Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves - Eurythmics featuring Aretha Franklin

I woke up this morning to the sweet, sweet sounds of a shattered glass ceiling. This Week is now being hosted by a woman, Christiane Amanpour. With no disrespect intended to interim host Jake Tapper (who did a fairly decent job, certainly better and more consistently than Stephanopoulos), I am thrilled to get a new voice and new point of view to the Sunday shows. Both as a female and as a person who has lived in other countries, I'm hoping that Amanpour will bring something different to the American macho exceptionalism that spews forth mindlessly on these shows. And who better to inaugurate Amanpour's first show than that other glass ceiling breaker, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi? Of course, on the other end of the spectrum, we have Sarah Palin on yet another "exclusive" interview with Fox News Sunday. Elsewhere on the dial, Ayn Rand's boy toy Alan Greenspan will be on Meet the Press and would-be Fourteenth Amendment Warrior Lindsey Graham is on State of the Union and Tweety's trying to figure out if tying the Republicans to the Tea Party is a good electoral strategy. Like I said, we could sure use a fresh perspective on Sundays.

ABC's "This Week" - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations; Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Mullen; former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan; Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Kimberly Dozier, Dan Rather, Rick Stengel and Helene Cooper. Topics: The War in Afghanistan: How Long Will the President's Popular Support Last? Can Democrats Limit the Damage By Tying Republicans to the Tea Party?

CNN's "State of the Union" - Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - On Sunday, Fareed has an exclusive interview with Senator John Kerry -- the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- to talk about the Wikileaks and, more broadly, the war in Afghanistan; about Iran and whether we should be engaging that nation; and about U.S. politics. Then Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S. responds directly to the accusations in the war logs that his intelligence service has been colluding with the Taliban.

"Fox News Sunday" - Former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky; House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

DOWNLOADS: (690)

PLAYS: (840)

Embed

From This Week with George Stephanopoulos, a conversation with Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers about the proposed excise tax on "Cadillac plans" to fund the healthcare bill.

As someone who got into the nuts and bolts of union health care plans when I was a reporter, I can tell you there's almost always some lard in there. (I remember one contract that covered a week-long hospital stay for normal childbirth.) The insurance broker is usually politically connected, and the premiums are inflated so the broker can kick back a percentage to the politicians. So theoretically, this tax will put some useful pressure on inflated plans - but create some very unhappy politicians:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Harry Reid, though, the Democratic leader in the Senate said that has to wait until health care is done and the negotiations between the House and Senate have begun this week. The president weighed in with the leaders on behalf of this so-called Cadillac tax, the excise tax on high-priced health insurance plan. That is facing some real resistance in the House. Here's Congressman Joe Sestak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SESTAK: They're not just pulling the Cadillac. They're pulling the Chevrolets. By 2019, because they index it to a wrong inflation rate, we're going to have one-third of all the workers in employer-based plans paying a middle-class tax. No, this has to change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: He and labor leaders like Gerry McEntee say this is going to be a middle-class tax increase that could hit up to 40 percent of union workers.

ROMER: All right, so the -- the important thing the president has said that he thinks that this excise tax on Cadillac plans is important. He's been convinced by experts across the ideological spectrum that say this is one of those things that genuinely slows the growth rate of costs, and anybody that's worried about the budget deficit knows that we've got to -- to do that.

You know, what the president has said is, you know, he's always open to -- you know, there are design issues here. He's going to be continuing to -- to work with the Congress to say, are there ways to -- to make it work better? But we want to maintain that -- that crucial focus on cost containment.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if it's a middle-class tax increase?

ROMER: You know, I think that the numbers that you were hearing, you know, that the levels where this is being set -- I think the current number is something like $23,000 for a plan, a family plan -- that's a very high level and -- and exempts an awful lot...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, except union leaders say it's not. They say that at $23,000, it affects 1 in 4 union members. If you raise the threshold to $27,000, it'll be 1 in 14. Are you willing to raise that level?

ROMER: No, you -- you absolutely -- I think you've got to be very careful on the numbers. They're actually, as it's being developed -- they're being, you know, changes made to make sure that, if you've got just older workers and that's why your costs are higher, or things like that, if you're a first-responder, so we've been very receptive to -- to, you know, arguments like that, and, also, the -- you know, sort of the -- the level at which you set.

I think the important thing is the -- you know, the incentives that it provides to genuinely slow the growth rate of costs (ph). If this thing works just right, nobody hits it, right, because -- precisely because it slows the growth rate of costs.

ABC News

(ABC News)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that's because insurance plans might be dropped, as well. But, still, even with this in there, the Senate bill, your own chief actuary of Medicare and Medicaid says that this is going to increase health care costs by $222 billion over the next 10 years.

ROMER: All right, so you need to be very careful. There are lots of estimates out there. I think, you know, the Congressional Budget Office...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's your own actuary.

ROMER: The -- the actuary is independent, right, and the Congressional Budget Office is nonpartisan, highly respected organization, as well. They have said that the Senate bill as it came out would genuinely reduce the deficit over the 10-year window and, even more important, said that it would slow the growth rate of costs so that those -- that deficit reduction was going to be growing over time.

So I do think you need to -- to -- to look at the range of estimates. And we, certainly, have looked very hard at the CBO estimates and -- and think they're very reasonable.

DOWNLOADS: (1717)

PLAYS: (3589)

Embed

On his recent book-signing swing through the Bay Area, I was lucky enough to have David Neiwert and his daughter stay with me and my family. David and I bonded deeply over our common love of all things Python and took the opportunity to introduce my eldest to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a movie I think both David and I can recite verbatim. During this scene, David and I looked at each other and laughed because this is the exact kind of logic we see playing on Fox News every day to intimate some sort of problem with Obama. I mean, obviously, if Obama floats on water, he must be a witch, no, make that a Marxist...er, Communist....no, make that a socialist...yeah! That's it...if he weighs the same as a duck, he must be a socialist! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the deep thinking of the average Fox News viewer.

The big news is that the Big Man himself, President Barack Obama, has decided that he needs to get in front of the cameras to talk healthcare reform rather than let everyone else do it. So he's going to be all over the Sunday shows. I mean, all of them. Well, not Fox News Sunday. And you can bet that Fox is pouting about being snubbed.

But David Gregory follows the president with two of the most prominent chuckleheads in the GOP: Boehner and Graham. And John King is giving Mitch McConnell the last word on State of the Union, while Stephanopoulos fills out his roundtable with GOP strategist Ed Gillespie and perennial George Will on This Week. So I'm hard-pressed to see how this is any different than appearing on Fox News. Just beware if they start to advocate burning at the stake as the answer.

ABC's "This Week" - President Barack Obama.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Obama.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Obama; House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Helene Cooper, Rick Stengel, David Brooks, Kathleen Parker. Topics: What is behind the recent populist outrage against the Obama agenda? Is Afghanistan becoming President Obama's Vietnam? Meter Questions: Was the anti-Obama venom unavoidable? YES: 6 NO: 6; Has Obama Got Command Back? YES: 12 No: 0.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Obama; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - A rare and exclusive interview with the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev. Have the US and Russia truly hit the "reset" button? How does he respond to Vice President Biden's criticism of Russia's "withering" economy?

"Fox News Sunday" - Bertha Lewis, chief executive officer of ACORN; Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Fred Smith, chairman and chief executive of FedEx Corp.; Steve Odland, chairman and chief executive of Office Depot Inc.; John Chambers, chairman and chief executive of Cisco.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passing of actor/comedian Bernie Mac, Nobel Laureate author Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, talent agent/producer Bernie Brillstein, GOP foreign affairs consultant and Kissinger protege Peter Rodman, as well as 16 soldiers and Marines killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to icasualties.org, the allied deaths in Iraq now total 4,451. During this same period, Iraq Body Count numbers 147 Iraqi civilian deaths.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passings of newsman Tim Russert, author Eliot Asinof, philanthropist Stewart Mott, diplomat Harlan Cleveland and former RNC Co-Chair Elly Peterson as well as 5 soldiers killed this week in Iraq. According to icasualties, the total casualties in Iraq is now 4,412 and per Iraq Body Count, there were 128 Iraqi civilians killed this week.

One last (?) swipe at the ABC debate from MediaBloodhound, with the "untelevised portion" transcript:

GIBSON: But how wasted were you the first time you heard "I Am the Walrus," Senator [Obama], and did your psychotic drug binge -- which may have caused you to black out for days on end while committing unspeakable acts you don't remember -- add or subtract from your listening pleasure?

OBAMA: Again, Charlie, I'm not sure how this helps get Americans health insurance, brings home our troops, or fixes the economy.

GIBSON: I'll take your response as an admission that pot and acid do, in fact, make this song better....

STEPHANOPOULOS: So [Senator Clinton,] you admit there was no gunfire that day you landed in Bosnia?

CLINTON: Well, you know, George, I've already conceded that I misspoke on that issue....

(STEPHANOPOULOS brandishes a revolver and fires a few feet above Sen. Clinton's head.)

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you would've remembered that, right?

Open Thread below....

Publius does a terrific job describing what ABC News viewers may have seen if the network existed in 1858, and had covered the Illinois Senate race.

MR. GIBSON: So we're going to begin with opening statements, and we had a flip of the coin, and the brief opening statement first from Mr. Lincoln.

LINCOLN: Thank you very much, Charlie and George, and thanks to all in the audience and who are out there. I appear before you today for the purpose of discussing the leading political topics which now agitate the public mind.

We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you think Mr. Douglas loves America as much you do?

LINCOLN: Sure I do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But who loves America more?

LINCOLN: I’d prefer to get on with my opening statement George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: If your love for America were eight apples, how many apples would Senator Douglas’s love be?

It goes on from there. I hope someone sends a copy to Gibson and Stephanopoulos.

In honor of ABC News and their absolutely worthy-of-flushing questions in tonight's debate, may I present the fish tank toilet bowl from FishN'Flush, a.k.a. "the whimsical potty." Hey, is it too whimsical to name my fish Stephanopoulos and Gibson? (h/t LU)

Open Thread below....

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

On Sunday's This Week, George Stephanopoulos marks the passing of singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg, Georgia state legislator Tom Murphy and satirist Bill Strauss as well as three soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sam seems to understand the law a little better than Power Line does.

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

via Think Progress:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you confident that the administration has acted lawfully in this case?

BROWNBACK: I think we need to hold hearings on it and we’re going to. Both in the intelligence committee, there will be closed hearings and then the judiciary committee will have open hearings. I think we need to look at this case and this issue. I am troubled by what the basis for the grounds that the administration says that they did these on, the legal basis, and I think we need to look at that far more broadly and understand it a great deal.

I think this is something that bears looking into and us to be able to establish a policy within constitutional frameworks of what a president can or cannot do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You don’t think the 9/11 resolution gave the president the authority for this program?

BROWNBACK: It didn't, in my vote. I voted for that resolution. That was a week after 9/11. There was nothing you were going to do to stop us from going to war in Afghanistan, but there was no discussion in anything that I was around that that gave the president a broad surveillance authority with that resolution.