Discover GOP Opprobrium

[teapeebubbles]

Today's edition of quick hits:

* Auto sales continue to fall off a cliff.

* Updating an earlier question, Tom Daschle has withdrawn from both HHS consideration and the White House office on healthcare reform.

* Eric Holder's first day at the Justice Department went pretty well, and he was met by "thunderous" applause from DoJ employees. (They've been waiting for a real A.G. for quite a while now.)

* Is Obama making al Qaeda nervous? Yep.

* These idiots never learn: "Wells Fargo & Co., which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is planning a series of corporate junkets to Las Vegas casinos this month."

* Now Republicans are questioning whether mass-transit investment is "stimulative." Is it me, or is the GOP getting worse as the process unfolds?

* The president met with Republican "centrists" today -- all three of them -- to discuss the stimulus package.

* Good point: "Not to second-guess the Republican strategy, but is Sen. John McCain really the best spokesman for the No On Stimulus campaign? Didn't the America people deliver him a whopping precisely because of all issues, they didn't trust his instincts on the economy?"

* Daschle is done, but the prospects for healthcare reform live on.

* William Lynn's chances of becoming Deputy Defense Secretary got a real boost yesterday.

* The coverage of the stimulus debate on "Morning Joe" has been hopelessly misguided.

* Even now, House Republicans can't bring themselves to tell the truth about CBO analyses of the recovery package.

* I was sorry to learn that Rachel Maddow is dropping her Air America Radio show, due to time constraints. She will, however, provide content for an hour-long morning program of AAR. (I'm disappointed, not just because I was an occasional guest, but because it's been a really great show.)

* The right is apparently still worked up about the residency status of the president's half-aunt.

* Bill Richardson's legal issues appear to be getting more serious.

* And finally, Obama has nominated Tammy Duckworth to be the Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Good call.