Now, Democrats join Dick Cheney's critique of Obama

President Obama is set to grant a blanket pardon shortly to this year's White House turkey (No, not him, the genuine fowl). 

But while Obama advised his cabinet Monday to take a little time off this week, presumably to give thanks and watch Detroit lose to Green Bay again, there's a real challenge for the 44th president to discern today: exactly what he should be thankful for. Never mind his slow, steady fade in the polls, matching the slow, steady rise in unemployment.

Although he's not in any election for nearly three more years, Obama's reputation, congressional clout and ability to accomplish pretty much anything is in serious jeopardy come next November's midterms, if not before. Former VP Dick Cheney, who single-handedly reinvented the wonderful Wyoming word "dithering" in recent weeks, is at Obama again (see video below) in no uncertain terms.

Which some might find predictable. But would they expect Arianna Huffington to be openly worrying that the Obama administration just doesn't get it about the economy and jobs? Or how about Leslie Gelb, former New York Times columnist, State and Defense Department official and now president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations?

He's calling Obama's recent Asia trip an unproductive waste of precious presidential time under the headline: "Amateur Hour at the White House."

What's going on here for The One chosen barely a year ago with such widespread hope and....

A Kennedy battles a bishop: church, state and abortion

Rhode Island Democrat Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, has, like his father, long been a public supporter of abortion rights.

Because of his stance on abortion, Bishop Thomas Tobin, the archbishop of the Providence diocese, three years ago banned Kennedy from receiving Holy Communion but promised to keep the decision confidential.

Now, the 42-year-old Kennedy is going public. And the bishop is fighting back.

On Friday, Kennedy told the Providence Journal that Bishop told him he was "not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official,” particularly on abortion.

Bishop Tobin replied that even though “I have no desire to continue the discussion of Congressman Kennedy’s spiritual life in public," he will defend the church or his pastoral ministry from "inaccurate statements." The truth, said the bishop, is that he never discussed their conversation with anyone else, and that he prays that Kennedy will “enter into a sincere process of discernment, conversion and repentance,”

Kennedy first attacked the church in October during the House debate on abortion protections in the healthcare bill. At the time, the Rhode Island congressman told Catholic News Service, “I thought they were pro-life. If the Church is pro-life, then they ought to be for health-care reform because it’s going to provide health care that (is) going to keep people alive."

Despite the war of words in the public arena, the church has been winning in the halls of Congress. A few weeks ago, lobbying by Catholics helped preserve limits on government funding for abortions in the healthcare bill, protections they are again seeking in the Senate.

As Politico's Jeanne Cummings reported this morning, the U.S. Conference of Bishops hit on a winning lobbying strategy: deploy paid staff to Capitol Hill, tap influential bishops to lobby key congressional leaders and distribute bulletin inserts to 19,000 parishes with easy instructions — and sample wording — for sending a message to local representatives.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Associated Press

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Top Democrat warns Afghanistan will bankrupt domestic programs, threatens war surtax if Obama sends more troops

David Obey came to Congress in 1969, a young Democratic congressman from Wisconsin, opposed to the Vietnam War and mindful of the funding it was draining from Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs.

Thirty years later, he is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and adamant that Afghanistan is a similar quagmire that could bankrupt President Obama's domestic agenda.

"There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it."

Comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam, Obey said that both were long-standing civil wars and that, in each case, the United States found itself with an unreliable partner on the ground.

"On the merits, I think it is a mistake to deepen our involvement," Obey said. "But if we are going to do that, then at least we ought to pay for it. Because if we don't, if we don't pay for it, the cost of the Afghan war will wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."

"If we have to pay for the healthcare bill, we should pay for the war as well," Obey said, "by having a war surtax."

Obey's comments come just as Washington is starting to acknowledge the huge debt laid at its doorstep by recent programs -- including the massive drug-prescription bill and Iraq war costs enacted under the Bush administration as well as the healthcare overhaul and stimulus plans ginned up under Obama.

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The current national debt is $12 trillion, and the White House estimates that, by 2019, interest from the debt will top $700 billion a year. As one analyst, Pimco's William Gross, told the New York Times, “What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter. The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the ones left over from the last winter.”

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: David Obey. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

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Should Santa move to head of line for H1N1 shot?

Should the U.S. government move Santa Claus to the front of the line for H1N1 shots?

As the Christmas season approaches, malls are already setting up thrones for Santa, welcoming kids to jump in Santa's lap and whisper all their secret hopes in his ear. 

As for Santas, they're pressing Washington to let them join pregnant women and toddlers at the front of the line.

The kids are "little Petri dishes that are sitting on our laps and you have to protect them as well as yourself,"  said Robert Flemming, a Santa's helper at a mall in Fresno.

Some health officials think swine flu is so threatening that the mall visits to see Santa should be canceled altogether. "If we take this really seriously, and I think we should because people are dying, it wouldn't be inappropriate to say this is a year maybe we shouldn't do these mass gatherings," said Dr. Jack Turco, director of Dartmouth University's health services.

As they tend to be overweight, Santas are at increased risk for the disease, but one county health official in Ohio doubts the government will revisit the priority list. "I don't think the priority list is going to change," said Dr. Vicki Whitacre, of the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department.  Once the government has reached all of the high-risk groups, she added, it will make the vaccine available for everyone.

In the meantime, several Santa organizations already have held seminars on hand washing. And some Santas are even eschewing white gloves this year so they can continually wash their hands. Many malls are now putting hand-sanitizing dispensers at the gates of the North Pole.

And you thought it was as easy as donning a beard and a red velvet costume.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Palin to Biden: 'Drill, baby, drill' not that complicated

(UPDATE: 1:28 p.m. An additional quote from the program and a link to the full transcript has been added below.)

Rush Limbaugh has said of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's new book, "Going Rogue," that it is "truly one of the most substantive policy books I've read."

So the conservative icon was determined not to follow the media herd. In a half-hour interview with the Republican Party's hottest commodity, Limbaugh did not ask Palin about her quarrels with John McCain's presidential campaign, her interview with CBS' Katie Couric, her clothes, her husband or her ambitions.

Instead, he offered her a platform for policy, a chance to burnish her credentials, to add gravitas to the resume.

On the green revolution: "A lot of snake-oil science. ... Somebody's making an awful lot of money" from the fear of global warming.

On healthcare: "There are lots of common-sense solutions before we get the federal government involved."

And, finally, on the "drill, baby, drill" chant that defined her appearance before the Republican National Convention last summer: "What is complicated about tapping into safe supplies" of oil?

Responding to Vice President Biden's recent comment that addressing environmental issues is more complicated then just drilling, Palin said, "It's not that complicated, it's political."

(UPDATE: The full Limbaugh-Palin transcript is now available here. He also asked Palin about the loss of her endorsed Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, in New York's 23d District:

Well, I think what you saw there is -- and of course it's not just the Republican machine, it's the Democrat machine, too.  You know, if you're not the anointed one within the machine, sometimes you have a much tougher row to hoe and that's what Hoffman faced. He was the underdog. 

I think great timing for him, though, to stand strong on his conservative credentials and essentially come out of nowhere and prove that an American without that resume, without that machine backing can truly make a difference in an election like this.

RUSH:  Well, now, you used the term, "If you're not the anointed one by the party machine, you're the underdog and you have a tough row to hoe."  Based on things that I read, the Republican establishment would not anoint you to be a nominee of their party should you choose to go that way. 

Palin, who upset the entrenched GOP establishment in Alaska to win the gubernatorial primary, chuckled.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Will prayers sway Lieberman on healthcare? Rabbis rally. Priests, ministers, imams too

Connecticut's Joe Lieberman is a unique figure in Washington. He's an independent who caucuses with the Democrats but campaigns for Republicans like Arizona's John McCain.

He's also an observant Jew who honors the Sabbath. The senator makes an exception for work when the Senate is in session on Saturdays.

Now, an interfaith group of clergy is lobbying him to drop his plans to filibuster any healthcare bill that contains a public option. Their strategy: prayers.

During a Sunday night vigil, a crowd walked from Stamford High School, Lieberman's alma mater, to his condo building across the street. According to the Stamford Advocate's Devon Lash, residents went out on their balconies to listen to rabbis, ministers, priests and imams speak from behind a sidewalk pulpit.

"We are praying for the senator to change his heart and his mind," said the Rev. Tommie Jackson, of Faith Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Stamford. 

Then Monday, a multi-denominational group of clergy sent a letter to Lieberman asking him to abandon his filibuster threats. "A lot of groups who have historically supported [Lieberman] are praying for him to come back home," Rabbi Ron Fish, leader of the Concerned Clergy Of Connecticut, pictured above.

The letter, signed by 70 members of the clergy, posed this argument: "Whether from the words of Torah or the Gospels of Jesus, whether from the Talmud or the Koran -- our traditions all are explicit and clear on one thing: We are commanded to seek the welfare and healing of all those in our midst, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Rabbi  Ron Fish, of Congregation Beth El in Norwalk, Conn., participates in candlelight vigil urging Sen. Lieberman to back healthcare reform.  Credit: Chris Preovolos / Stamford Advocate

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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)

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 ...

Bill Clinton to do lunch with Senate Democrats, look at 2010 elections without healthcare reform

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put out the word last night -- this is a must-attend event.

Former President Clinton, whose presidency and arguably his marriage were clouded by his failure in 1994 to enact healthcare reform, is doing lunch today with Senate Democrats.

His expected topic: what the 2010 elections might look like for Democrats if the Senate fails again to pass healthcare reform.

The weekly lunch is of course closed to reporters, but already speculation is rife that Clinton -- on a mission for the Obama White House -- will focus his attention on the moderates whose votes could prove pivotal.

And he has personal ties to most of them. Clinton knew Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson when they both were governors. There's the Arkansas connection to the state's two Democratic senators -- Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. And he and Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman were once close personally. Of course that was before Clinton was impeached for lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which Lieberman decried as immoral.

Here's a younger Clinton, addressing Congress on healthcare in 1993.

Then as now, as MSNBC's First Read noted, "Clinton's at his best when he's giving others political advice, and he excels at framing an argument better than just about anyone on the political stage today."

Aside from politics, no word yet on what they are having for lunch.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: President Obama and former President Clinton at the Boston funeral for Sen. Ted Kennedy. Credit: Getty Images

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Sunday shows: Steele, Kaine, McDonnell, Gorbachev

UPDATE: 2:44 p.m. Saturday NBC has updated its lineup below.)

ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos": Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee; along with Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee; and a roundtable with Democrat Donna Brazile, Republican pollster Frank Luntz and ABC's Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts and George Will.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital With Al Hunt": House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Reps. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Republican consultant Ed Rollins.

CNN's "GPS With Fareed Zakaria": Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson, "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" author Robert Caro, columnist Peggy Noonan, "Creating Black Americans" author Nell Irvin Painter and former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

CNN's "State of the Union" with John King: GOP Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Republican pollster Bill McInturff, Democratic pollster Peter Hart, James Carville, Mary Matalin and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: McDonnell, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). With roundtable of Brit Hume, NPR's Mara Liasson, the Weekly Standard's Willliam Kristol and the New York Post's Kirsten Powers.

UPDATE: NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi (Republican) and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania (Democrat), David Brooks, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie and NBC's Tom Brokaw. Meet the Press has added Gen. George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, to its guest lineup.

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Inside Tuesday's elections: The lessons and warnings for Obama, GOP

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Get politics all day, every day, by clicking here for Twitter alerts of each Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot.  Also on Facebook here.

Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images (McDonnell).