Sunday Morning "Talking Heads" Guests 2-8-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

This will be the third Sunday morning following the inauguration of President Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. The honeymoon period is effectively over as the President suffered setbacks with several of his Cabinet nominees withdrawing from consideration and his much ballyhooed Stimulus bill receiving critical scrutiny in the Senate.

With unemployment at 7.6% and consumer borrowing dropping at record numbers, expect the President's American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to receive plenty of discussion. In spite of Obama saying there would be no pork included in his Stimulus bill, the House passed a 819 Billion bill which had many questionable funds which caused the bill to stall in the Senate. Many Republicans criticisms center on some of the funding is not creating jobs.

Friday night the Senate was still working on crafting a compromise with a target figure of 780 Billion which is down from the original 900 Billion Senate version of the bill. Currently, it looks like this will go to a vote with Sunday being a target date. It takes 60 votes to take it to a vote and that may be all the President gets on this bill.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is also scheduled to announce Monday new rules and guidelines for the remaining 350 Billion of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) - more commonly known as the bailout bill. This is likely to receive plenty of analysis from the pundits today as well.

White House counsel Larry Craig has now taken over the vetting process after repeated embarrassment, so let's see how the pundits feel he will do with those chosen to replace Tom Daschle for Secretary for Health and Human Services and Nancy Killefer for Chief Performance Officer. Latest rumor to be named for HHS Secretary is Governor Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.) so expect this name to be floated along with former DNC chair Howard Dean.

On the foreign policy front, some discussion this morning may focus on George Mitchell, the Middle East Envoy just back from a visit of the region. He met with the President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a briefing of his visit this week.

The vice-President is also off to Germany to attend and speak at the annual Munich security conference. He is scheduled to speak Saturday so this speech may be dissected Sunday morning along with a comment from earlier in the week where he said there was a 30% chance they will get the Stimulus bill wrong. The latter comment drew a rebuke from White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod.

As always, plenty to discuss Sunday morning. Below is the list of the Sunday morning "Talking Heads" shows with the scheduled guests. Remember to check your local listings for time and channel.

NBC "Meet The Press" - David Gregory will have Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) along with Representatives Barney Frank (D-Ma.) and Mike Pence (R-In). Also appearing will be Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondent Tom Ricks.

ABC "This Week" - George Stephanopoulos will have chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers and newly named chair of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele. The roundtable discussion will include Newt Gingrich, George Will, Claire Shipman and Robert Reich.

CBS "Face The Nation" - Bob Schieffer will have Senators John McCain (R-Az.) and Kent Conrad (D-ND). Also appearing will be Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Fox News Sunday - Chris Wallace will also have Lawrence Summers and Senator John Coryn (R-TX).

CNN "State of The Union" - John King will have a busy Sunday morning with lots of guests starting with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Also appearing will be Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY). Other scheduled guests include Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC), Jack Welch, former GE CEO, Katie Couric, CBS News Anchor and Dee Dee Myers, former White House press secretary.

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