Bob Reich explains why more deficit spending is necessary for the nation’s longterm fiscal health and why Alan Greenspan is the guy who’s actually as or more responsible for the federal debt as anyone else alive today.

The DNC says Rep. Joe Barton’s apology has done wonders for fundraising and energy, so they are keeping the gaffe alive with a second national television ad, this time linking the Texas GOPer to Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).

Watch it here.

I think the last thing the White House wants to deal with right now is an insubordinate commander in Afghanistan. But it looks like they’ve got it anyway.

Late Update: Now Gen. McChrystal’s top press aide, the guy who arranged the Rolling Stone interview, has resigned. MSNBC says he was “asked to resign.” I’ll bet.

Yesterday we told you about former Rep. JD Hayworth’s stint as a pitch man for a late-night scam informercial program promising free government money for anyone who wanted it. Now his campaign is saying that the whole thing is a result of a bum steer he got from fellow ex-GOP Congressman JC Watts.

Hayworth’s spokesman Mark Sanders told us, “J.C. Watts is a former Congressman. He and Hayworth knew each other when they were in Congress. Watts had done an infomercial for this company, and he recommended to Hayworth that he do with them, as well. So Hayworth just took it on his friend’s advice that it would be a good thing to do, and he did it.” You can see more here on Watts’ involvement with the group.

The McChrystal situation places President Obama in an incredibly difficult situation. By almost any measure, public insubordination of this level demands he be fired. A president just loses too much face if something like that isn’t clearly punished. And if he’s not it will legitimize what amounts to a culture of insubordination. At the same time, firing McChrystal now would completely upset the president’s Afghanistan policy at a critical moment — and it’s a policy the White House seems to believe is going well.

(Steve Clemons says he should be fired, period.)

Behind this though, remember, there’s a major policy division over the direction of our policy in Afghanistan. And this blow up is only a manifestation of that deeper fight.

Look for a key tell in how Secretary Gates responds to these developments. More shortly.

Steve Clemons says Obama has no choice but to fire Gen. McChrystal.

Justin Elliott notes that almost all the most incendiary quotes in the now famous McChrystal/Rolling Stone article come from unnamed aides.

The local NBC affiliate in Vegas is literally going on the air begging Sharron Angle to allow them to interview her.

A fresh round of lobbying from the big banks looks set to seriously water down the so-called Volcker Rule in the financial reform legislation. The word up on the Hill is that it’s all about Sen. Brown (R-MA) who holds the deciding 60th vote and wants the waterdown. But Sen. Levin (D-MI) the primary author of the key rule doesn’t buy that and seems to believe that other members of the Democratic caucus have been gotten to by the bank lobbying and actually want to see the Volcker Rule watered down too. Our Brian Beutler gets the story form Sen. Levin.

As the Daily Show points out, at least BP CEO Tony Hayward only attended that yacht race and had the good sense to postpone the “manatee round-up” and cancel the “6th annual Hayward family dolphin hunt.” Watch.