Capitol Hill Bureau Chief
Good morning, Capitolists! The Finance Committee's health care vote may be over, but the action in the Capitol is just getting started. Here's what's happening in Washington today:
* After a series of staff meetings in the morning, President Obama will hold a three-hour strategy session on Afghanistan in the Situation Room. At the table will be Gen. David Petraeus, chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gen. Stanley McChrystal (the last two on speakerphone).
* Doug Elmendorf, the top numbers guru in Washington, moves from health care to the environment when he stars at a Senate Energy Committee hearing about how much Barbara Boxer's climate-change bill is going to cost.
* Neil Barofsky, the top TARP cop, testifies to a House oversight committee about the massive bonuses that AIG gave to its executives for the year they nearly brought down the American economy.
* On the election front, Democrats are bracing for a massive drop in black voter turnout in 2009 and 2010 -- a decrease so severe it could cost them control of Congress. A
Washington Post poll estimates that without Barack Obama on the ticket, 40 percent fewer blacks will vote in this year's Virginia governor's race, and a Democratic pollster
told The Hill, "If what looks like is going to happen in Virginia plays out on a national level, I do think Democrats will lose the House."
* Democrats will lose one House member today when Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida announces he's resigning to lead a think tank seeking Middle East peace. According to
the Miami Herald, the next step to replace the "fire-breathing liberal" will be a special election.
* "Limousine liberal" isn't just an insult hurled by Republicans anymore, it's an actual trend identified by
USA Today through U.S. Census and voting data. The paper says that in a major electoral shift,
Democrats now represent the wealthiest districts in the country along with their traditional inner-city and industrial strongholds. It gives the party an unusual constituency of the richest and poorest Americans, the most and least educated and those with the best and worst health care coverage.
* The Governator is telling his wife, Maria Shriver, that the California law banning cellphones in cars applies to her, too. After TMZ filmed Shriver talking on her cellphone while driving in her neighborhood,
the AP reports Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote to TMZ chief Harvey Levin on his Twitter feed, "Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There's going to be swift action."