GOP responds: White House 'trying to pass the buck'

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
02/09/10 9:50 AM EST

I've just been in touch with Sen. Christopher Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner.  I asked all to comment on the new White House accusation that critics who question the Obama administration's decision to grant Miranda rights to accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are "serv[ing] the goals of al Qaeda."

"The only one making this political is the White House," says Bond in a statement. "The administration must do better, because trying to pass the buck for their dangerous decisions and divulging sensitive information to al Qaeda is not an effective terror-fighting strategy."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/GOP-responds-White-House-trying-to-pass-the-buck-83883542.html

Obama team debated treating Detroit suspect Abdulmutallab as enemy combatant

By Walter Pincus

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Should Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day, have been considered an enemy combatant under the law of war and placed in military detention? The same question raised by senior Republicans last week was considered during a Jan. 6 National Security Council meeting led by President Obama in the White House Situation Room.

The issue arose when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. brought up the decision to continue the process to formally charge Abdulmutallab with attempted murder and attempted destruction of an aircraft under the U.S. criminal code.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803658.html

Drillgate: Internal Emails Shows Obama Team Lying to Public

by Vince Haley

If you’re the President of the United States or one of his political appointees and you’re ideologically opposed to new oil and natural gas development offshore, what do you do when the public registers its overwhelming support for new drilling in public opinion polls?

You dance, delay, and deceive. You speak melodious words about seeking the wisdom of the public in making these decisions and then ignore evidence of the public will when you get it, or worse, you hide it.

First came the dance.  In August 2008, after soaring gas prices and a dramatic shift in public opinion caused President Bush, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and Republican presidential candidate John McCain to reverse their positions on offshore drilling, then-Senator Obama also changed. The Democratic presidential nominee reversed his own position and that of his party, saying he was open to offshore drilling as part of an overall energy plan.  The Democratic Congress followed a month later by quietly dropping the 25-year Congressional ban on offshore drilling.

Then came the delay. In January 2009, President Obama inherited a draft five year offshore drilling plan prepared by the outgoing Bush administration.  The plan was already receiving public comment as part of the elaborate rule making process followed by federal agencies.  Ken Salazar, Obama’s new Secretary of Interior, determined the decision about new offshore drilling was so important that he ordered a six-month extension to the comment period.

Third comes the dishonesty.

http://biggovernment.com/vhaley/2010/02/09/drillgate-internal-emails-shows-obama-team-lying-to-public/

Sources: Pakistani Taliban leader is dead

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead, three Taliban sources and a government official said Tuesday.

There were conflicting reports about where Mehsud died. The government official told CNN Mehsud died as a result of the January 14 attack in North Waziristan. He was seriously injured, and was moved to the Orakzai region, where he died and was buried more than a week ago, the official said, citing information from local pro-government militias.

Other sources said Mehsud died near the city of Multan in central Pakistan while on his way to a treatment center in Karachi.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/pakistan.meshud.dead/

It’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Mark McKinnon and Myra Adams on how Supreme Court retirements could persuade the secretary of State to take a high-court seat.

The political bombshell of the year could turn out to be Supreme Court Justice Hillary Clinton.
 
Don’t laugh. It’s politics.  Stuff happens. And a lot stranger stuff has happened in recent years.  Two words.  Sarah Palin.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-08/justice-clinton/

Blue Dog Democrats want Congress to go further than President Barack Obama’s proposal to freeze spending in next year’s budget.

The group of House centrists will soon introduce a bill capping discretionary spending at specific levels. The move would challenge their leadership and the president, who are balancing concerns with the nearly $1.6 trillion deficit in 2010 with those who say government spending on job creation is the way out of the recession.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/80311-blue-dogs-push-to-go-further-than-obama-spending-freeze

February 8, 2010 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson announced that he will oppose a cloture motion to proceed to a vote and will vote no on the nomination of Craig Becker to be a board member of the National Labor Relations Board. The five-member board serves as a quasi-judicial body in deciding cases under the National Labor Relations Act.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the Administration,” said Senator Nelson. “This is of great concern, considering that the Board’s main responsibility is to resolve labor disputes with an even and impartial hand. In addition, the nominee’s statements fly in the face of Nebraska’s Right to Work laws, which have been credited in part with our excellent business climate that has attracted employers and many good jobs to Nebraska. Considering these matters, I will oppose the upcoming cloture motion and the nomination.”

http://bennelson.senate.gov/press/press_releases/020810-02.cfm

NOAA: Blizzard Rearranges Climate Change Announcement

By Louise Radnofsky

As D.C. continued to dig out from Snowmageddon and is keeping an eye on another storm system, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was busy making a climate change announcement.

NOAA, part of the Department of Commerce, is going to be providing information to individuals and decision-makers through a new NOAA Climate Service office. “More and more, Americans are witnessing the impacts of climate change in their own backyards, including sea-level rise, longer growing seasons, changes in river flows, increases in heavy downpours, earlier snowmelt and extended ice-free seasons in our waters. People are searching for relevant and timely information about these changes to inform decision-making about virtually all aspects of their lives,” the release says.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/02/08/noaa-blizzard-rearranges-climate-change-announcement/

Opposing view: 'We need no lectures'

Administration disrupts terrorists’ plots, takes fight to them abroad.

By John Brennan

Politics should never get in the way of national security. But too many in Washington are now misrepresenting the facts to score political points, instead of coming together to keep us safe.

...

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/opposing-view-we-need-no-lectures.html?csp=34

Senator Lifts Holds on Most Nominees

WASHINGTON — Senator Richard C. Shelby, Republican of Alabama, on Monday night lifted most of the nearly 70 holds he had placed on President Obama’s nominations to posts that require Senate confirmation.

Last week, Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, called the holds another example of the corrupt nature behind lawmakers’ earmarks for pet projects.

In a statement, Mr. Shelby’s spokesman, Jonathan Graffeo, disputed that characterization. The holds, he said, were “to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security,” a refueling tanker that would add jobs in Mobile and an F.B.I. antiterrorism center to be built in Alabama.

Mr. Shelby still has holds on three nominees whose jobs would be related to the tanker project. They are Terry A. Yonkers, nominated for assistant secretary of the Air Force; Frank Kendall III, for principal deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics; and Erin C. Conaton, for under secretary of the Air Force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/us/politics/09nominees.html