Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is going to put Obama’s openness and transparency claims to an early test — by re-subpoenaing Karl Rove to testify about the U.S. attorney firings. Will Obama support Rove’s executive privilege claims? Will Rove even bother asserting executive privilege with his patron out of the White House?

So many questions … but we may get answers pretty soon. The subpoena summons Rove for next week, Feb. 2.

Gershom Gorenberg on why some fear what George Mitchell might bring to Israel-Palestine mediation.

Some train wrecks are just impossible to watch and impossible not to watch. Here’s ex-Merrill CEO John Thain explaining the whole $1.2 million office renovation story in an interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo this afternoon. The first question is just about the office renovation in general and it gets your pretty standard pseudo-abject apology.

But it’s the second question and answer that’s just one for the ages. Bartiromo says, Okay, fine, that was a bad idea spending $1.2 million to get your office renovated while your company was swirling down the drain, but just what was wrong with the old office? The one he inherited from his Merrill predecessor Stanley O’Neal?

Tell me if you can decipher what Thain is saying …

Obama heads to the Hill today to sell his stimulus package to lawmakers. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

I hear a lot of talk about whether Obama’s governing approach can be ‘bipartisan’ if a good number of Republicans don’t vote for his Stimulus Bill. But that dubious point seems to be obscuring a more obvious and telling reality: the Republican leadership in both houses has decided that it’s in their political interest to oppose the Stimulus Bill no matter what.

In the most cynical of evaluations, it’s not clear to me that they’re incorrect. If the stimulus is judged a success, their political gain from adding more votes to what will be seen as Obama’s bill will not be that great. So they’re figuring that only failure will work for them politically; and they judge that they want Obama to own it entirely.

One can pick apart the political ethics of their stand, but the reality of it is clear. They want to criticize as many provisions of the bill as possible, push for as many non-stimulus inducing tax cuts as possible at the expense of spending on infrastructure, and then vote against the final bill en masse. I think it’s possible Obama will get a smattering of moderate Republicans in the senate. But that is the Boehner/McConnell approach — and the one few if any reporters seem to have the wherewithal to say out loud.

You might be surprised to learn that it’s congressional Dems who are causing trouble for President Obama’s stimulus plan, while Republicans are onboard. So says none other than forked-tongued Sen. Mitch McConnell:

Elana Schor has more on McConnell’s little gambit.

Meanwhile, Politico reports, contrary to what McConnell suggests, that the leadership in the House is determined to kill the bill:

House Republican Leader John A. Boehner and his No. 2, Whip Eric Cantor, told their rank-and-file members Tuesday morning during a closed-door meeting to oppose the bill when it comes to the floor Wednesday, according to an aide familiar with the discussion.

As long as Mitch McConnell’s lips are moving, there’s a scam afoot.

The McConnell/Boehner plan is to fix the Bush mess by pushing through more of the former president’s policies. Again. Totally clear. I don’t think they’d even deny it. Why is this off-limits to say out loud?

Boehner to Obama: We’d be willing to support a fully Republican bill.

With Rep. Conyers’ new subpoena to Karl Rove, it’s now up to President Obama to decide whether Rove gets to keep hiding behind executive privilege. Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, has forwarded the subpoena to President Obama and asked where he stands.