NARAL Pro-Choice To Challenge Moderate Dems?

Calif. Democrats Mull Jerry Brown for Gov.
But Some in Party Are Unsure if Former Governor Can Attract New Generation
Quotes of the Day: 'The worst thing we can do is nothing'
"Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Neither this country, nor the values that we were founded upon, could exist without men and women like these 13 Americans." -- President Obama,...
Sarah Palin's book: What's in, what's out

by Mark Silva

If one chapter has ended in Sarah Palin's life, it probably has run about 80 pages.

That's part of the intel from early reads of Palin's memoir, Going Rogue, ready for bookstores next week, with a kickoff on The Oprah Winfrey Show and book-tour starting in Grand Rapids.

. Time magazine's Mark Halperin, who has his own Page, reports that books have been shipped out in advance of the Nov. 17 release date for Palin's book, and some of the associates of the Republican former governor of Alaska have seen copies. Halperin cites "sources who have seen or been briefed on the book's contents'' in reporting that it's:

"Just five chapters--but they are very, very long.'' (Considering that the speed-written memoir, arriving months before originally anticipated for a work that drew a $1.25 million advance for the author is said to exceed 400 pages, that means some long dog-sledding through the chapters of the life of the 2008 GOP nominee for vice president.)

"Ssome score settling with McCain aides she believes ill-served her'' (Considering that she drew the title of this tome from the complaint that some of Sen. John McCain's political advisers had about the running mate, that seems appropriate.)

"A hearty bashing of the national media.'' (Youbetcha, you know, for just sort of "making things up'' like that "Bush Doctrine'' that she was supposed to know about when she sat for one of those national media interviews last year.)

"A testimonial to the importance of faith in her life.'' (It requires a lot of faith to get through Levi Johnston's rhetorical rampage after walking out on Palin's grandbaby, Tripp, or the boy's estranged girlfriend and teenage mother, Bristol Palin, who went on a "just say no'' to teenage pregnancy tour and has written of the travails of a single mother on "Eskimo Bingo Night.'')

"A warm and personal tone, written in Palin's own voice, despite the involvement of a collaborator.'' (Warmth is not the trademark of the professional writer and evangelical magazine editor, San Diego-based Lynn Vincent, whom Palin hired. to help get the book out.)
'
The book is missing an index, however, which, as Halperin notes, is the first place the ever-so-vain Washington set turns to in books such as this "to scan for their own names.'' Halperin suggests: "If they want to know what Sarah Palin has to say about them, they will have to buy the book--and read the whole thing.''

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa could be among those flipping pages for lack of an index. It is Grassley, a good old-school Republican who has appeared in campaign commercials riding a lawn mower, who tells Time in an article in the new issue this of Palin: ""She's the only thing between 2004 and 2009 that's ever given any energy to the Republican Party -- No. 1, because she's a woman, and No. 2, because she expresses herself well."

And dresses herself well, as Time notes in a photo gallery of "The Fashion Looks of Sarah Paln'' -- with a photo from that collection pictured above: Palin crossing the stage in a dress by Elie Tahari at the 2008 debate for vice presidential candidates with Democrat Joe Biden. Which raises the question of the fashion-gallery treatment that former Vice President Dck Cheney's book might get in Time.
fashion

(Photo of Sarah Palin above by Rick Wilking / Reuters. Appearance of John McCain, speakng of Palin, on Meet the Press in March below: )

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NARAL Pro-Choice To Challenge Moderate Dems?

It's Wednesday, so NPR Political Editor Ken Rudin is here to round up all the latest political news. This week: health care, Afghanistan, and Democratic primaries. Also, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, discusses whether her group will throw its weight behind challengers to moderate Democrats.

Dodd Bill Would Cut Federal Reserve Powers

Dodd Bill Would Cut Federal Reserve Powers
Senate Banking Chairman's Plan for Financial Regulatory Overhaul Revealed
FDA Responds to Doctors Refusing to Give H1N1 Vaccine
ABC's Lisa Stark reports from Washington: As government health officials encourage people to get vaccinated against the H1N1 vaccine, they are running into opposition from an unusual source: doctors. Some doctors have decided they will not give the vaccine, and...
Bill Clinton rallies senators: Health care

by Noam N. Levey

A decade and a half after his healthcare overhaul campaign collapsed, former President Clinton came to Capitol Hill this afternoon to rally Democratic senators to back the healthcare legislation now making its way through Congress.

"I just told them that I thought economically America had to pass healthcare reform because we were spending $900 billion more a year than any other system and getting less for it in terms of health outcomes and number of people insured," Clinton told reporters after he addressed lawmakers at their weekly closed-door lunch.

"In terms of policy, there is no perfect solution because this is a big, open, organic system that will have to be changed repeatedly over the next four or five years. but it's important to make a beginning."

As cameras flashed, the former president added: "Whatever their differences are, I just urged them to resolve their differences and pass a bill. I also believe, you know, people hire us to come to work in places like this to solve problems and stand up and do it. ... This is an economic imperative."

Before leaving the crowd of reporters outside the Senate chamber, Clinton took a quick call on his cell phone.

"That's my secretary of state," Clinton smiled, an allusion to the former first lady who led his healthcare campaign and is now the nation's senior diplomat.

(Former President Bill Clinton pictured above talking with reporters after discussing health care in the Democrats' weekly caucus, a closed-door meeting in the Capitol, today. Photo by Tim Sloan / AFP / Getty Images.)

Obama, Soldiers Gather To Mourn

"For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that has been left," the president told those gathered at Fort Hood, Texas to mourn the victims of last week's shooting rampage.

Travel, Obama, travel: GOP's postcards

Health Reform Faces Senate Stonewall
Lead Senate Democrats Face More Daunting Challenge than Colleagues in House in Finding Party Parity
The New Saddam Hussein Biography
ABC's Jan Simmonds reports from New York: The New York Times’ “At War” blog has a write-up today about a new Saddam Hussein biography (part one of a trilogy) published in Sudan last month and there are rumors surrounding it...
Travel, Obama, travel: GOP's postcards

by Mark Silva

As the president prepares for another international trip, while pressing for passage of a "cap and trade'' energy bill back home, the Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee are preparing to send some postcards.

No stamps required on the Internet, where the Republicans are tracking Air Force One's previous journeys and planning to mark the significance of the coming weeks' presidential stops in Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore.

Among previous presidential stops noted at the GOP's Web-site:

-- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (where former President George W. Bush tried and failed to convince the royal family to step up oil production when prices were skyrocketing). GOP postcard: "The Energy Information Administration reports that the United States imported 14 percent of its oil from Saudi Arabia in 2008. We could decrease our dependence on foreign oil if President Obama would finally open up the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to offshore drilling.''

-- L'Aquila, Italythe 2009 G8 Summit: "While many G8 Countries (France, Japan, and Germany) have embraced carbon-free nuclear power, the Obama Administration did not include nuclear in its job-killing National Energy Tax plan.''

-- Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (proof that the Republicans really do think that Massachusetts is another country): "During President Obama's vacation in Martha's Vineyard, he unfortunately did not take time to publically support the nearby Cape Wind projectAmerica's first offshore wind farm. ''

-- New Orleans, Louisiana (which Bush inspected from above, in Air Force One, after Hurricane Katrina flooded the Crescent City:) "During President Obama's brief afternoon visit to New Orleans, he missed an opportunity to learn how new technology has made offshore drilling an environmentally safe practice that creates high-paying jobs.''

Drill, baby, drill: The GOP will keep those postcards coming.

House Vote Exposes Democratic Fault Lines On Abortion

Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the House version of health-care overhaul that passed on Saturday, which contained a controversial abortion amendment. Had three more Dems joined that group, the measure would have gone down to defeat.

Tuesday Night Election Takeaway
Dem Losses, GOP Inter-Party Fracases: What Parties Need to Focus on 2010
FOX News unplugged: SNL's 'End of era'

by Mark Silva

It was the "end of an era," those elections conducted last week, according to Saturday Night Live's account of the way its writers figure that FOX News Channel's writers see and report it.

FOX will be quick to note that it is the No. 1-rated cable news channel, its election-night coverage far and away drawing more viewers than its rival cable news channels grabbed.

But that won't stop the SNL crew from having some fun at the expense of FOX's crew, including Greta Van Susteren, who gets a certain "Baba Wawa'' treatment in this sketch, and the expansive, and in this skit, expanding, Karl Rove, who notes that not only has the presdent's party lost two big elections, but also we "lost the king of Pop on his watch.''

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Gen. George Casey: 'This Is One Person Out of An Army of a Million’

Obama: "This Is Our Moment to Deliver"
Urges House to "Answer the Call of History" and Pass Health Care Bill; Floor Debate Opens Following Deal on Abortion
Gen. George Casey: 'This Is One Person Out of An Army of a Million’
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, in Fort Hood, Texas, to counsel troops in the aftermath of Thursday’s shootings, told Charles Gibson in an exclusive interview that the Army is stretched thin, but the ongoing drawdown in Iraq and...
House health-care compromise reached

by Noam N. Levey and James Oliphant

With a historic floor vote looming on their healthcare bill today, House Democratic leaders secured an 11th-hour compromise late Friday night to settle a long-simmering debate over how to restrict federal funding for abortion.

The deal appeared to clear the way for a vote on the sweeping healthcare legislation this evening.

And senior Democrats maintained that they would have the 218 votes needed for passage when the House votes.

"You don't go to the floor unless you're there -- and we're there," said Rep. John B. Larson of Connecticut, the No. 4 Democrat in the House.

President Obama, who has made healthcare legislation the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, planned to go to the Capitol this morning to rally House Democrats.

The abortion compromise will allow socially conservative Democrats to offer a strong antiabortion amendment today when the bill comes to the floor. The amendment, which is expected to pass with the support of Republicans, would prohibit the new government insurance plan -- or so-called "public option" -- from covering elective abortions.

The amendment would extend a similar prohibition on private insurers that offer plans in new government-regulated insurance exchanges that are the foundation of the Democratic plan to expand coverage.

The Democratic healthcare bill envisions that millions of people who do not get coverage through work would shop for insurance in these new exchanges.

Under the compromise, federal funds would still be allowed to cover abortions in cases of rape or incest and in cases in which a woman's life is in danger.

Lawmakers who support abortion rights have bitterly opposed this proposal, and emerged visibly disappointed Friday night from a marathon meeting in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

They have been pushing an alternative that would have allowed commercial insurers to offer coverage of elective abortions.

Under their proposal, many insurance companies will probably offer plans to millions of low- and middle-income women who will get federal subsidies to help them buy coverage.

If they cover elective abortions, these insurers would have to maintain separate accounts for these women, so that only private money is used to pay for abortion services.

The new government insurance plan would have to make similar arrangements.

But this arrangement never satisfied conservative Democrats, who threatened to derail the healthcare legislation unless their demands were met for stricter prohibitions on the use of federal funding for abortions.

And in the end, Pelosi had to convince the liberal wing of her party to hold their noses and back a bill that would restrict access to abortions more than many wanted.

With 258 seats -- counting newly elected New York Rep. Bill Owens, who was sworn in Friday -- Democrats can afford to lose 40 members and still pass the bill.

But as Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and other senior Democrats met into the night with undecided members, their safety margin appeared to be narrowing. A succession of Democrats went public with their plans to oppose the bill, including first-term Reps. John Adler of New Jersey, Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, Walt Minnick of Idaho and Frank Kratovil Jr. of Maryland.

Many other centrist Democrats said they still hadn't made up their minds Friday, including Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.). "I've been really trying to get to yes," he said.

No Republicans are expected to vote for the more than $1-trillion measure, which would expand health coverage to 96% of Americans over the next decade.

"I have never seen greater evidence that Washington, D.C., is out of touch with the American people than the fact that Democrats are going to continue in their headlong rush to pass a government takeover of healthcare in the wake of rising unemployment," said Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, the No. 3 Republican in the House, citing new figures that national unemployment climbed to 10.2% in October.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer expressed concern Friday that GOP lawmakers might attempt to disrupt the voting by making repeated motions to adjourn, as they have in the past.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday that party leaders had not decided what they would do during the vote.

One veteran lawmaker expected that when the voting starts, more lawmakers will come over. "I don't believe all those people who say no," said 19-term Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont). "When they look up at the board, do they really want to vote against providing coverage to millions of people?"

But Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said party leaders are reluctant to go to a floor vote without a sure result. "You don't want to roll the dice on this," he said.

Pelosi earlier cleared one roadblock by persuading Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) to withdraw his demand for a vote on an amendment that would create a single-payer system in which the government would cover all Americans, a long-held goal of the left.

"I'm disappointed," Weiner said. "But the most important thing that we have to do here is move the ball forward and get a bill passed." Weiner made the concession after sitting with Pelosi and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) late Thursday and reviewing a list of centrist Democrats uncomfortable about the vote.

Could Big Donors Break Obama's Fundraising Record?

The Obama presidential campaign rewrote the playbook for raising campaign cash in 2008. The Supreme Court may change it again before 2010: An upcoming decision could potentially curb the growing influence of small donors in favor of corporate America.

Quotes of the Day: 'There Was a Burst of Shots ... And People Running Everywhere'

Video: Immigrants To Get Vaccine?
Congressman Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) said illegal immigrants should get the scarce H1N1 vaccine on "Washington Unplugged." The N.I.H.'s Anthony Fauci agrees.
Quotes of the Day: 'There Was a Burst of Shots ... And People Running Everywhere'
"There was a burst of shots and more bursts of shots and people running everywhere.” -- Rev. Greg Schannep, who was about to enter a graduation ceremony at Ft. Hood when shots rang out “He was mortified by the idea...
Obama: Flags half-staff for Fort Hood

by Mark Silva and updated

The president today ordered flags flown at half-staff until Veterans Day in respect for 13 killed and 30 wounded in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

"We don't know all the answers yet, and I would caution jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,'' President Barack Obama said today in a Rose Garden appearance.

The lowering of flags will be "a modest tribute to those who lost their lives even as others were preparing to risk their lives for their country,'' Obama said of "one of the worst mass shootings ever to take place'' on a U.S. military base.

The president plans to travel to Texas for memorial services when they are scheduled next week.

The memorial service will be scheduled for the convenience of the families, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today, and the president will adjust his schedule around that to attend. The president is scheduled to leave for an annual summit of Pacific-rim nations in Asia on Nov. 11.

Obama met with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other officials this morning and said, "As we continue to learn more about what happened at Fort Hood, we will continue to provide you updates.''

The president plans this afternoon to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the Army-trained psychologist accused of the shootings at Fort Hood worked for six years before assignment to Texas. The White House says the visit to the Army hospital was planned before the shootings.

(President Barack Obama pictured above walking out of the Oval Office of the White House to speak in the Rose Garden today. photo by Alex Brandon)

Week In Politics Reviewed

This week, Republicans took governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, and Democrats won a long-held GOP House seat in New York. Also, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for a possible health care vote this weekend. E.J. Dionne, of The Washington Post, and David Brooks, of The New York Times, discuss the week in politics.

Breaking News – Killings At Fort Hood

Congress Expands Homebuyers Tax Credit
House Passes Measure Which Extends $8,000 Credit for First-Time Buyers, Adds $6,500 Credit for Some Current Homeowners
Breaking News â€" Killings At Fort Hood
From Reuters: At least seven people were killed and 12 wounded in a shooting at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, local media reported. One gunman was in custody and another was on the loose, local...
Robert Gibbs: 'Jon Voight joke in here'

by Mark Silva

The White House today was asked for comment on a crowd that assembled on Capitol Hill to protest health-care legislation.

"I'm sure there's a Jon Voight joke in here somewhere, given he was one of the featured speakers,'' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said of the activist actor who had a few choice words for the White House this week.

"You're not even going to try and make it?'' a reporter asked.

"No,'' Gibbs said. "My father always told me my mouth would get me in trouble... And I have a feeling if I acted on the line that (I'd like to give) you, I'm almost positive that it would surely...''

The crowd of protesters, rallied by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, wasn't the massive march that some had anticipated. Americans United for Change, the union-backed group backing health-care reform, said the anti-crowd could have filled Ford's Theater. "Pathetic,'' they gloated.

The Academy Award-winning actor and activist Voight had launched a broadside against the president in Minnesota this week, saying that, "We're becoming a socialist nation, and Obama is causing civil unrest in this country. ... I say that they're taking away God's first gift to man: our free will." He said so at a fundraiser for Gov. Tim Pawlenty's new Freedom First PAC in Minneapolis, part of an exploratory presidential bid.

But Gibbs wasn't biting on his own set-up today.

"Wait a minute, what have you got against Jon Voight?'' the press pressed, with someone volunteering this offer in the press briefing room of the West Wing:

"Off-the-record!''

"Off-the-record,'' mused Gibbs. "I like that.''

(Actor Jon Actor Jon Voight, center above, is pictured at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., last summer. Photo by Chuck Kennedy / MCT. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is pictured waiting his turn as President Barack Obama addressed the press briefing today. Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)