Congress: Get on the omni(bus)

"The House approved the 1,088-page, $1.1 trillion measure - combining $447 billion in operating budgets with about $650 billion in payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid -- by the instrumentality of a 221-to-202 vote yesterday. The Senate directly voted to begin debate, from single side a final vote that may be liked this weekend," the AP says. "Not a single House Republican voted for the draft of a law. Some 28 Democrats, chiefly moderates and abortion opponents, antagonistic the measure." Over on the Senate side… "A final struggle to avoid a weekend of votes fell apart Thursday evening whenever Senate Democratic and Republican leaders failed to gain ...

GOP watch: Palin liked it

According to audio on USA Today'session Web site, Sarah Palin said the following in a phone interview about President Obama's Nobel speech: "I liked what he said. In fact, I thumbed through my book this morning to say wow, that that really sounded familiar, because I talked too in my book about the fallen nature of man and for what cause war is necessary at times. And record's lessons when it comes to knowing when it is that we affiance in warfare, and a couple of the other things he said were I thought wow good those are trim, a broad message, in such a manner broad that I just wrote about those and a lot of Americans are ...

Obama agenda: Nobel speech reaction

"Mr. Obama made a sinewy defense of American action against enemies, and recognized the subsisting of ‘evil’ in the globe and the adhering imperfection of human impulses -- core principles of a greater degree of traditionally opposed to change irrelevant policy,” the Wall Street Journal writes. “At the same time, Mr. Obama stuck to the kinds of commitments that earned him the peace prize in the first part -- the cause of international engagement over unilateralism.” The New York Times says Obama "delivered a unite of realism and idealism, without hesitation criticizing both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as inadequately appreciating the dangers of the world, and President George W. ...

First thoughts: Something for everyone

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg*** Something for everyone: An remarkable occurrence happened yesterday: President Obama gave a high-profile observation, and no one in D.C. truly criticized it. Not congressional Republicans or the RNC. Not liberal Democrats or Blue Dogs. Even Dick Cheney didn't utter a word, although he certainly made his case in his Hannity meeting earlier in the week. The reason towards the deficit of criticism -- beyond Obama’s early 7:40 am ET start time -- was that the Nobel speech contained something for almost everyone to like. Newt Gingrich praised its declaration that evil exists in the world. (“A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies,” Obama aforesaid. “Negotiations cannot ...

Jenny Sanford files for divorce

From NBC's Norah O'DonnellJenny Sanford released this statement: As in this way many of us know, the dissolution of at all union is a melancholy and painful progress. It is also a very private and private one. Because Mark and I are public figures, we have naturally had less privacy with which to deal with our difficulties than do other couples. Indeed, I know it will soon grow known in such a manner I choose to release this brief notice that I am now filing for divorce. This came after many unsuccessful efforts at correspondence, up to the present time I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful ...