All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

During the debate over immigration reform in Congress over the past few years, certain parties have consistently pointed to border security as a top priority, as the Associated Press points out. The continuing debate over what constituted adequate border security was a major reason why the immigration bill failed three times.

But according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the borders are now safe enough to take a step forward. "We can pass strong, fair, practical and effective immigration reform this year," he said following a hearing on border security Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection said that the number of people arrested while illegally crossing the Mexican border dropped 27 percent from the same period since last year. Along the Canadian border, the number of arrests was down 13 percent.

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Infighting within the Republican Party continued yesterday when former Secretary of State Colin Powell fired back at former Vice President Dick Cheney and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for criticizing him, the Boston Globe reports.

"Rush Limbaugh says, 'Get out of the Republican Party.' Dick Cheney says, 'He's already out.' I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there's another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again," Powell told the a crowd of 1,500 business leaders in Boston yesterday.

Both Cheney and Limbaugh have attacked Powell for endorsing President Obama and saying that "Americans want more government in their lives, not less."

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One of the things former Vice President Dick Cheney will be remembered for his having been spirited off to an "undisclosed location" following the Sept. 11 attacks. And now we know where that location may be.

As Eleanor Clift of Newsweek writes, Vice President Joe Biden talked about the possible spot earlier this year during the Gridiron Club dinner, an exclusive annual event for Washington journalists and bureau chiefs.

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CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller took this photo of Marine One carrying President Obama from the White House today, and we decided to post it purely because we thought it was cool. (Plus, it's a photo that cost significantly less than, say, $328,835.)

Mr. Obama took Marine One to Air Force One for a flight to Arizona, where he will deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University this evening.

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the key Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says that he could support a gay Supreme Court justice, The Hill reports.

“I’m not inclined to think that’s an automatic disqualification,” Session said of the prospect of a gay justice. Gay rights groups have called on President Obama to install an openly gay justice.

“I may disagree with some legal opinion on those issues, but I think fundamentally it will be up to the president to submit somebody who would unite the country and would be a clear statement of a mainstream judge who commits himself to the law,” he added.

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Both liberals and conservatives took to the airwaves today with a series of new advertisements about government spending.

Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org released a TV ad about health insurance in Iowa, Montana and Washington D.C., where the hottest battles over health are expected to be fought. The 30-second spot features two undertakers fretting that public health care will drive them out of business.

“A public health care plan means affordable health care for everyone. And you know what that means,” says one undertaker, fretfully.

“More healthy people living longer,” responds his unhappy coworker. That prompts the first man to say, in reference to President Obama, “this guy’s killing us.”



“Senators [Max] Baucus (D-MT) and [Chuck] Grassley (R-IA) are at the center of the fight for real health care reform," said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn, in a statement. "They have a responsibility to stand with the overwhelming majority of Americans who want the choice of a public health insurance plan – but instead, Senator Grassley and Congressional Republicans have been standing with the insurance companies and special interests.”

Not to be outdone, the National Republican Congressional Committee is running five radio ads targeting the fiscally conservative "blue dog" Democrats for supporting the $787 billion stimulus bill. The ad, run in the districts of Marion Berry (AR-01), Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Earl Pomeroy (ND-AL), Zack Space (OH-18) and John Tanner (TN-08), charges the legislators with being House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "lap dogs."

Click here to listen to one of the NRCC ads.

An unidentified man tried force his way into the Pentagon Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.

Building police drew their weapons but fired no shots. Instead, they wrestled him to the ground and arrested him.

The man appeared in front of the Pentagon entrance that sits on a major transportation hub at 1:15 p.m. He tried to push his way past security. It is not clear where he came from or what his motives were.

The man appeared to be unarmed, according to Pentagon officials.

When he gets tired of trying to solve the country’s problems, it seems President Obama likes to kick back with a novel: In an interview with the New York Times, the president said he is "sick of briefing books" and is reading "Netherland" by the Irish author Joseph O'Neill.

The 2008 novel features a Dutchman living in NYC after the 9/11 attacks. His wife leaves him and he begins playing cricket with a Trinidadian immigrant who works for a Russian gangster. The story, written in the first person, explores how people perceive their life as a narrative and how New York gets under your skin and never quite goes away, according to the Washington Post's review on Amazon.

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Today marks the 100th day of Barack Obama's presidency. Since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the national media have used this milestone to evaluate how a president is doing. Below is some of the analysis we found of Mr. Obama's first 100 days from multiple sources around the Web.

Mike Allen, Jim Vandehei and John F. Harris, Politico:

"The reality is that the 100 Days yardstick, even if arbitrary, works rather well for this president. Because of the plunge in the economy, Obama was confronted in his opening weeks with as many consequential domestic decisions in three months as some presidents face in four years. Because of his party's big congressional victories, he has more power to assert his will in a short amount of time than many presidents ever get. And because of the epic reach of his own ambition, he has revealed more about his own leadership style and values sooner than might be expected from a typical president in typical times.

"When Obama took office, a raft of stories talked about how he had relied heavily on Clinton veterans to staff the administration and how he seemed likely to govern with a "centrist" ideology. Three months later, this seems absurd. The reality is that the size and speed of Obama's agenda is as stark a departure from the defensive-minded incrementalism of Bill Clinton as it is from the conservatism of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. "

Joe Klein, Time magazine:

"The combination of candor and vision and the patient explanation of complex issues was Obama at his best - and more than any other moment of his first 100 days in office, it summed up the purpose of his presidency: a radical change of course not just from his predecessor, not just from the 30-year Reagan era but also from the quick-fix, sugar-rush, attention-deficit society of the postmodern age."

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In an Earth Day speech in Newton, Iowa today, President Obama detailed plans to generate 20 percent of the country's electricity from wind and create 250,000 jobs in the alternative energy sector by 2030.

In his address to the employees of the Trinity Structural Towers Manufacturing Plant, Mr. Obama called for Americans to recognize the dangers of global climate change and the urgent need to do something about it. To this end, he pointed out that his budget will annually invest $15 billion in "clean energy," including wind, solar, geothermal and clean coal, for 10 years.

"It's a win-win: It's good for the environment; it's great for the economy," said Mr. Obama.

He also said that he would create a carbon cap for the country, turning the ability to produce carbon emissions into a scarce commodity. This, the president argued, will lead to companies making wiser decisions on how to allocate money between productivity and pollution.

"Everybody has known that we had to do something but nobody wanted to actually go ahead and do it because it's hard," said Mr. Obama. "I reject that argument."

President Obama’s speech, as provided by the White House, is below.

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