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Political Bulletin
       
  
POLITICAL BULLETIN
All the Day's Political News From Newspapers, TV, Radio, and Magazines
 
Bulletin News
MEMORANDUM FOR SUBSCRIBERS

SUBJECT: TODAY'S POLITICAL NEWS

DATE: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2010 - 8:00 AM
INSIDE
 

Obama Invites GOP Leaders To Televised Healthcare Reform Meeting   Media reports are largely casting President Obama's invitation to GOP leaders to participate in a televised healthcare reform meeting as a political maneuver designed to boost the Democratic case in the upcoming election campaigns. The offer, made on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show, is receiving coverage in major print media outlets this morning. Most reports give the February 25 gathering little chance of breaking the healthcare reform logjam. AFP refers to a "new political gambit" by the President "to salvage his top domestic priority, which is on life support."
      The AP says that the "meeting's prospects for success are far from clear," as "GOP leaders demanded Sunday that Democrats start from scratch, and White House aides said Obama had no plans to do so." The Washington Post reports on its front page that "it remains unclear whether a single discussion can begin to bridge the political and substantive policy divide with Republicans, who view their united front against the Democratic bills as a key to their political recovery."
      Politico similarly says that "the announcement of the televised meeting comes as Democrats have expressed growing confusion about how the White House plans to deliver a health care reform bill this year." On its front page, the New York Times reports the offer is "the latest example of how the White House is attempting to draw in the opposition party and highlight their ideas in the midterm election year, hoping that the Democratic proposals look better when compared to the Republican ideas."
      The Washington Times sees the invitation as "an effort to put Republicans on the spot on health care." The Los Angeles Times notes that "for months, the president has endured criticism that he reneged on a promise to televise healthcare negotiations on C-SPAN. By opening up the summit to the cameras, Obama can argue he is making good on that commitment." Moreover, "the summit gives the president a chance to paint Republicans as obstructionists who refuse offers of compromise."
      Axelrod: White House Looking For Comprehensive Reform Measure   Politico's Chris Frates reports that "in another sign that...Obama is still working for a big, comprehensive health care bill, senior White House adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that Obama is not looking for a 'symbolic' win." Axelrod said on C-SPAN Newsmamkers, "His goal and his interest is not in scoring a symbolic, making a symbolic gesture, not putting up votes for the sake of putting up votes, but in actually getting something done and that's what he's working towards."
      Clinton: "White House Hasn't Given Up Yet"   The Hill reports, "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview aired Sunday that's she still hopeful for her onetime pet cause of healthcare reform despite the setback posed by Democrats losing a supermajority in the Senate." Asked on CNN's "if the struggle to pass a health reform bill was 'deja vu,' Clinton laughed" and said, "It's a complex issue that touches everybody, but I haven't given up yet and I know the White House hasn't given up yet."

Brennan: GOP Lawmakers Using Terrorism As "Political Football"   The appearance on NBC's Meet the Press by White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan sparked further partisan sniping between the Administration and GOP leaders. The AP reports that "an exasperated White House newly committed to preaching partisan peace slammed Republicans for playing politics on national security and making ignorant allegations about the investigation into the Christmas airliner plot." Said Brennan, "Quite frankly, I'm tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as a political football."
      Bloomberg News reports that Brennan said "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner were among senior members of Congress he briefed," and he added, "None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point." The Hill notes that also briefed were Sen. Kit Bond and Rep. Pete Hoekstra. Bond "fired back at the assertions," saying, "Brennan never told me any of plans to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber -- if he had I would have told him the administration was making a mistake."
      Politico notes that Brennan "revealed Sunday that he briefed four Republican congressional leaders on Christmas night," and adds that the "revelation could undermine Republican complaints about the decision to treat the Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, as a civilian criminal." However, the White House aide's "comment provoked sharp rebukes from the Republicans who received the briefings, who all stressed that the conversation did not include a discussion of Miranda rights, though none claimed to have asked about that issue." The Washington Post notes that "Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, said the senator was given only 'a heads-up that Abdulmutallab was in custody, but little else. He wasn't told of the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab.'"
      Defending the Administration's handling of Abdulmutallab on NBC's Meet The Press, Brennan also said, "He was then put into a process that has been the same process that we have used for every other terrorist who has been captured on our soil, whether they be U.S. citizens or non-U.S. citizens -- Richard Reid, Ahmed Ressam, Amari and others." The New York Times reports, "The exchanges reflected a stark escalation in rhetoric in recent weeks as the uneasy truce on terrorism that existed at the beginning of the Obama presidency evaporated." The Times adds the Republican "critique of Mr. Obama as a Miranda-reading, soft-on-terror president attempts to tap into an historic vulnerability for Democrats," and 'some Democrats worried that Mr. Obama was losing control of the issue politically."