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I have a busy morning here, but want to draw attention to an article this morning in the New York Times by Robert Pear on the ongoing discussions of healthcare reform for the United States:Since last fall, many of the leading figures in the nation’s long-running health care debate have been meeting secretly in a Senate hearing room. It is not not a great plan they appear to be cooking up.

Well, you just knew that the GOP wouldn't take the bonecrushing loss in last November's elections to Rico Suave Obama and too cool for school Dems lightly. They were, like an octogenarian on Viagra, going to get hip. Or a hip replacement. Whatever. They started by electing the rootin tootin slick dick midnight mustache Michael Steele as DNC Chairman. Between Steele and Boner Boehner, what could go wrong?

Ian has a great piece up at FDL on the financial sector's problems, their genesis, and the Obama Administration's conventional wisdom, status quo, manner of dealing with them. He describes the fallacy of viewing it as a "black swan" event. That is a very rare, random and unpredictable event. We should be similarly concerned about short sidedness with American industry and manufacturing, which are the real foundation of the American economy.

As you may know, President Obama came to Phoenix in order to roll out his $75 Billion Plan to Fight Home Foreclosures. This was exciting for me, because Obama spent last night at a resort, Montelucia, about 3/4 of a mile from my house. Here are the details of the plan he announced and photos from his visit.

Chicago tenor Roland Burris is singing a new tune by acknowledging he sought to raise campaign funds for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the request of the governor’s brother at the same time he was making a pitch to be appointed to the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama. Burris' latest comments in Peoria Monday night were the first time he has publicly said he was actively trying involved in seeking campaign financing for Blagojevich.

When it was announced Sunday that President Obama had decided against appointing an "Auto Czar", instead opting for a panel of Administration financial experts including, but not limited to, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Ron Bloom, it pretty much signaled that the Administration was going to continue to work with GM as an existing, functioning entity instead of forcing them into bankruptcy. Monday night, that was confirmed.

Here it is, another glorious President's day, and wouldn't you know it world leaders are exchanging presents. And Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sent one President Obama's way: President Hugo Chávez handily won a referendum on Sunday that will end presidential term limits, allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely.

I had this post mostly written as a screed against Greg Craig, who appeared to be caving again on Obama's stated principles on presidential privileges. But after checking with three data points, I'm not so sure.

Here's a prediction of where the new Burris controversy is going: I suspect we'll find out, in coming days, that while Burris did not donate directly to Blago, he never refused to bundle donations for Blago. I don't know whether Burris actually did bundle donations, but I suspect we'll learn that Burris has never refused to bundle donations.