Democratic Chatter 3-5-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

President Barack Obama will convene a Health Care Summit at the White House today - over 120 are expected to attend to discuss health care reforms. The president will make opening remarks and then break out groups will be formed to discuss different areas of needed health care reform for the country. Kathleen Sebelius who has been nominated for HHS Secretary is not expected to be there today. Reuters.com has more here.

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Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will testify before Congress - a federal judge recent ruled they could not use executive privilege as a reason not to testify. The House judiciary committee chaired by John Conyers (D-NY) have been investigating the firing of U.S. attorneys for political reasons during the George W. Bush administration. Rove was a White house political adviser and Miers was White House counsel. CNN.com has more here.

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California Supreme Court to hear arguments on ban of same-sex marriages - Proposition 8 was recently passed which banned same-sex marriages in the state. Questions surround if this action was constitutional and what to do in regard to the estimated 19,000 same-sex marriages which took place prior to the ban. McClatchydc.com has more here.

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Is Michael Steele on the way out as RNC Chair? - he was selected as chair after six rounds of balloting about one month ago. Ever since then, he has been stumbling as the newly elected chair of the Republican National Committee. Whether it has been his boisterous comments of "either work with us or get out of the way..." or his recent public spat with Republican talk show host Rush Limbaugh, republicans are wondering if they made the right choice. Politico.com has more here.

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On the economic front, the Dow Jones is down 100 today in early trading - GM announced it may not be able to avoid bankruptcy and China indicated they will not be adding to their current stimulus plan. Bloomberg.com has more here.

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On the foreign policy front, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been busy in meetings with NATO - she proposed NATO resume formal relations with Russia which had been suspended after the Georgia republic-Russia flare up. NATO voted to resume relations with Russia today. In a smart move, Clinton also proposed a international meeting on Afghanistan. It will take more than just the U.S. involvement to stabilize Afghanistan. Tomorrow, she travels to Geneva to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. You can read more here.

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