AP - The House's chief Democratic headcounter said Sunday he hadn't rounded up enough votes to pass President Barack Obama's health care overhaul heading into a make-or-break week, even as the White House's top political adviser said he was "absolutely confident" in its prospects.

AP - Investigators with Toyota Motor Corp. and the federal government could not replicate the runaway speeding reported by a Prius owner who said his car's accelerator stuck as he drove on a California freeway, according to a memo for a congressional panel.

AP - Iraq's prime minister edged ahead in a tight race in the country's parliamentary elections Sunday after partial results from all of 18 provinces showed his bloc leading in seven provinces — two more than his chief rival.

AP - A relative has identified a U.S. consulate employee and her husband who were killed in a drug-plagued Mexican border city.

AP - Israel's prime minister expressed regret Sunday for a crisis with the United States over plans to expand a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, even as American officials played down the apology and called for bold Israeli action to get peace efforts back on track.

AP - EGG HARBOR CITY, N.J. — Last month, the Northeast was smothered by blizzards. Now, it's waterlogged by torrential rains.

AP - An avalanche that killed at least two people at an informal snowmobile rally in Canada's Rocky Mountains may have been triggered by three daredevil sledders who apparently unleashed a deadly wall of snow on up to 200 people below, witnesses said Sunday.

AP - The senator trying to rewrite the nation's financial industry rules is dropping plans to create a stand-alone consumer financial protection agency and give a single regulator the power to oversee all banks, according to people familiar with the evolving proposal.

AP - Many Americans with leaky heart valves soon might be able to get them fixed without open-heart surgery. A study showed that a tiny clip implanted through an artery was safer and nearly as effective as surgery, doctors reported Sunday.

AP - Alice is still ruling the movie palace.

Reuters - White House officials on Sunday confidently predicted quick final passage of healthcare reform but a top Democratic vote-counter said the party still needs to line up more support in the House of Representatives.

Reuters - More than 100,000 protesters converged in Bangkok on Sunday and gave Thailand's military-backed government an ultimatum to call elections within 24 hours or face crippling demonstrations across the capital.

Reuters - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pulled ahead on Sunday in early results of an election Iraqis hoped would end years of sectarian strife, but a divided vote suggested long and fraught talks to form a government are ahead.

by Mark Silva

Lost in all the political debate lately, President Barack Obama suggests, is the continuing challenge that failing public schools pose.

"Debates in Washington tend to be consumed with the politics of the moment: who's up in the daily polls; whose party stands to gain in November,'' the president says in his weekly radio and Internet address today. "But what matters to you - what matters to our country - is not what happens in the next election, but what we do to lift up the next generation.''

What's really been lost is a necessary focus on new jobs, according to Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican from Massachusetts whose election in January reconfigured the political calculus of the Senate, where the president now is attempting to win his final push for an "up or down vote'' on healthcare legislation.

"In January of last year, unemployment hit 7.2 percent and our economy was hurting badly,'' Brown says today, in the delivery of the Republican weekly address. "But, early in President Obama's term, he and the Democratic leadership of Congress made takeover of health care their first priority.

""Today, times are even tougher across our nation when it comes to our economy. Nearly one in ten Americans are still out of work,'' Brown says. "And still, the president and Congress are focused on ramming through their health-care bill, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.''

Obama has delayed his planned trip to Guam, Australia and Indonesia a few days to press for final votes on healthcare -- he will leave March 21.

The Obama administration plans to send to Congress on Monday its blueprint for a revision of the federal Elementary Secondary and Education Act, last revised with the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act. Obama calls his educational initiative a "Race to The Top,'' and the administration is funneling billions of additional dollars into it with a proposed new budget for 2011.

"Under these guidelines, schools that achieve excellence or show real progress will be rewarded, and local districts will be encouraged to commit to change in schools that are clearly letting their students down,'' Obama says today. "For the majority of schools that fall in between - schools that do well but could do better - we will encourage continuous improvement to help keep our young people on track for a bright future: prepared for the jobs of the 21st Century.

"And because the most important factor in a child's success is the person standing at the front of the classroom, we will better prepare teachers, support teachers, and encourage teachers to stay in the field. In short, we'll treat the people who educate our sons and daughters like the professionals they are.''

Brown suggests today that the president has lost a promised focus.

"Maybe you remember what President Obama promised in his State of the Union address,'' Brown says in his address. "He said he was going to finally focus on jobs and the economy for the remainder of this year. I applauded him for that. Well, here it is, it's almost spring. And what is he out there talking about again' That same 2,700-page, multi-trillion dollar health care legislation..

'So, an entire year has gone to waste,'' he says. "Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many more jobs are in danger. Even now, the president still hasn't gotten the message.''

See the president's address above and the Republican address below, and read the texts of both below.

This is the text of the president's weekly address:

"Lost in the news of the week was a headline that ought to be a source of concern for every American. It said, "Many Nations Passing U.S. in Education."

Now, debates in Washington tend to be consumed with the politics of the moment: who's up in the daily polls; whose party stands to gain in November. But what matters to you - what matters to our country - is not what happens in the next election, but what we do to lift up the next generation. And the fact is, there are few issues that speak more directly to our long term success as a nation than issues concerning the education we provide to our children.

Our prosperity in the 20th century was fueled by an education system that helped grow the middle class and unleash the talents of our people more fully and widely than at any time in our history. We built schools and focused on the teaching of math and science. We helped a generation of veterans go to college through the GI Bill. We led the globe in producing college graduates, and in turn we led in producing ground-breaking technologies and scientific discoveries that lifted living standards and set us apart as the world's engine of innovation.

Of course, other nations recognize this, and are looking to gain an edge in the global marketplace by investing in better schools, supporting teachers, and committing to clear standards that will produce graduates with more skills. Our competitors understand that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow. Yet, too often we have failed to make inroads in reforming and strengthening our public education system - the debate mired in worn arguments hurled across entrenched divides.

As a result, over the last few decades, we've lost ground. One assessment shows American fifteen year olds no longer even near the top in math and science when compared to their peers around the world. As referenced in the news report I mentioned, we've now fallen behind most wealthy countries in our high school graduation rates. And while we once led the world in the proportion of college graduates we produced, today we no longer do.

Not only does that risk our leadership as a nation, it consigns millions of Americans to a lesser future. For we know that the level of education a person attains is increasingly a prerequisite for success and a predictor of the income that person will earn throughout his or her life. Beyond the economic statistics is a less tangible but no less painful reality: unless we take action - unless we step up - there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential.

I don't accept that future for them. And I don't accept that future for the United States of America. That's why we're engaged in a historic effort to redeem and improve our public schools: to raise the expectations for our students and for ourselves, to recognize and reward excellence, to improve performance in troubled schools, and to give our kids and our country the best chance to succeed in a changing world.

Under the leadership of an outstanding Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, we launched a Race to the Top, through which states compete for funding by committing to reform and raising standards, by rewarding good teaching, by supporting the development of better assessments to measure results, and by emphasizing math and science to help prepare children for college and careers.

And on Monday, my administration will send to Congress our blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act to overhaul No Child Left Behind. What this plan recognizes is that while the federal government can play a leading role in encouraging the reforms and high standards we need, the impetus for that change will come from states, and from local schools and school districts. So, yes, we set a high bar - but we also provide educators the flexibility to reach it.

Under these guidelines, schools that achieve excellence or show real progress will be rewarded, and local districts will be encouraged to commit to change in schools that are clearly letting their students down. For the majority of schools that fall in between - schools that do well but could do better - we will encourage continuous improvement to help keep our young people on track for a bright future: prepared for the jobs of the 21st century. And because the most important factor in a child's success is the person standing at the front of the classroom, we will better prepare teachers, support teachers, and encourage teachers to stay in the field. In short, we'll treat the people who educate our sons and daughters like the professionals they are.

Through this plan we are setting an ambitious goal: all students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career - no matter who you are or where you come from. Achieving this goal will be difficult. It will take time. And it will require the skills, talents, and dedication of many: principals, teachers, parents, students. But this effort is essential for our children and for our country. And while there will always be those cynics who claim it can't be done, at our best, we know that America has always risen to the challenges that we've faced. This challenge is no different.

As a nation, we are engaged in many important endeavors: improving the economy, reforming the health care system, encouraging innovation in energy and other growth industries of the 21st century. But our success in these efforts - and our success in the future as a people - will ultimately depend on what happens long before an entrepreneur opens his doors, or a nurse walks the rounds, or a scientist steps into her laboratory. Our future is determined each and every day, when our children enter the classroom, ready to learn and brimming with promise.

It's that promise we must help them fulfill. Thank you.''

This is the text of the Republican weekly address:

Hello, I'm United States Senator Scott Brown from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

"When the people of my state elected me in January, they sent more than a senator to Washington - they sent a message. Across party lines, the voters told politicians in Washington to get its priorities right.

"And from my travels and conversation with people throughout this country, they told me that they want their ;president and Congress to focus on creating jobs and reviving America's economy. Instead, for more than a year now, we have seen a bitter, destructive, and endless drive to completely transform America's health care system.

"In January of last year, unemployment hit 7.2 percent and our economy was hurting badly. But, early in President Obama's term, he and the Democratic leadership of Congress made takeover of health care their first priority.

"Today, times are even tougher across our nation when it comes to our economy. Nearly one in ten Americans are still out of work. And still, the President and Congress are focused on ramming through their health-care bill, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.

"Maybe you remember what President Obama promised in his State of the Union address. He said he was going to finally focus on jobs and the economy for the remainder of this year. I applauded him for that. Well, here it is, it's almost spring. And what is he out there talking about again' That same 2,700-page, multi-trillion dollar health care legislation.

"So, an entire year has gone to waste. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many more jobs are in danger. Even now, the President still hasn't gotten the message.

"Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway. Their attitude shows Washington at its very worst - the presumption that they know best, and they're going to get their way whether the American people like it or not.

"And, when politicians start thinking like that, they don't let anything get in their way - not public opinion, not the rules of fair play, not even their own promises.

"They pledged transparency. Instead, we have a health care bill tainted by secrecy, concealed cost, and full of backroom deals- and that's just not right. They should do better. The American people expect more.

"They pledged a true bipartisan effort. Instead, they have resorted to bending the rules, and they now intend to seize control of health care in America on a strict party-line vote.

"In speech after speech on his health care plan, the President has tried to convince us that what he is proposing will be good for America. But, how can it be good for America if it raises taxes by a half trillion dollars and costs a trillion dollars or more to implement' In addition, how can it be good if it takes another half a trillion dollars away from seniors on Medicare, and still includes all the backroom deals you have been hearing about for months'

"Well, for the past year or more, the new establishment in Washington has tried again and again to sell this plan to the American people. But the Americans aren't buying it, and for good reason. And now, what's going on is a last, desperate power play. They actually tell us that passing the bill is necessary, if only to prove that something can get done in Washington.

"Well, I haven't been here very long, but, I can tell you this much already: Nothing has distracted the attention and energy of the nation's capital more than this disastrous detour. And, the surest way to return to the people's business is to listen to the people themselves: We need to drop this whole scheme of federally controlled health care, start over, and work together on real reforms at the state level that will contain costs and won't leave America trillions of dollars deeper in debt.

"This, above all, was the message that the people of my state sent to the President and the Congress in the election over a month ago.

"You know some of my Democratic colleagues, you know, are being leaned on mighty hard right now. Speaker Pelosi and others are handing down their marching orders, telling them to vote for this bill no matter what. Rarely have elected leaders been so intent on defying the public will. For many members of Congress, the time for choosing is near - do what the party leadership demands, or do what the people have asked you to do. If my colleagues don't mind some advice from a newcomer, I'd suggest going with the will of the people.

"After all, from the very beginning of this debate, the American people have called it correctly. In every part of the country, Republicans and Democrats have agreed on serious, straightforward, commonsense health care reform. They expect us in Washington to do the same - working together, acting fairly and by the rules, and staying focused on the need to make the American economy as strong as it can be. That is the business that brought me here on an unexpected journey to Washington. And, it's the responsibility of everyone sent here to serve our country. We can do better - and I challenge my colleagues and the President to do just that.

"I'm Senator Scott Brown and thank you very much for listening."

by Mark Jacob

Sarah Palin has inspired a run of nicknames.

Sarah Barracuda, Caribou Barbie, Disasta from Alaska, Wasilla Godzilla,

Thrilla from Wasilla, Moosealini, Dick Cheney in Lipstick, Dan Quayle with an Up-do, Snowjob Squareglasses, Pit Bull with Lipstick, Hockey Mom and the Quitter on Twitter.

Here's a picture gallery with nine other things you may not know about Palin, the Republican Party's nominee for vice president in 2008, a former governor of Alaska who says she cannot help but give some thought to a presidential candidacy in 2012.

Like the real name of that prey she is shown holding in her hand here -- a sort of grouse.

by Mark Silva

This is a White House that knows a little -- Okay, maybe very little -- about beer diplomacy. But it knows this: Why send one case of brews, when two will do'

President Barack Obama owed the Canadian prime minister a case of Yuengling, America's oldest beer, after the Canadian victory over the United States in men's hockey at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Canadian PM Stephen Harper had bet a case of Molson, Canada's proudest beer (MillerCoors-owned).

The Obama White House is sending Harper two cases, one of Yuengling, one of Molson. And today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a goalkeeper in soccer in his own time, was wearing the red and white jersey of the Canadian hockey team and the No. 39 of the American goalie.

"I am making good on my aspect of my wager with Dimitri, my Canadian counterpart, who is somewhere several hundred miles north laughing,'' Gibbs said at the White House press briefing room today. "The No. 39 is for Ryan Miller, who of course was the United States goalie and the tournament MVP.''

Down to brew business:

"I have one official government announcement,'' Gibbs said today. "We've instructed the embassy, our embassy and our ambassador to make arrangements to deliver one case of Molson Canadian and one case of Yuengling lager from Pottsville, Pa., America's oldest brewery, to the prime minister's office today.''

Gibbs also suggested that, "I'm sure Dimitri will take most of that home and consume it.''

The last time the White House was serving up beers, the president ordered a Bud Light at the "beer summit'' staged on the South Lawn for the Harvard law professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and the Cambridge police sergeant, James Crowley, who had arrested Gates at his own home -- an act in which Obama had publicly accused the cops of acting "stupidly.'' (Gates ordered Red Stripe, Crowley Blue Moon (MillerCoors)).

Gibbs wasn't in uniform too long today, though the press begged for another 15 minutes. "Fifteen minutes -- I thought we were doing this on the metric scale,'' Gibbs said.

"That's 30 minutes,'' someone said.

"Exactly right,'' Gibbs replied.

by Mark Silva

In life, there is the short-term view.

And the long-range view.

For now, the No. 1 problem facing the United States is the lack of jobs -- so say 31 percent of Americans surveyed.

Only 8 percent tell the Gallup Poll that the federal deficit is the big problem.

But 25 years from now: That's a different story.

The deficit will be the biggest problem, according to 14 percent of those surveyed. Unemployment, most believe, will fall to the end of the line.

Of course, the longer unemployment lasts today, the worse the deficit will be tomorrow. That's the really big picture.

by Mark Silva

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, predicting that the House will pass the Senate-passed healthcare legislation as well as a package of changes this month, suggested today that public support for the president's agenda is growing.

"That's our objective, and I think we will," Hoyer said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's Political Capital with Al Hunt, which airs tonight and repeats this weekend.

Hoyer cited a recent poll by The Economist which found that 53 percent of Americans surveyed support President Barack Obama's health care proposals and 47 percent oppose them.

Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said that voters support individual segments of legislation, including elimination of lifetime caps on insurance benefits that can be paid, a prohibition against insurers denying people coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions and creation of new exchanges to shop for the best insurance policies.

"When you ask people about that, they say, 'Yes, I'm for that,'" he said. "We win the pieces."

Bloomberg's Political Capital with Al Hunt airs at 6:30 pm EST and is rebroadcast throughout the weekend.

Obama, pressing Democrats to pass health-care legislation before the Easter recess, is delaying next week's scheduled trip to Asia by three days to press for votes.

Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak has said that about a dozen fellow Democrats, who supported the original House bill in November when it passed on a vote of 220-215 might oppose the final legislation over question of banning federal funding for abortion -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) maintains that the bill is neutral on a matter which already is prohibited by federal law.

"I don't think we'll lose a dozen votes," Hoyer said. "I think we may lose some."

The added fix that will reconcile bills which have cleared the House and Senate will require approval by the Senate. "I expect at least 51 members of the U.S. Senate to sign on as cosponsors of the legislation" that makes the changes, Hoyer said. That will "clearly represent that they intend to support it."

by Mark Silva and updated

President Barack Obama's long-promised trip to Indonesia, where he spent some time as a boy, will be delayed by the ongoing fight over healthcare reform at home.

And because of the delay -- with the departure for Indonesia and Australia pushed back three days to March 21 -- the White House says the president will not be taking his family along for the ride. In Jakarta, a statue of the young Obama was moved to the school that the president attended as a boy after its placement in a public park was disputed by some. The president's children might have liked to see it.

Obama, born in Hawaii, lived for four years in Jakarta in the 1960s after his divorced mother married an Indonesian. The bronze, designed by Indonesian artists, depicts a 10-year-old boy in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand. It was moved last month from a public park to the elementary school that Obama attended as a child.

Officials in Jakarta, the capital, acceded to protesters complaining that the park should be reserved to honor Indonesians. Financed by a $10,000 donation from local supporters of the president, the 43-inch bronze statue was unveiled in December in the neighborhood where Obama lived with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.

The president plans to return from Asia on March 26.

However, the White House also announced today that First Lady Michelle Obama will be making her first international trip alone as first lady -- a solo trip to Mexico April 13-15.

"The focus is on education and economic advancement.,'' the White House says of the first lady's planned trip. "he visit will build on her recent conversations with Mexico's first lady, Margarita Zavala, who met with Mrs. Obama at the White House last month.''

The president has been there already, meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City in April, then traveling to Guadalajara in August for a three-way summit among leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Michelle Obama has accompanied her husband on several international trips, the White House notes, and they were to travel with the president to Asia next week, "but canceled their plans because the trip was delayed so the president can deal with the health care debate.''

(A careful reader noticed (see comments below) that a reference here to Spring break for the girls made no sense -- indeed the delayed Asian journey fits more cleanly into the spring vacation at Sidwell Friends School, where the Obama girls are enrolled. Maybe they can still work on dad.)

by Mark Silva

Amid word that President Barack Obama has delayed his planned Pacific and Asian tour next week - including stops in Guam and Indonesia - the House Republican leader said today that no amount of pressure on Congress can pass something - healthcare reform in this case - which the public is not supporting.

"All I know is that the American people are adamantly opposed to this health bill,'' Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in an appearance on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown this morning. "And I've always found it impossible for the Congress to pass something that the American people know about and have decided no.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "can try all she wants,'' Boehner told NBC's Chuck Todd. "My job is to keep House Republicans unified and to keep the American people engaged in this fight to stop this government takeover of our health care system.''

What about the idea that the American public might actually like the bill once people see it - polling has found support for various elements of the package, but overall doubt and resistance to the entirety of it, particularly in the absence of any bipartisan support for it.

"Well, I don't think that's the case,'' Boehner said, "because Democrats of all stripes are hearing from their constituents, and their constituents have been pretty vocal in telling them, we don't want $50 billion worth of Medicare cuts. We don't want $500 billion in new taxes. We don't want these mandates on employers that may cost me my job and cost me my health care.

"It's a very dangerous proposal that they're putting forward to take the best health care system in the world and to turn it on its head in their effort to have more government control over a health care policy if the United States.,'' Boehner said, and if the plan should pass, the next step for the GOP will be seeking its repeal. "If we get to that point, you can bet on it.

"But all my attention and all my effort at this point is making sure this bill never, ever, ever becomes law,'' Boehner said. "And I think the American people are on our side. I think they've spoken loudly and clearly they want no part of this. And I think Democrats who vote for this do so at their own peril.''

by Mark Silva

Near the climax of an epic fight over healthcare reform in which the two parties are embedded deeper than ever -- and the president's own party at odds within on some issues -- and at the threshhold of midterm congressional elections testing the ruling party's ability to keep the reins, the prospect of renewing the debate on immigration reform seems questionable at best.

The two champions of bipartisan immigration reform past are either gone or waylaid: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts has passed away, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona faces a fight for his own seat in a Republican Party primary back home that is likely to leave little room for political heroics in the cause of finding a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.

So it is one of McCain's best friends in the Senate, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and one of the Democrats who could become his party's leader if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid falls victim to the electoral turmoil out there this fall, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who are meeting with the Obama White House on opening a new debate over immigration reform.

And President Barack Obama, stung by the partisan divide of the healthcare debate, is courting at least the appearance of bipartisanship here

The two senators presented the president with a bipartisan blueprint, albeit a three-page outline, of how to proceed through a loaded political minefield -- read more about that immigration reform blueprint in Tribune newspapers today, and see the highlights below.

Last night, the president also met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to discuss "a variety of critical issues confronting Hispanics and all Americans, in particular the need to act now to pass healthcare reform,'' according to the press secretary.

"The president thanked the members for their hard work over the past year, and acknowledged the progress that has been made on the economy while also expressing his concern for long-term unemployment,'' the White House said. "The president also updated the Caucus members on his meetings earlier in the day with grassroots activists and Senators Schumer and Graham on immigration reform, and reiterated his strong commitment to fixing the broken immigration system. ''

Obama was joined at the meeting by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro, and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz.

Earlier in the day, Obama had met with Schumer and Graham.

As the Washington Bureau's Peter Nicholas reports this morning, Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), had a 45-minute meeting Thursday in the Oval Office, and asked for Obama's help in rounding up enough Republican votes to pass an immigration bill this year.

"Although details of their blueprint were not released, Graham said the elements included tougher border security, a program to admit temporary immigrant workers and a biometric Social Security card that would prevent people here illegally from getting jobs. Graham also said the proposal included "a rational plan to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States." He did not elaborate on what the plan would be. But in a recent interview, he suggested that onerous measures were unrealistic.

"We're not going to mass-deport people and put them in jail, nor should we," Graham said. "But we need a system so they don't get an advantage over others for citizenship."

by Mark Silva

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says "a staffer'' had been advised of a problem with former Rep. Eric Massa before actual allegations were made against him.

Initially, Pelosi said her office had heard of a problem in February.

"I'm now finding out that there had been a conversation earlier, but it had nothing to... even come close to any kind of an allegation,'' Pelosi (D-Calif.) says in an interview airing tonight on MSNBC's The Rachel Mddow Show. "In terms of anything that is worthy of the attention of the ethics committee, that was in February when it was reported to the ethics committee."

The House voted today to also let the ethics committee look into when House leaders first knew about allegations of improper sexual conduct on Massa's part, and what they did about it. Massa, a Democrat from western New York State, resigned this week when it was reveailed that the committee was investigating his conduct.

It was in February "that there was an allegation against him, and at the same time, that it was referred to the ethics committee, and that was the appropriate route,'' Pelosi says. Before that, she says in the interview airing tonight, it was "a staffer'' who had a "conversation'' about Massa.

"A staffer in your office, but it was not something that your staff believed rose to the level...''' Maddow asks.

"Right,'' Pelosi says -- to the level of an "allegation.'' . "There are all kinds of articles that are written about many members in the Congress, and I don't think we want to get to a place -- besides, I served on the ethics committee for seven years,'' Pelosi says. "When I say served, it was almost like a sentence, because it's very tough duty, and I commend the people who serve there and the service they provide to the Congress.

"But the last thing we would have wanted then was any intervention from the Speaker's office. There's an appropriate way for an allegation to be sent to the ethics committee,'' she says.

Massa "initially... made an allegation that he was being forced out because he was a vote against health care,'' Maddow notes. "And then he recanted that allegation. He's made some other inconsistent statements. But we're left with the impression that he may have behaved inappropriately toward people who worked for him....''

"That's up to the ethics committee to investigate,'' Pelosi says. "But the fact is that you started this conversation in the right way. That it's another subject that people would like to be a distraction. I will not take my eye off the ball, which is to pass health care reform right now, and to at this time to build support for what we are doing....

"In any event... I'm not paying a lot of attention to some of that,'' Pelosi says. "It's appropriately being dealt with where it's being dealt with. What I'm paying attention is how do we get to what we had dreamed of, to follow in the footsteps of Social Security, Medicare, health care for all Americans. It's a very heavy lift, it's very labor intensive.''

by Mark Silva

The Gallup Poll, which has been taking the daily temperature of the Obama administration, reported a new low today in its gauge of public approval for the job that the president is performing.

Just 46 percent of those surveyed over the past three days voiced approval for the job that President Barack Obama is performing, with 45 percent voicing disapproval, Gallup reports today.

The level of disapproval, interestingly, does not represent a record high in Gallup's daily tracking -- that was 48 percent, in late January. But 46-percent approval marks a new low for the president by Gallup's count, by one notch. Other polls have measured lower nadirs, others higher -- Obama's approval has held at 53 percent in a new AP-GFK poll -- but we've showcased Gallup for some time for its neutrality and for the convenience of comparing its measurements of past presidents for six decades.

This president, who started his term with a 69-percent approval rating in the Gallup track, has confronted more than a year of tough economic times and equally challenging politics -- the economy is turning around, by the measure of the Gross Domestic Product, though unemployment still hovers near 10 percent, and now, after more than a year of pressing for healthcare reform, the president is pressing for an "up or down vote'' on legislation that the public appears largely wary about.

"That's okay. Because my job is not being popular,'' Obama said last night at a fundraiser for a Democratic senator in St. Louis. "My job is solving problems for the American people. I've got a greater responsibility. I've got a deeper mission. (Applause.) I'm looking at 10 years from now, will you look back and say that what he did made sense for the American people; not whether tomorrow people are going to be looking and saying, that made him popular..''

by Mark Silva

You really had to ride with Janet Reno in that little red pickup truck that she drove across her native Florida in a perhaps Quixotic campaign for governor to appreciate the morning that she made a detour to an empty shopping mall in Jacksonville in a futile search for voters.

The impromptu stop prompted by a scheduling snafu led the first woman to serve as attorney general through the men's underwear section of a department store -- she even had hosted a real "Janet Reno Dance Party'' in South Beach to raise money for her failing campaign for the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the Sunshine State -- in a desperate quest for a hand to shake, anyone's hand. The Bataan-like walk through the near-empty mall ended at a women's makeup counter, where Reno was offered a makeover. She declined.

Or, you could simply read Matt Labash's account of Reno "riding again'' into the Florida swamp, or his accounts of many other odd days in the journeys of some of the oddest fits in American political suits.

The best of it is collected and bound now, for better or worse, in a volume that the senior writer for The Weekly Standard has dubbed Fly Fishing with Darth Vader And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys.

Simon and Schuster, the publisher, has printed "Labash's masterful profiles of the outsized and outrageous characters who populate America's murky periphery -- Pirate Kingfish Governor Edwin Edwards, Recovering Crackhead Mayor Marion Barry, Dirty Trickster Roger Stone.... alongside devastating pieces on the dying cities of our nation such as Detroit and New Orleans'' and "his hilarious tirades on the health hazards of Facebook and the virtues of dodgeball.... He chronicles Al Sharpton's eating habits on the campaign trail, fishes the Snake River with Dick Cheney, and investigates the "great white waste of time" that is our neighbor to the north.''

Only Matt could diss Canada so easily (we'll save Australia.)

The truth is, Matt is unencumbered by most of the conventions that bind a lot of conventional political reporters -- he still uses commas, for sure -- while marching on in the tradition of some of the best who have widened the boundaries.

They're celebrating the publication of Matt's book tonight at a book party in Washington -- we're not dropping names, so we won't mention that the bash for Labash will be staged at his buddy Tucker Carlson's house, or that Dave "Mudcat'' Saunders, the redneck savant who apparently once fed Labash deer turds, may show up. (See the notice for Matt's book at Carlson's The Daily Caller, or here, for that matter, for an understanding of how inbred Washington actually is.)

Here's to Matt, and the best for his book.

by Mark Silva and updated

Eric Massa may be gone.

But questions about who knew what about the former congressman's alleged misconduct with congressional aides are not.

Amid reports that Democratic leaders may have known earlier than first reported about the alleged conduct of the former Democratic congressman from western New York State, House Republican Leader John Boehner introduced a resolution today calling for an ethics committee investigation of what House leaders knew, when they knew it and what they did about it.

The House voted this afternoon to refer the resolution to the committee, with Democratic leaders quickly acceding to the Republican move to open an inquiry. The vote for referral was 402-1, with 15 voting present (that would be the members of the ethics committee, as is customary.)

"Whereas, numerous confusing and conflicting media reports that House Democratic leaders knew about, and may have failed to handle appropriately, allegations that Rep. Massa was sexually harassing his own employees have raised serious and legitimate questions about what Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi as well as other Democratic leaders and their respective staffs were told, and what those individuals did with the information in their possession,'' the resolution states, noting that all of this has "held the House up to public ridicule.''

This is the text of Rep. Boehner's resolution:

"Whereas, on March 8, 2010, Representative Eric Massa resigned from the House;

Whereas, numerous newspapers and other media organizations reported in the days before and after Mr. Massa's resignation that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct was investigating allegations that Mr. Massa sexually harassed Members of his congressional staff;

Whereas, on March 3, 2010, Majority Leader Hoyer's office issued a statement saying, "The week of February 8th, a member of Rep. Massa's staff brought to the attention of Mr. Hoyer's staff allegations of misconduct that had been made against Mr. Massa. Mr. Hoyer's staff immediately informed him of what they had been told";

Whereas, on Thursday, March 4, Roll Call newspaper reported, "Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she only learned Wednesday of misconduct allegations against freshman Rep. Eric Massa, though her staff had learned of it earlier and decided against briefing her. 'There had been a rumor, but just that,' Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. 'A one-, two-, three-person rumor that had been reported to Mr. Hoyer's office and reported to my staff which they did not report to me because you know what' This is rumor city. There are rumors.'";

Whereas, on March 11, 2010, The Washington Post reported, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office was notified in October by then-Rep. Eric Massa's top aide [Joe Racalto] of concerns about the New York Democrat's behavior";

Whereas, on March 11, 2010, Politico newspaper reported, "Democratic insiders say Pelosi's office took no action after Racalto expressed his concerns about his then-boss in October";

Whereas, on March 9, 2010, The Corning Leader newspaper reported, "Hoyer said last week he told Massa to inform the House Ethics Committee of the charges within 48 hours. 'Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, never, not once, not a word,' Massa said Sunday. 'This is a lie. It is a blatant false statement.'";

Whereas, numerous confusing and conflicting media reports that House Democratic leaders knew about, and may have failed to handle appropriately, allegations that Rep. Massa was sexually harassing his own employees have raised serious and legitimate questions about what Speaker Pelosi as well as other Democratic leaders and their respective staffs were told, and what those individuals did with the information in their possession;

Whereas, the aforementioned media accounts have held the House up to public ridicule;

Whereas, the possibility that House Democratic leaders may have failed to immediately confront Rep. Massa about allegations of sexual harassment may have exposed employees and interns of Rep. Massa to continued harassment;

Whereas, clause one of Rule XXXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, titled "Code of Conduct," states "A Member, Delegate, Resident Commission, officer, or employee of the House shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House";

Whereas, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is charged under House Rules with enforcing the Code of Conduct;

Therefore, be it RESOLVED,

(1) The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is directed to investigate fully, pursuant to clause 3(a)(2) of House Rule XI, which House Democratic leaders and members of their respective staffs had knowledge prior to March 3, 2010 of the aforementioned allegations concerning Mr. Massa, and what actions each leader and staffer having any such knowledge took after learning of the allegations;

(2) Within ten days following adoption of this resolution, and pursuant to Committee on Standards of Official Conduct rule 19, the committee shall establish an Investigative Subcommittee in the aforementioned matter, or report to the House no later than the final day of that period the reasons for its failure to do so;

(3) All Members and staff are instructed to cooperate fully in the committee's investigation and to preserve all records, electronic or otherwise, that may bear on the subject of this investigation;

(4) The Chief Administrative Officer shall immediately take all steps necessary to secure and prevent the alteration or deletion of any e-mails, text messages, voicemails and other electronic records resident on House equipment that have been sent or received by the Members and staff who are the subjects of the investigation authorized under this resolution until advised by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct that it has no need of any portion of said records; and,

(5) The Committee shall issue a final report of its findings and recommendations in this matter no later than June 30, 2010.''

by Mark Silva

What shall we say about Eric Massa'

Or, perhaps more significantly, what more shall House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have to say about the disgraced Democrat who resigned from Congress amid word that he allegedly had groped congressional assistants'

"The Massa massage,'' as it apparently has long been known.

The Washington Post reported today that Pelosi's office had been notified in October about concerns about the behavior of the congressman from western New York State, the one who now speaks so casually and publicly on cable TV about those tickle-fests that he enjoyed so much in his Navy days -- with former shipmates of the 20-year Navy veteran elected to Congress in 2008 telling new tales of his old "snorkeling.''

Joe Racalto, Massa's chief of staff, "was uneasy that Massa, 50, was living with several young, unmarried male staffers and using sexually explicit language with them,'' the Post reported, citicing a source. "But what finally prompted him to call Pelosi's director of member services, the source said, was a lunch date that Massa made with a congressional aide in his 20s who worked in the office of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). According to a person briefed on the call, Racalto was concerned that the lunch followed a pattern by Massa -- who is married and has two children -- of trying to spend time alone with young gay men with no ostensible work purpose.''

Massa resigned from the House on Monday, and that might have been the end of it had Republicans not readily seen the significance of the scent of a coverup in a scandal all too reminiscent of the former GOP leadership's mishandling of the behavior of former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida. Not to mention Glenn Beck's cable-broadcast spectacle with Massa (above.)

"Now they're saying I groped a male staffer - yeah I did,'' Massa told Beck this week. "Not only did I grope him I tickled him 'til he couldn't breathe. Then four guys jumped on top of me."

The Atlantic has looked up some old Massa shipmates.

"According to Peter Clarke, a Navy shipmate, Massa was notorious for making unwanted advances toward subordinates. He tells the story of his friend Stuart Borsch, with whom Massa shared a hotel room while on leave during the first Gulf War. "Stuart's at the edge of the bed," Clarke says Borsch told him at the time, "and [Massa] starts massaging him. Massa said, 'You'll have to get one of my special massages.' He called them 'Massa Massages.'" Ron Moss, a Navy shipmate and Borsch's roommate, confirmed that Borsch told him this story at the time.

"Borsch, now a history professor at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., didn't addresss that specific incident, but did confirm to me in an email that he was groped by Massa: "In 1990, aboard the U.S.S. Jouett, I was awakened when a senior officer, Lt. Commander Massa, seemed to be groping me. (I was a lieutenant at the time.) I believe he may have been drinking. I shouted at him and he left. I mentioned the incident to several other officers. I did not officially report it."

"Clarke says that Massa's roommate, Tom Maxfield, was also assaulted. "Tom lived on upper bunk," Clarke say. "When you're on ship, you're almost exhausted 24-7. So a lot of times you sleep with your uniform on. Tom and Massa shared a stateroom together. Massa climbed up on the top of his bunk, which is hard to do--you never crawl up on somebody else's bunk. He wakes up to Massa undoing his pants trying to snorkel him."

Massa is "a very sick person,'' Pelosi talk-show host Charlie Rose last night.

Massa resigned from the House on Monday amid questions about his personal conduct. He at first cited his health, before it was disclosed that the House ethics committee was investigating allegations that he harassed a male staffer. Over the GOP's objections, the ethics panel has closed its investigation because Massa is no longer within its jurisdiction, according to a House Republican aide.

Still, "there are an awful lot of questions surrounding the Eric Massa case and his resignation," House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) says. "I would hope we would get to the bottom of these questions."

Pelosi told reporters last week that she first learned about the harassment allegations from her staff the previous day. The allegations were reported to the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in February. Hoyer told reporters this week that he had advised his staff that the matter should be turned over to the ethics committee.

Pelosi said her staff had earned about the allegations from Hoyer's staff in February but didn't pass on the information to her because it was a "one-two-three-person removed rumor." The Post today, however, says her office was told of the Massa problem as long ago as October.

Wire services contributed.

by Mark Silva

When President Barack Obama speaks of insisting on that "up or down vote'' on healthcare, he, of course, counts on an up vote.

And with that insistence -- in the face of a House whose leaders are strugglng to assemble 216 votes, with a few seats vacant, and a Senate whose leaders are hoping to amass 50 plus one, even if it takes the vice president to break the tie -- Obama effectively is laying his presidency on the line.

It's a damn-the-polls, full-speed-ahead strategy.

"Now, sometimes the decisions we make in the short term are not going to be popular, and the folks in Washington don't understand that I know they're not going to be popular,'' the president said at a fundraiser last night for Sen. Claire McCaskill in St. Louis last night. "They can't believe I'm doing them. See, they just think I'm an idiot -- (laughter, White House note) -- because I'm doing something that's not immediately popular.

"But I've got pollsters. I've got very good pollsters,'' Obama told the Democratic crowd. "They send me the polls. They say, you know what, shoring up the financial system, not popular... Helping out the auto industry, not popular. Passing the Recovery Act, not popular.

"That's okay. Because my job is not being popular,'' Obama said. "My job is solving problems for the American people. I've got a greater responsibility. I've got a deeper mission. (Applause.) I'm looking at 10 years from now, will you look back and say that what he did made sense for the American people; not whether tomorrow people are going to be looking and saying, that made him popular...

"Listen, you remember -- you remember a year ago, everybody was saying -- we had only been there for two months. They said, "Oh, his financial plan is a disaster." Stock market had dropped. Remember that' Everybody is like, his presidency is over; he's been in three months. Now, suddenly you look up, financial system is stabilized.

"People said, "Oh, you know what, why is he getting involved in this auto thing' Big mistake." Now, suddenly General Motors is hiring again. They said, "Well, I don't know about this Recovery Act." Except all over Missouri and all across the nation, roads are being repaved and bridges are being repaired and waterways are being rebuilt. And we're putting Americans back to work. We're laying the foundation for tomorrow. And instead of the economy contracting 6 percent it's now growing 6 percent. "So I think about what's right and then figure out -- whether the politics will work out or not, I'm confident in the American people,'' said Obama, who campaigned for healthcare reform in Pennsylvania and Missouri this week and will head to Ohio next week and has, in what may be the home-stretch for that "up or down vote'' concluded with the campaign of campaigns, a campaign upon which the credibility of his term in office may rest.

The president is assuring everyone that he has the fuel for the fight.

"You know, we were meeting with some supporters back here, and a couple of them said the same thing.,'' Obama said on stage in St. Louis last night. "They said, "Don't let them wear you down." And I tried to explain I don't get worn down; I wear them down.

"I don't get worn down.''

by Noam N. Levey

Touting a new initiative to reduce waste in Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs, President Barack Obama traveled to suburban St. Louis Wednesday to keep up momentum behind his push to complete work on a health overhaul this month.

Obama redoubled his warning that failing to step up regulation of the insurance industry as part of a broader health overhaul would leave more Americans struggling with rising premiums.

And in a campaign-style speech delivered with his shirt-sleeves rolled up, Obama called for an end to political gamesmanship in Washington and a swift vote on his healthcare plan. "The time for talk is over," Obama told a crowd in St. Charles, Mo. "I'm tired of talking about it."

The president's trip - the second this week outside Washington - came as administration officials and senior Democrats on Capitol Hill work on scheduling a series of votes that will be needed to send Obama healthcare legislation before Congress recesses for its Easter break.

With Republicans opposed to a sweeping overhaul, Democrats are trying to hold the first vote next week in the House, where party leaders hope to pass the healthcare bill that the Senate passed in December.

They then hope to use a process known as budget reconciliation to push a package of changes through the House and Senate.

Budget reconciliation measures require a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60-vote supermajority usually necessary to squash a filibuster, something that Democrats could not do now with a 59-41 edge.

But the biggest hurdle confronting Democrats is in the House, where many rank and file lawmakers are leery of voting for the Senate bill, which includes unpopular provisions such as a new tax on high-end "Cadillac" health plans and a special provision providing federal aid to Nebraska.

Further complicating the hunt for votes, congressional rules will likely force the president to sign the Senate bill into law before House and Senate lawmakers can vote on the package of changes, another unsavory prospect for nervous House Democrats worried about being on record as backing the Senate legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other senior Democrats were working Wednesday to finalize both the package and the procedure going forward.

Assisted by Obama, they will then begin a final push to convince wavering Democrats to rally behind the finished legislative package.

Elsewhere Wednesday, the Obama administration kept up its criticism of the insurance industry, which Democrats have used as a foil in their final drive to push through a health overhaul.

Speaking to a group of insurance executives gathered in Washington for an industry conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that insurer opposition to the Democratic health overhaul is shortsighted.

"There's another choice," she said. "Instead of spending energy attacking the parts of the proposal that you don't like, come to the table with (proposals) strengthening the parts that are there. ... The second choice really may give up some short-term profits, but we also, working together, could create a sustainable health insurance market where Americans will still be able to buy coverage."

After the speech, Karen Ignagni, president of the industry lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans, promised that insurers would provide the administration with specific suggestions to improve the legislation.

Obama's new fraud initiative builds on a proposal he made ahead of his White House summit last month to woo Republicans, who have long complained about waste in government health programs.

Last year, the Medicare and Medicaid programs for seniors and low-income Americans made $54 billion in unwarranted payments to healthcare providers, according to White House.

To combat the problem, Obama has proposed expanding a program to reward private bounty hunters who find waste by auditing government payments through what are called "payment recapture audits."

The White House reported that a pilot program in California, New York and Texas yielded $900 million in Medicare savings between 2005 and 2009.