Politics 2.0

AP – GOP Rep. Peter Hoekstra, who campaigned on a bicycle when he defeated a Republican incumbent in 1992, won’t seek re-election in 2010 and is considering a run for Michigan governor.

a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/09web-grijalva.html?partner=rssnytemc=rss”img src=”http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/12/09/us/politics/09grijalva.75.jpg” border=”0″ height=”75″ width=”75″ hspace=”4″ align=”left”/aRaúl M. Grijalva is being backed by Hispanics and southwestern environmental groups as Barack Obama considers him for interior secretary.

.

It’s a tale of two cities, Washington D.C. versus Chicago.

?

With President-elect Barack Obama holding frequent news conferences in Chicago to appoint members of his cabinet and lay out his plans for the future and President George W. Bush keeping a low profile in Washington, Americans could be forgiven for thinking they have a new executive capital.

Today the focus will be on both Washington, where a $14 billion?bill to bail out the United States’ struggling automakers will be debated in the Senate, and Chicago, where Obama will announce former Senate leader Tom Daschle as the country’s next health secretary.

?

Obama is due to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EST (600 GMT) to name Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota, and give more specifics about his plan to provide affordable healthcare to all Americans. Daschle faces the Herculean task of revamping America’s ailing healthcare system.

?

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC news conference? poll found that 73 percent of adult Americans approve of the way Obama has handled his preparations for becoming president on Jan. 20, while 38 percent say they have a more favorable impression of him since the Nov. 4 election.

?

Obama is likely to face more questions at the news conference on the scandal involving Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested on Tuesday and charged with attempting to sell Obama’s Senate seat. Obama has called on the governor to resign.

Illinois’s Lieutenant-Governor Pat Quinn told NBC’s Today breakfast television show that Blagojevich would be impeached if he did not resign. Quinn, who is next in line to replace Blagojevich, said he had not spoken to the governor since the summer of 2007.

?

In Washington, the Senate is due to debate a proposal giving $14 bln in emergency loans to struggling auto-makers after it was passed in the House of Representatives by 237-170 votes on Wednesday night. But it is expected to face stiff opposition from skeptical Republicans who want greater accountability from the carmakers in exchange for the loans.

?

Democrats in Congress and the White House want the measure passed urgently, fearing that the collapse of the auto industry would fuel unemployment and deepen the recession.

?

The U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday that the number of workers filing claims for jobless benefits jumped to a 26-year high last week. Data last week showed employers cut half a million jobs in November, the largest number in 34 years.

?

But it was not all doom and gloom on the morning TV shows, which perhaps not surprisingly, found time to show pictures of the January 2009 cover of men’s magazine GQ. The cover shows a naked Jennifer Aniston wearing just a necktie.

REUTERS/Jeff Haynes (Obama at a news conference)

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Bush speaks at Naval Academy)

Vote to pass a bill that extends energy efficiency tax credits, as well as various individual and business tax credits.

Lisa Jackson has 20 years of experience as an environmental regulator and a reputation as a consensus builder.

Reuters – Lawmakers opened debate on Wednesday on legislation to bail out U.S. auto companies while Senate Republicans tore into the plan to force Detroit to restructure or fail, raising uncertainty about its prospects.

Reuters – EU member nations squabbled over how to rescue their economies from the credit crisis and recession as U.S. Republican senators opposed a bailout of the U.S. auto industry and the dollar entered rocky territory.

President Bush on Wednesday said, I have just had the distinct pleasure and honor of visiting with Dr. Halima Bashir, who wrote a book called Tears of the Desert. This good soul brings firsthand accounts to what life is like in Darfur. She has witnessed violence, deprivation, and she carries a message of a lot of people who want our help.

President Bush on Thursday said, And our strategy is threefold: one, reduce demand, interdict supply, and then help people who have become addicts. And were making progress. No question theres still work to do in America, but we are making progress. And one way to note the progress is this statistic: Since 2001, teenage use has declined by 25 percent. That means 900,000 fewer teens on drugs.