Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele warns that Democratic government intervention in health care will be even worse than the Schiavo case. Huh? That and other political news in today's TPMDC Saturday Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: A Teachable Moment

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. says he'd be happy to have a beer at the White House with Officer Crowley and President Obama.

Whatever else Twitter might be, we've found it a good way of to keep tabs on politicos and reporters, what they're doing, saying and so forth. Pols make unguarded or revealing statements, sometimes just helpful heads-ups on events or statements; reporters give early tips on stories. And just atmospherically you can get a feel for what certain groups of people are thinking and talking about. It's not perfect. Obviously, people know they're being listened to. But it's still a very useful tool.

So with that in mind we set up a series of Twitter rooms that pull together the Twitter feeds of different groups. Here's the feeds for Elected Dems on Capitol Hill, Elected Republicans on Capitol Hill, Democratic and liberal insiders, Republican and conservative insiders and reporters and bloggers.

Each page is auto-updating every few minutes.

The elected officials on Capitol Hill rooms should include every representative and senator on the Hill who has a Twitter account. The others obviously required some subjective judgment as to who to include. But they're fairly comprehensive. And obviously if there are people who you think we should add to one of the lists, please let us know.

They're permanently linked on our front page, below the fold on the right, just across from our masthead.

Latest Tweet from Sarah Palin: "Another victory for my family/my admin/the people of AK; but the wins come @ great cost. Will link to presser when posted."

No. I'm not sure either.

'Birther' legal team somewhat less than lawyers in good standing.

Give us a border.

Jim Sleeper on Gates/Crowley: both wrong, one wronger.

I don't understand why commentators persist in saying this week that Barack Obama avoided any discussion of race during the presidential campaign. Which campaign were they covering?

Here's Jack Cafferty on CNN from this afternoon:

Isn't it ironic, he went through the whole presidential campaign, with nary a nod toward any sort of racial problems in this country, and at the tail end of a news conference the other night he stepped right in it up to his eyebrows.

You might argue that Obama didn't make race the centerpiece of his campaign or that he was careful not to explicitly shoulder the burden of centuries of black grievances. (The symbolic shouldering of those grievances was something the first serious black candidate for President, whoever he turned out to be, would not be able to shrug off easily.) But it's wildly inaccurate to say that he ignored race during the campaign, even if he declined to play-act in the highly choreographed racial set-pieces that linger in our politics.

Read more »

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Trying to visualize the Obama/Crowley/Gates kegger at the White House.

Late Update: TPM Reader DB adds: "So what does the SNL intro skit this weekend look like? Does it start with all parties with a few beers under their belts already?"

Latter Update: This leaves me feeling bad for Richard Pryor, who I think would have wanted to be alive and in his early form to build a routine around this story.

Watch Obama's surprise press briefing appearance this afternoon on the Gates hullabaloo.

CNN Prez to Lou Dobbs: Get off the birther bandwagon!

Leader of national Tea Party movement tells the doctor who sent around the racist Obama witch doctor picture they'll stand behind him 100%.

The negotiations between House Blue Dogs and Rep. Henry Waxman appear to have ended badly.

Obama makes surprise appearance at White House briefing to address Gates incident.

The President spoke with the arresting officer, Sgt. Crowley, this afternoon by phone and reiterated to him what Obama said yesterday: that from what he knows Crowley is an exemplary police officer.

Obama conceded that his comments at Wednesday night's press conference "ratcheted up" the situation.

The President also reiterated that he thinks both sides "overreacted." While he suggested that he regretted having "ratcheted up" the situation, Obama rejected the idea that he should not have commented on it because it was merely a local issue.

The President said that Crowley joked about whether Obama could get the press off his lawn.

More here.

Sarah Palin's fast and furious stint as governor of Alaska comes to an end Sunday when her resignation becomes official. We take a look back on the shooting star that was ... Gov. Sarah Palin.

It's that old saw: Once you get caught circulating a jokey email with a picture of the black President of the United States as a witch doctor in a loin cloth with a bone through his nose, things can break down pretty quickly.

Over the course of the day, Dr. David McKalip has apologized for the email, been rebuked by the Florida Medical Association despite noting he'd once done some career counseling for some black boy scouts, been forced to resign as the head of his local medical association, and now, as he announced to a listserve of fellow Tea Party activists today, he'll withdraw from the public debate over health care reform altogether so as not to distract from the goals of the movement.

On the other hand, Marco Rubio, the right-wing primary opponent to Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida's GOP senate primary, won't say whether he's going to sever ties with McKalip, who held a fundraiser for him last month.

TheFasterTimes.com.

A number of readers have written in about the post last night on the comparative danger of police work. The post noted that while police work is much more dangerous than the average job in the United States, it is by no means the most dangerous. That dubious honor goes to jobs like commercial fishing, construction, trucking and other similarly accident-prone professions.

The gist of most of these critiques was that you can't really evaluate the danger of the profession through injury and mortality rates because what's different about the job is that you frequently come into contact with actual people who want to hurt you and, much more frequently, situations where you don't know what you're going to find. And you have to ready to be confront someone who wants to do you or other people harm. This is a very good point. And I believe it only confirms TPM Reader JS's point from last night (which I strongly recommend), which was that the heroism of police work is not mainly about physical danger but moral courage and psychological stress.

Read more »

Howard Fineman talking last night on Countdown regarding health care reform:

I talked to people on the Hill all day today. I talked to Republicans as well as Democrats. Republicans claims they have a plan. They don't. They claim they're going to have a plan. They won't. Their whole strategy ... is to stand on the sidelines with their arms folded while the Democrats try to work this thing out. That's their whole strategy.

That's not news to anyone who's been following the negotiations closely. But I'm not sure it's broken through yet. Rinse and repeat.

Sarah Palin leaves office on Sunday with her national approval ratings down to 40%. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Doctor, on Obama as witch doctor email: "I sincerely apologize."

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Not A Sprint

Following up on the post below, just how dangerous is police work?

Turns out it's pretty dangerous. But by no means the most dangerous line of work. In 2007, policing was the tenth most dangerous job in the country. In 2005, the profession was not in the top ten.

The most dangerous jobs are fisherman, loggers, pilots, iron and steel workers, farmers, truckers, construction workers, etc.

Here's a 2007 blog post by Radley Balko that picks apart the numbers.

Before Dr. David McKalip was emailing around photoshopped pictures of President Obama as a loin clothed, pierced nose witch doctor he was writing guest editorials on the horrors of ObamaCare in papers like the St. Petersburg Times.

TPM Reader CR with an important addition about the rise of tasers as a substitute for "self-defense training and lessons in conflict resolution" ...

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From TPM Reader JS ...

You done well running reader NL's essay on police abuse of their power. But you and NL framed it poorly: "They put themselves in harm's way for us everyday."

Police work is not that dangerous compared to, say, driving a cab. Firefighters have a far more physically dangerous job. However, cops have a heroic job: much harder in so many ways than firefighting. Firefighters are almost never in a morally ambiguous zone and almost always are in the business of making people feel good. Cops handle humans at their worst.

This distinction matters. When cops stress the (low) physical danger of their job, they're setting themselves up to be military. That's no good for the country. Large cities probably need a SWAT team, but that is not the model for most police work. Collateral damage is simply not acceptable for police. It also leads to police cowardice. A lot of civilian damage is justified by the military concept: "force protection." Highly-armed and highly-trained cops use a lot more violence against citizens than a court would deem acceptable if one citizen used it against another.

Cops do not stress the (high) psychological danger of their job, because that makes them social workers with guns, able to handle difficult people with aplomb and an absolute minimum of violence, either threatened or applied. And that's what they should be.

So don't play into fascist stereotypes of manly danger. Police work is hard, dirty, and noble. But it is not particularly dangerous. And it shouldn't be viewed that way.

I thought the 'fascist stereotypes' line was a bit much. Other than that though I thought this was one of most insightful emails I've gotten in a long time.

Meet Paul Stanley. He's a Republican state senator in Tennessee who teaches Sunday school, loudly opposes allowing gay couples to adopt and is a firm opponent of sex outside of marriage -- except his own. Poor Stanley, 47, ended up having to go to the police and admit having sex with his 22-year-old intern after her boyfriend clumsily tried to blackmail him with pictures and video of Stanley and the intern in flagrante delicto. Unlike Sen. John Ensign's claims of blackmail, the police have taken this one seriously and charged the schlub of a boyfriend.

You might remember that bizarre story of the Democratic fundraiser out in the San Diego suburbs where an out of control Sheriff's Deputy ended up pepper spraying and throwing to the ground a group of harmless middle aged Dems and taking a couple of them into custody. This Gates story, while it adds the potent addition of race, in many ways gets at a similar issue. Police officers don't get fancy wages. But they put themselves in harm's way for us everyday. And they deserve our respect and our appreciation. But they also work for us. And you do have these cases where people get arrested or knocked around for basically nothing, or at worst mouthing off a bit or not being deferential enough.

Along those lines, TPM Reader NL has this to say ...

Read more »

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Is Barack Obama America's first black president?

President digs in on controversial claim that arresting people in their own homes when they're not breaking any law represents substandard police work.

Remember John Hagee? The gonzo Christian pastor from Texas who champions absolute support of Israeli right with claims the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon? He and his group, Christians United for Israel rolled into DC this week and we were there to get the pictures.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is trying to make hay out of Obama's Gates comments.

When we saw Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) claiming President Obama "has lowered the discourse," we couldn't resist taking readers "Inside Jim DeMint's Alternative Universe of Political Discourse."

Zack Roth digs in more on the "body part trafficking" angle to the big new New Jersey corruption case.

Kit Seelye in the New York Times: "Americans got a rare glimpse Wednesday night of what it means to have a black president in the Oval Office." (via BooMan).

Here's what press secretary Robert Gibbs is saying today about Obama's comments last night on the Henry Louis Gates case: "Let me be clear. He was not calling the officer stupid, okay? He was denoting that ... at a certain point the situation got far out of hand, and I think all sides understand that."

Late Update: Gibbs' use of "denotes" is like a nervous tic. It sort of gives away that, as smooth as he is, he's scrambling a bit -- such as when he was faced with the outcry over the administration's decision not to release more photos of the abuse of detainees:

"The photos don't denote the existence of the investigations ...."

"No, Chuck, again, the existence of the detainee abuse cases is not denoted by the photos."

"No. I think, again, Mark, as I said, I don't think the -- the existence of the photos doesn't denote -- isn't the only thing that denotes the existence of an investigation."

Arkansas GOP Senate candidate: "We need someone to stand up to Barack Obama and his policies. We must protect our culture, our Christian identity."

A very intriguing series of arrests in New Jersey this morning where the feds, claiming to be busting up an international money laundering ring that allegedly includes the "trafficking of body parts," have picked up a bunch of mayors, rabbis, and lower level government employees. It's not clear yet the scope of the investigation or how far it extends beyond New Jersey (some New York rabbis were arrested, too). We're looking into it at TPMmuckraker and will bring you more through the day.

Late Update: TPM Reader SP flags this angle:

Hoboken Mayor Peter J. Cammarano III, who was taken away by the FBI today, was sworn in on July 1. Granted he's been a councilman since 2005, but, still, did he just set some kind of record for the official most quickly arrested for corruption? Even for NJ, 22 days is awfully fast.

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) refuses to say whether he lives in the C Street house "because of privacy issues."

Late Update: Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) is getting antsy about his C Street connection, too, when asked about it on a conference call with reporters:

"I will not discuss what goes on there, because I'm not there. ... Are there other activities going on there? Yes. But what goes on and things like that, I don't know. I have my room there." ...

"I have a room there. And I participate in a Tuesday night dinner once in a while there. ... So there is no regimen. There is no group stuff I have to do. ... You guys ... are grasping at straws that's not there. I rent a room there." ...

"I almost have to chuckle at your questions," Stupak said. "No. 1, I don't belong to any such 'group.' I rent a room at a house on C Street. I do not belong to any such group. I don't know what you are talking about. ... I have no affiliation. I rent a room at C Street."

Classic.

Shocked? Yeah, a bit. But not all that much. A prominent anti-health reform activist, who recently joined two Republican members of Congress in an online anti-reform town hall meeting, has been caught circulating a photoshopped picture of President Obama as an African witch doctor, which he finds "funny".

Jon Stewart to Lou Dobbs: Do you even watch your own eff-ing network?

We get regular complaints from readers who prefer reading text to watching video. For you, the transcript of last night's press conference.

Sen. Jim "Waterloo" DeMint (R-SC): Obama "has lowered the discourse." That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Choked Blue

President gaming out what might happen to him if he were caught trying to break into the White House.

It's a funny thing. When I was watching the press conference tonight during the Gates question, I think I must have looked away or maybe been writing when Obama made the "stupidly" comment. Because I didn't hear it. But I don't think it changes my mind or my original impression.

Now there's a flood of para-commentary: not necessarily what he said, which is inconveniently unremarkable. But are we surprised that he said it? Should he have gone into such detail? What's the fallout?

The political press is all atwitter over this, a bit like just after two high school kids square off for a fight but just before the punches start flying. But let's be honest: this is all about a black guy getting on the side of another black guy who got crosswise with the cops. Why would he touch such a powder keg? Like it's going to ignite at least one more battle in the late lamented Culture War.

Hopefully now Obama can appoint Gates to the Supreme Court so we can have the Republicans create a media circus when the cop who arrested Gates testifies at Gates' confirmation hearings.

Here are some salient facts. The house was Gates' house. From what I understand, no one disputes that prior to his arrest and while in the house, Gates provided proof that the house was his. When you have those facts and the guy whose house it is ends up getting arrested, I think that's prima facie evidence of bad police work.

We certainly can't know it was racism. And perhaps there are extraordinary facts that would show the arrest was proper -- that all the escalation came from Gates, was unwarranted and left the officer no choice but to arrest him. But I think the assumption has to be that the officer mishandled the situation. Because we hire the police to protect us from burglars breaking into our homes, not to arrest us in our own homes if we get a little miffed at being mistaken for burglars. Police are trained to prevent situations like that from escalating. They're professionals. And I suspect that people who actually train recruits in best practices policing procedure, as opposed to political analyst and GOP press secretaries, would probably agree with that.

I'm failing in my efforts to feign shock that the president said it.

Longtime reader previews the press coverage we can look forward to after Obama's comments on the Henry Louis Gates case:

Tonight sums up where we are in America: the headlines are all about, not how to get to secure and affordable health care, the preeminent social inclusion issue relevant to millions of American families, but about African American Obama defending his millionaire friend Skip Gates on the race issue! (Yes, the Cambridge police were stupid, but so was arrogant Skip, who lost his temper and is turning it all into self-promoting race fiction.)

Race trumps social-economic justice: just what the right wing wants, and just what has repeatedly derailed possibilities for redistributive reform since the 1960s.

This was Obama's best chance to get through to millions of ordinary
Americans on health care -- and he blows it, with self-obsessed Skip Gates, the race-obsessed press aiding and abetting all the way.

After refusing to make visitor logs public, the White House late today released a list of health care executives who have visited the White House.

8:26 PM ... DeMint too pitiful to be named? Probably.

8:27 PM ... No mention of faction in Democratic party owned by insurance industry.

8:27 PM ... Sheesh, "Jake" requires no identification. That's fame. Obama's answer is pretty solid. Jake's was essentially assuming that reform means rationing.

8:41 PM ... Half hour plus, health care not interesting enough. On to transparency and bailouts.

8:44 PM ... Broad-ranging defense of bailouts.

8:45 PM ... This seems to be what Obama was referencing, a list released tonight of health care execs who have visited the White House to discuss reform.

8:48 PM ... I'm sure we'll hear GOPers mention that line about "taking out some of the profit motive."

8:53 PM ... Obama arrested trying to jimmy the front door at the White House. Quite a moment to consider.

8:55 PM ... Hmmm. I may be mistaken but I think he managed to navigate his way through that Gates question and pull it off by hitting the key points and not getting tripped up on any of the tripwires. That was pretty impressive.

8:05 PM ... Reform not just about uninsured, but deficit and economic future too.

8:09 PM ... This push, these arguments, make me wonder why the conversation didn't begin with them, rather than get to them now.

8:10 PM ... Who's the GOP strategist who said go for the kill? Bill Kristol.

8:12 PM ... Here's the transcript of Obama's opening statement.

8:13 PM ... Curious whether we get a sharp-edged public option question.

8:15 PM ... Interesting angle, Kleefeld points out: president framing status quo as alternative plan. Just one that's a lot more expensive and involves a lot more people losing their coverage.

8:18 PM ... Sheesh, glory night for the wire services. AP, Reuters ... UPI next?

8:19 PM ... "The default is inertia."

8:20 PM ... It's interesting to note this list Obama has of just how many interest groups or organizations are behind the plan and yet it seems to be so jammed up. The key is that most of these groups are extremely fair weather friends. Happy to sign on nominally but not putting an ounce of muscle into the effort.

8:22 PM ... Chuck Todd rolling out the seldom seen extemporaneously articulated question.

7:52 p.m. ET ... Excerpts from Obama's prepared introductory remarks.

7:54 p.m. ... Washington press corps mindset: Whether one man can save his presidency/salvage his domestic agenda is a faux drama much more compelling than whether millions will actually benefit from health care reform.

7:58 p.m. ... The Nation's Chris Hayes twitters about what presidential presser is like for non-prestige media: "Headed to WH to go pretend I might get called on. Sort of like putting on a tux on prom night and waiting for an imaginary date to show up."

8:01 p.m. ... Here we go ...

8:03 p.m. ... Complete text of Obama's introductory remarks.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): "We're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina."

How can we ever have real health care reform if Orrin Hatch isn't on board?

Fox News' Neil Cavuto is outraged -- outraged! -- that anyone would criticize his segment on whether the new surgeon general is too fat for the job.

This is very odd, at a minimum. As we reported yesterday, an aide to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) read a statement at a rally in Maine over the weekend in which Snowe appeared to back a public option for health care.

Then today Snowe's office released the complete statement which included additional qualifying language beyond what was originally reported that means Snowe's position is same as it ever was: she doesn't favor a true public option.

But now we have video of the rally, and the Snowe aide doesn't appear to have included the qualifying language. Is Snowe trying to have it both ways? Give it a close listen.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Steve Clemons on the Obama-Netanyahu relationship ...

Netanyahu is very clearly Obama's Khruschev.

Netanyahu is poking the Obama White House, ridiculing his foreign policy team, and launching preemptive strikes at the very necessary deal-making that Obama must move forward in the region to shore up America's power position and global relevance.

The Moskowitz-Netanyahu Plan to expand settlements in East Jerusalem, clearly over the red lines set by previous presidential administration and Israeli prime ministerships, is designed to pommel Obama and deflate his power in the eyes of other regional stakeholders.

Obama needs to politely crush Netanyahu -- and do it with a smile, without losing his temper, just as Richard Wolffe -- in his new book Renegade: The Making of an American President -- describes Obama doing to political foes he politely vanquished.

Read the rest here.

If we can't get new talking heads, can we get new cable news producers/bookers?

Just a reminder on how irrelevant Rudy is: He won zero delegates in the GOP primaries during his epic crash-and-burn from well-financed front-runner.

We'll be covering the presidential press conference with liveblogging here and additional analysis at TPMDC. You can watch streaming video here, and follow along with our coverage in real time.

Why is CNN interviewing Rudy Giuliani about health care reform?

A primer on the curious case of that U.S. soldier being held by the Taliban.

Cool pics from today's solar eclipse across Asia.

The Speaker is prepared to work the House past the usual recess.

TPMmuckraker talks with Phil Angelides, the chairman of the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, about the task facing this latter-day Pecora Commission.

Lindsey Graham announces his support for the Sotomayor confirmation.

The reports of Sen. Olympia Snowe's endorsement of a public option for health care were greatly exaggerated.

Watch as Liz Cheney walks a fine line between siding with the birthers and disagreeing with their premise.

If you missed Chris Matthews' confronting a "Birther Bill" congressman on camera with Obama's birth certificate yesterday, it's worth a look, too.

Cheney Obama refuses to release visitor logs showing which energy health care company executives visited the White House.

Late Update: It's an especially painful continuation of Bush policies since candidate Obama promised to let CSPAN in to cover the creation of a health care bill and his campaign website still promises transparency in meetings between White House staff and outside interests.

The Fox News analyst who on Sunday wrote off the life of captured Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, saying the Taliban could do whatever they wanted with him, was back on Fox last night, ganging up with Bill O'Reilly in calling the U.S. soldier a "nut."

Separate and apart from the Fox whackiness, the circumstance of Bergdahl's disappearance and capture remain quite murky. We're looking into that angle and will have more on it for you later today.

Colbert took on ACORN last night in a hilarious interview w/ chief organizer Bertha Lewis, who was a great sport, but still, as everyone is, a victim of Colbert. Lewis actually previewed the segment with a blog post last night at TPMCafe.

Ultra conservative Pat Toomey has surged into a tie with Arlen Specter in a general election matchup in the Pennsylvania Senate race, according to a new poll. Toomey also out-polls Joe Sestak, though there's a high number of undecideds in that matchup because neither candidate has high name recognition.

Arlen Specter refunded $224,000 in the last quarter to donors disgruntled about his party switch. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Blue in the Face

Chris Matthews whips out Obama's birth certificate in interview with "Birther Bill" co-sponsor Rep. John Campbell (R-CA).

Kind of like Dorothy throwing water on the Wicked Witch.

In what has to be among Fox News' all-time lowlights, Neil Cavuto had a segment a short while ago on whether the new surgeon general nominee, Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, is "too fat" for the post. Seriously. In support of this argument, they had on as a guest some guy wearing a "No Chubbies" T-shirt. Again, I'm serious. Watch.

Late Update: It's not just Fox. ABC has a straight news story about Benjamin's weight. I don't remember C. Everett Koop being svelte. But then he wasn't black or a woman.

Later Update: The Fox guest is quite a character. His name is Michael Karolchyk, and he runs an outfit in Denver called the Anti-Gym (NSFW), a fitness club with an emphasis on getting clients in shape for sex: "With live DJs, cage dancers, and our elite co-ed Ravish Room, Anti-Gym boasts the hottest facilities and clientele in Denver."

Read more »

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

TPM Reader AB:

Just to mention something that is obvious, but hopefully not overlooked, i.e., if this country cannot pass a bill which insures that every citizen has access to medical care, which every developed country has managed to do (and got done many many years ago), there is something very fundamentally and structurally wrong with this country.

Such an event, in my mind, would confirm that we live with a completely corrupt and dysfunctional form of government. Forty nine states, each with bicameral legislative bodies, some of which have distinguished themselves recently with unabashed levels of incompetency and cluelessness. Then, graft a federal government over that, which is also bicameral, the non-representative portion of it being filled with officials who are certifiable morons and/or who are bought and sold like whores by wealthy contributors.

Talk about a Waterloo.

This is a defining moment in our history. Do we fulfill our supposed status as a "shining city on a hill" or continue our long slow decline into a second rate oligarchy?

I am not one prone to hyperbole.

I believe this to the depths of my soul.

Sen. Jim DeMint: Obama "played right into my hands."

Hard to say from this AP article how much of this ethics violation is on Sarah Palin herself, and how much might have been the result of her legal defense fund being improperly set up or not kept at sufficient arm's length. We're trying to get ahold of the new report.

The Chamber of Commerce is rolling out an anti-public option campaign with the slogan: "Don't Drag Down Health Care Reform."

Since the fiasco of 1994, health care has been a drum Democrats have banged away on at election time with the more or less open understanding that it would be safely stowed away again after November. But now we're at a point where we should soon see whether this is an issue that can ever be conquered or dealt with in any real way. The Dems went into this round with as many advantages as they're likely ever to have -- a president with commanding authority, big majorities in Congress and a mood in the country that seemed decidedly favorable if not quite sold on the prospect of major reform. The one big exception to this favorable picture was the near collapse of the country's economy (which ain't nothing), but which the White House has nonetheless (and with real merit) argued is a reason for moving now on health care reform rather than delay.

But a series of developments over just the last couple of weeks have transformed this from what seemed like almost a done deal to a really, really tough challenge. Health care is a really complex issue. And the entrenched interests are probably as powerful as any other issue a president can face. Let's not pretend it's even close to easy, ever. But conservative Democrats are digging in on the cost front; the insurance companies have a hold over a lot of senators and representatives on the public option; and for a number of reasons, the president's own popularity has come down significantly.

It is definitely true that the president is still quite popular. But his numbers are now the sort that don't necessarily scare elected officials on the margins or give reassurance to House Democrats in marginal districts. And let's face it, a lot of these members of Congress are simply owned by different parts of the health care industry -- something that a president needs a lot of public support to overcome.

This is a clearly testing time for Obama. But much more for the Democrats. If not now, really, when? Is the hill just too steep?

More from the Blue Dogs who are fighting health care reform. "We've gotta slow things down," Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), a key Blue Dog, said on Fox today.

Looming over the health care negotiations has been the absence from the Senate of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd for health reasons, denying Dems two of their much-needed 60 votes. But as of today, Byrd is back at work.

The GOP's latest effort to get hip is a Lady Gaga parody video that Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) played at the weekly Republican conference meeting this morning.

Not in the same league as that rap that made the rounds a couple of months ago, but still cosmically lame.

House Blue Dogs are heading to the White House for a meeting with the President to demand delay on the health care bill. A House aide brags: "The landscape will change after that meeting." Oh, really?

Another defense contractor with ties to Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) pleads guilty.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have succeeded in delaying a committee vote on her nomination for another week.

TPMDC Morning Roundup is back from vacation, rested and ready to bring you the day's political news.

Andy Stern is rallying the troops to make sure Congress at least gives "card check" an up or down vote.

Hillary in India.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Health Care Bingo

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

The way it was ... in pictures.

A knowledgeable reader from up on the Hill chimes in (the references are to this post from this morning) ...

Pivot Point #1 is all but a done deal: the bill may pass the House before the August recess, but not the Senate. It probably passes the Senate Finance Committee, then the Finance and HELP committees will work out their differences over August, putting the bill on the floor in September.

Pivot Point #2 may come down to a question of how well Reid can hold his caucus. Some Democratic senators would vote against a health care bill with a full-on public option -- but would they filibuster it? The HELP bill has a public option, Finance will probably have a co-op option. Which prevails?

I think Pivot Point #3 isn't quite what you describe; it's what Robert Reich puts his finger on, the question of cost containment. Taxing Cadillac health plans would help contain costs, but that's off the table. Obama has proposed "MedPAC on steroids" -- reviewing the rates at which Medicare reimburses care providers -- and that will help. But some of the deals the Administration has cut to win support do erode the ability to contain runaway health care costs. If we're expanding coverage but not also delivering care more efficiently, have we succeeded?

Bottom line, Congress needs to thread a fine policy and political needle: delivering care more efficiently to more people without running up larger deficits. It's tough work, and the bills out there now are at best a starting point. It probably happens by the end of the year, but there's a lot of hard slogging still to come.

Organizers of a reunion of ex-staffers of Sen. John Ensign have cancelled the Lake Tahoe event now that revelations of Ensign's affair with the wife of an ex-staffer who was also a campaign staffer put a damper on things.

Robert Reich says political payoffs to get the support of the drug companies, insurance companies and the AMA are making cost cutting impossible. And that's losing support fast.

President Obama directly takes on the comments from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) that defeating health care reform will be Obama's "Waterloo": "It will break him."

While Democrats are engaged in an internecine battle over health care reform, the conservative and moderate wings of the GOP are battling it out over Obama's birth certificate. Dave Weigel has some good video.

I was born a few months after the first moon landing, but looking through our slideshow of the event, 40 years ago today, I'm reminded of the excitement surrounding the docking of the Apollo and Soyuz crafts six years later, in 1975, and the first shuttle launch six years after that, in 1981. The photos alone don't convey the universality of the experience. A case where I think you definitely had to be there to appreciate it. What are your memories of July 20, 1969?

Fox News analyst: As far as I'm concerned, the Taliban can kill that captured U.S. soldier.

Note that even the Fox anchor can't quite get on board with that sentiment. Watch.

C Street, the bible fellowship and congressional group home, rebrands itself as a self-help group for bible-thumping womanizers "struggling to confront their personal demons."

From TPM Reader AH ...

Not everyone loved Walter Conkrite. I remember when I was in college in the mid-'70s one of my classmates earnestly telling me that Walter Conkrite was a communist. His proof?? Before Nixon went to Peking (it was still Peking back then), Conkrite referred to the country as "Red China" - but afterwards, he referred to is as "the People's Republic of China" (Conkrite wasn't alone - most of the US media made this shift once Nixon took his trip). And that was the proof that Conkrite had been brainwashed and was now a communist and couldn't be trusted. One of my very first introductions to wingnut thinking....

From one standpoint, this probably surprises no one. But it is worth recalling that with all the deserved encomiums for Cronkite, it was as much as anyone else, Cronkite who was the target of the decades long right wing assault against the "liberal media." In some ways, he represents the pre-cowed establishment media.

This is a critical week for the health reform legislative push, signaled by, among other things, the announcement by the White House that President Obama will be hitting the airwaves aggressively all week. There is such a profusion of information, a good deal of it put forth with the aim of sowing confusion for political reasons. So how do we make sense of it all, how do we understand the critical broad movements in the debate and not get bogged down in the endless detail?

In our editorial meeting this morning, I asked our reporting staff to focus on three pivot points, the pressure points in the conversation that, if they can be isolated and followed, will help us to understand which way the debate is going, who's winning and losing and most of all who's controlling the debate.

So here are the three key issues we're going to be following in every public comment

1) Timeline. Who's controlling the timeline? Do the White House and the reformers press for bills before the August break or give way to the opponents pushing the agenda of delay?

2) Public option. Particularly, is the White House making it a line in the sand, as Obama seemed for the first time to suggest over the weekend? Or do they continue to play for intentional ambiguity?

3) Aggregate Cost. In many respects, right now this is even more a political issue than a substantive one because of last week's CBO chief's comments, which seemed to push all before it late last week.

To be clear, there are numerous complex and very important policy questions not covered here. But that's not the point of this exercise. We trying to understand the terms of the political debate. And I think if you can get clarity on these three points you'll have a very good read on what kind of bill, if any, is going to end up on the president's desk. We'll be watching. You watch too and ping us when you see key developments.

Michael Steel appeared this morning at the National Press Club to talk about health care. And listening, it seemed like not only was he trying to get his bit in on this week's health care debate but also rebrand himself as a serious policy thinker rather than just the political comedy relief he's embodied over the last six or so months. But that was a bit undermined when he got a question on whether the bill should include an individual requirement to purchase coverage and he didn't know what that meant.

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius say that the major health care reform proposal congress is working on is making progress, but Republicans remain entrenched in opposition to the President's big push as the previously proposed August congressional recess deadline approaches. We examine the standoff in today's Sunday Show Roundup ...

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Michael Steele is in a Q&A right now on health care and just said that not only is the administration interested in intervening in the relationship between an individual and his or her doctor but also the relationship between the individual and their insurance company. I'm not sure most people see that latter relationship as so inviolate.

I'm glad to see Peter Orszag at least hinted at the key point in the current tug of war over the health care overhaul. Capitol Hill is now divided between those pushing for fundamental health care reform and those working to scuttle it. Only the people in the latter category know that that's not politically palatable position. So those pushing to prevent action are advocating 'delay', which they know will make legislative action impossible.

Getting this truth in advertising on the table is probably the key hurdle for the reformers this week.

In recent weeks, over at TPMMuckraker, we've been covering the White House's firing of CNCS Inspector General Gerald Walpin. At first it looked like a pretty iffy decision by the White House. But subsequent information made it seem like Walpin had no leg to stand on, the board of the organization itself just revolted against his incompetence and bizarre behavior.

Now he's suing the White House to get his job back.

For background on the story, here's our on-going coverage of the story at TPMMuckraker.com.

Gov. Mark Sanford writes a guest column in The State apologizing, pledging, et al.