Political Hotsheet
Apr 29, 10:27AM
By Steve Chaggaris / Add Comment

Morning Bulletin - Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

Today's Morning Bulletin is brought to you by the numbers 100 and 60 – 100 as in President Obama's 100th day in office and 60 reflecting the magic number of seats Sen. Arlen Specter's party switch virtually ensures the Democrats in the Senate, giving them a filibuster-proof majority.

On his 100th day as president, Mr. Obama, riding high every poll, fittingly began his day with on a high note: trotting out Specter and touting his ship-jumping.

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Apr 29, 9:49AM
By David Hancock / 78 comments

Military NYC Flyover Cost $328,000

(AP Photo/Jason McLane)
Along with scaring New Yorkers, the military flyover of lower Manhattan on Monday cost taxpayers $328,835, reports WCBS in New York. That bill includes $300,658 for the larger plane, which flew a three-hour mission, and about $28,178 for two F-16 jets, which flew 1.8 hours each, said Air Force spokeswoman Vicki Stein.

It's also been learned that federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and an Air Force One flying at low altitudes over the statue of Liberty and Ground Zero might spark fears of a 9/11 repeat, when two commercial jet liners were piloted into the World Trade Center buildings.

In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration's James Johnston said the agency was aware of "the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes" in and around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor's office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.

A furious President Barack Obama ordered an internal review of the low-flying photo op over the Statue of Liberty.

WCBS has more
Apr 29, 9:44AM
By Michelle Levi / Add Comment

Day 100: President Obama's Schedule

Today is President Obama's 100th day in office. This morning he will make remarks with Vice President Biden and Senator Arlen Specter who announced Tuesday he was switching parties and will now caucus with Democrats.

Later he will hold a town hall meeting in St. Louis, MO to discuss the progress made over the last 100 days and the work still to be done.

This evening he will hold the third press conference of his presidency. Here is more from the White House press office (all times eastern):

8:00AM President Obama, Vice President Biden , and Senator Arlen Specter make a statement

8:25AM President Obama departs South Lawn en route Andrews Air Force Base

8:30AM President Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base en route St. Louis, MO

10:30AM President Obama arrives in St. Louis, MO

11:20AM President Obama holds town hall

2:00PM President Obama departs St. Louis, MO en route to Andrews Air Force Base

3:45PM President Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base

4:00PM President Obama arrives at the White House

8:00PM President Obama holds news conference
Apr 29, 9:00AM
52 comments

Grading Obama's First 100 Days

(AP)


Today is President Obama's 100th day in office, and we asked The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, CBS News' chief political consultant, to grade the president's performance on a variety of policy areas. Read what he has to say, and then give the president your own grades.

The Economy: B

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Apr 29, 8:25AM
By Daniel Carty / 35 comments

Obama Rolls Out Carpet For Newest Dem

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President Barack Obama lauded Arlen Specter's independence, calling the Pennsylvania senator "one tough hombre" after bolting the Republican party – his political home for nearly 30 years - to join the Democratic caucus.

Mr. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden officially welcomed the newest Senate Democrat into the fold during a White House news conference Wednesday.

Mr. Obama said he was "thrilled" at Specter's decision and felt "the American people will be better off for it."

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Apr 29, 4:24AM
By Declan McCullagh / 20 comments

After 100 Days, Obama's Transparency Vow Receives Mixed Reviews

(CBS/istockphoto.com)


A White House "virtual town hall" that Barack Obama hosted last month was intended to be an exercise in open-microphone democracy that would allow the president to interact with average Americans.

Aides billed it as permitting members of the public to "pose a question or vote for a particular question" using the Google Moderator utility. A new area of the WhiteHouse.gov Web site was titled Open For Questions, and nearly 1.8 million votes were cast.

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Apr 28, 7:30PM
By Brian Montopoli / Add Comment

Day 99: Obama Offers Encouragement To FBI

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
On his ninety-ninth day in office, President Obama told FBI employees Americans "are counting on you." He offered plaudits to the bureau and urged employees to stay "one step ahead of all who step outside of the law."

"With the attacks of 9/11, your mission became focused more than ever before on prevention, so that we have the capacity to uncover terrorist plots before they take hold," he said. "With the spread of new technologies you increasingly confronted adversaries in unconventional areas, from transnational networks to cybercrimes and espionage."

In a letter, the president also asked Congress for $1.5 billion to fight swine flu as concerns about domestic infection rates grew.

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Apr 28, 6:27PM
By Declan McCullagh / 11 comments

DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines

(AP / CBS)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary.

DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."

McGaw appears to have been referring to the section of federal law that allows the Surgeon General to detain and quarantine Americans "reasonably believed to be infected" with a communicable disease. A Centers for Disease Control official said on Tuesday that swine flu deaths in the U.S. are likely.

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Apr 28, 6:25PM
By Brian Montopoli / 37 comments

Health Secretary Sebelius Confirmed By Senate

(CBS)
President Obama has his final Cabinet pick: The Senate has confirmed Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Health And Human Services secretary.

Sebelius does not have time to ease into the job, as she now becomes the administration's point person in dealing with the swine flu outbreak. The HHS secretary will also spearhead the administration's effort to reform health care, one of the president's primary goals.

The Associated Press reports that the 65-31 vote came as Democrats pushed for the confirmation as soon as possible so that Sebelius could get to work addressing swine flu.

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Apr 28, 4:30PM
4 comments

Our Poll, Your Questions

(CBS/istockphoto.com)

The CBS News Poll has been asking questions of the public for over thirty years, and it seemed about time for us to ask the people who follow our polls what they would like to know.

To that end, CBSNews.com solicited suggestions from the public for topics to ask about in our CBS News/New York Times 100 days poll that was released last night. We received so many good suggestions -- far more than we could accommodate in a single poll. We included quite a few of these reader suggestions in our poll, and hope to include more in the future.

The wording of the questions was determined by the CBS News Polling Unit, wherever possible matching that of questions previously asked in CBS News Polls to facilitate trend comparisons.

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Apr 28, 1:30PM
By Andrew Cohen / 3 comments

F#*& No This Case Isn't Over!

(AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta)
By a single vote, the United States Supreme Court Tuesday threw its weight behind the embattled Federal Communications Commission on the topic of the regulation (read: the banning) of "fleeting" expletives on our airwaves. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for a fractured majority, declared that the FCC was within its statutory and regulatory authority when it sought to chastise Fox for two long-ago incidents in which "F-bomb" was used on live television at a time when children were watching.

But the Court refused to address, much less resolve, whether the regulations (and their statutory basis) violate the broadcaster's first amendment "free speech" rights. The lower federal appeals court had not addressed or resolved that constitutional issue so the Justices were not bound to do so, either, and it is a virtual mantra at the Court that the Justices will rarely say more than they have to in order to resolve a dispute. Here, the majority determined that they could dispatch Fox's argument without ever reaching its constitutional merits.

That means that we are almost certainly destined for another few years of this legal battle that began all the way back in 2002. Fox promised to continue the fight at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where it almost certainly will raise the constitutional issue. But if the Court's makeup remains the same for the next few years it seems likely that the broadcaster will lose again on the broader legal scope and that ruling, if and when it comes, will be a much bigger deal than this deal is today.

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Apr 28, 1:30PM
By Dan Farber / 10 comments

Word Cloud: President Obama's Words

President Obama's first 100 days have been filled with words.

He has been the salesman in chief, trying to convince Congress, the American people and the world to follow his lead, buy into his plan to save the economy, cut taxes for the middle class, exit one war and engage more in another and transform education, energy and healthcare.

We took some of his recent speeches, such as his inaugural address and speech before Congress (see his recent speeches here) and ran them through a word-cloud generator at http://www.wordle.net/ to see what words surface as the most frequently used.

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Apr 28, 12:56PM
By Kevin Hechtkopf / Add Comment

Bob Schieffer's 100 Days Review

CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer appeared on The Early Show this morning to break down President Obama's first 100 days in office.

"I think he's off to a good start," said Schieffer, but he was quick to note that it's too early to know whether the president's programs will work or if his popularity will hold up.

You can watch the full interview below:



Obama's First 100 Days

Apr 28, 12:23PM
By Brian Montopoli / 526 comments

Sen. Arlen Specter To Become A Democrat

(CBS)
UPDATED Saying he now finds his "political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, now a Republican, has announced that he will run for reelection as a Democrat in 2010.

His decision opens the door to the Democratic Party achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Specter, a 79-year-old fifth-term senator, wrote in a statement that he has been a Republican since 1966 and was elected nearly 30 years ago "as part of the Reagan Big Tent." Since then, he said, "the Republican Party has moved far to the right."

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Apr 28, 11:57AM
By Charles Cooper / 11 comments

Republicans' Cheney Conundrum

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
During two terms as the nation's second highest ranking politician, Dick Cheney often told interviewers that he didn't pay attention to the polls. Now that he's out of office, the former vice president has even more reason not to bother with vox populi.

A CBS/New York Times poll finds that just 19% of Americans view Cheney favorably while 42% said they have an unfavorable view. The rest were undecided.

The poll results predictably broke sharply along partisan lines. Around 50% of Republicans have a favorable view of Cheney while on the flip side, 61% of Democrats said they held an unfavorable view.

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