links for 2009-02-08

Until Friday, President Obama's plea for bipartisanship support of his costly plan for stimulating the economy mostly had fallen on deaf GOP ears, but that changed when three Republican moderates pledged their support.

In doing so, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Pennsylvania's Sen. Arlen Specter risked drawing the wrath of their fellow Republicans and of some constituents

The trio's support is expected to give Democrats the 60 votes needed in the Senate to advance to a final vote on the $827 billion stimulus bill next week — and ultimately push the controversial mix of massive spending and tax cuts over the finish line.

Collins said she broke ranks with her party because of the progress congressional negotiators had made on the bill.

Sen. Reid: “Keep in mind, it’s approaching a trillion dollars.”

NYT: even the senators behind the compromise were uncertain of the number.

Roll Call: The uncertainty made it difficult to predict whether the final bill would be approximately $780 billion or $826 billion.

Fox News: about $811 billion in spending and tax cuts

AP: Democrats put the cost of the measure at $780 billion…Republican critics said that the price tag was actually higher…Official cost figures were not yet available.

AFP: The bill's supporters noted that its price tag would be far smaller than the 937 billion dollars… Details were elusive… Republicans said their calculations put the new bill at roughly 830 billion dollars

LAT: a price tag of about $780 billion under the compromise deal, though the final figure was unclear.

President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans bickered Saturday over his historically huge economic recovery plan after states and schools lost tens of billions of dollars in a late-night bargain to save it.

The $827 billion measure is on track to pass the Senate on Tuesday despite stiff opposition from the GOP and disappointment among Democrats, including the new president who labeled it imperfect. Next up: Difficult negotiations between the House and Senate, which are divided over spending for tax cuts, education and aid for local governments.

"We can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, sounding a note of pragmatism that liberal followers rarely heard on the campaign trail.

The Washington Post has quite a hit job on Michael Steele on the front page this morning, with an above-the-fold story alleging he violated a number of campaign-finance rules. Despite the purple language and frothy allegations of the story, my in-house (literally) campaign-finance expert says it is far from clear that Steele actually violated any of the increasingly arcane and impossible-to-explain federal campaign finance laws, but of course as we all know it's the appearance of impropriety that counts for Republicans.

Not until you reach well down on the jump page do you learn this interesting little detail: "The U.S. attorney's office inadvertently sent the confidential document, a defense sentencing memorandum filed under seal, to The Washington Post after the newspaper requested the prosecution's sentencing memorandum." Inadvertently sent what was supposed to be a sealed document to the Post? Yeah, sure, and the Post will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge real cheap, too.
+++++++
Weak

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) this evening released the following statement on the trillion-dollar spending bill agreed to by Senate Democrats:

“Our nation is in recession, and responsible action is needed to help preserve and protect American jobs. Ironically the emerging Senate ‘deal' appears to be only slightly smaller than the original Senate package, while still costing more than the House bill. But ultimately this bill should be judged on whether it works, and 90 percent of a bad idea is still a bad idea.