Obama Premieres The Presidential YouTube Address
Barack Obama has posted the first of his weekly YouTube addresses to the nation, a modern-day replacement of the old-fashioned weekly radio addresses. In this one, Obama urges immediate Congressional action on the economy:

"Next week, Congress will meet to address the spreading impact of the economic crisis. I urge them to pass at least a down-payment on a rescue plan that will create jobs, relieve the squeeze on families, and help get the economy growing again," Obama says. "In particular, we cannot afford to delay providing help for the more than one million Americans who will have exhausted their unemployment insurance by the end of this year. If Congress does not pass an immediate plan that gives the economy the boost it needs, I will make it my first order of business as President."

Biden Meeting With Son On His Way To Iraq
Joe Biden and his wife Jill are meeting privately today with their son Beau Biden, a captain in the Delaware National Guard who is set to be deployed to Iraq.

Transition Team Officially Announces Key White House Appointments
The Obama transition office officially announced this morning some key appointments, two of which had been widely reported: Valerie Jarrett will be a White House senior adviser, assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations, and public liaison; Ron Klain will be chief of staff to the vice president; and former Congressional aide Phil Schiliro will be assistant to the president for legislative affairs.

Obama's Pick For Sec. of State: ???
The story about Barack Obama's search for a Secretary of State just keeps getting more intricate, with the president-elect having met yesterday with Bill Richardson after media speculation surrounded possible discussion with Hillary Clinton about the post.

New York Pols Scrambling Over Possible Senate Vacancy
The New York Times reports that New York Gov. David Paterson and other state Democrats are giving serious consideration to who would replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate should she be appointed to the Obama Administration. Possibilities include state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Reps. Nydia Velasquez, Brian Higgins, Nita Lowey, Gregory Meeks and Steve Israel, and Robert Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy.

NYT: Despite Restrictions, Potential Lobbyist Influence Still Seen In Transition
The New York Times reports that Washington lobbyist connections can still be detected in the Obama transition effort, despite sweeping restrictions meant to keep them out: "Among the full roster of about 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence."

GOP Sen. DeMint Blames McCain For Not Being Conservative Enough
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) told a group of GOP officials yesterday that John McCain lost because he watered down the GOP's conservative message with his support of campaign finance reform, programs to fight global warming, and immigration reform. "Americans do prefer a traditional conservative government," said DeMint. "They just did not believe Republicans were going to give it to them."

Some more ballots have been counted in the exhausting Alaska Senate race, with Democrat Mark Begich's lead over GOP Senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens increasing just a little bit more.

Begich's lead has gone from 814 votes to 1,022 votes. In terms of percentage, Begich leads by 0.35%. If his lead gets up to 0.5% or higher, there will not be a state-paid recount. Over 14,000 more votes have been counted, with about 30,000 left to go -- and that process will take us into some time next week.

The Anchorage Daily News points out that some of these new ballots have come from the Mat-Su area, the right-wing stronghold that gave us Sarah Palin -- so the fact that Begich's lead is still going up is a very bad sign for the incumbent Republican. Not only is the pool of remaining votes shrinking, but Stevens is running out of GOP areas that could put him over the top.

Here's an interesting tidbit from the health care wars: Health care advocates are bolstering their case for the political viability of health care reform by aggressively showcasing newly-elected House Dems who say their victories turned largely on health care as a campaign issue.

One of the most potent of health care lobbying organizations -- Health Care for America Now, a coalition of pro-reform advocates and influential unions -- rolled out four incoming members of Congress to make just that case in a conference call with reporters today.

"Health care was a huge issue in my race," Member-elect Debbie Halvorson of Illinois said on the call. She added that the political viability of health care reform was such that "I think this will be the year we get it done."

"On the local level, voters spoke loudly and clearly when they elected candidates who are committed to delivering quality, affordable health care for all," added Richard Kirsch, Health Care for America Now's national campaign manager.

I don't know what kind of traction this particular call will get, if any, but I wanted to flag this emerging argument. One big question is whether the Obama team will conclude it might require too much political muscle to get started on health care reform right away, as some pundits are predicting. The idea that health care reform is a political net plus, and the 2008 election proves it, is the emerging talking point in response.

Okay, we now have a second Senator who's stepped up and joined Senator Patrick Leahy in calling on Democrats to boot Joe Lieberman from his plum slot atop the Homeland Security committee.

Bernie Sanders, also of Vermont, sent us a hard-hitting statement demanding that Lieberman get the push -- and strikingly, he said that if Dems didn't remove him, it would be an insult to Barack Obama's supporters and a betrayal of the change mandate voters delivered to the President-elect.

"To reward Senator Lieberman with a major committee chairmanship would be a slap in the face of millions of Americans who worked tirelessly for Barack Obama and who want to see real change in our country," Sanders in the statement sent our way by his office.

"Appointing someone to a major post who led the opposition to everything we are fighting for is not 'change we can believe in,'" Sanders continued. "I very much hope that Senator Lieberman stays in the Democratic caucus and is successful in regaining the confidence of those whom he has disappointed. This is not a time, however, in which he should be rewarded with a major committee chairmanship."

Rough stuff. The more voices we hear along these lines, the tougher it will get for other Senators not to follow in kind.

Sanders is technically an independent, but because he organizes with the Democrats he is still eligible to vote in the Dem leadership elections -- and he'll be voting against Joe for that chairmanship. More to follow?

Late Update: A good point from Jane Hamsher: These calls from Lieberman supporters like Evan Bayh for him to "apologize" in exchange for keeping his post -- would the "apology" happen in the closed-door Dem caucus, and what good would that be?

This is great, great stuff. Bob Geiger dreams up an imaginary, but awfully convincing, press release that Senators can attach their names to in announcing why they intend to vote against Joe Lieberman continuing as chair of the Homeland Security committee:

I have known and admired Senator Lieberman for many years, and had been willing to accept his continued support for President Bush's disastrous Iraq policy as a philosophical and political difference that, while considerable, still left room for me to work with him on a range of other issues and to find common ground.

But with his support of the Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential campaign and his persistent and active participation in events and forums that smeared and discredited President-elect Barack Obama in intentionally misleading and despicable ways, I believe Senator Lieberman has revealed beliefs and values that are inconsistent with the Democratic party and the President-elect's mandate from the people.

President-elect Obama inherits significant economic and political challenges when he takes office in January and, under a Democratic Senate, a committee as vital as Homeland Security can simply no longer be led by one who has abandoned our party's core principles and who stood by mutely and with no oversight as President Bush debased our Constitution and our national creed, while also diminishing our nation's security posture...

Therefore, I will vote in the Senate Democratic Conference meeting next week to strip Senator Lieberman of his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.

The whole thing is here. Geiger does the work so Lieberman's fellow Senators don't have to!

Some folks have wondered aloud why people are so bent on "punishing" Lieberman by stripping Lieberman of his Homeland Security chairmanship when he's going to have severely diminished powers next year in any case. As Geiger makes clear, it's not that complicated.

On some of the most pressing issues we face, Lieberman simply doesn't share the ideas or values of the Democratic Party. And given his performance as Homeland Security chair, Lieberman foes think stripping Lieberman of his post is, you know, better for the country. Some seem incapable of imagining that the push to oust Lieberman could be about anything other than revenge or that anyone could possibly oppose Lieberman simply because of his ideas, values, and governmental failures.

Finally! It looks like national Democrats are really getting serious about pouring some resources into the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoff, a race that gives Dems an outside shot at another crucial Senate seat.

Here's the new DSCC ad, which hammers incumbent GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss on the economy:

"For six years, Saxby Chambliss has been part of the gridlock that's hurt the middle class," the announcer says. "But now Georgia can have a Senator who will fight for the change we need."

The line about gridlock in Washington is a clear rebuttal to the GOP saying Chambliss is needed in order to provide a check on one-party Dem rule -- instead, more Democrats are needed in order to take real action. Consider that slogan something of a sneak preview for the ad campaigns in 2010, when the Dems will be working to knock off some notable GOP incumbents and potentially get well over 60 seats.

We now have our first Dem Senator who has come on the record and called for Joe Lieberman to be booted from his plum spot on the Homeland Security committee.

In an interview with Vermont Public Radio today, Senator Patrick Leahy left no doubt whatsoever: He believes Lieberman should be given the push.

"Every Senator will have to vote the way he or she believes they should," Leahy said, in a reference to the upcoming vote on Lieberman's fate in the Dem caucus next week. "I'm one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did."

"I felt some of the attacks that he was involved in against Senator Obama...went way beyond the pale," Leahy continued. "I thought they were not fair, I thought they were not legitimate, I thought they perpetuated some of these horrible myths that were being run about Senator Obama."

"I would feel that had I done something similar," Leahy concluded, "that I would not be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress."

This interview, first summarized by a Daily Kos diarist, could prove a blow to Liebrman. The Connecticut Senator seemed to be building up some momentum, with Barack Obama saying he held "no grudges" against him, a quote that some Senators and Lieberman allies started using to claim support from Obama.

Several Senators voiced qualified support for Lieberman, and a few were even said to be lobbying in his favor behind the scenes. And while Senator Harry Reid earlier seemed to be sending signals that he wanted support for Lieberman's ouster, he recently was reported to be in discussions about a possible deal on Lieberman's behalf.

Now, though, these quotes from the well-respected Leahy could prompt others to make public statements against Lieberman and could shift the momentum against him a bit in advance of the full Dem caucus' vote on Lieberman's fate next week.

Late Update: Here's audio...

Click To Play

Here's yet another sign that the Democrats are poised to defeat Alaska GOP Senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens and pick up this key seat in a deep-red state.

The Anchorage Daily News analyzed the remaining 41,000 ballots left to be counted in this truly bizarre and drawn-out contest, and the numbers are very promising for Democratic challenger Mark Begich. It turns out that 56% of the remaining votes are from areas that Begich has carried in the votes already counted.

If those absentee votes go roughly the same as the rest of the ballots from those areas, Begich's current 814-vote lead could extend by as much as four-thousand votes -- enough to put him beyond the margin that would require a recount. There's even a chance that they could be more for Begich than the rest of the ballots, too, as his campaign actively pursued an early-vote strategy.

So unless these final votes contain a surprise that goes against all the available evidence, Stevens is probably toast.

Hillary, at a transit industry conference in New York, just addressed all the chatter and speculation about Obama's supposed consideration of her as Secretary of State and her reported meeting with Obama in Chicago yesterday. She conspicuously didn't deny any of it.

CNN cut in to televise her remarks. Here's the key part of what she said:

"I have to start by saying I'm very happy there is so much press attention and interest in transit -- especially guesses about my own. But on the off chance that you're not here for this important issue, and are here for some other reason, let me just say that I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration.

"And I'm going to respect his process, and any inquiries should be directed to his transition team..."

No talk about how happy she is right now in the Senate, etc., etc., so you have to assume discussions of some kind of Obama administration role for her are active. One caveat: CNN quotes sources saying she was "surprised" at the rumors about the Secretary of State post.

Politico has a good rundown of all the Clintonites that have been invited into Obama's government, and what it all means. Money quote:

"Obama is showing great good sense in making use of their experience," said William Galston, a former Clinton domestic policy adviser who's now at the Brookings Institution. "You have an entire cadre of people in their 30s and 40s and early 50s who were either in senior jobs or second- and third-tier jobs in the Clinton administration, who really earned their spurs and know their way around -- and know something about how the institutions in which they served actually function."

The piece notes: "Thirty-one of the 47 people so far named to transition or staff posts have ties to the Clinton administration."

Relatedly, I wanted to revisit a point made here yesterday that made some of you mad. It wasn't really meant to be about Obama but about the experience of this cadre of government professionals "in their 30s and 40s and early 50s" described above.

These are people who are taking charge again in a city that is vastly, vastly different than it was the last time they held power. In the 1990s these then-younger players were heavily constrained by Clinton's less-than-50% win, the ascendancy of conservative ideas, the eventual takeover of Congress by the GOP, and a media where power was much more concentrated in the hands of big news orgs and star columnists and pundit types. The result: Triangulation, cautious governance, achievements with a centrist gloss, and pitched battles with a press corps hell-bent on inflicting daily damage.

Read more »

Here's a look at the new ad I reported on yesterday that David Bonior's pro-labor group is launching nationally -- it's a fun spot that's pushing the new government to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, one of labor's top agenda items:

It's the first advocacy ad greeting the new order in D.C. Bonior's group, which is called American Rights at Work, tells me that the spot will air for three weeks on national cable -- CNN, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News -- making this something of a significant buy.

Separately, as also noted here, some of the nation's top labor leaders gathered in DC yesterday to discuss a new campaign they're launching to secure passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize in various ways. At the meeting, which was attended by top officials from the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, among others, the labor bigs talked about launching a huge nationwide field operation and the formation of a media fund to possibly go up on the air to push for the measure.

It's worth noting that labor may in some ways play a different role this time than they did during the Clinton years. The big unions are hoping for a role more akin to the one they played during the campaign, staking out a populist left flank for the administration and helping push its evolving agenda.

In other words, the big unions are envisioning more of a cooperative role with the administration than during the Clinton years, when the battles over NAFTA set up more of a confrontational situation. The more cooperative spirit is born largely of a sobering sense of just how big an opportunity the left and Dems have on their hands, and a desire not to blow it.

Barack Obama and John McCain will have their first post-election meeting this Monday.

The Obama transition office has released this statement:

"On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain will meet in Chicago at transition headquarters. It's well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality. They will be joined in the meeting by Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Rahm Emanuel."

It's interesting that this meeting is taking place in Chicago -- purely Obama territory -- rather than a more neutral ground like Washington. The reality is definitely sinking in as to who's in charge now.

The Big Story: Hillary For Sec. of State?
The press is buzzing with reports that Barack Obama is considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. The latest wrinkle: Reuters reports that Hillary travelled to Chicago yesterday, though her office says it was for personal business.

Obama Switching Weekly Dem Address From Radio To YouTube
Barack Obama today will record the weekly Democratic address on video, to be posted on YouTube -- a first for this mode of party communication. Obama's transition office has announced that he will continue to record the weekly address as online video during his presidency, with the audio track also released for radio uses as has been done before.

K Street Becoming A Democratic Neighborhood
The Washington Post reports that lobbying firms are quickly reconfiguring themselves for the new Democratic dominance in Washington, and are recruiting Dem staffers at a rapid clip. "In this climate, Democratic backgrounds are attractive to people," said Laura Sheehan, a former policy director for the DCCC who recently became vice president of marketing and communications for the American Gas Association.

Biden Speaks With World Leaders
The Obama transition office announced that Joe Biden has spoken to several world leaders this week: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni; Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak; Israeli Likud Leader Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu; Polish President Lech Kaczynski; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Romney Courting The National Review Cruise
Mitt Romney is meeting with a group of top GOPers: The National Review post-election Caribbean cruise. National Review's 2007 cruise, which went to Alaska, was the venue where Sarah Palin introduced herself to the right-wing media elite, leading to her being placed on the 2008 GOP ticket.

Steele Officially Running For RNC Chair
Michael Steele, the former Maryland Lt. Governor and unsuccessful nominee for Senate in 2006, has officially thrown his hat in the ring in the race to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee -- and he'll be running firmly from the right. "The core values of our party should not change," Steele told the Washington Post. "We are the conservative voice in America."

Report: Barbour Turns Down Run For RNC Chair
Jonathan Martin reports that a group of Republican governors approached Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour at the Republican Governors Association Conference, asking him to run for RNC chairman. Barbour, who served as RNC chair in the 90s, turned down the offer.

Correction: Our source is now telling us that he thinks he misrepresented what happened in the meeting when he spoke to us. He conferred with several others who were in the meeting and says he's now convinced that the idea that was floated wasn't wrapping health care reform into a stimulus package; rather, he says, the conversation touched on the benefits of discussing health care reform as an economic stimulus. So the Kennedy staffers, he says, didn't signal interest in including health care in a stimulus package, as he originally thought. He -- and we -- regret the error.

This is interesting: I'm told that Dem Senate staffers involved in planning health care reform are starting to mull an interesting solution: Paying for reform as part of the big economic stimulus package that the lame-duck Congress is debating.

In a private meeting this afternoon between staffers on Ted Kennedy's Health Committee and major health care reform advocates, the idea was brought up and taken seriously by the staffers, according to a person who was present.

The discussions are preliminary and the details are murky. But the fact that this idea is now bubbling up on the Senate staff level is significant, because it's one that has mostly been confined to academic circles and is only just starting to nudge out into the public eye. It's an idea that would likely command strong support from advocates.

The focus of the meeting was not this topic -- it was convened so advocates could push the Kennedy operation to hew to the principles of Obama's plan as it mulls health care solutions -- but the staffers took the idea very seriously, the participant says.

The staffers even suggested that the advocates -- a who's who of influentials from the labor and lobbying community -- go out and try to sell the idea preliminarily to the public.

"The Kennedy staff really liked the idea," the participant says. "They said, `Go out and make that popular.'"

Read more »

Looks like even Senator Ted Stevens' own pollster, Alaska-based David Dittman, can read the writing on the wall: Stevens is gonna lose to Dem challenger Mark Begich once all the remaining votes are counted.

At least that's what he's now admitted to The Huffington Post:

"I don't think Stevens can come back," Dittman said, noting that he thinks the remaining trove of uncounted ballots will help Begich "increase his lead."...

Dittman believes early and absentee ballots, which compromise the approximately 40,000 votes left to count, will likely reflect Begichs' overall advantage so far among those who took advantage of either process. Heavy early voting occurred in the period that directly followed Stevens' conviction on seven felony counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.

The current count has Begich ahead at 814 votes, and as Stevens' own pollster concedes, that lead is likely to grow.

Just out from President-Elect Barack Obama:

"It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate. In a state that represents the crossroads of a nation, I have met so many men and women who've taken different journeys, but hold common hopes for their children's future.

"It is these Illinois families and their stories that will stay with me as I leave the United States Senate and begin the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation's next President."

Obama reportedly wanted to avoid what aides described as the awkward position of returning to the Senate to vote on the economic stimulus legislation being debated in Congress, though he will play a backstage role in moving the measure.

Obama will also not have to vote on Joe Lieberman's fate in the full Dem caucus meeting next week, though he probably would have avoided that in any case, since it's expected to be taken by the 111th Congress.

Yesterday I reported that the big unions were meeting today to put the final touches on plans to launch a big campaign to push the Obama administration and Congress to deliver on their agenda.

Now I've learned that a big pro-labor group headed by David Bonior is preparing to launch a three-week national TV ad campaign pressing the new government to deliver on one of labor's top agenda items: The Employee Free Choice Act.

This is significant, because it's the first of what will be many advocacy ads hitting the airwaves demanding action from the government that takes power in January -- or opposing such action, as the case may be.

Bonior's group, which is called American Rights at Work, will be going up with the spot for three weeks on national cable -- CNN, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News -- a senior official with the group tells me. "It's a significant buy," he says.

The spot, which will be released to the press tomorrow, was shown to me a few moments ago, and it's a pretty good one. It shows a worker being told by his bosses in a boardroom that they are going to give him health care and all sorts of other work-related benefits.

The worker then wakes up, realizing that he was dreaming, and a narrator intones that only in a dream will such a thing happen.

Read more »

It's a rough time to be a reporter right now. Check out all the breaking news in today's Obama press pool report:

President-elect Barack Obama's motorcade left the Regents Park complex after his morning workout at 9:30 a.m. The pool could not see him as he entered his SUV. The motorcade arrived at his home minutes later. Obama stayed at his home for nearly two hours, leaving for his transition office downtown at 11:23 a.m. Obama arrived at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago at 11:43 a.m.

Just to illustrate how desperate the scramble for scraps of information is right now among members of the media, consider that for a couple hours now the lead story on Politico 44, a site solely devoted to the transition, has been that Joe Biden's son is set to deploy to Iraq sometime between now and Thanksgiving.

Patience, grasshopper! There will be plenty of news soon enough.

It's common enough for interest groups to wring their hands about an incoming president's priorities. But this is an important story.

There seems to be genuine worry among some health care advocates and opinion leaders that Barack Obama won't move swiftly enough on health care reform, potentially squandering a chance to use his mandate in service of this long-sought goal.

Health care reform advocates are saying that they worry Obama's enthusiasm for health care reform may wane as he confronts other looming challenges. Some senior Dems in Congress are predicting the same, as are some opinion makers.

"If you`re looking for a bold move early on on an issue like health care and immigration, I`ll say no," Chicago reporter Lynn Sweet said the other day on Hardball.

That has prompted no shortage of worry that Obama could duplicate the missteps of Bill Clinton, who failed to act on health care for too long, with disastrous results.

Read more »

Roll Call has the article of the day on the behind-the-scenes jockeying over Joe Lieberman's fate, reporting that Lieberman's Senate allies are using Obama's recent statement that he holds "no grudges" against Lieberman to claim momentum against punishing Lieberman for his many acts against the party.

One Lieberman supporter tells the paper that Obama "has in a large sense set the tone" in favor of Lieberman. Obama's statement specifically says that he won't "referee" the decision over whether Lieberman should keep his plum Homeland Security chairmanship.

But Obama's statement -- whatever its intent -- has had the practical impact of lending Lieberman allies something they can use to claim Obama's support, and could also give cover to Senators who want to do nothing to oust Lieberman.

Meanwhile, liberal bloggers, such as Markos and John Aravosis are now pressuring Senator Harry Reid to signal more forcefully to his fellow Senators that Lieberman should go. "No one is going to challenge their leader if he says that he absolutely wants Lieberman out," Aravosis wrote. "But Reid won't say that."

It's true that if Reid issued a strong public statement declaring his preference for Lieberman losing the chairmanship, it would send a strong signal to Senators which way they should vote on this question when they caucus next week. In fairness, though, Reid has already signaled his private opposition. And individual Senators shouldn't need a public statement from Reid to do the right thing.

As expected, former Al Gore chief of staff Ron Klain has accepted the opportunity to return in the same capacity for Joe Biden, a Democratic official confirms to us.

Klain is the second former Clintonite (after Rahm Emanuel) to take a high-profile and influential White House post, another sign that Obama is tapping experienced D.C. hands to implement his change agenda.

Ben Smith makes a smart point about Klain, arguing that for all of Obama's change rhetoric, he's long been the "toast of Washington" and is close to many D.C. insiders. His promises of "change" apply more to policy than personnel, and we've already seen that Obama is making substantive changes as he prepares to govern, placing his own reformist stamp on the transition process in various ways.

There are a couple of corollary points to be made here. First, Obama is a hard-headed realist about how to implement the sometimes airy-sounding promise of "change." The bottom line is that in order to get it done you need people who know how to do the hand-dirtying and not particularly noble work of behind-the-scenes politics.

Second, one emerging -- and very interesting -- storyline here is that many figures from the Clinton world are re-entering power at a time of real Democratic ascendancy and promise, what with the large Dem majorities in Congress. This contrasts sharply with the Clintonites' experience of D.C. in the 1990s. They were heavily constrained by ascendant conservative ideas, as well as the subsequent take-over of Congress by the GOP, and as a result, some of the biggest Clinton accomplishments had a heavy centrist gloss to them.

That isn't even remotely the case now: These people are coming back to D.C. at a time when the Republicans are catastrophically weakened, conservative ideas have been broadly discredited, and polls show wide public support for liberal governance. The opportunity to prove the virtues of one-party Dem rule and of liberal ideas in general, and to build an enduring Dem majority, are extremely ripe, and the excitement among these old D.C. players is palpable.

McCain To Campaign In Georgia Senate Race
The former GOP presidential nominee is set to campaign for incumbent GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss in Georgia today. McCain's planned trip raises anew questions about why the GOP appears to be outworking Dems in this race: While a host of high profile Republicans will be stumping in the state, few if any well known Dems are set to campaign there on behalf of Dem challenger Jim Martin, and Barack Obama (who in fairness is kind of busy right now) has not yet said whether he'll visit the state.

Obama In Chicago, Biden Touring VP's Residence With Cheney
Barack Obama is holding private meetings today in Chicago. Joe Biden and his wife Jill are off to the Naval Observatory -- the official residence of the vice president -- to get a guided tour of their new home from the Cheneys at 5:15 p.m. ET.

Palin Addressing Republican Governors
Sarah Palin is set to address the Republican Governors Association conference today, an event that could serve as a 2012 audition for not just herself but other GOP governors in attendance like Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal. Question of the day: When will the press start paying as much attention to the actual Vice President-Elect -- you know, Joe Biden -- as they are to the Whacka from Alaska?

Iran Blasts Obama As "More Dangerous" Than Bush
The Iranian government is predictably not respnding favorably to Barack Obama's calls for diplomacy. "People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," said Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Wait, wasn't Iran supposed to be eager for an Obama victory?

Health Care A Non-Starter This Year?
Some pundits are raising the possibility that health care reform just isn't gonna happen this year. The leading assumption right now appears to be that Obama can't afford to invest either the money or the political capital on such an ambitious goal, what with the economic crisis and big, politically fraught foreign policy decisions to make.

Gingrich: The GOP Is Totally Outclassed By Dems
Newt Gingrich, who knows a thing or two about losing power, sums up the current state of the Republicans as follows: "The Republican Party right now is like a midsize college team trying to play in the Super Bowl." If one-party Dem rule delivers, pretty soon the Repubs will be like the Bad News Bears playing in the World Series.

Hmm, maybe convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) didn't get re-elected last week.

Stevens shocked the political world when the election-night tallies showed him leading Democratic opponent Mark Begich by about 3,000 votes, despite the fact that he'd just been convicted on multiple felony counts and several polls showed him trailing Begich by double-digits.

But now the remaining votes -- about 95,000 of them, including both absentees and provisional ballots, according to the Anchorage Daily News -- are being counted, and it looks like Begich could be pulling ahead after all.

The current count puts Begich ahead of Stevens by three votes -- not three percent, but three raw votes, with nearly 50,000 more ballots to be counted.

The remaining ballots will provide us an answer as to whether Alaska is so corrupt that they would re-elect a convicted felon. But the trend so far appears to be in favor of a Begich win.

Late Update: Begich now leads by 814 votes. Things are looking a whole lot better for him right now than they were on Election Night.

Now this is a good sign: The Obama transition team has just signed up two leading Web types for the transition's Internet outreach team, a welcome indication that the Obama team is moving to transfer its astonishing online successes during the campaign over to the world of governing.

A transition source tells us that that Macon Phillips, a key Obama campaign Web official, has been tapped to head new media for the transition, and Jesse Lee, a leading Web operative who handled Rahm Emanuel's DCCC internet outreach operation during the 2006 take-back of Congress, has been hired to do online communications. Obama's transition team confirms the hires.

Phillips helped run Obama's general election new media shop, which raised huge sums of money and used social networking tools to organize in all sorts of innovative ways.

Lee, meanwhile, is highly regarded by liberal bloggers. He wrote the first-ever blog for the House Speaker, and in the closing days of the campaign he did online rapid response for the DNC, helping the Obama camp frame its message outreach to the blogosphere.

One key thing to watch will be how the Obama White House builds its online operation at a time of rapid expansion in the world of Web journalism and whether it can duplicate the campaign's innovations to organize and push the Obama administration's agenda.

Late Update: An Obama transition adviser sends over the list of the entire new outreach team: In addition to Phillips and Lee, it will also include Dan Siroker and Andrew Bleeker as as Deputy Directors of New Media, Cammie Croft on Online Communications, and Kate Albright-Hanna on Content Lead.

Late Late Update: John Aravosis gushes with praise for Jesse Lee as Obama's transition blog-outreach guy:

Can't say enough good things about Jesse. He knows the Netroots, knows politics, knows how to fight back.

Agreed, good move.

At a private meeting tomorrow in Washington, D.C., the most powerful and prominent leaders of the labor movement are planning to finalize the details of a major public campaign to push for what labor is hoping to get from the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress.

The meeting tomorrow morning at AFL-CIO headquarters will provide a glimpse into labor's hopes for the new order in D.C., at a time when a labor resurgence is looking like a real possibility. The big unions played a major role in delivering white union and non-union workers to Barack Obama in the battleground states, and will be expecting a seat at the table next year.

According to a senior AFL-CIO official, the labor leaders -- who could include AFL-CIO head John Sweeney, AFSCME chief Gerald McEntee, and others -- will be putting the finishing touches on plans for a national campaign, including possible TV ads, to press members of Congress for quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, one of labor's major agenda items.

The measure, which would give workers the right to join a union as soon as a majority of employees at a workplace say they want to, went down to defeat in 2007 and is likely to provoke huge opposition from business groups again this time around.

The labor heads will also discuss the Obama team's ongoing transition efforts and evaluate whether they think labor has had an adequate role in behind-the-scenes discussions, the AFL official said.

Read more »

If Sarah Palin is really considering a run for president, she's got a huge mountain to climb, a new CNN poll finds.

Palin's favorable rating stands at 49%, compared to 43% unfavorable. While it's a net positive for her, she is nevertheless under 50% -- and furthermore, it's way behind John McCain's 61%-36% rating, and he just lost the race along with her. This is also the fourth consecutive CNN poll in which her favorables have gone down, after reaching a height of 57%-27% just after the GOP convention.

To put it bluntly, it's tough for someone to run for president when a broad section of the country is already on record disliking him or her for years in advance of the actual race. In a way, Palin could face one of the same problems that Hillary Clinton did: Entering the race as a polarizing figure, leaving even many of her own partisans eager to find someone else.

Unless we're missing something, it really seems like the GOP is outworking national Democrats on the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoff, which gives Dems an outside shot at bumping off high-profile GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss. Unlike the Dems, the GOP has big ads and planned appearances in the state by major national GOP names.

Here's the NRSC's new attack ad against Democratic challenger Jim Martin, which warns that Martin is a tax-hiker who will aid the liberals in Washington -- the kind of red-meat message that could help turn out their base in a low-turnout runoff election:

The DSCC doesn't have an ad up yet, and it should be noted that GOP notables like John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani are all going into the state to campaign for Chambliss. Martin has publicly invited Barack Obama to come in -- which would help mobilize the Dem base -- but so far the president-elect has focused on his own transition instead of a single down-ballot contest.

It's easy to understand why the Dems wouldn't want to be seen as staking too much in the race -- this is a state that went 52%-47% for John McCain last week, so a heavy investment could be seen as too high-risk in terms of the public relations problems that a potential defeat would create.

The Obama camp announces that Obama has tapped a bipartisan pair -- former GOP Rep. Jim Leach and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright -- to meet with delegations at the upcoming G-20 summit.

"This weekend's summit is an important opportunity to hear from the leaders of many of the world's largest economies," said Obama Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Denis McDonough in an Obama camp release.

"There is one President at a time in the United States, so the President-elect has asked Secretary Albright and Congressman Leach, an experienced and bipartisan team, to be available meet with and listen to our friends and allies on his behalf."

The key here, again, is the enormous pressure that the financial crisis has placed on Obama to project a sense that he's swiftly acting, well before he puts his feet up on the Oval Office desk for the first time, while simultaneously avoiding the perception that he's presumptuously stepping on the toes of the current president. It wouldn't be quite right to be a complete non-presence at the G-20, given the meltdown; hence this solution.

Rep. Paul Broun, the Georgia Republican who made waves in the blogosphere when he compared Barack Obama's policies to both Marxism the rise of Adolf Hitler, has now apologized for his incendiary remarks, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports -- but he's still concerned about Obama's socialist policies.

"The point I tried to make is that he is extremely liberal, he has promoted a lot of socialistic ideas, and it just makes me concerned," Broun told a local radio station back home.

Well, that explains things.

Broun originally told the AP: "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may -- may not, I hope not -- but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

He then added that we should remember that Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany -- but also said he wasn't directly comparing Obama to Hitler, but was just trying to point out the potential of going down that road.

A pair of must-reads this morning do a nice job of laying out one of Obama's top transition priorities, and the huge challenges inherent in getting it done: The closing of Guantanamo Bay.

First, Time magazine has a solid and detailed report explaining that there's a serious thicket of logistical challenges that stand in the way of implementing this particular campaign promise. "There's little doubt that the Guantánamo problem Bush leaves behind for Obama will be one of the hardest the President-elect will face when he finally sits in the Oval Office," Time opines.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Obama's advisers are keenly aware of the political imperatives of getting this done. "Announcing the closure of the controversial detention facility would be among the most potent signals the incoming administration could send of its sharp break with the Bush era," WaPo says.

Indeed. It's worth repeating a somewhat-neglected aspect of the campaign: Obama's big win also represented a resounding victory for Obama's foreign policy vision over the militarism, jingoism, and faux-patriotism of the GOP and McCain. Though the campaign's relentless focus on the economy has obscured this aspect of Obama's win, a new AP poll shows that the public strongly supports Obama's foreign policy goals and expects action on them.

Closing Gitmo could send a strong signal that Obama's commitment to changing the way national security is approached in this country, and with that, America's posture towards the rest of the world, hasn't diminished one bit.

On Keith Olbermann's show last night, Howard Fineman dropped a bit of a bomb, reporting that Senator Dick Durbin is now moving towards keeping Joe Lieberman as chair of the Homeland Security Committee -- because he has now heard what Obama had to say about it. Worse, Fineman claimed that Obama has "signaled" that he, too, wants Lieberman to stay.

Here's a transcript:

FINEMAN: Senator Dick Durbin is a key factor there and I think he`s moving toward allowing Lieberman to stay. Dick Durbin was somebody who was extremely angry at Lieberman for campaigning for John McCain.

But I`m now told after having gone through a horrible week or so, where he was mourning the death of his 40-year-old daughter to congenital heart disease, he`s come out of that and looked around and, also, heard what Barack Obama has had to say, and Durbin is now saying he`s willing to give Lieberman a chance.

I think that`s going to go to a vote next week but I bet that Lieberman gets to keep his committee chairmanship because Obama has signaled that he wants him to.

Did Obama really "signal" that he wants Lieberman to stay? The Obama team merely said that they wouldn't referee any committee chairmanship decisions. But they also added that they hold "no grudges" against Lieberman. As I argued here yesterday, this risks giving cover to Senators who want to do nothing about Lieberman.

If Fineman is right, Durbin, clearly, is taking it this way, only a day after he was said to be actively opposed to Lieberman staying. Seems like it's fair to ask Durbin's office for clarification as to what exactly he thinks and why he may be interpreting Obama's remarks as active support for Lieberman keeping the chairmanship.

Does Durbin really support Lieberman keeping his chairmanship after he insinuated that the first African American Dem nominee for president is pro-terrorist, suggested that he endangered our troops, and said he doesn't always put the country first? And that's not even getting into the awful job Lieberman did on the committee, either.

Late Update: Some of you are arguing that Fineman may have been referring only to the question of whether Durbin and Obama support Lieberman staying in the caucus. But I don't believe that to be the case. First of all, Durbin yesterday was said to be specifically opposed to Lieberman keeping his chairmanship, so Fineman's claims of a possible change of heart clearly refer to that. What's more, in the last paragraph of Fineman's quotes above, he's clearly saying Obama signaled support for Lieberman keeping the chairmanship.

Poll Shows Wide Support For Liberal Agenda
A new AP/GfK poll suggests a broad mandate for Barack Obama pursuing liberal policies after he is sworn in. The poll shows 78% saying that removing U.S. troops from Iraq by 2010 should be an important or top priority, compared to only 10% who say it shouldn't be done at all, and 59% say it should be an important or top priority to eliminate the previous tax cuts on families making over $250,000, compared to only 18% who say it shouldn't be done.

Obama Holding Private Meetings Today
Barack Obama does not have any public events scheduled for today, but will instead be holding private meetings in Chicago along with Joe Biden.

Obama To Launch Full Review Of Gitmo Inmates
The Obama White House will reportedly launch a comprehensive review of the roughly 250 inmates at Guantanamo Bay upon taking office, which will be the first step in Obama's pledge to close the prison camp as soon as possible. The big question facing Obama is how to determine which of these men have been wrongly imprisoned, and which of them should still be held in some capacity -- and then to figure out what exactly should be done with that second group.

Obama Taps Nunn For Defense Transition
Barack Obama has reportedly picked former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) to oversee his transition at the Defense Department. The big job for the Obama team is to review the current state of these departments and deciding how Obama will restructure them once he takes office. (Late Update: The Obama team has put out a statement saying that former Sec. of State Warren Christopher will not be involved in the transition, contrary to the AP's contention that he would be involved in the State Department process.)

WaPo: Obama To Replace Intelligence Heads
The Washington Post reports that CIA Director Michael Hayden and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell expect to be replaced by the new president, and that there is a political consensus among Congressional Dems that they should be replaced. The big issue: Both of them have backed the Bush Administration's policies on wiretapping and torture.

Hispanic Leaders Pushing For Richardson At State
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda has called upon Barack Obama to appoint Bill Richardson as Secretary of State, which would pit Richardson against John Kerry and other prominent names believed to be in competition for the post. "By all accounts, Latinos were a key part of President-elect Obama's historic victory," said NHLA chairman John Trasviña.

Poll: Public Optimistic About Obama
A new Quinnipiac poll shows that 62% of voters believe Barack Obama will be a good or even great president, 56% think he'll be able to restore the public's trust in government, and 70% expect the economy to be better by the end of his term. On the other hand, 45% expect their own taxes to go up.

Obama Speaks With World Leaders Over The Phone
The Obama transition team announced that Obama spoke over the phone with various world leaders yesterday: President Luiz "Lula" da Silva of Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, King Abdullah of Jordan, and President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya.

In the closing days of the campaign, lots and lots of Repubs sounded dire warnings about the liberal stranglehold one-party Dem rule would put on Washington. But it turns out that a solid majority of voters rather likes the idea:

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday, 59 percent of those questioned said Democratic control of both the executive and legislative branches will be good for the country, compared with 38 percent saying such one-party control will be bad.

Obviously Dems are enjoying the fruits of the GOP's badly damaged brand here. More broadly, though, it suggests that Dems have a big opportunity.

The public is not prejudiced against the idea of one-party rule. They want successful rule, not empty pundit-approved gestures of "bi-partisanship" for its own sake. If the next two or four years are judged at the very least a modest success, and the public concludes that one-party Dem rule has been far more effective than the disastrous six years of one-party GOP rule have been, then the possibility of an enduring Dem majority looks more likely.

In another sign that Barack Obama is moving quickly to put his own stamp on the transition process, transition chair John Podesta just rolled out a series of new and reformist transition initiatives on a conference call with reporters.

Some highlights:

• There will be strong restrictions against lobbyist involvement in the transition: Lobbyists can't contribute or raise money to fund the transition; anybody who has worked as a lobbyist over the last 12 months can't shape those policies and will have to cease all lobbying during the transition; and any transition staffers who become lobbyists afterwards won't be able to lobby the White House for 12 months on policy matters where they worked for Obama.

• The Obama transition team is also launching a broad review of federal agencies -- over 100 of them -- so that the president and cabinet officers will have all the information they need to make decisions about those offices next year.

• The cabinet will have not just Democrats, but also Republicans and independents, "not just at a token level."

• Cabinet appointments will be put through faster than the usual process of only two dozen or so secretaries or sub-cabinet appointees being confirmed by March. "We expect that we can accelerate the process of confirmation in the Senate," Podesta said.

• Podesta confirmed that Obama is actively reviewing President Bush's executive orders, to see which ones he will reverse upon taking office: "We'll review all the executive orders that the president [Bush] has issued, and that process is going on."

The key here is that Obama is under extraordinary pressure amid the financial crisis to signal action even before he takes power, and here he's doing that.

The full Democratic caucus will vote on whether Joe Lieberman is allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee at its caucus meeting next week, a leadership aide confirms to us.

Previously, Reid's office had held this possibility out but hadn't made a final decision on whether to throw Lieberman's fate to the full Dem caucus for a vote.

In the wake of Obama's statement today that he doesn't hold any "grudges" against Lieberman and his decision not to take a position on whether Lieberman keeps his chairmanship, I emailed a leadership aide to ask whether the vote would definitely go forward. His response:

"Yes -- this is a decision that will be made by the caucus next week. Absent a stunning series of events there will be a vote next week in the caucus on whether to strip Senator Lieberman of the chairmanship."

That would appear to make it official.

The news comes amid signs that Lieberman is losing support among his fellow Senators. The Huffington Post reports, for instance, that the Clintons are not making any calls on Lieberman's behalf. And Senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin are reported to be hoping that Lieberman is given the push.

Now it looks as if these Senators will have an opportunity to vote on his fate, though the exact mechanism of how the vote will work is as yet unclear. More when we learn it.

Late Update: Senator Ben Nelson appears to support Lieberman keeping his committee perch.

Late Late Update: Chris Bowers has a useful look at how each individual Senator is likely to vote. The key point here is that the decision to go forward with the vote offers the anti-Lieberman forces a key opportunity to ratchet up the pressure right now.

Late Late Late Update: How will Reid himself vote? Last week he was reported to be leaning towards stripping Lieberman of his chairmanship. A Senate Democratic aide now tells me that "nothing has changed since last week." This suggests he may vote to give Lieberman the push, word of which could send a signal to other Senators to do the same.

Still Later Update: Markos and Josh Orton make a key point: This isn't about expelling Lieberman from the caucus. It's about the committee chairmanship. The Lieberman camp wants the story framed as "poor Joe may get booted for the caucus by revenge-minded liberals," because then it becomes solely about retribution.

The new Hotline/Diageo poll, the first survey gauging voters' opinions, priorities, and expectations for their new president, shows that voters are optimistic about Barack Obama as he enters the White House -- but they do have demands for compromise with the GOP.

Obama has a favorable rating of 65%, and 66% of voters are somewhat confident or very confident that he can bring change to Washington. On the other hand, large majorities want him to compromise with Republicans (58%) and appoint an even mix of Dems and GOPers to his cabinet (61%).

Even counting out GOP base voters who would reflexively say this stuff in the hopes of taking anything they can get, this still suggests that independent voters are clamoring for compromises, as opposed to the hard-line stances of the Bush years.

As for the individual issues themselves, voters as a whole want movement on energy independence (24%), financial regulation (22%), a middle-class tax cut (21%), and national health care (15%). Obama's base of Democratic voters rank their priorities a bit differently: Middle-class tax cut 29%, financial regulation 22%, national health care 19%, and energy independence 13%.

The Republicans are bringing out some big guns to save incumbent GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the upcoming runoff in Georgia, which is expected to have a low turnout and will be all about mobilizing the base to turn out and vote. None other than John McCain, fresh off his national defeat (but having won in Georgia) will be coming into the state to campaign for Chambliss this Thursday.

McCain isn't the only one, either -- Mike Huckabee is coming in this weekend, as a personality who can help mobilize the Christian Right.

The national Dems and Obama staffers are also taking a big interest in the race, and for his part Martin has invited Barack Obama to come in and campaign for him, but the Obama team hasn't publicly responded.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pointing to this old quote from McCain himself, condemning Chambliss for the nasty attack ads he ran in 2002 against Dem Sen. Max Cleland: "I'd never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield -- it's worse than disgraceful. It's reprehensible."

McCain's opinion of Chambliss seems to have improved since then.

So what's the significance of the statement we obtained from the Obama transition team saying that Obama holds "no grudges" against Joe Lieberman and won't take a position on whether Lieberman should be ousted as chair of the Homeland Security committee?

My take: By taking no position, Obama is in effect throwing the decision over to Senator Harry Reid, making it possible for the Senate to take action against Lieberman. But his statement -- paradoxically -- could also give cover to those who want to do nothing about him, making it easier for him to hang on to the post.

First, a bit of opinion from around the web: Steve Benen says that the statement is "deliberately vague," throwing the decision over to "the caucus and its leadership." Glenn Greenwald argues more broadly that the decision properly belongs to the Senate, and not Obama, in any case.

And Jane Hamsher notes that Senate leaders Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer may have privately signaled that they want Lieberman given the push, which could bode ill for him.

But John Aravosis argues that it shows Obama is "still making nice" to Joe and fuels the meta-message that Dems "don't like to fight." And MyDD's Josh Orton points out that Obama's statement, by including the line about not holding "grudges," helps Lieberman frame the argument as one that's all about retribution against poor old Joe.

It's probably not worth getting into a discussion about Obama's motives. I agree that Obama is right not to publicly dictate to the Senate what it should do, and this does signal to the Senators that they're free to jettison Lieberman. That said, the practical impact of Obama's statement could be to make life easier for those who want to do nothing here. It could allow the faint of heart to say, "hey, Obama isn't holding any grudges, so no need for us to punish Joe. Our leader has spoken."

The point is that while it's true that Joe's fate now lies in the hands of his fellow Senators, more noise may now have to be made to get them to act on it.

Late Update: Markos says that the statement doesn't help Lieberman at all.

Could Chris Matthews have a real shot if he goes through with running for Senate in Pennsylvania against GOP Senator Arlen Specter? The answer, according to a new poll of the 2010 Senate race -- we already have one nearly a year in advance of the race really beginning in earnest -- is that he is currently running behind, but might just have a chance.

The new numbers from Public Policy Polling (D): Specter 40%, Matthews 27%, and a very high 33% undecided.

The internals have good news and bad news for both candidates. Specter is below 50%, a bad place for an incumbent, but he's grabbing 30% of Democrats and a 41%-28% plurality among independents, indicating that he's able to draw some crossover support like he usually has in his previous races. If he can solidify the 32% of undecided GOP voters, he would basically have it made.

The good news for Matthews is that 47% of voters age 18-29 and 43% of voters age 30-45 are undecided, and those groups both went big for Barack Obama in this past election. Also, 44% of black voters say they're undecided, and 25% are for Specter -- but if they break big for Matthews as the Dem candidate, he could quickly make up some ground.

President-Elect Barack Obama doesn't "hold any grudges" against Senator Joe Lieberman for opposing his presidential candidacy, and will not take any position on the question of whether Lieberman should be permitted to keep his plum chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee, an Obama spokesperson just confirmed to us.

"We aren't going to referee decisions about who should or should not be a committee chair," Obama transition spokesperson Stephanie Cutter emailed me, in response to questions about Obama's stance on Lieberman's future.

Cutter's comments are the first on-the-record indication of Obama's position on the politically fraught question of what to do about Lieberman.

"President-elect Obama looks forward to working with anyone to move the country forward," Cutter continued. "We'd be happy to have Sen. Lieberman caucus with the Democrats. We don't hold any grudges."

The move is all but certain to take the steam out of any efforts to dislodge Lieberman from the committee, and hence to diminish his influence in some way in return for his support for McCain, his suggestion that Obama put troops in danger, and his claim that Obama hasn't always put the country first.

More soon.

Although Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) might possibly have just been re-elected in the wake of his felony convictions, he could soon find himself with a lot less clout in Washington, thanks to a potential vote by Senate GOPers to expel him from their caucus.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is calling for the motion to eject Stevens from the caucus, a move that would strip him of his committee assignments and the ability to vote in Senate GOP decisions like leadership elections.

But Stevens would still be a U.S. Senator with the ability to vote on the floor, as it would require a two-thirds vote of the whole chamber to expel him, just in case it turns out he was re-elected -- though an expulsion vote is quite possible, too. Votes are still being counted in Stevens' race and he has a lead of a little over 3,000 votes with 90,000 ballots left to be processed.

The GOP caucus could potentially debate this at their meeting next week, then DeMint formally brings up the motion.

One thing to remember is that if Stevens was re-elected, anything that happens next wouldn't have any real effect on the Dem/GOP balance of the chamber. The state would hold a special election if Steven is expelled or resigns, and the Republicans would be heavily favored to keep the seat. Another wrinkle is one particular name on the list of potential candidates for this hypothetical scenario: Sarah Palin, who might want to have a national stage from which to build a campaign for president.

WSJ: Obama Could Keep Gates On At Defense
The Wall St. Journal reports that Barack Obama is leaning toward keeping Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense for at least the first year of his term -- which if true would represent a very prominent act of continuity from the Bush Administration.

Obama To Recognize Veterans Today
Barack Obama will be publicly observing Veterans Day this morning, laying a wreath in Chicago in honor of fallen veterans. He will be accompanied by Tammy Duckworth, the Illinois director of veterans affairs and herself a disabled Iraq War veteran.

Podesta To Address Reporters Today On Transition
John Podesta, the former Bill Clinton White House chief of staff and current co-chairman of Barack Obama's presidential transition, will be speaking to reporters today in order to provide some updates on the transition process. Some of the big questions he'll probably address will be regarding when the president-elect will start naming cabinet appointments, whether any Bush appointees will stay on, and to what degree Obama is demanding action from President Bush during the interregnum period.

Obama To Refocus On Afghanistan -- And Bin Laden
The incoming Obama Administration is looking to refocus U.S. foreign policy on the conflict in Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. One possible element of this strategy, the Washington Post reports, could cause some serious domestic and international friction: Negotiations with Iran and potentially reconcilable elements of the Taliban.

Palin On 2012 Run: It's In God's Hands
In an interview with Fox News, Sarah Palin left the door open for a potential 2012 run for president: "I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door ... And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

Report: Jarrett Going To White House, Not Senate
CNN reports that Obama sources say Valerie Jarrett will stay on as an adviser in the White House -- not as an appointee to Obama's vacant Senate seat, as had been rumored over the weekend. At the end of the day the Senate appointment will be up to Dem Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- regardless of whether Obama asked him to appoint a particular individual.

Most Uncounted Alaska Ballots Expected To Be Counted Tomorrow
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the majority of the 81,000 uncounted ballots should be processed tomorrow. The campaign of Dem Senate candidate Mark Begich is hopeful that those ballots will turn around their current narrow deficit against incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Stevens -- and if not, Begich will have the distinction of losing an election to a recently-convicted felon.

NYT: The Southern Era Of Politics May Be Over
The New York Times this morning points out that, besides Republican rule in Washington, another important political trend might have ended last week: "And the Southernization of American politics -- which reached its apogee in the 1990s when many Congressional leaders and President Bill Clinton were from the South -- appears to have ended."

Barack Obama is reportedly sending signals that he wants Joe Lieberman to stay in the Dem caucus.

But let's not get distracted. The question isn't whether Lieberman gets to "stay in the Dem caucus" if he wants to. That's what Lieberman wants you to think the question on the table is. Rather, the issue is, will Dems let Lieberman keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee?

The Lieberman camp has worked very hard to muddy the waters here. Lieberman aides have tried to persuade people that a vote to oust him from the committee is indistinguishable from a vote to oust him from the Dem caucus overall.

Don't believe it. Reid's people have made the situation very clear: The question of whether Lieberman remains in the caucus is up to him. He can vote how he wants, no matter what happens to his committee assignments.

But Lieberman's allies are using the Obama camp's claims that he wants Lieberman to stay "in the caucus" as a way of arguing against a punitive action against him that would entail stripping him of his current committee chairmanship.

So the question for the Obama camp is, Do they really countenance Lieberman, a colossal failure at this gig, to stay as Homeland Security chair? A lot is riding on the specific messages that come from Obama's camp on this question, and it's fair to ask for a specific answer.

Joe Lieberman, who is locked in a fight to hold onto his Senate Homeland Security Committee chairmanship, is lending his name to a lurid sequel of the documentary Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West. That film, which was distributed through newspaper inserts and mass mailings to 28 million swing-state households during the campaign, was denounced by religious leaders for painting all Muslims with the same broad brush and for its cartoonish portrayal of Islamic terrorism.

The new documentary, called The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America, focuses on the "hidden war against the freedom and values we all take for granted" being waged by radical Islamists trying to take down America from within. Among other things, the film warns of the "subtle dangers of non-violent cultural jihad and its influence in America's universities."

The Third Jihad's backers plan to disseminate the film through TV licensing, free screenings, and DVD distribution, The Jewish Week of New York reported.

After Obsession was sent out in the run-up to the election, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic described it as "the work of hysterics." One rabbi quoted by The Jewish Week called Obsession "the protocols of the learned elders of Saudi Arabia."

Read more »

A new Rasmussen poll suggests that Barack Obama's election has had an immediate impact on race relations, with a dramatic upswing in the percentage of African-Americans who have a positive view of America.

The poll shows 42% of black voters saying that American society is fair and decent, a significant increase from the 24% who said the same thing only a month ago. The poll also has a 46% plurality saying society is still unfair and discriminatory, but that's way down from the 64% who expressed this view a month ago.

A new Gallup poll shows that Barack Obama's post-election honeymoon period has already begun, with the president-elect sporting a very high favorable rating of 70%, with only 25% unfavorable. Any bad blood from the messy general election seems to have passed for now, with only a hardcore GOP base registering an unfavorable opinion of him.

George W. Bush, meanwhile, is exiting the White House in pretty bad shape. He has only a 27% job approval rating and a 66% disapproval rating -- the worst of any president who has served out his full term of office in Gallup history. The runners-up are Harry Truman (32%-56%) and Jimmy Carter (34%-55%).

Late Update: The new CNN poll also has some bad news for Bush, with a 76% disapproval in this survey. This would make him even more unpopular than Richard Nixon at the time of the resignation.

Late Late Update: Here's another number in the CNN poll showing just how daunting things are for Obama: An astonishing 83% of the country says things are going badly. On the one hand this could suggest that Obama would have nowhere to go but up in improving people's feelings about the country's direction -- but if he fails to significantly move the numbers after he's sworn in, his own job approval could quickly suffer.

Terry Mac is back.

Terry McAuliffe, the former DNC chairman and (very) enthusiastic national chairman of Hillary Clinton's candidacy, has officially filed papers for a possible run for governor of Virginia in 2009, a move that has been expected for quite some time. McAuliffe will now embark on a tour of the state to make his final decision.

McAuliffe brings a background in business and political fundraising that could potentially make him a strong candidate, but on the other hand he's late into this game -- there are already two Dem candidates officially in the race who have spent a while building up their organizations.

On top of that, Terry might have some problems thanks to the colorful image that he cultivated during the Hillary campaign. Here's our greatest hits from that period:

Here's the latest on two key House races that are still up in the air and both seemingly headed for recounts. In one race, the Democrats may have just fallen short in a deep-red district, though there are still a lot more ballots to tally up -- and in another, they may have just succeeded in picking off a GOP incumbent that few people would have predicted.

In California's Fourth District, the open seat of scandal-plagued GOP Congressman John Doolittle, an audit will be conducted of 10% of the district's voting machines -- the first step under state law in deciding whether to proceed with a full recount. Republican candidate Tom McClintock currently leads the 2006 Dem nominee Charlie Brown by only 889 votes out of over 300,000 votes counted so far, with 40,000 ballots still to be counted across both candidates' strongholds.

In Virginia's Fifth District, home to the cartoonishly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim GOP Rep. Virgil Goode, the numbers between himself and Dem challenger Tom Perriello keep shifting. On Friday, Perriello declared victory and began his transition, but Goode has not conceded. As of right now, Perriello leads by 745 votes, and it's not implausible to imagine the race going back to Goode. By the time the race is certified on November 24, it will likely be so close that the losing candidate is entitled to a request a full recount at the state's expense.

It turns out that there won't be any Obama cabinet appointments announced this week.

"No Cabinet announcements this week," Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told Reuters.

Another bright morning, and Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) lead over Al Franken just keeps shrinking as the vote totals are re-canvassed in this contested election result.

As of right now, Coleman leads by only 204 votes, compared to a 211-vote lead at the close of business Friday. In the immediate totals after Election Night, Coleman led by about 800 votes.

This race is guaranteed to go to a full statewide manual recount, with both sides fully lawyered up and ready to go. We probably won't have a resolution for several weeks -- and even then, the result could possibly be disputed at the Senate this January.

Late Update: Coleman is now up by 206 votes - 1:45 p.m. ET.

Late Update: Coleman is now up by 205 votes - 2:50 p.m. ET.

Late Update: Coleman is now ahead by 207 votes - 3:02 p.m. ET.

Obama To Meet Bush Today
Barack Obama will hold his first in-person transition meeting with President Bush today, with a private meeting in the Oval Office. This meeting holds extra significance for Obama, as well -- he's never actually been in the Oval Office before, a place that he'll be getting to know a lot better over the next four to eight years.

Van Hollen To Stay At DCCC
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has announced that he is staying on for a second consecutive term as head of the DCCC, a break from the usual Democratic practice of switching that office every cycle. On top of his extended campaign role, Van Hollen will also take on an expanded policy role, as a liaison between the House Dems and the Obama Administration.

Alaska Results Could Take Two Weeks To Know
Roll Call reports that results might not be known in the Alaska Congressional races for two weeks, as the state gets to work counting over 80,000 absentee ballots. The big question for incumbent Senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens (R) is whether those votes are made up more of early voters for Barack Obama and the Dem ticket, or military personnel and oil workers in remote areas who break Republican.

Some Bush Appointees Guaranteed To Stay On
The Washington Post points out that Barack Obama will still have at least three Bush appointees to work with come January: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, and FBI Director Robert Mueller, who all have fixed terms instead of serving at the pleasure of the president. "His campaign's success was based partly on the selection of a team he personally trusted," the Post comments, "but in his first years in the White House, he will not be able to rely solely on advisers of his choosing."

Minnesota Secretary Of State: I'll Get The Recount Right
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (D) is promising a fair and non-partisan process in the Minnesota Senate recount -- but it's going to be slow: "People who are the most active have a kind of bias to want to get [results] fast. Election administrators have a bias for wanting it correct, transparent and trusted."

"Barack" Quickly Becoming A Popular Name
Barack Obama's unusual name might not be so unusual for much longer, as new mothers the world over are already naming their baby boys "Barack" in honor of the president-elect and his historic election. In just a single hospital in Kenya, 23 boys were named "Barack" and 20 girls named "Michelle" from Election Day through this past Saturday.

Rahm: Obama Sets The Tone For Bipartisanship
In an interview on ABC's This Week, incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sought to downplay his reputation as a partisan bulldog, instead citing Barack Obama's frequent calls for bipartisanship. "So that is the tone. That is the policy," said Rahm. "And that is exactly how we're going to go forward."

New Obama Administration Eyeing Bush Policies To Be Reversed
The incoming Obama White House is already getting ready to quickly reverse various George W. Bush policies by executive order: The ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, the prohibition against California settings its own emissions standards, and the global gag-rule that prevents international groups that receive federal funding from counseling women about abortion, among others.

Over 81,000 Votes Left In Alaska
The Juneau Empire reports that over 81,000 ballots are left to be counted in the Alaska Senate race, made up of mostly early votes plus absentee and disputed ballots. With convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens (R) leading Democratic opponent Mark Begich by only 3,257 votes in the current count, the result could easily shift depending on how those 81,000 votes turn out.

GOPers Already Eyeing 2012
The Politico reports that some top-name GOPers already seem to be laying the groundwork for 2012 campaigns for president, now that the 2008 race is officially over and lost. Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee will be visiting Iowa this month, and the upcoming annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association could also serve as an audition for multiple potential candidates.

FRC's Perkins: GOP Should Reach Out To Minority Groups On Social Issues
Tony Perkins, president of the Christian-right Family Research Council, says the Republican Party should expand its presence among minority groups by targeting them on social issues, citing the fact that these groups voted for Barack Obama but also favored state amendments to ban gay marriage. "If Republicans want to reach into those ethnic groups, really the only bridge they can cross over are the social issues," Perkins told the Associated Press.

Inaugural Committee: Don't Fall For Fraudulent Ticket Sales
The committee overseeing the presidential inauguration is warning the public against any online vendors claiming to sell inaugural tickets -- in fact, no tickets have been issued to anybody yet, and will not be issued until a few days before the event itself. "Anyone claiming to have tickets to sell right now, or saying that they will guarantee tickets, is not telling the truth," said a spokesperson for the committee.

Lots of people have already chewed over this article in the Hartford Courant, which reports that Chris Dodd is, disappointingly, suggesting that Barack Obama doesn't want a fight over Joe Lieberman's fate.

But I wanted to draw your attention to this little nugget buried in the article, in which the Lieberman camp makes a rather startling argument in favor of his being allowed to hang on to his Homeland Security committee slot:

"Sen. Lieberman prefers to remain in the Democratic caucus," the aide said. "However, he believes he should remain as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. ... He thinks that political retribution should not go ahead of homeland security."

Can the Lieberman camp really be arguing that stripping Lieberman of his committee slot is tantamount to putting politics ahead of our safety, because we're so defenseless without him there to protect us?

Never mind that Lieberma's performance as chair of the committee was just awful. Lieberman's camp is now sounding a kind of hollow echo of the same silly scare-mongering tactics that he used against Obama on the GOP's behalf during the campaign, only this time in service of holding onto whatever vestiges of influence he has left. It's a coda to this whole affair that's perfect in its desperation and unintentional self-parody.

Separately, in reference to Dodd's point that President Obama won't want to be distracted from governing by a messy fight over Lieberman's fate, one could argue that this is all the more reason to get this wrapped up now. Senator Reid?