Washington in 60 Seconds: Rangel Rankled, DeLay a Birther?

Good morning, Capitolists! Washington is digesting the CBO health care reform numbers, wrestling over the way forward in Afghanistan, and still finding time for hoops and bedtime stories. Here's what's making news in town today:

* President Obama holds closed-door meetings with senior advisers, drops by the "Wounded Warriors" basketball game and then plays a couple of pick-up games with members of the Cabinet and Congress. The cynical Capitolist wonders if this couldn't wait for the weekend?

* Vice President Biden sits in on those Oval Office meetings and then stumps for Virginia governor candidate Creigh Deeds. Jill Lawrence writes that the rest of the Democratic Party hopes they don't have a dud in Deeds, a man so dull he couldn't remember the last movie he saw, but thinks it might have been "Field of Dreams."

* The Supreme Court is dark today; the House and Senate vote on appropriations bills.

* House Republicans tried yesterday to remove Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) from his post as chairman of the chamber's tax-writing committee while the House Ethics Committee investigates his failure to report $600,000 in income on his own tax forms. The Hill reports that Democrats stepped in to protect Rangel, Republicans accused Dems of trying to "sweep the matter under the rug," and Rangel called the whole thing a "partisan stunt."

* On a more mature note, members of Congress will read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to kindergartners today.

* Newsweek talks to Tom DeLay post-"DWTS" and finds out Bill Clinton had been considered for the show, that liberals wrote DeLay e-mails saying things like, "I've hated you all my life, but I love what you did on the show," and DeLay has "no idea" if Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen.