In an interview with TPMmuckraker, Karl Rove's attorney says his client will cooperate with Nora Dannehy's criminal investigation into the U.S. attorney firings and has already spoken with investigators conducting the internal DOJ probe into whether the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was politically motivated.
--David Kurtz
CBO says 78% of the Stimulus Bill will hit the economy over two years.
--Josh Marshall
It gets better. The latest from RNC Chair Michael Steele: "Not in the history of mankind has the 
government ever created a job."
This is such transparent nonsense it's hard to know where to start; but I guess it builds on the DeMint nonsense. Has Steele ever heard of government road building? Defense spending? NASA? We don't even need to get into the many ways that government spending on many things has spin-off effects in terms of heightened economic productivity either because of technological innovation or transportation efficiencies, or whatever. How we doing on the spending on research and initial deployment that created the Internet?
Wolf Blitzer was doing the interview. I guess he didn't realize this is a false statement? I'm worried about Wolf. He needs some help.
--Josh Marshall
"Not a Stimulus bill. It's just a spending bill." That was Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) just a few moments ago on Fox.
There are obviously very basic disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on this issue, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think of all the Republicans I've heard making nonsensical points about this bill, Sen. DeMint (R-SC) is running way ahead of every other competitor, certainly ahead of any other senator.
A short DeMint wish-list.
Can someone point out to me any case where an interviewer presses DeMint on the point that stimulus bills are by definition spending bills. Please someone send me this link or a time when it happens on TV. You're trying to counter the drop off in the demand that is causing the recession.
I'm told DeMint isn't a dolt, which is hard to tell from recent TV appearances, just an anti-government radical who thinks the government shouldn't take any role in trying to cushion the effects of economic downturns or having any policy response to possible economic catastrophes. But really, he's getting a crazy free ride here.
--Josh Marshall
Fmr. Sen. Coleman's lawyer appears to be laying the groundwork for arguing that Al Franken's margin of victory is smaller than the inherent margin of error in the election contest itself. Ergo, the margin's so close they need to scrap Al's win and hold a completely new election.
--Josh Marshall
Some problems staffing out Treasury?
More seriously, it's not so much who's confirmed: Geithner just got confirmed himself. But my sense is that Treasury's significantly behind other departments in having top appointees nominated.
--Josh Marshall
The upshot of this weekend's provincial elections in Iraq is that support swung toward parties of secular nationalism, who support centralized power, at the expense of sectarian and/or more regionally minded parties favoring a weak central government. Juan Cole has a good run-down of the particulars.
--Josh Marshall
So what is Tom Daschle accused of doing? We break down the individual items here.
--Josh Marshall
Is someone in the Senate trying to sneak funding for the "clean-coal," "near zero emissions" FutureGen project in Illinois into the stimulus package?
--David Kurtz
I'm watching Andrea Mitchell interview David Broder in what's amounting to a sort of parody of High Broderism. But setting aside the unsupported a priori assumption that a bill with input from both parties is necessarily better than a bill put forward by a single party, he just said that this Stimulus Bill is a big risk because we already had one Stimulus Bill (i.e., TARP) and it didn't work:
(ed.note: A few readers say they think Broder was referring to last year's tax rebate law. I guess that's possible. Watch the video and judge for yourself. If he's referring to that, his error would not be as bad as I say below, though it would still be a bad comparison since that was 100% tax rebate rather than a bill heavily weighted toward spending. -- jmm)
Now, I think there's a legitimate debate about the effectiveness of TARP. My own take, by no means definitive or fully informed, is that on balance it helped arrest the collapse in the financial system. It was poorly managed. Treasury cut very poor deals on behalf of the taxpayers. And I suspect that in one form or another, we're going to have to spend a lot more money to stabilize the finance sector.
But it wasn't a stimulus bill. A stimulus bill -- though a pretty amorphous catch-phrase -- is either spending or tax cuts (usually spending, since it's more efficient) to put extra demand into the economy during a recession. TARP was an effort to recapitalize the banking sector. End of story. It wasn't a stimulus bill. Nor is this just a semantic point since he's leveraging his own error as evidence for the perils involved in enacting this legislation.
This is such an elementary point that you really have to wonder why Broder's being allowed to go on TV.
--Josh Marshall
All about the GOP rump in the South: Shelby says he wants to filibuster the Stimulus Bill.
--Josh Marshall
Obama promises "independent board" to monitor the bailout.
--David Kurtz
We need an intern to help us at TPMCafe. You must be available full-time and able to start immediately, working in our Manhattan office. This is an unpaid internship and will last until June. You'll help set up and run the reader discussions at Cafe, including the Book Club, in addition to pitching in on the news side of the operation. Please email your resume to the "Comments and News Tips" address at the top of this page, with the subject line: "TPMCafe Intern." Deadline for submitting resumes: Friday, February 6.
--David Kurtz
As I mentioned over the weekend, I've seen a lot of Republicans on TV complaining that spending programs that demonstrably do create jobs do not create jobs, like buying new and more energy efficient vehicles for government workforces, etc. But where I've really seen the press dropping the ball is doing some simple arithmetic on the spending items Republicans say constitute the wasteful spending in the bill.
Now, the tell in my eyes is that almost all the criticisms I've heard are about budget items in the millions. And when you're talking about a bill with over $800 billion in spending, you just have a hard time getting to any substantial percentage of the total spend with such relatively small items.
Now, here's a representative list from Rep. LoBiondo (R) of New Jersey ...
$1.9 billion for high-level physics research;$1.5 billion for universities to improve their biomedical research programs;
$600 million for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to purchase new satellites to improve weather forecasts;
$600 million to buy new cars for federal government workers, adding to the existing inventory of 640,000 vehicles; and,
$335 million for education and prevention programs regarding sexually transmitted diseases.
Separate criticism has been directed at $75 million for smoking cessation plan.
Set aside whether you think these line items are worthwhile. (And it seems obvious to me that it's good for the economy to buy more vehicles for the government fleet, when our auto industry is cratering and demand for cars is flatlining.) But just add those up and you get a total -- $3.51 5.01 Billion -- out of $819 Billion.
The pretty simple fact here is that the Republicans are not willing or able to criticize any of the substantial amounts of spending in this bill. They're focused on a few tiny parts of it. And too few people are pointing out that these amount to maybe one or two percent of the program total.
--Josh Marshall
Last week the House of Representatives passed the $800 billion-plus stimulus package, but without a single Republican vote of support. This week the bill goes to the Senate for consideration. It's sure to be just as intense a debate as last week's, and for a preview we turn to a roundup of the Sunday morning talk shows ...
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
--Ben Craw
We're going to have more on this shortly. But as this political battle over Daschle unfolds, it's critical to remember that Daschle has been a critical figure for Obama for some time. Well, before there was any discussion of building a cabinet or even starting a longshot presidential bid. Daschle lost his seat in the same election Obama entered the senate -- 2004. And as Daschle was closing up shop, a number of his key staffers went over to Obama to get his senate operation started, most notably Daschle's former Chief of Staff, Peter Rouse. Rouse is now an Obama 'Senior Advisor' whose office is just a few steps down from the Oval Office.
Whatever you make of the substance of the tax and lobbying issues threatening Daschle's nomination, I think it will take quite a lot for Obama to pull the plug on his nomination.
--Josh Marshall
Karl Rove's attorney tells TPMmuckraker that Rove will cooperate in a probe of the Bush Administration's 2006 firings of U.S. attorneys -- and he's already been cooperating with a DOJ probe into the prosecution of Don Siegelman.
Punxsutawney Phil augurs six more weeks of winter, Joe Scarborough demands tranquilizers, and stimulus sausage-making. Monday in 100 seconds.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mike Mullen today said that Afghanistan "is much more complex" than Vietnam was. Meanwhile, a DOD report found 132 U.S. personnel died in hostile action in 2008, up from 82 in '07.
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