ABC News reports on Tea Party organizers falsely citing ABC News as source for 1 - 1.5 million crowd size estimates.

The initial reports suggest that today's Tea Bagging march on Washington is a pretty small affair. The Post refers to "tens of thousands" of protestors and says about 30,000 registered online for the march.

In a pretty transparent attempt to set expectations ridiculously high, a House leadership aide had sent out a memo to colleagues estimating up to two million people. Still 30,000 people seems a pretty small.

Let me know if you find articles with estimates today of how many people showed up and/or predictions from the organizers about how many they expected.

Also see our slideshow of the ramp up activities for this weekend's rally.

Late Crowd Size Update: And it begins. The DC Fire Department has issued an unofficial estimate of 60,000 to 70,000 people in attendance, which is smallish by big DC protest/event standards but definitely respectable. Meanwhile, organizers and various participants are claiming one or two million have shown up but that the numbers are being suppressed by pro-Obama media, etc.

TPM Reader SO reports in on today's Tea Party protests, where they appear to be keeping it real classy.

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Tea Partiers march on Washington, chanting "You lie!" That and other political news in today's TPMDC Saturday Roundup.

A reader reports in from the Conradian heart of crazy ...

Joe Wilson's not the only one bringing the crazy to DC. The town's been invaded by teabaggers.

Was having a drink with a friend at a fancy downtown bar when two well-dressed men start chatting with us. Seemed friendly and normal enough until one asks how big we think the march tomorrow will be -- "250,000? They say all the hotels are full!" I ask, "Are you here for that?" -- and get an earful about how Medicare has a $35 trillion unfunded liability, every letter you mail costs $1 is taxes, and Obama is a Manchurian candidate who wants to create a million-person national civil defense force with a budget equal to the Penatagon's.

Tomorrow should be fun.

We were looking at this story earlier today but held off addressing it because it wasn't clear whether it was tied to the victim's political beliefs. But it seems it was.

Harlan James Drake, 33, is suspected of shooting Jim Pouillon, a 63 year old anti-abortion activist and Michael Fuoss, 63. Witnesses at the Pouillon shooting gave police a license plate number and description that quickly led them to Drake who then admitted he'd also murdered Fuoss about an hour earlier.

Drake apparently planned a third murder against an unidentified victim but was arrested before he had a chance to carry it out.

What makes this brutal story so odd and almost surreal is that Drake apparently had a unique set of grievances against each victim. Some personal, some political. According to police, Drake was "offended by the manner of Mr Pouillon's message." Pouillon was well-known in the community for frequently protesting outside local schools and churches with graphic photos of aborted fetuses. Meanwhile, Drake's father had once worked at Fuoss's Gravel company. So presumably his beef with Fuoss was familial, personal.

I'm awarding the little known TPM Excellence in Deft Snark Award to Megan Carpentier of the Air America website for this sentence from a post on AARP's poll on the president's health care speech. The award is granted episodically for path-breaking combinations of AP Style and deadpan humor ...

An overnight poll by AARP shows that Obama's speech on health care helped resolve the concerns of many people over 45 dumb enough to believe braying Republicans that the Administration planned on executing the elderly.

Had I been editing I think I'd have stuck a "who say" between 'Republicans' and 'that'. But that's a minor quibble.

Fmr. Speaker New Gingrich (R-GA)

I've seen this happen before. Rightwing group comes up with bogus 'awards' and 'honors' to sucker in egomaniac political contributors. But they get so hard up and desperate that they go and award one to someone in the porn business or something like that

Today it was Newt Gingrich's turn.

Newt, or actually his 527 group American Solutions, named Allison Vivas of porn studio 'Pink Visual' as its "Entrepreneur of the Year."

And she was more than game.

Late Update: If you really can't get enough, here's the actual letter granting the prestigious award.

Slideshow: Remembering 9/11.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)

Democrats had signaled that a censure vote for Rep. Wilson (R-SC) was not in the cards. But new reports have the Dems and particularly Speaker Pelosi telling Wilson that he must either apologize to the House or face a censure motion. On a strictly political calculus, it's a little hard to figure. When someone is doing so much to damage themselves and their party, generally you try not to get in their way. The key, however, seems to be Wilson's increasingly unrepentant attitude over the last two days and his refusal to go down to the well of the House and apologize to the body for his actions.

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Unless Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) takes to the House floor to apologize for his "You lie!" outburst -- which Democrats and reportedly some Republicans have been pressing him to do -- Nancy Pelosi is prepared to greenlight a censure resolution as soon as next week.

Here's a funny, somewhat humiliating, political story. It turns out that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) may be in a bit of trouble for reelection next year. His approval rating is an awful 38% and though he appears to be beating all the potential fairly unknown opponents, he's clocking in in the low forties against all of them. With those numbers you'd figure that he'd either been a terrible senator, taken a few hikes on the Appalachian Trail or gotten seriously out of sync with his constituents on some big issue. But as Eric Kleefeld explains, it's not really that Burr's unpopular. It's just that in almost six years as a senator he's barely made any impression at all on the state's electorate. It's not that he's too right or left or mired in scandal or even incompetent. He's just so boring and lame that folks don't have any particular opinion of him one way or another.

Rep. Joe "You lie!" Wilson now trailing in his reelection bid against Rob Miller, 44-43, according to a new poll.

"In a matter of seconds Joe Wilson turned himself from a safe incumbent into one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country for 2010," the pollster observes.

The Holder Justice Department declines to reverse decision by its predecessor not to indict former Justice Department official Bradley Scholzman for perjury in his testimony to Congress.

Here's the letter from DOJ to Sen. Chuck Schumer announcing the decision.

Not only was fmr. state Rep. Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda) booted from his committee and eventually forced to resign over his raunchy bragging about his sexual exploits at Tuesday's committee hearing in Sacramento. Now the guy who was sitting next to him -- state Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Anaheim) -- has been kicked off one of his committees too. Zack Roth has the story.

Apparently Sens. Baucus and Conrad have decided to toughen up the illegal alien provisions in the senate bill to address Rep. Wilson's concerns.

So it seems like we have a much better idea now of what happened with this false report of the Coast Guard firing on a suspicious vessel in the Potomac.

[ed.note: TPM Reader Mark Blacknell was nearby and took this photo of the exercise this morning. We cannot confirm that either of these is the exact boat that made the faux report of gunfire. Click photo to see full sized image]

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CNN is now confirming that the whole thing (reported incident of the Coast Guard firing on a suspicious vessel in the Potomac) was in fact a training exercise. Not clear what the misunderstanding it was or whether this was a question of one arm of the government not knowing what another arm was doing. Happily, no one, apparently, was ever in any peril. Though presumably there are a few folks whose jobs may now be in real peril.

We're not sure what's happening here. But a Coast Guard vessel has apparently just opened fire (though perhaps just as warning shots) on a vessel in a restricted zone on the Potomac River.

Late Update: Conflicting and more very odd details. The Coast Guard is now reportedly denying that shots were fired and there is some questions -- unconfirmed reports -- that the whole thing may have been a training exercise of some sort. We'll keep you posted on the latest we hear.

The former Ohio rep, just out of a seven year stint in the slammer, compares himself to Nelson Mandela and says he may run for Congress again. See the Video.

I'm seeing the Politico tell me that the Republicans are in danger of having their public profile dominated by cranks on the fringe right.

And then I notice that Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) of Minnesota, widely seen as a potential moderate savior for the party, is saying he may try interposition/nullification to block the operation of any health care reform in his state. In other words, giving the ole college try to insurrectionary doctrines that were discredited going on two hundred years ago and were last trotted out, more or less as a stunt, by the most rancid of the anti-civil rights Southern governors in the 50s and 60s.

I hope he can bring the party back from the crazies and the fringe.

A proposal to rename the Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building in honor of Ted Kennedy. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

First post ...

Nothing real to report beyond the obvious, horrifying tragedy unfolding on your TV screen or computer monitor. My immediate observations from DC have been posted here at Salon.com toward the bottom of the page.

TPM, of course, is normally all about arguments among us, among Americans. But all of that falls deep into the background now. And my support, and I'm sure yours too, is with our president, our armed services, and all of those struggling mightily to save those who can still be saved.

I was looking at this slideshow photo of Sen. Al Franken yukking it up with Harry Reid before President Obama's speech. And I was thinking: Hey, I've known Franken so long I remember sitting next to him when he got tossed (pretty much literally) out of one of the senate press galleries for stumping then-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) with a half-serious, half-joking question that managed to make Gramm look like an idiot. Admittedly not rocket science, but still a pretty funny question. It was my first trip to DC as a working reporter, on assignment to cover Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.

Here's the story.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) is so sorry about his outburst at the president last night that he's taken to Youtube to ask supporters to send him money for doing it.

I hadn't caught this until now. But there was a funny moment last night when Sen. Lindsay Graham momentarily almost got out of line with his GOP masters and then caught himself. President Obama is making a pretty uncontroversial point about how private and public universities coexist. Graham starts to clap but then sees that none of his GOP colleagues are applauding and quickly plays it off as an impromptu hand rub. Watch It.

Rep. Wilson (R-SC) tells local talk radio station about "outpouring of support" he's receiving from colleagues in Congress about his outburst against the president.

Special Bonus Freak Out Update: On any other day it might have been a bigger story. But Rep. Wilson's outburst has overshadowed Rep. Shimkus's decision to walk out on Obama's speech because Obama hadn't sufficiently bent to the will of townhall tea-baggers.

I really appreciate the writer whose novel we're living in writing the Michael Steele character.

Sen. Hatch (R-UT) says he doubts Snowe or Collins will sign on with Obama's eventual bill.

Slideshow: Obama's speech in pictures.

I'm not sure I precisely agree on the body language. But for Obama's imagine sentence alone, this was my favorite reader email from last night. From TPM reader PF ...

I love how Obama gave him The Dadfinger. He squinted one eye and pointed at him like "Don't make me pull this speech over, son."

I'd love to see the whole spin from this speech and dealing with the Tea Party creeps circle around that moment- "OK, now it's time for the grownups to clean up the mess."

It really did seem like a real grownup was finally speaking on the issues.

John Stossel leaving ABC News for Fox.

President summons 17 senate Dems -- most of them health care waverers -- to meeting at the White House.

Rep. Wilson (R-SC), the new face of Republican opposition to health care reform, just went before the cameras for the first time looking sweaty and sort of shaky like he might be about to cry. I know that sounds a bit like trash talk. But that's actually how he came off, his affect and expressions. He gave a pretty weak rationale for his claims about coverage of illegal aliens and then dashed off. We'll have the video for you shortly.

Wilson also confirmed that the GOP House leadership contacted him after his outburst and told him to contact the White House and apologize.

Here's the video of Wilson's brief appearance.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina says Rep. Wilson's (R-SC) text apology wasn't enough. He should "man up" and apologize from the well of the House, says Clyburn.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)

Most Americans first heard about Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) last night for his now-infamous "you lie!" outburst.

But it isn't the first time for Wilson. Back in 2003, not long after the death of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), Thurmond's bi-racial, out-of-wedlock daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, came forward to say that Thurmond was her father. (Thurmond, who spent most of his career as a staunch proponent of segregation and Jim Crow, had supported the family financially for decades.) Wilson made headlines for telling The State newspaper that Washington-Williams should have kept the shameful secret to herself.

Wilson later had to apologize to Washington-Willaims, Thurmond's family and perhaps implicitly non-awful people everywhere.

Arlen Specter: Rep. Wilson should be reprimanded or censured for "You lie!"

Dahlia Lithwick watched yesterday as the Roberts Court laid the ground work for eviscerating campaign finance jurisprudence. (It's only activism if liberal judges do it.)

Joe Biden: Joe Wilson "embarrassed an institution I love."

We've got Brian Beutler out there today trying to get comments from everyone under the sun with a vote in Congress on health care reform. And we'll be bringing you reports throughout the day.

What's most interesting to me today though is not simply politicians' comments on policy specifics but the optics of their responses to the speech in general, particularly among moderate and conservative Democrats. Are they saying things meant to blunt or accelerate Obama's momentum? When Ben Nelson says the speech is a "game changer" he knows what he's saying. So watch closely to see what others are saying.

Talk, of course, is cheap. In a few months this is going to come down to yes or no votes on specific bills with detailed policy prescriptions. But these comments will tell you a lot about whether these folks want to be part of Obama's problems or his solutions.

Now Michael Duvall, the California family values state Rep. whose career imploded yesterday after he got bragging about his extra-marital sex exploits on an open mic, is denying he's actually had any affairs. In other words, it was all just trash talk, he says.

Longtime reader:

You note - and Versha Sharma documents - that Joe Wilson's angry outburst was wrong on the substance. And that's an important point.

But I think it's worth contemplating that for a moment. What led Wilson to allow his "emotions get the best of" him and break with centuries of protocol to declare the president a liar? Innumerable presidential speeches have made selective claims or been parsimonious with the truth. And in this case, the claim actually bears up under scrutiny. So why this particular claim, and why now?

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Joe Biden predicts this morning that a health care reform bill will pass by Thanksgiving. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

During his response to the President's speech last night, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) directed viewers to healthcare.gop.gov where you find a congressional Republican website with what purports to be a health reform plan. Not a great site and and rudimentary plan at best, but, hey, at least they're in the ballpark.

But if you mistakenly go to healthcare.gop.com instead, as one of our readers did, you go to a RNC website on health care reform circa maybe 2004 (click on the image for the full experience):

Not sure there's been a prouder day for South Carolina since those of John Calhoun and Preston Brooks.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure I'd realized that Wilson is actually not all that secure even in his very conservative South Carolina district. From a reader ...

In 2008, Wilson was able to outspend Miller by a 2-1 margin, but still only eked out a narrow 53.7% victory in his conservative district. Until last night, the 2010 race was shaping up the same way. Wilson had raised $211k by the end of June, against Miller's $49k.

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Erick Erickson, the key guy at RedState.com declares hecker Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) "a great American hero."

Meanwhile, as Versha Sharma notes, Wilson was not only wrong on the offensive behavior but simply wrong on the facts. Revealing that he might be one of those fellows who's so far gone that he actually believes the bamboozlement.

Rep. Joe Wilson's 2010 opponent has received more than $100,000 in contributions overnight.

Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst wasn't just wrong on the protocol, but was also wrong on the substance.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE): Obama speech was a "gamechanger."

A special compendium of House Republicans doing themselves proud at tonight's presidential address.

Fmr. Rep. Michael Duvall (R)

The big news of the day was President Obama's address to Congress. But we cannot forget the schadenfreudelicious scandal that got the day off to a roaring start. As you'll remember, California state Rep. Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda), a married champion of family values and traditional marriage, was picked up on a live mic at a committee hearing graphically boasting of his sexual encounters with not one but two mistresses (one of whom is a lobbyist with business before his committee).

After first insisting that he thought he was having a "private conversation", which one imagines is true, Duvall resigned his office shortly after noon California time.

Now there are a few more details. First, a California group has called on the state legislature to investigate Duvall, until today the vice chair of the Committee and Utilities and Commerce, for possibly selling votes for sex. Next, the energy lobbyist Duvall bragged about sleeping with, Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, has categorically denied to her employer that she ever had a sexual relationship of any kind with Duvall. And her employer, Sempra Energy, has released a statement to that effect.

Gitlin on Obama's speech.

How about that Boustany?

Longtime Congress watcher TPM Reader JB chimes in ...

A couple of things for you to consider in the wake of the President's speech to Congress tonight:

First, though I worked in the House of Representatives only briefly and a long time ago, I'm pretty sure Rep. Wilson exposed himself to a motion of censure tonight. But judge for yourself: House Decorum

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Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) screaming "You Lie!" at President Obama after Obama said his plan would not cover illegal immigrants. (Click on the picture to see the full size image.) It was in a way an inevitable moment -- when they brought the town hall freak show into the House chamber itself.

Click here to see the video of Wilson's outburst and reactions from Obama, Biden and Pelosi.

Late Update: Even too much for the haters? Rep. Wilson has reportedly now apologized for his outburst. His statement: "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility."

Latter Update: Walk Call of Shame? We're now hearing that Rep. Wilson called the White House after the speech to apologize. We'll try to run the details to ground.

Sen. Brown (D-OH) says Obama implicitly demanded a public option.

See his answer to TPMDC's Brian Beutler in a conference call just after the speech.

CNN says support for Obama's plans jumped 14% among those who watched the speech.

I found this a difficult speech to judge. Especially at the beginning, to the extent I could judge it from New York, there was a tense, brittle atmosphere in the room which seemed in evidence, albeit in different ways, on both sides of the aisle. It went beyond the tension I've seen in other such speeches -- something typified by the Wilson outburst. And the uneven atmosphere was accentuated by the rather detailed and compartmentalized structure of the early parts of the speech.

It was only in the latter stages that it really began to build a cadence and rhetorical power that carried and elevated the moment, that the line items and hitting of particular points for different groups gave way to something broader and richer.

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Here's the text of the letter Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) sent to President Obama to be read after his death -- the one Obama referenced in the speech.

The member of Congress who yelled that the president was a liar during the speech was Rep. Joe Wilson (R) of South Carolina. Here's his official website.

I can't think of anything like it in recent history. Here's the video (particularly note Pelosi's reaction.)

9:02 PM: "We did not come here to fear the future."

9:03 PM: I keep thinking he's going to say he still believes in a place called Hope. Showing my age.

9:05 PM: I'll have some reactions to the speech in a moment. Right now we're trying to confirm the identity of the member of Congress who stood up during the speech and called the president a liar. Pelosi was visibly shocked by it. Not sure I've ever seen anything like that.

9:06 PM: Why are all responses given by dudes from Louisiana?

8:53 PM: Eric Cantor caught blackberrying during the speech. That's getting Twitter! Or something like that.

8:55 PM: Key passage ...

But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it. I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.

8:56 PM: Jon Cohn's take on what the news is in the speech.

8:57 PM: "The character of our country" ... speech picking up a cadence at this point. "When fortune turns against one of us ..."

9:00 PM: Another key passage ...

That large-heartedness - that concern and regard for the plight of others - is not a partisan feeling. It is not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character. Our ability to stand in other people's shoes. A recognition that we are all in this together; that when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand. A belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgement that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.

8:32 PM: Who's in the presidential box up there with Michelle. See here.

8:36 PM: Special McCain props moment.

8:37 PM: The people who want to spread lies to kill reform at any cost? Does he mean Eric Cantor?

8:38 PM: Special Palin shout-out moment ...

Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.

8:42 PM: Anyone catch who that heckler was 10 or so minutes ago?

8:48 PM: Such a key point. Why does Medicare pay subsidies to private carriers to compete against it? Is it Medicare's fault that it's too efficient and private carriers can't compete?

8:50 PM: What were these GOPers waving in Obama's face?

8:08 PM: Can you really say you believe in democracy if you pass a bill with only 51 votes?

8:20 PM: Health care reform has been around so long you even have health care reform nostalgia.

8:22 PM: Key to see Obama focusing on the insecurity of those who have coverage. Politically, that's what this is about.

8:23 PM: Did some reporting over the last couple weeks, found a large number of major corporations planning big cuts in their health care coverage in the fall, moving a lot of employees into high-deductible coverage with option of health savings accounts.

8:25 PM: Not sure 'Our health care problem is our deficit problem' really rolls off the tongue.

8:26 PM: I'm in the middle on this. Freaks to the left and right, out of my way!

8:28 PM: The key passage ...

Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care.

In his response to the President's speech, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) is apparently going to attack Dem proposals and declare that it's time to start over with a new reform plan, presumably while eliding the fact that the Republicans have offered no plan at all.

It's a point that can't be made often enough, especially when Republicans are going around claiming to have a plan.

Schumer on reconciliation (i.e., 50 vote rules): Let's use it whenever we can.

Rush Limbaugh tells listeners you're better off not having insurance at all and simply paying out of pocket. You can make the best choices about cost and which doctors to use.

Late Update: Sigh. I think this has to win the prize for best reader comment of the day: "If it's one thing I trust Rush Limbaugh to do, it's doctor shop."

Rep. Michael Duvall (R-CA)

As you've seen, Michael Duvall, family values state Rep. from California, has now resigned his office after a live mic picked him up bragging in raunchy detail about cheating on his wife with his lobbyist mistress and cheating on his lobbyist mistress with a second mistress.

But the best part of the story for me was Duvall's first response, before he realized it was over and he had no choice but resign. His original line was: I thought it was a "private conversation."

I mean, yeah, presumably so, right?

That didn't take long. State Rep. Mike "The Drip" Duvall (R-CA) resigns his seat to spend more time learning to distinguish hot and cold microphones.

CA rep caught on mic bragging about his sexploits: I really shouldn't have said what I said where I could be overheard.

Robert Reich, on why a "trigger" for a public option is nonsense.

As we noted yesterday, where the Dems seem to want to get this is to ditch the Gang of Six, but hold on to Olympia Snowe and then try to hold on to 60 votes and thus avoid reconciliation, which Senate Dems really want to avoid. Baucus is telling colleagues today that he thinks he can still get Snowe to sign on.

Max Baucus will apparently in a few moments come out and basically put the kibosh on the Gang of Six. Not formally ruling out a bipartisan agreement but signaling that realizes it's not in the cards and is going to move on with a Dem only bill.

Open mics can be a big problem ... especially if you're a married family values politician telling a pal about the kinky sex you're having with the two different women you're cheating on your wife with.

Tweet from Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA): "This U.S. Senator is going to tell him (the President) emphatically that we need the public option."

Opposition to health care reform has re-energized the Christian Right. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

How long does it take you to find the problem with this post about Van Jones at The Politico? Click the picture to be able to read the text and get the whole picture ...

McClatchy's Jonathan Landay survived a deadly ambush Tuesday of U.S. advisers and Afghan troops near the border with Pakistan. His report.

Slideshow: Sotomayor takes her seat on Supreme Court after today's investiture ceremony.

Fmr. US Atty Chris Christie

Last week we were trying to get details about the 2002 incident in which NJ Gov. candidate Chris Christie was driving the wrong way on a one-way street and had a collision with a motorcyclist but managed to avoid getting a ticket after telling the police officer that he was the state's US Attorney. After the accident was revealed last week Christie then told reporters that he hadn't been sued over the accident, only to have reporters from NJN discover that he had in fact been sued.

Now Christie is explaining that while he was sued he was never personally served with the lawsuit. And the victim's lawyer, Stanley Marcus, says that he never spoke directly with Christie.

But here's what jumped out at me in the latest report from NJN's Zachary Fink. The officer didn't stop with not ticketing Christie, notwithstanding the fact that the accident apparently occurred as the direct result of Christie's not following the traffic laws. He went one better. He then proceeded to drive Christie from the scene of the accident to Christie's attorney's office in Cranford, NJ.

I've heard of the cops giving you your one call -- but your one drive?

We'll dig in on this more tomorrow.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) says Obama better show some humility when he comes up to Capitol Hill tomorrow night.

Video: Bob Reich makes the case for the public option in 150 seconds.

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) muses about the mysteries of life and love, again, aloud in public, for our edification:

Everybody is assigned their own secret-agent mission in life. At times the tricky part, the hard part, is finding out what that secret-agent mission is. Some of us do it early, some of us do it later in life.

I'm not even sure what that means, but it's consistent with the limply religious and pseudo-New Agey adages he's in the habit of mistaking for wisdom. His last book deal fell through, but there's got to be a market -- in the humor category maybe? -- for the Gov. Mark Sanford Book of Koans.

Remembering the right-wing performance art that was the August health care townhall craziness, here's a contender for one of the 'best' moments, when a high-strung tea-bag activist dares Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) to come down from the stage and forcibly take a $20 bill from her hand -- as a demonstration of his willingness to confiscate citizens' money to give to bureaucrats.

I've just been reading Jon Cohn's piece in TNR about where health care reform stands post-August. And he's surprisingly optimistic. I also think he makes a good argument. And there's no one I can think of who I trust more when it comes to helping me understand the real world implications of health care policy issues and reforms than Cohn.

The issue Cohn zeroes in on, the person who appears to be the fulcrum of the debate right now, is Sen. Snowe (R) of Maine -- the one Republican who, despite not having the same take as liberals on the ideal reform, still seems to be negotiating in good faith, i.e., unlike the gamers Enzi and Grassley, who are Senatorial Lucys trying to kill any possible legislation, she's actually trying to pass something, even if it's something that many would see as falling far short. This is also why I think Nelson's statement yesterday on a 'trigger' is key to understanding where this is going.

As one source told Cohn, the real question on the Snowe path to a bill is whether you could end up with Snowe but without a handful of conservative Dems. That loses you 60 votes, though it does still give you a nominally bipartisan bill -- which is a big deal for a lot of Senate moderates whether you think it makes any sense or not.

It's certainly true that you could get Nelson and lose, say ... Lincoln or Landrieu or even a few others. Lincoln's the one looking at a very tough reelection fight. But I think there's a reason why Nelson is routinely and rightly seen as the outermost rightward limit of the Democratic caucus in the senate. I suspect his apparent willingness to sign on means the rest of the Dems in the senate will too.

Are you kidding? Says TPM Reader JB, in so many words ...

I just read "Do I Have the Politics Wrong?" on your web site. I am always appalled at the idea of paying subsidies to the poor and moderate income people so they can buy private insurance policies. The people supporting the subsidy concept seem to have no idea how expensive private policies are! Perhaps they have good coverage from their employers and they've never researched the cost of private health insurance plans.

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Robert Reich on history's lessons on health care reform.

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), a physician who will give the GOP response to Obama's joint address to Congress tomorrow on health care, has actually co-sponsored with Democrats what some in his party would call "pro-death panel" legislation and has conceded that the Sarah Palin-inspired death panel freak-out "got really out of hand."

A reader chimes in ...

You ask: "Am I the only one who thinks that if the Dems pass a bill with mandates and subsidies for poor and moderate income people to purchase it but no public option or competition with the insurers, that it will be pretty much a catastrophe for the Democrats in political terms?"

Actually, I think you have that precisely backwards. In political terms, such a bill would be a tremendous boost for the Democratic Party.

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There's a lot of storm and confusion right now. And no one's going to put their cards on the table until after Obama speaks. But the biggest tell I've seen over the last few days was Ben Nelson's announcement yesterday that he'll support a 'triggered' public option.

The question for the White House right now isn't what's ideal from a political or policy standpoint. It's finding some way to thread this needle. Because at this point, most of the pathways on the right and the left of this question seem firmly blocked. And this is the one, maybe the only one, that might not be.

We'll have more on this later today.

The last 8 weeks has demonstrated nothing more clearly than the fact that in politics as in most other things nothing is won on defense. The fact impressed itself on me again when I saw this opinion column by Reps. Shadegg and Hoekstra (R) in the Wall Street Journal. Piece through the rhetoric and the essential message is true to what the Republican leadership believes about health care and health insurance policy.

In short, the problem isn't that your insurance costs too much or that you might lose it or anything like that. The problem is that you have insurance, especially insurance through your employer. Ideally you wouldn't have insurance at all or at least you'd have much less of it.

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Let the brainwashing begin! Obama's otherwise unremarkable speech to the nation's schoolchildren begins at noon ET. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer, who played a key role mobilizing hysteria about the president's first day of school speech, explains why the advance-release text of the president's actual speech turns out to be so mainstream and unexceptional: Obama scrapped the indoctrination speech after Greer and Co. raised the alarm.

The New Jersey governor's race is getting so down and dirty that nothing is off limits. Not even Chris Christie's driving the wrong way on a one-way street, crashing into a motorcyclist, sending the motorcyclist to the hospital, flashing his US Attorney ID to get out of a ticket, apparently settling a lawsuit with a non-disclosed settlement and then lying about ever being sued in the first place. That's one crazy race.

This and other choice images as we review President Obama's earlier attempts to terrorize and indoctrinate America's school children in today's slideshow.

ed.note: Ever notice how many right-wing complaints are prefaced by references to their own fear?

Video: Here's the end of Obama's speech today at the Labor picnic where he went off script with his 'Fired Up' story. If you're not fired up, you should watch.

We should be deeply concerned that our public discourse has become so degraded and the American right so consumed by paranoia and conspiracy theories that Newt Gingrich has released remarks (via Twitter) on the president's school day speech that appear remarkably sane.

Newt Gingrich! Just Sayin ...

Here's the text of Obama's speech, which he's given as I write. He's got his work cut out for him on Wednesday. But it's refreshing to see and hear him with some kick in his voice again. Seems like it's been a while.

Late Update: Curious whether Obama will make a big post-August anti-liar push.

Latter Update: Departing from his text Obama tells his 'fired up' story.

Former Rep. Traficant (D-OH) invokes Mandela after release from seven years in prison for corruption.

Feast your eyes on the speech.

TPM Reader GR reports in on the situation in Massachusetts and their mandate-based quasi-universal plan ...

Your friendly Berkshire's pseudo-stringer here to give my impression of the Mass Health Experiment.

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TPM Reader JS sends along this page from Frontline with brief discussions of how five other countries -- UK, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland -- cover their populations and links to much more detailed discussions of how each country does it with experts on how that particular country's system works.

As others have noted, the Switzerland model seems closest to what health care reformers in the US are now trying to create. Another interesting point is that the Swiss system was only put into effect in 1994, which is significant for a few reasons.

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From TPM Reader MB ...

One of the drawbacks of members of Congress and the federal government having such great health care is that they really don't realize how bad private insurance is for the rest of us.

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David Vitter (R-LA), the Christian conservative senator disgraced for frequenting prostitutes, tells Louisiana voters: "Character is displayed in a variety of different ways."

In honor of Labor Day, we'd like to see your home pics. Not the family and personal ones. We're interested in your pictures from political events, some of your favorites. Close up of a favorite or least favorite politician, an important rally, a speech. Share the best with us and we'll share the best with your fellow readers. The only rule is that it be a picture you took.

Am I the only one who thinks that if the Dems pass a bill with mandates and subsidies for poor and moderate income people to purchase it but no public option or competition with the insurers, that it will be pretty much a catastrophe for the Democrats in political terms?

You 'solve' the problem of the uninsured by passing a law forcing them to buy health insurance which, by definition, most a) cannot afford or b) are gambling they won't need because they're young and healthy. Either you end up with low subsidies which still leave it onerous to buy, thus creating a lot of disgruntled people, or you get generous subsidies, which cost a lot of money.

It's sort of like reform with all the cool political downsides but none of the reform.

Of course, political terms are not the only calculus on which to evaluate these questions. And the model I'm describing sounds more or less like the system they have in Switzerland and Massachusetts, which many health care experts I have a lot of respect for still believe would be a big improvement over the current situation. But I do wonder whether, if the details are not thought through carefully, you might not end up with a system less effective at driving down costs than driving down the number of Democrats serving in Congress.

Obama to meet with key union leaders on Labor Day -- who could potentially pressure him to go left on health care. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Morning Roundup.

From Jon Taplin.

Howard Dean says that Dems should be strong on health care: "If you don't use your majorities, you lose your majorities." That and other political news in today's TPMDC Sunday Roundup.

Green jobs advisor Van Jones resigns.