Ticket Notice: Sunday Shows -- Cheney, Biden, Rice, Cantor

ABC This Week: Joseph Biden and a roundtable with ABC News' Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, and George Will along with ABC's Donna Brazile.

CBS Face the Nation: Kerry Kennedy, Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), Geraldine Ferraro, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), NYC Dept. of Education Chancellor Joel Klein, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter.

Fox News Sunday: Vice President Dick Cheney.

CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman, Financial Services Committee, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Laura Tyson, former Clinton economic adviser, Carly Fiorina, former chairman & CEO, Hewlett-Packard, Ed Rollins, Republican political strategist; David Gergen and James Carville, CNN political analysts; Tara Wall, deputy editorial page editor, Washington Times; Jessica Yellin, William Schneider and Ed Henry CNN correspondents and analysts.

NBC Meet The Press: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a roundtable with CNBC's Erin Burnett, Chicago Sun-Times' Carol Marin, NBC's Andrea Mitchell and NPR's Michele Norris.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Associated Press (Cheney makes Gridiron joke).

Obama's final Cabinet picks and final warning for auto industry

Just in time to pack for his 10-day vacation in Berwyn, Ill., President-elect Barack Obama wrapped up his Cabinet nominations today. (See video below.)

We're just kidding about Berwyn. He's really going back to Hawaii.

Obama also took the occasion to endorse the short-term financial bailout package announced today by President Bush, who didn't want the American automobile industry imploding on his watch. Hard to believe that $17.4 billion is short-term, but there you have it. So he kicked the can down the road for the new guys to confront, which was fine by the unions and Congress since there'll be more Democrats to handle it come January.

The new Congress gets sworn in on Jan. 6 and starts committee hearings on Obama's Cabinet nominees almost immediately, planning to have all or almost all confirmed by the Jan. 20 inauguration date.

Here's a news video on the final nominees and Obama's car remarks.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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AG Jerry Brown, Prop. 8 defender. now seeks ban on same same-sex marriage ban

Hey, it's legal stuff. Who said it has to make sense?

California's Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown was for defending the recent voters' approval of Prop. 8 banning same-sex marriage before he was against it.

Less than an hour ago Brown, who has his eyes on the governor's chair again come 2010, made the surprise announcement that while he used to think he had to defend any legal challenges to Prop. 8 as California's chief state attorney, he's changed his mind and is attacking it.

Now, he's filed his own legal challenge because, he says, the successful proposition "deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution."

It is usually the attorney general's duty to defend the state's laws, including those enacted by the people of California through the proposition process.

But after studying the matter, he says, he came to the conclusion that gay rights activists were correct in arguing that the proposition amounted to a constitutional revision, instead of a more limited amendment.

Brown added: "Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification."

Oh, and by the way, do you know who's the lead defender of the proposition before the state's Supreme Court? It's Kenneth Starr. THE Kenneth Starr.

More on this by Jessica Garrison over at L.A.Now now and later.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Associated Press

Corruption spotlight prompts new Illinois license plate for 2009

For some reason, possibly having something to do with the fact that three of the last seven governors have had certain legal problems, Illinois seems to be coming out with a new license plate design for 2009.

(Not really, but this design is making the e-mail rounds today.)

In 2002, Democrat House member Rod Blagojevich was elected governor on a reform ticket, promising a new governmental openness and change that works in Springfield. That's because the previous governor, Republican George Ryan, was in legal trouble and is now in federal prison.

Last week U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald claimed to have FBI bugs and wiretaps showing Blagojevich demanding money for the nomination to fill a U.S. Senate seat as well as to get state contracts and aid. As The Ticket reported here a short time ago, the governor has defiantly denied those charges.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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As Chicago politics turn: Blagojevich vows to fight, fight, fight

In a predictably Chicago kind of way, legally-embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich bluntly and defiantly vowed today to stay on the job and fight, fight, fight the corruption charges against him "until I take my last breath."

We have a breaking news video report below.

The 51-year-old Democrat, a state political ally of President-elect Barack Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is accused in a federal criminal complaint of auctioning off his nomination to fill Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat as well as shaking down construction companies and a children's hospital for political contributions in exchange for state business or aid.

As a result, Blagojevich has become politically radioactive in the last 10 days with Obama and others asking for his resignation and/or moving legally to oust him. "It's kinda lonely right now," Blagojevich admitted during a brief Chicago news conference he called against his lawyer's advice. The governor took no questions.

Like a prizefighter bouncing in the ring corner just before the bell, an energetic Blagojevich opened with: "I'm here to tell you right off the bat that I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing. I intend to stay on the job and I intend to fight this thing every step of the way...I have done nothing wrong."

It is a familiar scenario in Illinois politics, a prominent politician accused of wrongdoing by federal authorities, vowing his innocence. Yada yada. The difference this time, of course, is that the case involves a pugnacious politician who's been good friends for years with a president-elect, bequeathed his House seat to the new president's chief of staff and knows as much about his state and municipal political allies as they know about him in a no-holds-barred political world that doesn't permit wusses to rise.

Blagojevich shared with Obama and others a political fundraiser and fixer in Antoin Tony Rezko, now convicted on 16 federal corruption charges and reportedly talking with FBI investigators to ease his prison sentence. Obama was not involved in the Rezko trial and U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said last week the ex-senator was not involved in the Blagojevich bugs and wiretaps, although Emanuel is understood to appear frequently, which could be normal senator-governor discourse about Obama's successor.

So the danger of further political revelations remains just below the surface. And all the while it provides ongoing insights into the at best murky and often seamy side of Illinois state politics that produced the nation's new chief executive as a perceived political beacon of what he's never been on the Illinois level, an ardent advocate of aggressive political reforms.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: M. Spencer Green / Associated Press

Rick Warren, Obama's inauguration pastor, denies homophobia

Rick Warren, the Orange County evangelical pastor who'll give the invocation at Barack Obama's historic presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill next month, says he's not at all homophobic, as some gay rights groups have charged, because he supported Prop. 8 to ban same-sex marriage.

Warren, who's at the center of a growing controversy over his inaugural invitation from the president-elect, said Prop. 8 became more about free speech than anything else. Speaking of free speech, as reported here, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center  strongly criticized Obama on Thursday for his invitation to Warren to pray with the immense crowd at the opening of the inaugural ceremony. The group also demanded that the Democratic president-elect disinvite Warren from participating.

Obama has said he doesn't agree with some things Warren says and vice versa, but Warren invited him to speak in August at the Saddleback Forum. And, Obama adds, disagreeing with someone doesn't mean being disagreeable to each other. That's something his campaign has preached about for two years. Listen to Obama explain it himself on the video.

Warren, who heads the mega-church Saddleback in Lake Forest, says he's got no problem with gays having relationships; just don't call it marriage, he says. Marriage is between one man and one woman and has been for 5,000 years in numerous religions.

Warren also points out that his congregation has donated many millions of dollars to help gays with AIDS, which couldn't possibly be labeled homophobic.

Listen to the explanation in his own words in this news video.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Bill Clinton lists 2,922 pages of rich friends so Hillary can make more (friends)

For somebody who left office in 2001 with what to an ordinary human would seem a staggering personal debt, ex-President William J. Clinton has done all right, both for himself and for his Clinton Foundation.

He and his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, successfully resisted requests and demands to see the donor lists of his foundation in recent years. But apparently as part of a transparency agreement between the Clintons and President-elect Barack Obama's transition team as a condition of the senator's impending appointment as secretary of State, the ex-president released 2,922 pages of foundation donor names today.

It reads like a "Who are they?" file of the globe's rich people and governments. Saudi Arabia, Norway and Jamaica, for instance, have donated millions of the $492 million given to the foundation. (Something else to think about: That awesome sum is still not quite 66% of the amount poured into Obama's presidential campaign.)

Clinton has said he will continue to release contributors' names as long as his wife is secretary of State, which she isn't yet. The Obama transition team apparently trusts that the cleansing power of daylight will prevent or cover any potential conflicts of interest.

The list includes sources as varied as Bill and Melinda Gates, Stephen Bing, an arm of the World Health Organization and the Princess Diana Memorial Fund.

But you just know that every time H. Clinton travels somewhere on Obama administration business someone somewhere will be combing the foundation database to see if her host is among the charitable many who might seek favors from her.

Here's a helpful news video that outlines the difficulties.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Biden buys fancy dog, next up Obama. But rescue or purebred?

Somewhere right now there is a dog of some kind that doesn't know it's about to be plucked from furry obscurity to live with two little girls in a white house as something akin to a Cinderella national pet.

We're taking a vote down below here on where the Obamas' new dog should come from, a purebred breeder or a rescue shelter, after the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Barack and Michelle Obama have promised Sasha and Malia a dog when they move into the president's house because virtually every president needs to have a pet, like about two-thirds of American households.

We've been so busy in recent days writing about such superficial things as the alleged sale of a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois and the alleged homophobia of Obama's chosen inauguration pastor from California that we missed the contretemps stirred up by fellow blogger Lindsay Barnett over at L.A. Unleashed.

It seems that Vice President-elect Joe Biden has been reading up on his VP 101 text and discovered that he too needs a dog, in addition to his adopted stray cat Daisy.

So he went over to Pennsylvania and bought a German Shepherd puppy from a breeder, which got people talking about puppy mills and violations and saving some of the thousands of homeless dogs and cats in cages waiting for adoption or euthanasia in the nation's crowded shelters.

(CANINE UPDATE: Biden has decided to get a second dog -- he'd prefer a golden retriever -- and this one will come from a shelter. Seems like the kind of compromise a legislator would make, but that can't be because Biden is almost a VP.)

So before it's too late for the new First Family, what should they do about getting a dog? Vote below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Brown family via Associated Press

Obama's inauguration pastor, Rick Warren, draws 2 Calif. volleys

Dueling public statements were released moments ago almost simultaneously on the growing controversy over President-elect Barack Obama's invitation to a conservative California pastor to give the invocation at his inauguration Jan. 20.

Just a few hours ago, The Ticket chronicled Obama's firm stand behind his invitation to Dr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. Who'd have expected a few weeks ago that the liberal left would be attacking and threatening the Democratic president-elect while a conservative pastor of an Orange County mega-church would be praising him for courage.

Now, a few minutes ago the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center issued a statement under the name of chief of staff Darrel Cummings calling on the president-elect to disinvite Warren, who supported Prop. 8 on the Nov. 4 ballot, which passed and bans same-sex marriage.

Cummings' statement said:

"If President-elect Obama does not disinvite Rick Warren, then he is defining what inclusion in America will mean under his administration.  It will mean that the practice of bigotry is acceptable, and that as president — in the name of 'inclusion' — he will provide a place and platform for that bigotry to be expressed and grow. 

"Apparently we are welcome into the big tent of hope, but if we choose to enter, we should do so knowing we are in hostile, yet 'balanced' territory.”

At almost the same time, Warren issued a brief statement too. It said:

"I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn’t agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony.

"Hopefully individuals passionately expressing opinions from the left and the right will recognize that both of us have shown a commitment to model civility in America.

"The Bible admonishes us to pray for our leaders. I am honored by this opportunity to pray God’s blessing on the office of the President and its current and future inhabitant, asking the Lord to provide wisdom to America’s leaders during this critical time in our nation’s history."

More to come, it would seem.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Obama to gay protesters: Rick Warren's my inauguration pastor pick

No backing down whatsoever today from President-elect Barack Obama in the face of some strong criticism from gay and lesbian interests over his choice of Saddleback's Rick Warren for the invocation speaker at the Jan. 20 inauguration.

As pastor of his mega-church in Lake Forest, Warren was an outspoken proponent of Prop. 8, which passed on Nov. 4 and overturns a court decision allowing same-sex marriage in California.

As The Ticket reported earlier today, gay and lesbian groups, which had been key backers of Obama but largely silent on his ostentatious other moves toward the political center since winning the White House, erupted in a loud chorus of opposition to Obama's pick of Warren.

But at another news conference at his transition headquarters in Chicago today, Obama held firm, saying an important premise of his entire campaign was that different sides can disagree on some issues without being disagreeable and unable to work together on others. After all, last spring he claimed he attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years while disagreeing with his radical sermons, which he also said he hadn't heard.

He said he maintains his consistent support for equal rights for gays and lesbians. And he's not changing his choice of who gives the opening prayer at his historic Inauguration on the Capitol steps the morning of Jan. 20.

We'll let the president-elect speak for himself on this breaking news video just below here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times