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Cloture Vote On NLRB Nominee To Test Strength Of Dem, GOP Caucuses
Senate Democrats are facing a key test today of their voting strength, with a cloture vote on the nomination of Craig Becker for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board. Senate Republicans now have 41 members, thanks to the election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has announced he will vote against Becker, meaning that Democrats need at least two Republicans to cross over, and to hold on to all 58 other members of the Democratic caucus.

Obama’s Day Ahead
President Obama will sign a memorandum on childhood obesity at 9:15 a.m. ET. Obama and Vice President Biden will receive the presidential daily briefing at 9:30 a.m. ET, and meet at 10:15 a.m. ET with bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate, to discuss the economy and jobs. Obama and Biden will have lunch at 12 p.m. ET. Obama will receive the economic daily briefing at 2:30 p.m. ET, and meet with senior advisers at 3 p.m. ET.

Boehner And Cantor Could Be ‘Reluctant To Participant’ In Health Care Summit
The top two House Republican leaders, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip (R-VA) are raising the prospect that they might not attend the proposed White House summit on health care reform. “If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate,” the two wrote, in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Michelle Obama: President ‘Has Done A Phenomenal Job,’ But Has Hoped For More Progress
First Lady Michelle Obama said that President Obama “has done a phenomenal job” during his first year, though she acknowledged that progress still has to be made on problems such as unemployment. “Every day our president wakes up serious and focused and committed to pushing this stuff through,” said the First Lady. “We had hoped that more progress would have been made.”

DeMint: My PAC ‘A Seal Of Conservative Approval’
Roll Call reports that Sen. Jim DeMint’s PAC, the Senate Conservatives Fund, is becoming a new draw for candidates seeking both financial support and an ideological brand. “It’s considered a seal of conservative approval by a lot of candidates who come to Washington and want to talk to us,” said DeMint. “I think Republicans are looking for a way to distinguish themselves from the old Republicans, the establishment Republicans that many think ran our party into a ditch with too much spending and tens of thousands of earmarks.”

Fed Hopes Exit Strategy Will Revive Market Confidence
The Washington Post reports that the Federal Reserve is attempting to revive market confidence through an orderly phaseout of its efforts to rescue the economy during the financial crisis. “You’re trying to inspire confidence that you know what you’re doing, which can help put the brakes on any incipient inflation without damaging the recovery,” said Karen Dynan, a former Fed economist, who now co-directs the Brookings Institution’s economic studies program.

Barbour To Visit South Carolina
Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) will be visiting South Carolina on March 15, to keynote the Spartanburg County GOP’s annual President’s Day dinner. The visit is sure to boost speculation that Barbour could be running for president in 2012, though an anonymous source closet o Barbour downplayed the idea: “He loves going to these things. He calls it political recreation.”

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