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.

"I am grateful that he is here," Mr. Obama said, but pointed out that he's fully aware of Specter's independent streak. ""I don't expect Arlen to be a rubber stamp. In fact, I'd like to think that Arlen's decision reflects recognition that this administration is open to many different ideas and many different points of view. ...I'm eager to receive his counsel and his advice, especially when he disagrees."

While Specter's move sent shockwaves throughout D.C. and his home state of Pennsylvania, on the face of it, the decision makes complete sense for Specter to save his political career.

"Seeking his sixth term, Specter already faced hostile political terrain," adds the Philadelphia Inquirer's Tom Fitzgerald. "With about 200,000 voters switching their registration from Republican to Democrat in the last 15 months, the Pennsylvania GOP electorate is smaller and more conservative than in 2004. Specter's Southeastern Pennsylvania base had at least 85,000 fewer registered Republicans than in 2004, when he barely held on to the party's nomination. Republicans yesterday cast Specter's move as the crassest of all political moves, aimed at self-preservation."

"'What it says to me, regardless to his statement, says to me, that getting elected is more important than any sort of loyalty to the people that have elected him for five terms,'" Allegheny County Republican chair Jim Roddey told KDKA political editor Jon Delano. "'The Republican Party in Pennsylvania has made a dramatic turn to the right, and so I think he recognized that and realized that it was just not a winnable situation for him in the Republican primary.'"

What does this all mean for the GOP?

"Specter's defection has symbolic and immediate ramifications for the GOP nationwide," writes the Associated Press' Charles Babington. "It makes it easier for Democrats, fairly or not, to paint the party as ideologically rigid and alien to large swaths of the country."

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, one of Specter's former fellow moderate Republicans, called Specter's switch "disheartening and disconcerting" in a New York Times op-ed and added, "I believe it didn't have to be this way."

"It is true that being a Republican moderate sometimes feels like being a cast member of 'Survivor' — you are presented with multiple challenges, and you often get the distinct feeling that you're no longer welcome in the tribe. But it is truly a dangerous signal that a Republican senator of nearly three decades no longer felt able to remain in the party," Snowe writes. "Senator Specter indicated that his decision was based on the political situation in Pennsylvania, where he faced a tough primary battle. In my view, the political environment that has made it inhospitable for a moderate Republican in Pennsylvania is a microcosm of a deeper, more pervasive problem that places our party in jeopardy nationwide. I have said that, without question, we cannot prevail as a party without conservatives. But it is equally certain we cannot prevail in the future without moderates. ... We can't continue to fold our philosophical tent into an umbrella under which only a select few are worthy to stand. Rather, we should view an expansion of diversity within the party as a triumph that will broaden our appeal. That is the political road map we must follow to victory."

"Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to become a Democrat underscores his former party's political downward spiral," add the Wall Street Journal's Greg Hitt and Susan Davis. "In losing control of the House and Senate over the past four years, congressional Republicans have also lost much of their ideological and geographic diversity -- raising questions about the GOP's viability as a national party. The party has suffered in particular in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, and among moderates. ... Senate Republican leaders denied they had slipped into the danger zone. ... But moderate ranks have dwindled sharply -- by some counts down to two: Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins."

"How much more can the Republicans take?" asks the Washington Post's Dan Balz. "Demoralized, contracting and lacking their own agenda, Republicans yesterday saw their ranks further thinned with the stunning news that Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching parties to run for reelection in 2010 as a Democrat. The question now is whether Specter's departure will produce a period of genuine introspection by a party already in disarray or result in a circling of the wagons by those who think the GOP is better off without those whose views fall outside its conservative ideological boundaries. ... Steve Schmidt ... one of Sen. John McCain's top advisers in the 2008 campaign ... said Specter's determination that he had to become a Democrat to continue his career in public service 'because his party no longer welcomes him is a pitiful commentary on the state of the party, based on the fact that we continue to shrink when we should focus on trying to grow.'"

Meantime, the fate of the Minnesota Senate recount just became that much more interesting as a final victory for Democrat Al Franken would make him the 60th Democratic senator. Currently, the recount is on appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments on June 1.

"The stakes have just gotten much higher," Richard Hasen, an expert on election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Kevin Diaz and Pat Doyle. "If Coleman's state Supreme Court appeal fails, Hasen added, 'the pressure from national Republican leaders to appeal to the United States Supreme Court could be enormous.' While Specter's switch gives the GOP a much bigger incentive to continue the fight over the Minnesota seat, it could be that much harder for the Senate's 40 remaining Republicans to block Franken from being seated if he prevails before the state high court."

And what does this mean for the Democrats? It's perhaps not necessarily all rosy, suggests the Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus.

"60 seats can be a mixed blessing. With 60 seats, the Democrats will have no excuses, no one else to blame, any time they can't hold their big caucus together. Their most independent, unpredictable members will enjoy massive power -- not just Specter but also [Sens. Joe] Lieberman [I-Conn.] and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, another centrist. And Specter has always been hard to please. He'll still be the 60th vote on every issue, just as he was on the stimulus bill -- the one who always has a special request before he can say yes. [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid will sometimes wonder whether this was such a good deal. At the same time, a 60-vote majority can turn into an invitation to abandon bipartisanship. Obama set out to be a post-partisan president, crafting bills that could attract Republican support, but the stimulus plan turned into an exercise in polarization. If healthcare legislation becomes a Democrats-only affair, that will be the end of Obama's commitment to bringing along both sides of the aisle."

100 DAYS: President Obama heads to Arnold, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, today for a town meeting-style event before heading back to the White House for his third primetime press conference.

The Associated Press' Julie Pace writes, "Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said the White House is smart to try to take control of the message on the 100th day. 'It's always good to play offense,' West said. 'If you create a vacuum, someone else is going to fill it.' Spending at least part of his 100th day on the road is keeping in step with Obama's penchant for getting out of Washington. While debate raged on Capitol Hill over his massive economic stimulus bill, Obama took his case directly to the American people, holding town hall meetings in Indiana, Florida and Illinois. When Congress passed the bill, Obama opted out of a White House signing ceremony, choosing instead to sign the bill at a Colorado science museum."

Meantime, "President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in Congress are aiming to give him a gift to cap his 100th day in office: passage of a congressional budget plan that endorses much of his ambitious agenda, especially his plan to reform the U.S. health care system," reports the AP's Andrew Taylor. "While a welcome victory, congressional passage of the budget would be only a first, relatively easy step toward Obama's goal of providing health care coverage for all Americans. Next would come arduous negotiations among lawmakers, the Obama administration and a vast array of interest groups. The House debated the $3.4 trillion spending plan Tuesday afternoon and both the House and Senate were to vote Wednesday. With the economy in recession and the bailout of the financial sector costing hundreds of billions of dollars, deficits would rocket to $1.7 trillion for the ongoing budget year, dipping to a still-astonishing $1.2 trillion in 2010. The budget measure is a nonbinding outline for follow-up tax and spending legislation. It is Congress' response to Obama's $3.6 trillion budget plan released in February. Perhaps most significantly, the budget plan would give Democrats a stronger hand in advancing Obama's health care initiative this fall by allowing it to go forward without threat of GOP stalling tactics in the Senate. Democrats pledge to first try passing health care legislation with GOP support."

CBSNews.com's coverage of President Obama's first 100 days:

Our partners Politico and Washington Post

ALSO TODAY: First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden along with congressional spouses and local children will volunteer at D.C.'s Capital Area Food Bank.

Treasury Secreatary Tim Geithner meets with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., to discuss credit card reform. Per a Treasury spokesperson: "Secretary Geithner will meet with Congresswoman Maloney, consumer groups, business groups and civil right leaders to discuss the national need for credit card reform. Credit cards have been made unnecessarily complicated for consumers, often leading them to pay more than they reasonably expect. As a nation, we're averaging $15 billion a year in credit card penalty fees alone. Key components of the Administration's credit card reform agenda that Secretary Geithner will discuss Wednesday include banning unfair rate increases and unfair fee traps and promoting plain sight and plan language disclosures, consumer right to know and accountability."

SWINE FLU

NEW THIS MORNING: "President Barack Obama says schools with confirmed cases of swine flu should consider closing," writes the AP's Pete Yost. "Speaking at the White House, Obama said Americans should know the government is doing 'whatever is necessary' to contain the emerging health threat. ...'This is obviously a serious situation' and 'we are closely and continuously monitoring' it, Obama said. Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu 'should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible.'"

NY Times' Liz Robbins and Donald G. McNeil Jr., "Asking for More Funding, U.S. Steps Up Flu Response"

Associated Press' Larry Margasak, "Democrats urge torture probe by special counsel"

NY Times' Neil A. Lewis, "Official Defends Signing Interrogation Memos"

ECONOMY / STIMULUS / BAILOUTS

Washington Post's Steven Mufson, "U.S. in Control: Its Goal To Fix, Not Run, Firms"

NY Times' Graham Bowley and Eric Dash, "Feeling Secure, Some Banks Want to Be Left Alone"

NY Times' Jim Rutenberg, Peter Baker and Bill Vlasic, "Obama's Stand in Auto Crisis Shows Early Resolve"

Washington Post's Neil Irwin, "A Reality Check for Economic Optimism"

FOREIGN POLICY

NY Times' Dexter Filkins, "U.S. Sets Fight in the Poppies to Halt Taliban Cash Flow"

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

Wall Street Journal's Janet Adamy, "Senate Confirms Sebelius for Health Secretary Post"

NY Times' Peter Baker, "Many in Administration Have Yet to Start Working"

FUTURE RACES

2009 NJ Gov." PolitickerNJ: "Poll: Corzine upside-down, trails Christie"

2009 VA Gov.: Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas, "Major Front in Va. Race Is Online"

ETC.

Associated Press' Anne Gearan, "White House will probe presidential plane PR stunt"