Democrat Al Franken, who had a 225-vote lead after an arduous hand recount.

New York Times: McCain, at the White House, Questions Obama About Helicopter

"Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One," Sen. John McCain told President Obama on Monday. "I don't think there is any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost taxpayers enormous amounts of money." Obama agreed. "The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me," he said. "Of course, I've never had a helicopter before. Maybe I've been deprived and I didn't know it. But I think it is in example of the procurement process gone amok. And we're going to have to fix it."

Chicago Sun-Times: Ayers on Obama's 'Colossal Mistake'

Education professor Bill Ayers, a former Weather Underground radical activist whose friendship with Barack Obama caused headaches during his presidential campaign, criticized Obama on Monday for his decision to send an additional 17,000 troops into Afghanistan.

New York Times: Disagreements About Stimulus Embroil G.O.P.

Republican governors split sharply during the weekend over how to respond to the economic crisis, a debate whose outcome will go a long way toward shaping how the national party redefines itself in the wake of its election defeats of recent years. Some party leaders said Republicans should compromise with the Democratic president and move to the political center to attract independents' votes. A small but vocal group of conservative governors countered that the party instead must rebuild by standing against new spending and taxes to regain the trust of conservative voters.

Wall Street Journal: Obama Pushes Firmer Budget Rules

Stepping up a campaign to persuade Americans he is serious about the budget deficit, President Barack Obama this week will propose using mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts to offset any new initiative that expands the government's red ink. The proposal, which would apply to any new tax cuts or spending, would return the government to the budget constraints that existed in the 1990s, a senior administration official said.

Bloomberg: Health-Care Focus Next for Obama

With the economic stimulus package signed, President Barack Obama this week will outline how he plans to provide affordable medical coverage for all Americans, an administration official said. Obama tomorrow will tell a joint meeting of the House and Senate that revamping the U.S. health system is a priority, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Louisville Courier-Journal: Bunning Says Justice Ginsberg Likely Dead in Nine Months

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months. During a wide-ranging 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said he supports conservative judges "and that's going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg ... has cancer." "Bad cancer. The kind that you don't get better from," he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater.

Washington Post: Supporters Upbeat About Bill to Give D.C. a Vote in Congress

Supporters of D.C. voting rights believe that they are on the verge of their biggest victory in at least 30 years as the Senate prepares to take up a bill this week creating a full House seat for the District.

Politico: Ney May Now Be a Victim

In financial disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission, the National Republican Congressional Committee suggests that its former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, improperly diverted $36,000 from a leadership PAC belonging to former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney, who himself went to prison after pleading guilty to charges in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal.

Kansas City Star: Brownback Questions Catholicism of Foes

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback is questioning whether several of his colleagues are real Catholics. The senator makes his point in a fundraising letter for a new Washington-based antiabortion group distributed under his signature.

New Yorker: Don't Mess with Rahmbo

Unlike recent chiefs of staff from the Bush and Clinton eras, who tended to be relatively quiet inside players, Emanuel is a former congressional leader, a Democratic Party power, and one of the more colorful Beltway celebrities. He is a political John McEnroe, known for both his mercurial temperament and his tactical brilliance. In the same conversation, he can be wonkish and thoughtful, blunt and profane. Besides Obama himself, Emanuel did the most to get the stimulus bill passed.

New York Times: Hold the Eulogies, Kennedy Says

Since the diagnosis of his brain cancer last May, and as as he endures grueling treatments, Mr. Kennedy, who turns 77 on Sunday, has been intent on racing time rather than looking back on it. Friends who have seen Mr. Kennedy describe him as driven and focused on work. He speaks frequently -- and often on his trademark issue, overhauling the nation's health care system -- to President Obama. He checks up on the Senate "chatter" with lawmakers.

Los Angeles Times: Obama's Biggest Challenges in Afghanistan

Many officials believe Obama has one primary shot at remaking Washington's war strategy and overhauling its policy in the region. The administration said last week that it would open that review, which is due in April, to Afghans, Pakistanis and European allies.

Nola.com: Governor Walking Tightrope with Speech

Hurricane Gustav denied Gov. Bobby Jindal his nationally televised debut before the American electorate last summer at the Republican National Convention, a turn of events that may yield better political drama Tuesday night for those not consumed by the final hours of Carnival.

Wall Street Journal: Two Governors and the GOP Future

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is mooted as a GOP presidential contender. During the stimulus debate he told President Barack Obama, to his face, that the Palmetto State wanted no part of a spending blowout that would be harmful to the economy. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is mooted as a GOP presidential contender. During the stimulus debate, he made clear the Sunshine State couldn't wait to get its hands on the stimulus booty.

The Root: Why Holder's Race Speech Was Better Than Obama's

Eric Holder's confrontational speech to members of the Justice Department on Wednesday spoke plainly and bluntly about the level of racial discourse in America. Why did Holder's words seem so confrontational, so angry, so "un-Obama"? Most notable was Holder's unequivocal habitation of the black perspective. Obama's careful speech was eager to embrace many sides.

Chicago Tribune: Feds Interview Burris

Sen. Roland Burris was interviewed by federal authorities for several hours Saturday as part of the ongoing corruption investigation into charges that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell a Senate seat for personal or political profit, sources familiar with the talks said. He has been informed he is not a target of the probe.

San Francisco Chronicle: Battered California GOP Gathers to Plot Future

The 1,400 Republican activists heading to Sacramento this weekend for the twice-yearly GOP convention will be united by a single concern: how to lift the state party out of the deep hole it's dug in recent years.

Governing.com: Torts for Tots

Perhaps the most important court decision in the country last year was one you probably didn't hear much about. But it is likely to have long-lasting implications -- for state courts and legislatures and for the regulatory process at all levels of American government.

Chicago Sun-Times: Burris' Chief of Staff Quits

Embattled Sen. Roland Burris took another blow on Friday -- his chief of staff, Darrell Thompson, quit. Thompson was detailed to the Burris operation from the staff of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to give Burris top-notch, experienced help to get his office up and running. Thompson was a top staffer in President Obama's 2004 Illinois Senate campaign.

Washington Post: For Obama's Political Knots, He's the 'Fixer'

Holed up in a windowless West Wing office, Jim Messina is working on his usual assignment: fixing President Obama's problems. The exact nature of that task changes from day to day. In January, when tax troubles surfaced, first threatening Timothy F. Geithner's nomination, Obama asked Messina, his deputy chief of staff, to smooth over the situation on Capitol Hill. (He did.)

Boston Herald: Aide Says Kennedy Doing Well

A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy yesterday said he is "doing well" and working by telephone despite a Herald report quoting friends who say his battle with brain cancer is in its final stage. "He may not physically be in Washington but he's burning up the phone lines on Senate business and is keeping his staff as busy as ever," Kennedy aide Melissa Wagoner said.

Wall Street Journal: Jobs Still Elude Some Bush Ex-Officials

The jobless rate is hanging high -- for many of the roughly 3,000 political appointees who served President George W. Bush. Finding work has proved a far tougher task than those appointees expected. "This is not a great time for anyone to be job hunting, including numerous former political appointees," said Carlos M. Gutierrez, Mr. Bush's commerce secretary. Previously chief executive of cereal maker Kellogg Co., he hopes to run a company again because "I have a lot of energy."

Mother Jones: America on $195 a Week

It's not just the unemployed who are hurting. Across the country, unskilled, nonunionized workers are barely scraping by on stagnant or declining wages. You'll find many of them in food prep, where more than 11 million Americans command a median hourly wage of $8.24, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are another 4.5 million workers doing maintenance-related tasks for $10.18 an hour, 3.3 million in "personal care" at $9.50, and 14.5 million in retail jobs that pay $11.41. These meager wages have helped push 6.2 million more Americans into poverty between 2000 and 2007. And that was before the banking industry imploded.

Daily Beast: Why Republicans Don't Get the Internet

When I first suggested launching a blog chronicling my experience on my father's campaign for president, I was met with confusion and resistance, writes Meghan McCain. A few people even asked me what's a blog.

Miami Herald: Will Obama back 'truth commission' to probe Bush practices?

President Barack Obama and Congress are locked in a stare-down over how much to expose or punish Bush administration employees for any abuses they committed in waging the war on terrorism.

Calgary Herald: Let's Hope Congress Shares Obama's Love of Canada

While Canadians should obviously take encouragement from the evident maturing of President Obama's views on protection, and his declared willingness to have Canada at the table when a North American approach to climate-change policy and energy security is hammered out, Canadians can rely only on this: House Democrats don't feel they owe this country anything. Obama may propose, but he depends on congressional favour. Hence the lack of specific deliverables at Thursday's joint conference.