CQ Politics' Web Picks

Chicago Tribune: Burris Now Acknowledges Fundraising Effort for Blagojevich

Sen. Roland Burris has acknowledged he sought to raise campaign funds for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the request of the governor's brother at the same time he was making a pitch to be appointed to the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama.

McClatchy: DEA Has 106 Planes, So Why Did It Charter Private Jet for Chief?

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes. William Brown, the special agent in charge of the DEA's aviation division, said he'd asked DEA contractor L-3 Communications to arrange the flight because the plane that ordinarily would've flown the administrator was grounded for scheduled maintenance. He said he didn't question the cost at the time. "Was it excessive? I guess you could look at it that way, but I don't think so," he said.

Washington Post: Late Change in Course Hobbled Rollout of Geithner's Bank Plan

Just days before Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was scheduled to lay out his much-anticipated plan to deal with the toxic assets imperiling the financial system, he and his team made a sudden about-face. According to several sources involved in the deliberations, Geithner had come to the conclusion that the strategies he and his team had spent weeks working on were too expensive, too complex and too risky for taxpayers.

Wall Street Journal: Obama Strategy to Keep Lawmakers Close

After two presidencies marked by friction, if not outright hostility, between the White House and Congress, President Obama has shown himself to be senator-in-chief, consulting closely with congressional leaders and committee chairmen at every turn.

New Yorker: More Apocryphal Stories of the Presidents

On a rainy night in 1793, the Van Buren family ox slipped in the mud, fracturing its foreleg. Realizing that the ox was no longer any good to anyone, Abe Van Buren loaded his flintlock and took aim, when his ten-year-old son, Martin, cried, "If you shoot this ox, Father, you would do as well to shoot me! For this unfortunate beast is no less God's creation than I." And so his father shot him. Then he turned to Martin's identical twin and said, "From now on, you're Martin." And that is how Phil Van Buren became President of the United States.

ReadWriteWeb: Barack Obama's Internet Strategy

We've written a lot about how Barack Obama's Internet strategy was a significant reason for his success last year - first in the Democratic nomination, then the Presidential election. Now we've come across an extensive presentation about Obama's overall Internet strategy. We think it's well worth a read, so we've embedded it here.

Witchita Eagle: Kansas Suspends Income Tax Refunds, May Miss Payroll

Income tax refunds and state employee paychecks could be late after Republican leaders and the Democratic governor clashed Monday over how to solve a cash-flow problem. Payments to Medicaid providers and schools also could be delayed. "We are out of cash, in essence," state budget director Duane Goossen said.

DC Examiner: 'D.C. Is Our Community Now,' Says Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama said it: Washington is her home now and she wants to get to know it. She is making the rounds, meeting federal workers at Cabinet departments, reading to children, chatting with teens, touring a neighborhood health center, dropping in at Howard University and enjoying family night at the Kennedy Center. She's even splashed across the cover of the March issue of Vogue, with a headline that proclaims her "The First Lady the World's Been Waiting For." That was just the first two weeks of February.

New York Daily News: Clinton Causes Stir With Plan to Meet with Opposition in Japan

Hillary Clinton's plan to meet with in Tokyo with an opposition leader caused a political stir in Japan on Monday in the midst of a ruling party scandal over an allegedly tipsy finance minister. Breaking with protocol, the Secretary of State said that Ichiro Ozawa, head of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, would be included in a round of meetings Tuesday beginning with Prime Minister Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Time: A Historian's Take on Obama

An interview with author and historian Richard Norton Smith about America's "schizoid" relationship with its presidents, the lofty expectations for President Obama and the way history's verdicts can shift over time.