TPMDC Sunday Roundup

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Obama Open To Outreach To Some Taliban Elements
In an interview with the New York Times, President Obama said that the United States is not winning the Afghanistan War, and that one option would be to negotiate with some elements of the Taliban. Though he acknowledged that the complexities of Afghanistan, he also said: “If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq.”

Karzai Approves Of Obama’s Stance On Taliban Negotiation
At a public appearance yesterday in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: “Yesterday, Mr. Obama accepted and approved the path of peace and talks with those Afghan Taliban who he called moderates.” He added: “This is a good news … this is approval of our previous stance and we accept and praise it.”

Obama Arriving Back At White House From Camp David
The First Family is scheduled to return to the White House at 2:50 p.m. ET, after spending the night at Camp David.

Ted Kennedy To Receive Award Tonight, Biden Attending
Ted Kennedy will be honored tonight at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where he will be presented the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Vice President Biden and Jill Biden will be in attendance.

Shelby: Improve Market By Letting Big Banks Fail
Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) laid out his opposition to bank nationalization, and his support of letting big banks fail. “Close them down, get them out of business. If they’re dead, they ought to be buried,” Shelby said. “We bury the small banks; we’ve got to bury some big ones and send a strong message to the market. And I believe that people will start investing in banks.”

McCain: GM Should Go Into Bankruptcy, Reorganize
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, John McCain said: “I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11, they reorganize, they renegotiate … the union-management contracts and come out of it a stronger, better, leaner, more competitive automotive industry.” Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican, strongly disagreed, saying that if GM and Chrysler go into bankruptcy they would likely not come out of it.

Orszag: Spending Bill Will Be Different Next Year
Appearing on CNN, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said the Obama Administration doesn’t like aspects of the omnibus bill, but has to handle it as a matter left over from last year. “Is it uglier than we’d like? Yes. But again, this was negotiated last year,” said Orszag. “We think we should just move on. When we are engaged in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations process, it’s going to look a lot different.”

Cantor: White House Has No Credibility On Spending
Also appearing on CNN, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) fired back at Orszag. “There is no way anyone could take what Mr. Orszag has said with any credibility,” said Cantor. “Of course they’re negotiating on this bill in the Senate right now. To say that we would have drawn it differently, but leave $430 billion plus on the table like this? No way.” A note about credibility: Cantor voted for all of the Bush White House’s deficit-spending programs.

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