Sen. Sessions (R-AL) gets the budget ball rolling by begging President Obama to start destroying Social Security so Republicans don’t have to. I’m listening to another guy on Fox now saying how Dems are obligated to axe Social Security because President Bush took such a hit for trying to axe it in 2005.

I already put Haley Barbour firmly in the fantasy campaign ranks of 2012 presidential candidates. But news that as a DC lobbyist he lobbied on behalf of the Mexican government for what conservatives call “amnesty” should push him even further into the fantasy ranks on the primary side.

Here’s the key thing to keep in mind in this current round of budget politicking. President Obama has proposed some pretty substantial cuts to government spending. Sen. Sessions and other Republicans are saying it’s not nearly enough. And ABC reports not only Republicans but some Democrats are saying it too.

But while Washington and much of the national political press (Norah O’Donnell, I’m lookin’ at you) gets into a frenzy let’s not forget that all the available public opinion data suggests the public either opposes this or considers it a low priority relative to job creation and other priorities. There’s really not more to say than that. Douglas Holtz-Eakin just said on TV that the public spoke on this in the last election. Washington is acting as though it’s chasing public opinion, public demands. But it’s not. It’s just not. That doesn’t mean it’s bad policy or good policy. But the public isn’t on board with it. And there’s virtually no demand for cuts to Social Security.

Ask anybody who actually looks at the long-term fiscal outlook. The problem isn’t Social Security. It’s in federal spending on health care.

The new US Commission on Civil Rights has now met — the one not stacked with right-wing operatives — and they’ve shut down the bogus New Black Panther Party investigation and suspended printing of the previous group’s report.

OMB Director Jack Lew, just now to reporters: “What we do have an agreement on [between White House and Repubicans in Congress] — is that it would not be prudent to shut the govternment down,” our Susan Crabtree reports.

More soon … but I’m curious if Republicans on the Hill are down with this “agreement.”

Researchers have announced what they believe to be the first discovery of a sunken whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, on a coral reef in the Pacific. Adding to the intrigue, the ship is believed to be the Two Brothers, which was captained by a man whose experience aboard another whaling ship — sunk by a whale — was the inspiration for Melville’s Moby Dick.

Click here for more pics.

Is there a massive planet in our solar system that no one knows about? Two astrophysicists say there is.

Looking at a weak presidential field, some Republicans are clamoring for Jeb Bush to get into the race. But even a new Fox News poll shows President Obama beating Jeb by 20 points in a national race.

Breitbart changes his story about why he posted the original (shadily edited) Shirley Sherrod video.

In the course of a lengthy, very interesting and very NateSilverian run-down of the statistical evidence that the current GOP 2012 field really is as weak as people say, Nate rolls out this beautifully telling and concise paragraph …

Meanwhile, the Republicans have two candidates in Ms. Palin and Mr. Gingirch whose net favorability ratings are actually in the double-digit negatives, something which since 2000 had only been true of Pat Buchanan and Al Sharpton.