Something from yesterday about your favorite Barack “Tax & Hope” Obama: “WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush’s tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy.” There, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, “Investor Class”? MORE »

The big news today shows that we are not — as every politician says — in a recession after all! A “recession,” of course, is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. And in Q1 2008, the American economy grew by 0.6%, just as it did in Q4 2007. Take that you Liberals; you and your wretched Doomsday scenarios! Sure, the actual Great New Depression may only be starting right now and lasting another 50 years. But for right now, George Bush ‘n’ Tax Cuts have saved the economy again! [AP/Breitbart]

This afternoon, the Labor Department announced that unemployment was 5 percent in December, which is the highest it’s been in 2 years. You know that that means it’s time for, kiddies? Tax cuts! Yay!

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Each week, the Comics Curmudgeon helps explain Today’s Cartoons.

Other than deep discounts on ink, is there anything political cartoonists as a class like better than a good metaphor? No. But just as sometimes you run out of ink and all the office supply stores are closed and you have to go to the bodega on the corner and you end up paying OUTRAGEOUS markup on little bottles of ink, and to add insult to injury you have to pay through a little door in a huge bullet-proof window and they write your $20 with a special marker to see if it’s counterfit … um, where was this going? Oh yeah, sometimes you go to press with the metaphor you have, not the metaphor you might want. Here are some of the attempts to draw parallels that maybe weren’t perfect, but, hey, deadline’s comin’.

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* House narrowly approves ethics legislation that increases disclosure requirements for dealings with lobbyists; earmarks now must be publicly sponsored. Most Democrats and 20 Republicans vote nay and the new rules must be reconciled with Senate proposal. [WP, NYT, USAT, WSJ]
* Senators pile on earmarks to emergency spending bill in spite of renewed veto threat from Bush. [WP, NYT]
* Some lawmakers are rethinking their resistance to raising fuel economy standards. [WP]
* “Day of reckoning” for tax cuts will probably be January 1, 2011. [WP, WSJ]
* Administration releases plan for flu outbreak; funding is not established. [WP, NYT, USAT]
* Businessman pleads guilty to bribing Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) with $400,000; Jefferson’s “legal problems are steadily mounting and have undercut his party’s efforts to portray the Republicans as the party of political corruption.” [WP, NYT]
* Callers to Medicare hotline are frequently provided wrong or incomplete information, independent study finds. [WP]
* Valerie Plame is shopping a book deal. [NYT]

* Republicans in Congress settle on $70B tax-cut package as proposal for $100 gas vouchers withers; Bush “implored lawmakers to deliver an agreement he could tout.” [WP, WP, NYT]
* Immigration rallies apparently made little influence on Congress. [NYT]
* Democrats aim to pick up House seats in the Northeast. [NYT]
* Bush may have sung a Spanish version of the national anthem at a campaign event. [WP]
* House votes on lobbying reform today. [USAT]
* Administration is testing “antisatellite weapons.” [NYT]
* Democrats threaten to filibuster one, maybe two, conservative judicial nominations. [WP]
* Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is on a one-man mission to eliminate earmarks from the emergency spending bill. [WP]
* The Supreme Court under John Roberts has become more contemplative and patient. [NYT]
* Blogosphere bloviates about Stephen Colbert’s performance. [NYT]

* Tony Snow will “likely” replace Scott McClellan. [CNN, NYT]
* Bush and Republican lawmakers face blame for high gas prices yet have “few if any” available short-term solutions; president will call today for the strict enforcement of price gouging laws. [WP, W$J]
* Attorney for fired CIA officer denies his client leaked classified information to the Washington Post. [WP]
* Bush presses for bipartisan agreement on immigration, though he is not backing a specific proposal. Bush: “I know this is an emotional debate, and I can understand it’s emotional, but one thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings, decent human beings.” [WP, NYT, W$J, USAT]
* Many Republican candidates are plotting how to distance themselves from Bush and the war; approval of the president dips to 32% in CNN poll. [NYT, CNN]
* Excessive supplemental provisions to emergency spending bill receive renewed criticisms. [NYT]

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* Administration is underfunding democracy-building in Iraq; security costs receive an “enormous share” of funds as democracy and infrastructure goals are scaled down. [WP]
* Rep. Tom DeLay “set the terms of his departure” to ensure some dignity was not lost; he was “dispirited” and viewed his Republican primary challengers as “gadflies and traitors.” House ethics panel, meanwhile, will not investigate DeLay and other lawmakers. [WP, NYT, USAT, WSJ]
* Senate Appropriations Committee adds billions to hurricane relief package. [NYT]
* GAO criticizes bulk of Bush’s global AIDS initiative. [WP]
* John Snow said to be seriously mulling retirement; White House seeks successor. [NYT, WSJ]
* DeLay decision throws Texas political landscape into “electoral free-for-all.” [NYT, USAT]
* Democratic takeover of the Senate is deemed “distant” but “possible.” [USAT, LAT]

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* House Republicans elect Ohio Rep. John Boehner as majority leader, signaling break from status quo. Boehner: “The members wanted to make a big decision, and they did. . . We must act swiftly to restore the trust between Congress and the American people.” [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT, WT, W$J]
* Election of Boehner heralds his comeback and shows a “cry of concern by an entrenched Republican majority”; Boehner “tapped into members’ election-year anxieties about the GOP’s scandal-scuffed leadership.” [WP, WP, NYT]
* Administration seeks $120b for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. [WP, NYT, USAT]
* Democrats attack Republican rhetoric at hearing on security threats; insist on more oversight. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.V.): “I am deeply troubled by what I see as the administration’s continued effort to selectively release intelligence information that supports its policy or political agenda while withholding equally pertinent information that does not do that.” [WP, WP, NYT, USAT, WT]

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• Congress is expected to vote next week on the renewal of the Patriot Act; Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) threatens to use the filibuster. [WP, NYT, USAT, WT]
• House votes mostly along party lines to pass more tax cuts. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Administration linked Iraq and al Qaeda with information received from prisoner who “fabricated [the tie] to escape harsh treatment”; Democrats seek access to White House documents about prewar intelligence. [NYT, NYT]
• Time reporter Viveca Novak meets with Patrick Fitzgerald regarding her conversations with Karl Rove. [NYT]
• Second business partner of Jack Abramoff is near a plea agreement with prosecutors. [WP]
• American and Saudi officials wrote about Osama bin Laden’s interest in using civilian aircraft back in 1998. [NYT]

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