(photo: wdcpix.com/lauren v. burke)

Late Update: The winner so far may be TPM Reader MS who wryly suggests: “I have three issues with Obama’s budget.”

After reading Joe Nocera’s piece on AIG, which I recommended below, the same point occurred to me as occurred to TPM Reader JP …

RE: Joe Nocera’s piece in the Times on 02/27

Why is it only the American government/taxpayer putting money into AIG when it is an international problem? Are European governments anteing up? Has the leadership, those responsible, at AIG changed?

“….and all those European banks whose toxic assets are supposedly insured by AIG would suddenly be sitting on immense losses. Their already shaky capital structures would be destroyed.”

I believe the highest level of leadership was booted. They have a new CEO etc. I’m not sure how deep the purge cut, however. And the point about the US taking the whole hit for losses that would be suffered by European banks, yeah, not getting that. Clearly you are dealing with an international banking system in which you can easily cordon off systemic risk by continent. But the pattern of losses Nocera points to do suggest we should not be picking up the whole bill.

Newsday editorial: Obama Budget gives it to us straight.

Eric Cantor distances himself from Rush Limbaugh’s public desire for Obama to fail. That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Sunday Roundup.

Jonathan Taplin takes stock of the highspeed collapse of conservatism.

President Obama will unveil Kathleen Sebelius as his post-Daschle nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services at 1 p.m. ET. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

You’d think serving on Elizabeth Warren’s TARP oversight board would be reason enough for former Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) not to also take a seat on the board of a subsidiary of Bank of New York Mellon — which is itself a recipient of TARP funds and was hired by Treasury to administer the TARP program.

But, alas, no.

Does Obama’s pronouncement of the end of combat missions in 2010 signal victory in Iraq? Who’s the better listener, Obama or Bush? And is Rush Limbaugh really the current leader of the conservative movement? All that and more in today’s Sunday Show Roundup …

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

TPM Reader GL is on to something here:

The significance of what Gates said yesterday about the different “styles” of Bush and Obama isn’t that Obama asks people’s opinions. It’s that he makes his advisors voice their views in meetings in front of their colleagues — and thus be accountable for them. Cheney famously never spoke up in meetings. Cheney was never responsible for his opinions and policies. His insanity never had to withstand scrutiny. That is the point. That is what led to catastrophe.

Attorney General Eric Holder reverses Mukasey death penalty decision after trial had already begun.