Daily Democratic Wire 3-13-2010

George Wenschhof

Middle East Envoy George Mitchell to head back to region to try to salvage Israel-Palestine talks - after the Israelis announced the approval of another 1600 building permits for the disputed West Bank during last week's visit by Vice President Joe Biden, Palestine has understandably withdrawn it's interest in peace talks. The U.S. brokered two-state solution has remained stalled for years as agreement has not been reached as to the disposition of land seized by Israel during the 1967 "six day war". Reuters.com has more here.

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Sunday Morning "Talking Heads" lineup - White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and former Republican Strategist Carl Rove all appear on multiple shows.

For Rove, it is self serving as he promotes his newly released book. Rove will of course be on "Fox News" and he will also appear on NBC "Meet The Press". He has admitted to approving of U.S. torture of prisoners and many believe he helped fuel and spread the lies about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which was used by the George W. Bush administration to invade Iraq. A book I will not buy.

Gibbs will be on CBS "Face The Nation" and "Fox News Sunday" and Axelrod will appear on three: NBC "Meet The Press", CNN "State of The Union" and ABC "This Week". Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will also be on "This Week". Health Care Reform bill passage will most likely be the main topic. Let's see if Senator Graham repeats what he said earlier this week after meeting with the President and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) to discuss immigration reform. he stated Republicans would not cooperate on immigration reform if Democrats used reconciliation to pass health care reform.

More discussion on the passage of health care reform will take place with Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) who are both whips for their respective chambers. They will be on NBC "Meet the Press". House speaker Nancy Pelosi informed House members to clear their schedule for next weekend as she expects to have the House vote as early as Thursday or as late as the weekend.

More of the same health care reform discussion will take place with House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) when they appear on "Fox News Sunday".

House Minority leader John Boehner (R-Oh.) will be on CNN "State of The Union".

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FCC to propose making the Internet the main communication system for the future - the Federal Communication Commission is expected to present to congress a ten year plan that would in effect make the Internet the main communications network in the United States. Rural areas currently without service would be wired under the plan. This actually makes sense and deserves serious discussion as today you can even communicate live in video over the Internet using Skype. Phone companies are sure to battle this effort, instead of moving their technology into today's medium. The NY Times has more here.

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Rate of Bank Closures slow - two recent bank failures announced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation makes it 30 for the year. Statewide Bank in Louisiana and Old Southern Bank in Florida were closed with their assets taken over by other Banks resulting to no losses by customers. In 2008, there were a total of 25 Bank failures and in 2009. at the height of the recession, there were 140 Bank failures. CNN.com has more here.

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Democratic National Committee responds to recent Republicans attacks with Video - with Republicans jumping at the opportunity to bash Democrats with Problems surfacing with Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Governor David Paterson (D-NY), the DNC rapid response team has the following video airing on cable in the D.C. region.



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