Fort Hood shootings were terrorism, says Senate Armed Services Committee chair Carl Levin

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, which will investigate the deadly Ft. Hood shootings, calls them an act of terrorism.

Although some officials, including fellow Democrat President Obama in the early post-shooting hours, have urged caution in characterizing the shocking shootings that caused the deaths of 13 and wounding of 29 on the Texas Army base, Levin tells C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program in a taped interview, "It sure looks like that."

Levin has already been briefed by investigators.

The Ticket has obtained video excerpts (see below) of the cable program to be broadcast Sunday at 7 a.m. Pacific time (10 a.m. Eastern).

Today the man accused of the Nov. 5 killings, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, will undergo a pretrial confinement hearing in Killeen, Texas, at his bedside in a heavily guarded hospital room.

The precise schedule for the unusual hearing is unannounced for security reasons, but prosecutors seek a judicial ruling that their existing pretrial confinement is appropriate. They have announced they will seek the death penalty in this case.

Hasan's civilian attorney, John Galligan, says he will argue that proceedings are moving too hastily.

On the C-SPAN video, Levin says the Armed Services Committee is undergoing briefings by military investigators and has two more scheduled. When they are completed, he says, he will schedule full Senate committee hearings on the military aspect of the deadly fusillade that broke out on the military base and shocked the nation with soldiers being killed allegedly by another soldier, a Muslim officer.

Americans themselves apparently have mixed feelings over characterizing the rampage as terrorism. A Fox News poll released Friday found that 49% of those interviewed preferred to describe the incident as "a killing spree" and that 44% thought "act of terrorism" was more accurate.

The older the respondent, the more likely he or she was to call it terrorism.

Forty-five percent believe the outburst involved the shooter mentally snapping, and 38% consider him a Muslim extremist protesting American foreign policies.

Levin said his committee would be careful in its hearing to avoid complicating either the military investigation or the upcoming prosecution. But he said he intends to pursue all leads, including such questions as why e-mails between Hasan and a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen were not taken more seriously by federal anti-terrorism investigators who knew of them before Nov. 5.

But even before those hearings, Levin added, "I'm not uncomfortable with thinking that's [terrorism] the likely outcome here and a likely accurate description."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: U.S. Army

West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd makes history, serving in Congress longer than anyone, ever

(UPDATE: 2:02 p. Pacific. A photo of a celebratory Sen. Byrd on the Senate floor minutes ago this afternoon has been added to this item above, courtesy of C-SPAN.)

Ever since Jan. 3, 1953, Robert Carlyle Byrd has represented West Virginia in Congress, first in the House, then in the Senate. If you're counting, that's 56 years, 10 months and 16 days.

Today he became the longest-serving member of Congress, eclipsing Carl Hayden, who represented Arizona from 1912, when the state joined the Union, until he retired in 1968. Hayden was known as the silent senator, so reluctant to speak that The Times once said of him, "No man in Senate history has wielded more influence with less oratory."

No one would make that claim about Byrd, known for his speeches on the history of the Senate, often delivered to an empty chamber, a 2-million-word extravaganza that is now available in printed form.

A lifelong Democrat who filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights bill, Byrd has since recanted his stance against equal rights for African Americans and called his membership as a young man in the Ku Klux Klan "the greatest mistake I ever made."

Known as "the champion of earmarks," Byrd has been in the Senate so long that many of the buildings and institutions in West Virginia are named for him. And because of his seniority, Byrd is now third in line in presidential succession -- behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The ailing Byrd, who turned 92 on Friday, spends much of his time these days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But on the Senate floor today, colleagues saluted him for his longevity.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likened him to New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, who played in 2,130 consecutive baseball games, a record later topped by the Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr..

"Throughout history, forecasters have sentenced themselves to ridicule for prematurely assuming a skyscraper's height would never be topped, for promising an invention’s ingenuity would never be outdone," Reid said."Even so, I am willing to risk predicting that many of the records set by Sen. Robert Byrd will never be matched."

-- Johanna Neuman

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Sen. Robert Byrd becomes longest-serving lawmaker in congressional history

Photo: C-SPAN

Good news: Obama creates 30 new jobs in one congressional district. Bad news: No such district

Chicago politics, where voting is such a revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration.

This afternoon comes the most encouraging economic news, courtesy of our keen-eyed buddy Rick Klein over at ABC, that the Obama administration's $787-billion economic stimulus has, for example, thankfully created 30 new jobs in a little-known rural corner of Arizona at a cost to American taxpayers of only $761,420.

That works out to only $25,380.67 spent to create each individual job.

Seems like a lot per slot, but those 30 folks must be happy to be employed again and paying taxes.

This will be a real feather in the cap of Vice President Joe Biden, who's been left behind and assigned by the ever-campaigning president to monitor the stimulus plan, its spending and effectiveness moving into the crucial midterm elections of 2010. Might the Democrats snatch that House seat?

So the people of that 15th Congressional District in staunchly Republican Arizona should be pretty happy about this.

Trouble is, there is no 15th Congressional District in Arizona. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. Doesn't exist. Not in Arizona. Not even on paper at the Democratic National Committee. There are only eight. Period.

But the administration's much-vaunted recovery.gov website reported these jobs as being created there.

Could well be a computer glitch. Lord knows humans would never make such a dumb, misleading mistake, even in politics.

But then the trouble is that just months after grandly unveiling the recovery.gov website to showcase its economic prowess and tech-savvy, the Obama administration just spent 18 million additional taxpayer dollars to redesign the still new website.

And that site proudly also reported nonexistent new stimulus spending not just in Arizona but other states across the country.

So that looks to have worked pretty well, at least if you're counting computer designer jobs created.

Anyway, how do you think the 15th will vote next year?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Josua Roberts / Bloomberg News

What's real price tag on war in Afghanistan?

The casualties are sobering --  nearly 1,500 deaths to date among U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

So are the stakes -- the prospect of a Taliban resurgence that likely would reverse recent gains for women and girls and the destabilization of neighboring Pakistan, with its nuclear weapons and Al Qaeda cells.

But as President Obama weighs a decision on whether to deploy more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, a new front in the debate is emerging in Washington -- the financial costs.

The White House Budget Office estimates that it will cost about $1 million for each additional soldier sent to Afghanistan. So, a surge of 30,000 to 40,000 troops -- which is what Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is recommending -- would add $30 billion to $40 billion a year to the deficit.

At the Pentagon, the comptroller disagrees, estimating the cost of deploying and maintaining one soldier in Afghanistan for a full year  at $500,000. So, bottom line would be $15 billion to $20 billion.

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Obama recently made reference to the costs as one of the factors in his decision. In Japan on Friday, on the first stop of his eight-day visit to Asia, Obama said he was taking his time to deliberate because he wanted to make sure that "when I send young men and women into war, and I devote billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money, that it's making us safer." With costs and security in mind, he added, "our goal here ultimately has to be for the Afghan people to be able to be in a position to provide their own security. ...The United States cannot be engaged in an open-ended commitment."

An escalation in military spending could put Obama in the awkward position of winning Republican votes for the budget while losing Democratic ones for the policy. And a drain on the nation's bottom line also could imperil domestic programs favored by the White House.

A new surge, said Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, would "drain the spirit of the country ... as well as drain the U.S. Treasury, it would devour virtually any other priorities that the president or anyone in Congress had."

The added red ink is unlikely to make the decision any easier -- either for Obama or the public.

"It reflects the political climate," Georgetown University military analyst Christine Fair told Reuters. "The leadership is confused, we're broke, and most Americans don't know why we're there."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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Sunday shows: H. Clinton, Giuliani, Dunn, Duncan

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ABC's George Will and PBS' Gwen Ifill.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: ex-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn and Obama Budget Director Peter Orszag.

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Former CIA officer Reuel Gerecht, Claremont McKenna College's Minxin Pei, Harvard's Roderick MacFarquhar and "The Age of the Unthinkable" author Joshua Cooper Ramo.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Obama advisor David Axelrod, Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) and CNN's William Bennett and Donna Brazile.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Giuliani and Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Clinton, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Related item:

Face the Nation wins a crucial demographic

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: EPA (Clinton in the Philippines)

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Michelle Obama sells healthcare to the ladies

Lest anyone forget, while Michelle Obama's husband talks diplomatic niceties all over Asia for nine days and Todd Palin's wife pushes her book from Barnes & Nobles to Sam's Clubs all across this country, the first lady, stuffy nose and all, stays back home to continue the desperate political business of selling healthcare reform. Especially to seniors.

We said, ESPECIALLY TO US SENIORS. Because polls now show support for the president's plan the weakest and waning among older Americans, who as we saw in recent interim elections are unlike younger Americans in that they actually show up to vote two years in a row.

Obama tells seniors, NOT A DIME OF MEDICARE MONEY WILL BE USED TO PAY FOR THE $1.3-TRILLION HEALTHCARE REFORM PLAN. As you can see in the transcript below, she calls Medicare "a sacred part of America's social safety net."

However, the Democrats' recently-passed House healthcare version would cut $400 billion -- possibly up to $500 billion -- from Medicare and Medicaid.

Women are a crucial audience for the Obamas and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to convince or re-convince about the Democratic healthcare plans because, as in many matters of the typical family, they play a disproportionate role in finding, arranging and obtaining medical care for everyone else, often at the expense of themselves.

So Obama was before a friendly, receptive audience today when she gave her pitch and, revealingly in the ongoing PR struggle, felt the need to correct what healthcare reformers call misinformation or false information "out there."

(BTW, although she's still doing way better than her husband deep down in the 40s now in favorability ratings among Americans, new Gallup numbers indicate the first lady's popularity has started to slide too, from a high of 72% last spring to a still-impressive 61% now.)

Keep scrolling for the entire Michelle Obama transcript, along with a news video down there, courtesy of Politico.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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First Lady Michelle Obama's Remarks on Healthcare Reform and Older Women, as provided by the White House

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. First of all, forgive me -- I’ve got children, and now I have a cold. (Laughter.) It goes along with the territory.

Let me begin by first thanking Tina Tchen, who’s doing an outstanding job as Director of the Office of Public Engagement by opening up this White House to the American people and....

As Obama leaves for Asia, GOP gains first lead on generic congressional ballot since he took office

Time was when American presidents in domestic trouble would travel abroad to be seen positively back home as a world leader.

Then-freshman Sen. Barack Obama was hoping for a little of that back in the summer of 2008 when he staged his expensive campaign rally with an adoring throng in downtown Berlin. Alas, Germans couldn't vote for him -- or a Republican. But it looked great stateside for a few days.

After a brief media statement this morning to get him plastered on the daytime news, President Obama will make the long flight (just ask Sarah Palin) to Alaska to talk with U.S. troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base at local lunchtime while Air Force One refuels for a flight to Tokyo, beginning the president's nine-day trip across Asia. Talk about throngs.

Obama could use some good political news because as he boards the plane with his own bedroom and shower stall, word spread from the Gallup Poll folks that for the first time in over a year, more Americans say they would pick Republicans on a generic congressional ballot than a Democrat.

It's now 48% Republican and 44% Democrat. And this comes after months of the ...

Dick Armey, ex-congressman and now Tea Party activist, targets 2010 elections

Once, when Republicans ran the House, he was majority leader, coauthor of the party's 1994 "Contract With America," second only to Speaker Newt Gingrich in ushering in what was called at the time the Republican "revolution."

Nowadays, former Texas congressman Dick Armey is out on the hustings again, this time inspiring Tea Party activism against a Washington run by Democrats. As chairman of FreedomWorks, an advocacy group that promotes lower taxes and less government, he was one of the first Republicans to endorse conservative Doug Hoffman in that controversial New York District 23 congressional race. His current mission: Stretch the political map to empower more conservative candidates like Hoffman in the 2010 elections.

In a recent speech in North Carolina reported by the New York Times, the 69-year-old Armey said, “Nearly every important office in Washington, D.C., today is occupied by someone with an aggressive dislike for our heritage, our freedom, our history and our Constitution.”

Today on MSBNC's "Morning Meeting," Armey said President Obama's healthcare proposal is about "power and political control, not healthcare." If the Democrats were serious about healthcare, he said, they would enact tort reform, allow purchase of insurance across state lines and reduce government mandates.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Max Whittaker / Getty Images

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Scozzafava, the moderate banished by conservatives, vows to fight for the soul of the GOP

Last week, she dropped out of the race for New York's 23rd congressional district, throwing her support (with a friendly push from the Obama White House)  to the eventual winner, Democrat Bill Owens. The move was a political stunner, an attempt to thwart conservative Doug Hoffman, who was surging in the polls after attracting support from such heroes of the right as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and setting off a blood feud within the Republican Party between pragmatists and ideologues.

This week, in retaliation, Republicans in the Assembly stripped Dede Scozzafava of her leadership position there.

But the moderate Republican assemblywoman, who counts herself a champion of local politics over ideological purity, says she has no regrets and may even run for Congress again -- as a Republican.

"How can Sarah Palin come out and endorse someone who can't answer some basic questions," Scozzafava said in her first lengthy interview in today's Washington Post. "Do these people even know who they are endorsing?"

Bemused by commentators who now use her name as a verb -- as in Florida Gov. Charlie Crist could be "scozzfaved" as a moderate in the Republican Party's bruising Senate primary fight -- she thinks there are more of her than of them.

"There is a lot of us who consider ourselves Republicans, of the Party of Lincoln," she said. "If they don't want us with them, we're going to work against them."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Gary Walts / Washington Post

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Who should try Nidal Malik Hasan -- military or federal courts?

An Army hospital spokesman said today that Nidal Malik Hasan is now conscious and able to talk.

The 39-year-old Army major and combat psychiatrist is accused of unleashing a bloody massacre Thursday when he opened fire at a processing center at Ft. Hood Army military base, killing 13 and wounding 29.

The question now: Who will prosecute him?

Tom Kenniff, a former Army JAG officer and Iraq war veteran who served in Tikrit, said Friday he thought the judge advocate general's office on Ft. Hood will have exclusive jurisdiction over this case. "It's possible he could also be charged by the Feds with committing an act of terrorism, but my guess is the Army will get first crack at him," he said in an online chat for the Washington Post.

But Sunday, Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman said the Homeland Security Committee he chairs will investigate whether federal officials missed any red flags that Hasan had become a terrorist threat.

“We don’t know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs (Hasan) had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act,” Lieberman said on Fox News Sunday.

A finding of terrorism could trigger a decision by the Obama administration to take the case to federal court, and an admission that Hasan's alleged action was the first act of terrorism on American soil since Sept. 11. President Obama flies to Texas on Tuesday to participate in a memorial for the 13 victims.

Murder in either case is punishable by the death penalty, but the appeals process in the military justice system apparently tends to discourage executions. According to  the Houston Chronicle, of the  47 service members charged with murder in recent decades, 15 have received a death sentence, and none has been executed since 1961.

"We're in for a long haul," Scott Silliman, retired career JAG Air Force officer who now directs the Center on Ethics and National Security at Duke University Law School, told the paper. The Army "will not try to move the case too quickly because that might build in a problem down the road."

Meanwhile Hasan's family is asking that he be allowed to consult with a lawyer before speaking to investigators. In a statement Saturday, Eyad Hasan, the suspect's brother, said his family has “faith in our legal system and that my brother will be treated fairly.”

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Specialist Braden Purrentine trains a horse in front of flags flying at half-mast for the victims of Thursday's massacre at Ft. Hood. Credit: Reuters

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