All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

The White House has released the guest list for tonight's state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This is the first state dinner of Mr. Obama's presidency, and the guest list includes politicians, entertainers and journalists, among others. The list also includes the Indian Prime Minister's daughter, Amrit Singh, who works for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

Below is the full list of expected attendees, as provided by the White House:

The President & First Lady Michelle Obama

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India & Ms. Gursharan Kaur

The Honorable (Rep) Gary Ackerman, United States Representative
Mr. Sant Singh Chatwal (Guest)

His Excellency Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation

Mr. Mukesh D Ambani

Mr. Tim Dutta (Spouse of Ms. Pia Awal)

The Honorable (Mr.) David Axelrod, White House Communications
Mrs. Susan Axelrod

Ms. Preeta Bansal, OMB - General Counsel

The Honorable (Ms.) Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council
Mr. Marland E. Buckner

The Honorable (Rep.) Howard Berman, United States Representative (D/California)
Mrs. Jane Berman, Spouse of United States Representative (D/California)

Mr. Om Prakash Bhatt

Mr. Hunter Biden
Mrs. Kathleen Biden

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Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who up-ended the special election for New York's 23rd congressional district earlier this month, finally conceded for the second time to Democrat Bill Owens, according to reports. He reportedly said he will not challenge the results.

"Yesterday, the remaining ballots were counted in the 23rd Congressional District special election," Hoffman said in a statement, according to Politico. "The results re-affirm the fact that Bill Owens won."

Hoffman continued: "Since, the morning of November 4th, many of my supporters have asked me to challenge the outcome of this race. Their concerns centered on the veracity of the new voting machines used, for the first time, in the majority of the 11 counties that make up the congressional district. Over the past three weeks, we nearly cut Bill Owens' lead in half. Sadly, that is not enough."

After Hoffman jumped into the race to represent New York's 23rd district, he began siphoning votes away from Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, leaving the largely Republican district up for grabs for Owens, the Democrat. Scozzafava dropped out of the race days before election day and endorsed Owens.

On Election Night, Hoffman conceded to Owens when he was down by 5,335 votes. Some days later, however, Hoffman "unconceded" after learning that there were still a significant number of absentee ballots to count. Hoffman blamed the community organizing group ACORN for Owens' victory, though he gave no specific evidence to back up those claims.

Last week, it was reported there were not enough remaining ballots left to turn the victory over to Hoffman.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is insisting he will keep up his opposition to adding a government-run health insurance plan, or "public option," to health care reform, refusing to even accept a compromise proposed by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine.

Lieberman has said he will join a Republican filibuster of any health care bill that includes a public option. He is one of a handful of senators who Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will have to placate in order to get all 60 members of the Democratic caucus to support his health care overhaul.

Given that Lieberman and a few other Democrats are wary of the public option plan Reid included in his bill, it is possible the Senate could try to replace the provision with a type of "compromise," such as the so-called "trigger" plan put forward by Snowe. Under that plan, a public option would only be enacted after certain number of years if the private industry failed to meet certain goals.

Lieberman told the Wall Street Journal, however, that he would not support a trigger plan, or any other "compromise" version of the public option.

"I'm going to be stubborn on this," he said.

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Former CNN television personality Lou Dobbs already has a base of supporters among citizens and politicians for a potential 2012 presidential bid, according to his spokesman.

Dobbs, who recently left his position at CNN, said on a Washington radio program yesterday that he would consider running for president. He repeated that assertion on a radio interview with 2008 GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson.

Dobbs' spokesman Robert Dillenschneider told the Washington Post this morning that Dobbs is considering "30 different opportunities" to pursue in the future.

"Since the day he left CNN, his phone has been ringing off the hook," Dillenschneider reportedly said, with calls from business and television executives, as well as "politicians who are both on the right and some in the center, who are independent."

"Some say he should run for Robert Menendez's seat," representing New Jersey in the Senate, he said, "and that might morph into something larger. It's just incredible what's happened."

Web sites already exist to promote Dobbs' political ambitions, like loudobbs4president.com and www.loudobbsforpresident.org. Dobbs in 2007 was already hinting at a presidential run, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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A Republican political hopeful interested in serving as governor of Massachusetts announced Monday he has chosen Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay state legislator, to be his running mate in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

"Want you to be the first to know: I've chosen State Senator Richard Tisei as my running mate," Republican Charles Baker wrote on his Twitter account. "Excited about this team."

In the photo at left, Baker stands to the left of Tisei outside the civic center in Wakefield, Mass.

Baker is the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and a former adviser to two Republican governors. He has known Tisei for years, the Boston Globe reports, and Tisei's years in the state legislature will make up for Baker's limited political experience.

Tisei, who the Globe called an "only-in-Massachusetts character," publicly disclosed his sexuality to the newspaper last week, though it was widely known.

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Former CNN television personality Lou Dobbs has said in recent days he is considering running for public office, and this morning he suggested he would consider a run for the highest office in the country.

"What's so crazy about that?" Dobbs responded when an anchor with Washington's WTOP radio station laughed about the possibility of Dobbs running for president in 2012. Politico's Glenn Thrush has a recording of the radio interview.

Dobbs said that he has had discussions about it and that he is, for the first time, "actually listening to people about politics."

"I don't think I've got the nature for it, but... we've got to do something in this country," Dobbs said. "I think that being in the public arena means you've got to be part of the solution."

Dobbs added that he is reaching out to Latino groups, the Chamber of Commerce and "all of the groups with whom I have been in an ongoing debate... to try to bridge some of these conflicts and try to create solutions."

Latino groups have long charged that Dobbs' show on CNN was racist in its emphasis on illegal immigration and cheered his departure from CNN.

Dobbs earlier revealed he is considering a Senate run in New Jersey.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is keeping quiet on her plans for 2012, but recent polls and political analysis suggest it's too soon to count her out as a political heavyweight.

Palin has drummed up a great deal of media attention on her nationwide book tour, which takes the former GOP vice presidential candidate to Iowa next month. A new poll out of the state -- a key state in presidential primaries -- shows that Republicans in the state highly approve of Palin.

As many as 68 percent of Iowa Republicans view Palin favorably, according to the Des Moines Register's Iowa poll. Palin ranked higher than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who won 66 percent of Iowa Republicans' approval. She also beat out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is viewed favorably by 58 percent of the state's GOP voters.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses in his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, still has higher approval ratings than Palin at 70 percent, according to the poll. A comparison with Huckabee's numbers also reveal Palin's weaknesses. Twice as many Iowa Republicans hold an unfavorable view of Palin as they do of Huckabee. Meanwhile, moderates view Huckabee more than twice as favorably as Palin.

Fifty-five percent of all Iowa residents, including Democrats, hold an unfavorable opinion of Palin, according to the poll, while only 8 percent say they are unsure about her.

While it could appear that voters have already formed an opinion about the former governor, her book tour may be boosting her popularity. Palin's popularity numbers have edged up in national polls in recent months, to the point where they nearly equal to President Obama's, Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times reports.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics

** Now the real fight over health care reform begins...

** President Obama tackles unemployment...

** Sarah Palin rises in polls during her book tour...

HEALTH CARE: Democrats Saturday night squeaked by with 60 votes on a procedural motion to move the health care debate forward.

Still, writes Shalaigh Murray of the Washington Post, " Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health-care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program."

"Despite the success in the test vote, the fragile consensus in the Democratic caucus will face its greatest test yet as the health-care debate moves to the Senate floor and Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) struggles to stave off internal schisms. The cracks in the 60-member caucus are most obvious over the public insurance option.

"One member of the Democratic caucus, independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), reiterated Sunday that he will oppose any bill that contains a public option. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," he called such a government-run plan 'radical.'

"Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another centrist who supported the move to continue debate but has made it clear he has many objections to the legislation as currently written, restated his opposition to a public plan. 'I don't want a big-government, Washington-run operation that undermines the private insurance that 200 million Americans now have,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'"

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With the first critical vote for the Senate health care bill slated for Saturday night, both advocates and opponents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill are putting pressure on the few key Democratic senators who may or may not hold up the measure.

On Saturday at 8 p.m., the Senate will vote on whether or not to even begin debate on the measure. Reid needs at least 60 senators to vote in favor of debate, and Republicans plan on uniformly voting against moving forward. A handful of conservative Democrats have expressed reservations about supporting the bill, for various reasons, and two have not yet disclosed whether they will vote in favor of moving the debate forward on Saturday: Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

However, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another conservative Democrat whose vote was in play, announced today he would vote in favor of beginning debate. He maintained, though, that he will vote with Republicans to filibuster the bill after debating it, if it is not altered to his liking.

"The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans," Nelson said in a statement. Saturday's vote, he said, "is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill why block your own opportunity to amend it?"

Nelson and his fellow centrist Democrats have been feeling the heat from all sides. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) e-mailed his supporters this morning, Politico reports, urging them to call Nelson's office and ask him to vote against the health care debate tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee sent out an e-mail with the subject "Your Call Can Make the Difference," also urging people to call Nelson and Lincoln and ask them to vote against Saturday's motion.

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Updated at 12:55 p.m. ET.

A Senate ethics panel cleared Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) of any legal wrongdoing, after months of questions swirling around his appointment to the Senate seat President Obama left vacant upon taking office.

The panel, however, strong criticized Burris for providing “incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public and the Senate. It calls a number of his actions “inappropriate.”

Burris came under fire after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- who was already accused of trying to sell Mr. Obama's former Senate seat -- appointed Burris to the position. Burris was not initially under investigation for any connection to Blagojevich's alleged scheme, but he later admitted he tried to raise money for the governor while seeking the Senate seat.

In a "public letter of qualified admonition (PDF)," the six-person Senate Ethics Committee found that Burris committed no "actionable violations of the law."

Still, the panel wrote in its letter, "Senators must meet a much higher standard of conduct."

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