Morning Bulletin – Thursday, April 23, 2009
A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:
4931527As Congress begins tightening the reigns on credit card companies, their CEOs will meet with President Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers at the White House this afternoon.
"The President believes new rules of the road for the credit card industry are needed and he looks forward to having an open and productive conversation tomorrow with the representatives of the credit card industry about the impact of the current crisis on consumers," said White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. "We are also working with Congress on legislation that will promote simplicity, require transparency, demand fairness, and ensure accountability – so that we can strengthen consumer protections against abusive and deceptive practices."
The chief executives of the credit card divisions of several major banks as well as the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, American Express will attend the 1:05 p.m. ET meeting that, per a White House official, was originally the idea of the executives.
"'If you are the chairman of Citibank, you don't want your card guy going in there, because you know, having been there, that the companies will get the s—- beat out of them by the president and Summers,' a Republican credit card lobbyist told POLITICO.
'You don't meet with the president to talk about substance. You do that with lower-level guys at the Fed or Treasury — not with Geithner and Summers.' The meeting is particularly ill-timed for the card industry. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee approved legislation cracking down on credit card billing practices, frequently derided as abusive by consumer advocates. A bill has also passed the Senate Banking Committee but faces a tougher fight on the floor."
4957867CIA INTERROGATIONS: "The legacy of George W. Bush continued to dog President Obama and his administration yesterday, as Congress divided over creating a panel to investigate the harsh interrogation techniques employed under Bush's authorization and the White House tried to contain the controversy over the president's decision to release Justice Department memos justifying and outlining those procedures," write the Washington Post's Dan Balz and Perry Bacon Jr.
"Obama had hoped to put the whole matter behind him, first by banning those interrogation methods early in his presidency and then by releasing the memos last week with the proviso that no CIA official who carried out interrogations should be prosecuted. Instead, the latest decision has stirred controversy on the right and the left."
"Brushing aside the president's suggestions, congressional Democrats pushed ahead firmly on Wednesday toward investigations into the Bush administration's harsh interrogation of terror suspects including hundreds of instances of waterboarding and other abusive practices," writes the Associated Press' Larry Margasak.
"President Barack Obama said a day earlier that if there was to be an investigation, the independent commission that looked into the Sept. 11 attacks would be a better model than a congressional probe that might break down along party lines. But Democrats were moving in their own directions, and Republicans were united in their opposition to a commission that they see as an effort to vilify George W. Bush now that he is out of office."
"Sen. John McCain warned that a pursuit for charges against Bush administration officials who helped design harsh interrogation tactics used on terrorist suspects would turn into a 'witch hunt,'" writes CBSNews.com's Sean Alfano.
"Mark down the date. Tuesday, April 21, 2009, is the moment that any chance of a new era of bipartisan respect in Washington ended. By inviting the prosecution of Bush officials for their antiterror legal advice, President Obama has injected a poison into our politics that he and the country will live to regret," an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal reads.
"He has absolved CIA operatives of any legal jeopardy, no doubt because his intelligence advisers told him how damaging that would be to CIA morale when Mr. Obama needs the agency to protect the country. But he has pointedly invited investigations against Republican legal advisers who offered their best advice at the request of CIA officials. ... So the CIA requests a legal review at a moment of heightened danger, the Justice Department obliges with an exceedingly detailed analysis of the law and interrogation practices -- and, seven years later, Mr. Obama says only the legal advisers who are no longer in government should be investigated. The political convenience of this distinction for Mr. Obama betrays its basic injustice."
Former RNC spokesman muses that the president's muddled message on the torture issue may possibly be a harbinger: "With the 100-day anniversary just one week away, it's notable that almost all of Obama's accomplishments so far have been rhetorical, rather than policy-based. (That is to say, he is getting credit for making big announcements on everything from Gitmo to health care, even if the actual policies are still in development.) So if the message-machine starts to sputter – as it has this week – then the White House's second 100 days could be a lot more challenging than the first."
NY Times' Scott Shane, "At Core of Detainee Fight – Did Methods Stop Attacks?": "Even the most exacting truth commission may have a hard time determining for certain whether brutal interrogations conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency helped keep the country safe.
"Last week's release of long-secret Justice Department interrogation memorandums has given rise to starkly opposing narratives about what, if anything, was gained by the C.I.A.'s use of waterboarding, wall-slamming and other physical pressure to shock and intimidate Qaeda operatives. ...
"For both sides, the political stakes are high, as proposals for a national commission to unravel the interrogation story appear to be gaining momentum. Mr. Obama and his allies need to discredit the techniques he has banned. Otherwise, in the event of a future terrorist attack, critics may blame his decision to rein in C.I.A. interrogators. But if a strong case emerges that the Bush administration authorized torture and got nothing but prisoners' desperate fabrications in return, that will tarnish what Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have claimed as their greatest achievement: preventing new attacks after Sept. 11, 2001."
LA Times' David G. Savage and Josh Meyer, "Prosecuting 'torture memo' authors called 'a real stretch'"
ALSO TODAY: President Obama will deliver remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Museum's Days of Remembrance ceremony in the Capitol at 11am ET. Later he'll meet with bipartisan congressional leaders at the White House at 2:15pm ET before hosting the NCAA football champion University of Florida Gators. At 4pm, the president meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and tonight he and First Lady Michelle Obama host a reception for members of Congress and their spouses.
Mrs. Obama holds a "Take Your Child to Work" day event, welcoming the children of White House employees at 10:30am ET.
ENVIRONMENT / CLIMATE CHANGE
CBS News' Mark Knoller, "Obama's Earth Day Flights Burned More Than 9,000 Gallons Of Fuel"
Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin, "House Panel Begins Debate on Climate Bill"
NY Times' John M. Broder, "Administration Stops Short of Endorsing Climate Bill"
HEALTH CARE
"Use of the expedited procedure, to prevent a Senate filibuster, could both help and hurt the Democrats," adds the NY Times' Robert Pear.
"It would enable them to overcome Republican objections to a big increase in federal spending and in the role of government. On the other hand, it could fundamentally alter the political dynamic of the health care debate, detonating an explosive reaction among Republican senators who have been working with Democrats on the issue. If Democrats use the fast-track procedure, it would be tantamount to 'a declaration of war,' said Senator Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, the senior Republican on the health committee."
REP. JANE HARMAN WIRETAP
Washington Post's Paul Kane, "Pelosi Says She Had Been Briefed on Harman Wiretap"
FOREIGN POLICY
NY Times' David Stout, "Clinton Delivers Rebuke to Pakistan"
Wall Street Journal's Jose de Cordoba, "Fidel Castro Rebukes Raul on U.S."
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
Washington Post's Michael A. Fletcher, "Departing Aide Is at Obama's Side"
MINNESOTA SENATE RECOUNT
Minneapolis Star Tribune's Kevin Duchschere and Bob von Sternberg, "Coleman asks state Supreme Court to take it slow"
NY-20 SPECIAL ELECTION
PolitickerNY's Jimmy Vielkind, "Murphy's Lead Grows to 365"
Politico's Ben Smith, "Republicans expecting Tedisco to lose"
FUTURE RACES
2009 NJ Governor: Philadelphia Inquirer's Cynthia Burton, "Poll finds dissatisfaction with Corzine"
2009 VA Governor: Roanoke Times, "Clinton to join McAuliffe in Roanoke"
2010 IL Governor: Chicago Tribune, "Quinn: no apologies necessary for calling Blagojevich 'honest'"
2010 CT Senate: Hartford Courant's Christopher Keating, "U.S. Senate Race Heats Up On Contributors to Dodd, Simmons"
ETC.
Anchorage Daily News' Lisa Demer, "Palin PAC role called a conflict": "A new ethics complaint filed Wednesday against Gov. Sarah Palin says her role in the political action committee SarahPAC poses a conflict with her official duties as governor."
The Hill's Bob Cusack, "Pelosi hits back at Jon Stewart: You're wrong, I'm no hypocrite"