DHS Secretary Still Under Fire - Resignation Soon?

After a determined effort Monday morning to walk back three disastrous words that threatened to rival “heck of a job Brownie,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spent the rest of the week in Washington reviewing the department’s detection capabilities and increased security and updating President Barack Obama on the assessment Thursday morning.

The president seemed to be trying to throw her a lifeline Tuesday when he made it clear that he understood that her statement that “the system worked” referred only to what transpired after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded his Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. But Republican critics, who already had Napolitano in their sights, spared no words in criticizing her — and show no inclination to stop.

One of them was her home-state senator, Republican Jon Kyl, who told reporters in Arizona that he no longer feels “totally safe” with his former governor at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security. Kyl was flanked at the Phoenix news conference by fellow Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. - Politico Story

States Consider Legal Action against Deal Cut W/Nebraska Senator for Vote

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) reached out Thursday evening to South Carolina GOP Attorney General Henry McMaster, the leader of a group of 13 Republican state attorneys general who are threatening to file suit against the Senate health care bill, and urged him to forgo any legal action, POLITICO has learned.

According to a copy of a memo sent by McMaster’s chief of staff to other GOP state attorneys general detailing the call, Nelson asked McMaster to “call off the dogs,” a reference to recent threats by the state AGs to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Medicaid provision in the bill that benefits Nebraska at the expense of other states.

Under the terms of a deal Nelson cut with Senate leaders to secure his crucial vote for the health care package, Nebraska would be exempted from having to pay for the coverage of its new Medicaid enrollees—leaving the federal government to pick up the tab. The deal is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over the next 10 years. - Politico Story

Obama Fails in Reaction and Leadership after Attempted Terrorism Attack

From the time he launched his campaign for president three years ago, Barack Obama had to consider how he would react to the first serious act of terrorism during the campaign, or if he won, on his watch. His fellow Democrats had been thinking about the moment even longer - since the September day in 2001 when attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon defined George W. Bush’s presidency and gave Republicans a decisive advantage on a defining political issue.

And yet the White House’s response to last week’s attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit could rank as one of the low points of the new president’s first year. Over the course of five days, Obama’s Obama’ reaction ranged from low-keyed to reassuring to, finally, a vow to find out what went wrong. The episode was a baffling, unforced error in presidential symbolism, hardly a small part of the presidency, and the moment at which yet another of the old political maxims that Obama had sought to transcend – the Democrats’ vulnerability on national security – reasserted itself. - Politico Story

Treasury to Lift Cap on Funds to Fannie and Freddie - Big Payouts for Executives

Lawmakers are calling for an investigation of the Treasury Department's decision to lift the cap on government cash for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a move that essentially gives unlimited aid to the mortgage giants for the rest of President Barack Obama's term.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Wednesday that his subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will launch a probe. Separately, Reps. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) and Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) requested that the Financial Services Committee hold a hearing on the matter.

On Christmas Eve, the Treasury announced that the government would be able to exceed the $400 billion cap on emergency aid without the consent of Congress, adding another dose of controversy to an already unpopular bailout. While many Wall Street firms have repaid their bailout assistance, Fannie and Freddie, which have together received $111 billion, are unlikely do so. And their executives have received multimillion-dollar compensation packages even as the public rages against lavish executive payments at firms that have received taxpayer money.

Kucinich's investigation will look into the roles of Fannie Mae CEO Michael J. Williams and Freddie CEO Charles E. Haldeman in the decision. He said he "will seek to ensure that the additional assistance is used for homeowners and not Wall Street." - Politico Story

Obama's Change - Not So Much!

Think back to December 2008. Barack Obama had just won a sweeping electoral victory, and the press was speculating about the ways in which Obama had changed America: high-tech campaigns, the post-racial future, even bipartisanship.

But Barack Obama’s first year as president wasn’t always exactly what Americans expected.

The very first thing that surprised us about Obama was just how quickly he let go of the animosity of the Democratic presidential primary against Hillary Clinton — offering the job as Secretary of State just weeks after being elected president. Since then, the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency has been one of near-constant surprises, as the nation learned even more about its new commander in chief, who after all, had been a largely unknown figure just a few years before.

Here are the ten biggest surprises of 2009:

- Politico Story

Support for Waterboarding Terrorist at 58%

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.

Men and younger voters are more strongly supportive of the aggressive interrogation techniques than women and those who are older. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party favor their use more than Democrats. - Rasmussen Reports Poll

End of Year Polls not Kind to Democrats

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18.....

Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. At the time of his Inauguration, the President’s approval rating was at 61%.

Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove......

In Nebraska, just 17% approve of the Medicaid deal cut by Senator Ben Nelson to secure his vote on health care reform. Nelson is now down by 30 points in an early look at his 2012 Reelection Bid. Republicans now lead by five points on the Generic Congressional Ballot. That’s a big change from the seven-point lead enjoyed by Democrats when President Obama was inaugurated....

-Rasmussen Reports Polls

Obama's Pretend Non War on Terrorism

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer responds to Dick Cheney's criticism of President Obama, saying that the former vice president is "more focused on criticizing the administration than condemning the attackers."

"To put it simply: this president is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action," Pfeiffer wrote on the White House blog. "Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from Al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the president."

Cheney had told POLITICO that Obama was "trying to pretend we are not at war." Pfeiffer called the claim "clearly untrue."

"President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and — unlike the last administration — we are not at war with a tactic (“terrorism”)," he wrote, adding that the United States is "at war with something that is tangible: Al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered." - Politico Story

Everyone with half a brain knew it was coming. A Terrorist Attack on American Soil. Obama and his Department of Homeland Security ended the "war on terrorism" instead opting for the "man made disaster" theme.

Well, now they have changed their mind and call the latest Terrorist Act as an attack on America. Is it really an attack, or a near man made disaster?

DHS Secretary first said the system worked. Then the President said it was a system wide failure. Then they are blaming the CIA.

Wait, did we forget to say that Obama and his team earlier in the year with AG Holder decided that the CIA was responsible for treating the Terrorist too harshly. Can't imagine why the CIA wasn't out there doing whatever it takes to keep Terrorist off of American Soil.

Well, for those of you who don't want to listen to Cheney, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, or any of the people who stand up and fight the Obama Administration about Gitmo, and transferring these Terrorist to Illinois, This is not the last of the Terrorist Attacks on the USA.

Thank you Obama for taking the WAR ON TERROR back to pre 9/11.

More Government Bailout Money for GMAC

(AP) The U.S. government was moving ahead Wednesday on a fresh multibillion dollar cash infusion to stabilize auto financing company GMAC Financial Services, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

GMAC, based in Detroit, is instrumental to the operations of automakers General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. It has already received $12.5 billion in taxpayer money and is 35 percent owned by the federal government.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions weren't complete, says the new infusion would be in the range of another $3 billion. That would fall short of the roughly $6 billion the government had earlier thought GMAC would need to stabilize the company.

An announcement of the injection could come late Wednesday or on Thursday, the person says.

After the government conducted "stress tests" on financial institutions earlier this year, it demanded that that GMAC raise an $11.5 billion capital cushion to help it weather further economic decline. GMAC was unable to raise the funds privately.

The anticipated additional government aid for GMAC would come from the $700 billion taxpayer-financed bailout pot the government set up at the height of the financial crisis last year. The money was intended to shore up banks so that they would boost lending to people and businesses and support the sagging economy. However, money also has been used to help GM, Chrysler, insurance companies and others survive the worst financial crisis and recession since the 1930s.

GMAC has been in negotiations with Treasury officials for months over additional taxpayer aid. - CBS News Story

Obama and DHS Secretary Not on the Same Page

President Obama rendered a harsh verdict on the nation's intelligence community Tuesday. The bottom line said the President, is that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement had enough information to stop accused Northwest 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding the flight on Christmas, but failed to piece the information together.

"It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list," said the President.

The President said it was clear that the current intelligence system is out of date.

"When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been," said the President, "a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable."

Two days ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed that the information provided by the suspect's father was insufficient to put the son on the no-fly list.

The President flatly rejected that explanation. "Even without this one report," said President Obama, "there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together." - ABC News Story

US Government was Warned of Possible Terrorist

The U.S. government had intelligence from Yemen before Christmas that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda there were talking about "a Nigerian" being prepared for a terrorist attack, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

A senior official told the Times that President Obama was told in a private meeting Tuesday while vacationing in Hawaii that the government had a variety of information in its possession before the failed bombing on a Detroit-bound flight last week that would have been a clear warning sign had it been shared among intelligence agencies.

The newspaper said the information did not include the name of the Nigerian. - FOX News Story

Sen. Nelson of Nebraska - 60th Vote for Health Care in Deep Trouble at Home

A new poll suggests that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) seriously endangered his political prospects by becoming the decisive 60th vote allowing health care legislation to pass through the Senate.

The Rasmussen survey shows Nelson, who isn’t up for re-election until 2012, badly trailing Gov. Dave Heineman by 31 points in a hypothetical matchup, 61 to 30 percent. A 55 percent majority of Nebraska voters now hold an unfavorable view of the two-term senator, with 40 percent viewing him favorably.

The health care bill is currently very unpopular in Nebraska, according to the Rasmussen poll. Nearly two-thirds of voters (64 percent) oppose the legislation while just 17 percent approve.

Heineman has attacked Nelson’s support for health care reform, even as the senator cut a deal exempting Nebraska from new Medicaid payments and other home-state goodies.

“The reason he’s in hot water right now is that he’s not listening to Nebraskans — it’s very unusual for him,” Heineman told POLITICO last week. “I am shocked.”

Heineman added that he had no plans to run for the Senate, but wouldn't rule out a future bid. - Politico Story

Not So Transparent Obama's Secret Executive Order

President Barack Obama has apparently issued a long-awaited executive order on classification that fulfills one of his campaign promises by setting up a National Declassification Center to oversee the release of historical documents. But the announcement, ironically, is shrouded in secrecy and confusion.

"While the Government must be able to prevent the public disclosure of information that would compromise the national security, a democratic government accountable to the people must be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for self-serving reasons or simply to avoid embarrassment," National Security Council official William Leary wrote in a blog post announcing the order.

Oddly, that blog post was dated and time stamped at 4:44 p.m. Monday but does not appear to have shown up on the White House website until a little before noon Tuesday. Adding to the mystery, the link to the executive order was dead at that time. Then, shortly after this reporter inquired about that dead link, the entire blog post disappeared.

The order reportedly sets deadlines for declassification of information exempted from automatic 25-year declassification requirements and eliminates a veto the intelligence community held over declassification orders from an interagency panel that hears appeals of such cases. - Politico Story

Governors Rip Health Care - Will Drive States Deeper in Financial Hole

The governors of the nation’s two largest Democratic states are leveling sharp criticism at the Senate health care bill, claiming that it would leave their already financially strapped states even deeper in the hole.

New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson and California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are urging congressional leaders to rework the Medicaid financing in the Senate-passed bill, warning that under that version their states will be crushed by billions in new costs.

After the Senate passed the bill in a Christmas Eve vote, Paterson said the expansion would leave New York $1 billion in the lurch. The state faces a $6.8 billion budget shortfall heading into the 2010 fiscal year.

“[I] am deeply troubled that the Senate version of the bill worsens what was already an inequitable situation for New York and I will continue to be an advocate on behalf of New Yorkers to ensure we are treated fairly by this critical federal legislation,” Paterson said in a statement.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Schwarzenegger wrote that the legislation would create a “crushing new burden” for a state with a whopping $20.7 billion budget deficit.

“When asked for my support, I was assured that federal legislation would not increase costs to California or include new unfunded mandates,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “Unfortunately, under nearly every scenario we can predict, the federal health care reform legislation being debated would cost California’s General Fund an additional $3 billion to $4 billion annually.”

The resistance from the governors of two Democratic megastates underscores the anxieties facing states as they grapple with the prospect of a massive expansion of the Medicaid program. - Politico Story

Obama Still Hasn't Filled Key Top Agencies Charged with Protecting Airplanes from Terrorists

(AP) Two federal agencies charged with keeping potential terrorists off airplanes and out of the United States have been without their top leaders for nearly a year.

It took the Obama administration more than eight months to nominate anyone to lead the Transportation Security Administration and the Customs and Border Protection agency.

The attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner has prompted a review of U.S. security policies. The acting heads of those agencies - both created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - will be at the forefront of these discussions.

Bogged down with health care reform, the Senate has yet to set a date to hold hearings for the Customs position. And Republican Sen. Jim DeMint has placed a hold on the president's choice to head the TSA over the senator's concern that the new leader would let TSA screeners join a labor union. This has some Democrats blaming politics for the vacancy.

Former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin is nominated to run CBP, and former FBI agent and police detective Erroll Southers is the president's pick for TSA.

On Christmas Day, alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who spent time in Yemen, was able to sneak an explosive device aboard his flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be thwarted by the device's apparent failure to work as designed, and aggressive action by other passengers. - CBS News Story

Obama Not Leading During Critical Moments

HONOLULU – There is a sense of déjà vu in the Obama administration’s response to the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day. A by-now familiar pattern has been established for dealing with unexpected problems.

First, White House aides downplay the notion that something may have gone wrong on their part. While staying out of the spotlight, the president conveys his efforts to address the situation and his feelings about it through administration officials. After a few days, the White House concedes on the issue, and perhaps Obama even steps out to address it.

That same scenario unfolded over the summer when Obama said Sgt. James Crowley, a white Cambridge, Mass., police officer, “acted stupidly” when he arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black Harvard professor, in his own home. It happened in March when the public was outraged over AIG dishing out hefty bonuses. More recently the public witnessed the dynamic after a security breach at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner.

But the fact that the issue now is a terrorist incident - albeit an unsuccessful one - makes the stakes much higher, and the White House’s usual approach more questionable. That this test of his leadership comes while he’s on vacation in tropical Hawaii further complicates things.

After delivering his first public remarks Monday about a Nigerian man’s attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines jetliner over Detroit, the president motorcaded over to the golf course at a nearby country club. Optics aside, it had taken Obama three days to issue a statement on the incident, and the administration was left struggling to get control of the message. - Politico Story

Obama's Non-War on Terrorism

Republicans have wasted no time in attacking Democrats on intelligence and screening failures leading up to the failed Christmas Day bombing of Flight 253 — a significant departure from the calibrated, less partisan responses that have followed other recent terrorist activity.

The strategy — coming as the Republican leadership seeks to exploit Democratic weaknesses heading into the 2010 midterms — is in many ways a natural for a party that views protecting the U.S. homeland as its ideological raison d’etre and electoral franchise.

President Obama’s GOP critics have been emboldened during the past 48 hours by the stumbling initial response of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who spent Monday retracting her Sunday claim that “the system worked” in the aftermath of Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab’s near takedown of a jet ferrying nearly 300 people from Amsterdam to Detroit.

“In the past six weeks, you’ve had the Fort Hood attack, the D.C. Five and now the attempted attack on the plane in Detroit … and they all underscored the clear philosophical difference between the administration and us,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

“I think Secretary Napolitano and the rest of the Obama administration view their role as law enforcement, first responders dealing with the aftermath of an attack,” Hoekstra told POLITICO. “And we believe in a forward-looking approach to stopping these attacks before they happen.” - Politico Story

More Terrorist Coming?

American officials have cause to worry there may be more al Qaeda-trained young men in Yemen planning to bring down American jets.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon.

And in a tape released four days before the attempted destruction of the Detroit-bound Northwest plane, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen boasted of what was planned for Americans, saying, "We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God."

Yemen has become a principal al Qaeda training ground and the accused suicide bomber told the FBI he was trained for more than a month in Yemen, given 80 grams of a high explosive cleverly sewn into his underpants, undetected by standard security screening. - ABC News Story

White House Cover Up of Rahm Emanuel's Freddie Mac Dealings?

There are few stranger political bedfellows than conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and liberal blogger Jane Hamsher. But the two joined forces on Wednesday to call for the resignation of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, in a letter they penned to Attorney General Eric Holder.

The duo contends that Emanuel’s service on the board of the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac from 2000 to 2001 may have given him some knowledge of alleged financial irregularities at the time.

Norquist and Hamsher say in a letter to Holder that “stonewalling by Mr. Emanuel and the White House” leave them “no redress” other than to call for his resignation. Norquist is the head of the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform, and Hamsher is the publisher of the liberal blog Firedoglake.

In a press release, Norquist said, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be transparent. There is only one reason that Rahm Emanuel and others have fought to keep how they handled billions of dollars of other people's money hidden from public scrutiny; they are hiding corruption. What would they have us believe they are hiding? Their unexpected business acumen?"

Said Hamsher in the same release, “This administration is pushing for an $800 billion bailout while the organization has no Inspector General or basic oversight, a bullish tactic Emanuel seems to favor while his activities with Freddie Mac are questioned by investigative reporters.”

In the letter to Holder, the two activists noted:

“A 2003 report by Freddie Mac's regulator indicated that Freddie Mac executives had informed the board of their intention to misstate the earnings to insure their own bonuses during the time Mr. Emanuel was a director. But the White House refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the Chicago Tribune for those board minutes on the grounds that Freddie Mac was a 'commercial' entity, even though it was wholly owned by the government at the time the request was made.” - Politico Story

Democrats Worry about their Jobs in 2010 push for stop on Cap and Trade Bill

Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year.

“I am communicating that in every way I know how,” says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of at least half a dozen Democrats who've told the White House or their own leaders that it's time to jettison the centerpiece of their party's plan to curb global warming.

The creation of an economy-wide market for greenhouse gas emissions is as the heart of the climate bill that cleared the House earlier this year. But with the health care fight still raging and the economy still hurting, moderate Democrats have little appetite for another sweeping initiative — especially another one likely to pass with little or no Republican support.

“We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming, but I think it’s very difficult in the kind of economic circumstances we have right now,” said Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who called passage of any economy-wide cap and trade “unlikely.”

At a meeting about health care last month, moderates pushed to table climate legislation in favor of a jobs bill that would be an easier sell during the 2010 elections, according to Senate Democratic aides. - Politico Story

Obama Administration - Homeland Security System Worked?

WASHINGTON -- Despite the ease with which an alleged terrorist boarded a Detroit-bound flight with explosives, the Obama administration says the incident shows the U.S. aviation security system worked yet has ordered investigations into how travelers are placed on watch lists and explosives are detected on passengers.

"The investigation will look backwards and figure out if any signs were missed, if any procedures can be changed," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on ABC's "This Week".

Billions of dollars have been spent on aviation security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when commercial airliners were hijacked and used as weapons.

Much of that money has gone toward training and equipment that some security experts say could have detected the explosive device the 23-year-old Nigerian man is believed to have hidden on his body on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"One thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday morning on CNN. - FOX News Story

What? It worked? How is that? A person on the Terrorist Watch list boarded a plane with explosives and for the shear fact the explosives failed, made the system work? No wonder he thinks that he is accomplishing things and grades himself a B+.