Digesting The News Today

Chock full of news, not enough time to post.

** Barack Obama has asked former Sen. Tom Daschle to serve as Secretary of HHS, thus putting the South Dakotan on point to represent the administration in crafting a major health care reform legislation.  Daschle has been serving in this role informally for weeks. In February, he published a widely lauded but little read book on health care reform. HHS is an enormous, caterwauling sprawl of an empire, the biggest (budget wise) outside Defense.

** Colleagues at CongressDaily report that members of the House Democratic steering committee voted by a slim margin to oust Rep, John Dingell from his post as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The full house will vote tomorrow. Coincidentally, the Dow closed below 8,000 on fears that Congress won't bail out the auto industry. China may.

** Why, if Republican Norm Coleman is leading Al Franken at the beginning of a recount, are Republicans fairly pessimistic about his chances?  It's the undervotes. But it will be close....