The Obama administration's verdict on Chrysler and GM was huge news in Detroit, the kind of development newspaper editors hope for -- not because of its unpleasant nature, but because it was one of the rare instances when the news broke in a way that favors newspapers. Obama administration officials briefed reporters Sunday night, but the news was embargoed, meaning not publishable, until midnight. That means news consumers would hear about it first when they picked their morning newspaper up from the front yard. No late-night TV news or, for most of those who sleep at night, even Internet competition.

Except in Detroit. Today was the first day that Detroit's newspapers didn't deliver to people's homes. The two papers, led by Gannett's Detroit Free Press, announced last year they'd give up on home delivery four days a week to save money. The betting would be the savings in newsprint and delivery costs would cut expenses by about 20 percent.

So what did the Detroit papers do today? They certainly didn't save any money. They printed 500,000 papers, part of a push to make sure people knew they were still in business, and they gave them away for free.

Here's the link to the Free Press's digital edition.

Why give the paper away? Because that's how you make sure people who need the news get it. And it's a huge reminder that as newspapers cut and cut and cut, they are still important players in their communities. As for other days, both papers -- they are published jointly -- plan no cuts to their Web sites, have signed up 240,000 subscribers to their e-edition and have been offering instruction to those readers not comfortable with the Web.

How times change: A few weeks ago, New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg was ready to join President Barack Obama's cabinet as Commerce Secretary. Saturday, Gregg delivered the GOP's weekly radio address and warned Obama is engineering an "extraordinary move of our government to the left."

Gregg changed his mind and turned down the appointment after rethinking his decision, figuring he wanted to stay in the Senate, where he is active on budget issues. He also seemed uncomfortable being part of an administration whose philosophies didn't always match his conservative views.

Saturday, he made that clear.

Gregg called Obama's budget proposals ideas that "dramatically grow the size and cost of government and move it to the left." Obama proposed a $3.55 trillion fiscal 2010 budget that increases non-defense discretionary spending, which includes most domestic programs, 10.1 percent. Congressional committees reduced that number slightly this week.

The Senate is scheduled to begin debating the budget Monday, with the House taking it up later in the week. Both Houses are expected to pass a budget Thursday or Friday.

That budget, said Gregg, "spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much." Republicans have not presented a detailed alternative of their own; they expect to do so next week.

The GOP, Gregg said, believes "you create prosperity by having an affordable government that pursues its responsibilities without excessive costs, taxes or debt.We believe you create prosperity by having an affordable government that pursues its responsibilities without excessive costs, taxes or debt."

In other words, he said, "it is the individual American who creates prosperity and good jobs, not the government."

Taxes will go up, he warned, and the national debt will rise to record levels. The solution, according to Gregg is to limit the growth of government "in a manner that is affordable not only today, but for the next generation through limiting spending and addressing core issues like the cost of entitlements."

To see Sen. Gregg's remarks: http://www.youtube.com/user/RepublicanSenators

 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts "didn't tell us the truth" before his 2005 confirmation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday.

Speaking to reporters at a breakfast, Reid, who opposed Roberts' confirmation, said that the nation is "stuck" with the chief justice and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. The two justices were nominated by President Bush and are regarded as conservative.

Reid said three and a half years ago that Roberts had left  "too many unanswered questions," and was concernred about his views on civil rights, immigration and other matters. Roberts was confirmed by a 78 to 22 vote.

Friday, Reid commented briefly on the two justices:

"Roberts didn’t tell us the truth," he said, without elaborating. "At least Alito told us who he was, but we’re stuck with those two young men, and we’ll try to change by having some moderates in the federal courts system as time goes on. I think that will happen.”

Harry Reid can make old enemies into new friends, though he's still unsure about one old foe: The New York Yankees.

The Senate Majority Leader told a reporters' breakfast Friday how he has learned to like one-time nemeses John Ensign, a Republican U.S. senator from Nevada, and Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens.

Pickens and Reid often disagreed over energy policy, and Pickens helped fund the 2004 "Swift Boat" ads raising questions about Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's service in Vietnam. Ensign lost a bitter race to Reid in 1998 by about 400 votes.

"I didn't like John Ensign," Reid recalled, but now he finds they work together well. And, "I can't imagine how I could sit at the same table with T. Boone Pickens,' but Pickens has been an ally in efforts to find ways to reduce American dependence on foreign oil.

"I really like the guy," Reid said. "Next thing, I'll start liking the New York Yankees." Not yet, apparently _ he's still a Los Angeles Dodgers fan.

Here’s a new twist on the latest push to have the public help pay for political campaigns: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is branding such efforts a bailout for politicians.

Advocates of overhauling the current campaign finance system are pushing again for a form of public financing.

To McConnell, the plan is ridiculous. “At a time when most Americans are outraged that tax dollars have been used to pay million-dollar bonuses to executives at failed financial firms, it’s hard to convince anyone that taxpayer dollars should cover the cost of balloons, bunting, and campaign barbecues,” he said      

And, he said, lawmakers should keep their eye on the economy. . 

America

faces many challenges at the moment, and the American taxpayer is justifiably worried about the prospect of what too much spending, too much taxing, and too much borrowing will mean for the future of our country and for our children. Congress should heed the advice of nearly all Americans,” McConnell said.

“Don’t use our tax dollars to pay for your political campaigns. Taxpayer-funded campaigns are a bad idea at any time, according to 90 percent of Americans. They’re a really bad idea in the middle of a recession.”

Despite the star studded attractions of Tony Bennett AND President Barack Obama, there were still empty seats at Wednesday’s gala fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.
The White House press pool following Obama to the Warner Theater near the White House reports that the “crowd, estimated earlier at 2,000 by the DNC, was energetic. Room was largely full but there were some empty seats toward the back.”
It’s not that the tickets were exorbitant, at least not by Washington fund raising standards. They cost $150 to $1,000 each.
That was cheap compared to the other DNC fund raiser Obama attended Wednesday evening. That one, at the National Woman in the Arts Museum, cost $30,400 per couple and drew about 150.
Other notes from reporter Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal, serving as the print pool reporter for the press corps:
“Motorcade arrived at second DNC fundraiser at the Warner Theater at 8:43 pm. Tony Bennett could be seen on video screens in the lobby performing, but pool was held in the lobby until he finished.
“DNC Chair Gov. Kaine also introduced POTUS at this event, contending as he did at the first event that President Obama had done more in 60 days than many presidents had done in 60 months.
“Crowd, estimated earlier at 2,000 by the DNC, was energetic. Room was largely full but there were some empty seats toward the back.   
“When Kaine introduced POTUS after speaking for a little less than eight minutes, audience rose to its feet, with lots of hooting and cheering, and continued to shout encouragement to the President during the roughly 14-minute speech.  
 “I love you Obama!” yelled one guy in the audience.
“Speaking with a teleprompter but appearing at times to deviate from his text, POTUS echoed his remarks from the first fundraiser, defending his budget, and deriding the “hall of mirrors here” in Washington, saying of the political handicapping in D.C., “One day I’m a genius; one day I’m a bum!” That prompted laughter from the crowd.
“To a bunch of the critics out there, I’ve already said, show me your budget! I’m happy to have that debate.”
“Then when he addressed the criticism that he was trying to take on too many problems at once, the audience got more and more involved.
“There are those who say, ‘You know you’re taking on too much.”
“No way,” said someone from the audience.
“Your budget is too ambitious,” POTUS continued, describing his critics. “That we can only focus on one problem at a time.”
“You’re smarter than that!” said a member of the audience.  
“POTUS said people can’t wait for issues like health care and energy to be solved.
“The American people don’t have the luxury of focusing on one problem at a time,” he said. “They can’t tell the landlord, ‘I can’t pay the rent this month, I’ve got other things to do!’”
“President said to a crescendo of partisan applause, “I’m not going to kick these problems down the road for another four years, another eight years!”
 
 

President Obama will be at a keyboard tomorrow around 11:30 a.m. for an "online town hall" on the economy, answering some of the questions pre-submitted by folks (20,366 as of this post, and counting). Still time to get one in.

Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh will be the State Department's new legal adviser, according to the Yale Daily News.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a Yale Law grad. Koh served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from 1998 to 2001. He also was counsel for would-be Haitian immigrants who were intercepted at sea an held at Guantanamo Bay.

Add to those pressing for a full investigation of Bush-era detention policies former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former FBI director Bill Sessions. In an op-ed piece in this morning's Washington Post, the former officials, both of whom served under George W. Bush's father, urge President Obama to appoint a presidential commission to ferret out the details of who authorized what in the sad Bush policy of detainee abuse.

Investigations by Congress and other bodies have shown that, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, government officials have encouraged and acquiesced in prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel, and detainees have been transferred to countries that are known to torture. In many cases, the perpetrators of abuse and torture were given the support and encouragement (tacit or explicit) of their superiors, possibly as high up the chain of command as the president himself.

The two praise Obama for ordering Guantanamo closed. "But it is only a first step. . . . We must understand how we got where we are today to ensure that we correct our past mistakes and change our policies going forward."

There is no doubt torture took place. Pentagon official Susan Crawford bluntly acknowledged as much in an interview with Bob Woodward earlier this year.

The Red Cross made the allegation in its confidential report to the Bush administration on the treatment of 14 so-called high value detainees while they were held at clandestine CIA prisons, as Mark Danner reported in The New York Review of Books. This piece is illuminating in that it reveals some of the "sophisticated" interrogation techniques the Bush administration felt had to be kept secret to prevent al Qaida operatives from preparing for them. The chief one: wrapping a towel or clamping a collar around a detainee's neck, then using the extra leverage that would give to slam the detainee's head into the wall. Exactly how does one prepare to resist that?

Michael Hayden, when he was CIA director, downplayed the extent of such abuse by saying only three detaineess were subjected to waterboarding, which until the Danner story came out was the only specific interrogation technique widely discussed. But no one has addressed how many underwent the "collar beating" treatment. And no one has answered whether the use of that technique had the approval of someone in Washington.

Maybe someone ought to.

Eliot Spitzer, the once New York governor forced a year ago to resign over sex with a prostitute at Washington's Mayflower Hotel, is back and while his credibility has suffered, there can be little doubt that Spitzer knows what he's talking about when it comes to AIG. It was Spitzer who forced AIG into a $1.6 billion settlement to resolve allegations that AIG used deceptive accounting practices to mislead investors and regulatory agencies. AIG's chief, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, resigned over the claims.

Spitzer has been making the media rounds — most recently Sunday afternoon on CNN with Fareed Zakaria (you can watch exceprts here), pushing the point that there's something untoward about how the initial bailout of AIG last fall went pretty much straight to Goldman Sachs and other banks that  themselves would soon get a bailout. He'd like to know just what the discussions were that prompted former Goldman Sachs chairman and then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to move so quickly to make sure AIG got the money.

Earlier in the week, he'd expressed the same sentiment in a piece for Slate. It's worth reading.

Of course, no one in the Obama administration seems inclined to look too hard at what happened during the Bush administration, and not just in this area.