Obama, in Texas, hails Bush I and volunteerism

Remarks by President Obama at 20th anniversary of Points of Light, Texas A&M University, as provided by the White House

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, howdy, Aggies.

AUDIENCE: Howdy!

THE PRESIDENT: It is an honor to be here with all of you today at this outstanding university.  (Applause.)

Now, I was told that if the winds had been different today, President Bush would have parachuted in to kick things off here.  (Applause.) That's the story. But that's OK, I am still thrilled to be introduced by this man whose vision of service we celebrate today, and whose life of service is an inspiration to all of us. (Applause.)

And much to his likely embarrassment, I'm going to talk a little more about the singular nature and impact of that service in a minute.  But before I do, I'd like to recognize several other people joining us today, starting with President Bush's extraordinary wife, Mrs. Barbara Bush -- (applause) -- where did she go, Madam First Lady?  There she is over there.  (Applause.)   As we all know, Mrs. Bush has an impressive record of service herself, particularly her tremendous work to promote family literacy across this country.  So we are very, very grateful for everything that she's done on behalf of our nation.

We have our Secretary of Defense here, Secretary Bob Gates, who I think you know a....

Obama salutes Pittsburgh NHL hockey champ, wishes it was Chicago, makes fun of small Canadian

This morning The Ticket here mentioned President Obama's peculiar love affair with a sad little western Pennsylvania city named Pittsburgh and the local sports teams that its people cling to so bitterly like a religion or guns.

This evening the Democrat was late to the event, but as scheduled, he still hosted the team at the White House. He introduced a large number of people, praised the players for their teamwork and finally shaving, and got the predictable team jersey.

They even had the National Hockey League trophy there (see photo above, not actual size), which is called the Stanley Cup in honor of the guy who probably paid for it way back even before Joe Biden was a senator.

Here are the president's full remarks, as provided by the White House:

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Please, everybody have a seat.

First of all, I'm sorry to keep you guys waiting -- I have all these things I've got to do....

How to get a job in the Obama administration in a tough economy

First, get a lot of money.

Second, get a lot of friends with a lot of money.

Third, all of you give a lot of that money to Barack Obama's Democratic presidential campaign.

A new research study by the Center for Responsive Politics confirms what a lot of Washington watchers expected all along: All that Obama talk about changing the way Washington works is also a whole lot of hooey, at least insofar as it relates to United States ambassadors to other countries.

The capitol's decidedly bipartisan tradition for generations has been: Want to live in a foreign place for a couple of years, probably not all that important a place but still foreign, get a nice title for life, luxurious government housing, staff, car and driver and more use for your tuxedo than back home?

Then help the winning White House entrant finance his/her campaign.

And no one throughout American political history ever had a better-financed campaign than Obama with his $750 million.

The CRP has found 19 of Obama's new ambassadors and their families bundled at least $3.4 million for Obama's campaign and an additional $1.4 million just for his inauguration festivities. And you thought the campaigns don't keep track of such generosity? Even some of now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's donors are getting rewarded.

Yes, true, Obama did name Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China. And Huntsman bundled $500,000 for Obama's defeated Republican opponent, old what's-his-name from Arizona who keeps popping up on the Sunday shows anyway.

But it's apparently worth at least a half-mil to Obama to get Huntsman tied to his Democratic administration, out of the country and far from Iowa in the run-up to 2012.

-- Andrew Malcolm

No bundling necessary to click here and receive Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. Or follow us   @latimestot

Hat Tip to Jake Tapper's must-read Political Punch blog.

Recognize the balding fellow on the $10,000 bill? We didn't either. Scroll down for his identity.

As world watches Cairo, Michelle Obama shakes up White House staff

One other thing that President Obama left out of his global speech to Muslims today was word of the top-level shakeup in First Lady Michelle Obama's White House staff.

While the nation was watching the world watch Obama speak and tour in Egypt, news of the East Wing staff changes came out. Out as the old chief of staff after less than five months is Jackie Norris, who started working with Mrs. Obama during the Iowa caucus campaign.

In as the new chief of staff is Susan Sher, who's been a friend of her boss since even before they started working together years ago at the University of Chicago.

Norris was sent over to become a "senior advisor" at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

To make things look all smooth and friendly-like in a city that thrives on gossip about invisible internal conflicts, all three women issued boiler-plate statements of their longtime friendship, deep commitments and excitement about pursuing the administration's agenda.

Norris, for instance, was quoted as saying: "I am grateful to President and Mrs. Obama for the opportunities and friendship they have given me over the last few years and I am looking forward to becoming an integral part of this Administration’s efforts to advance the cause of national and community service."

The only cliche left out of the White House statement was anyone's avowed goal of spending more time with their family.

-- Andrew Malcolm

The Ticket goes inside politics several times a day. Get Twitter alerts of each new item by clicking here. Or follow us @latimestot

New Obama tax outrage: Nominee leaves IRS refunds unclaimed!

There's word this morning that a major, unexpected appointee to the unfolding administration of President Barack Obama has quietly withdrawn his name from White House consideration.

A White House source declined to identify the nominee to save him from bipartisan mortification. But apparently as part of the crack Obama transition team's vetting process, they discovered that the nominee had paid all of his federal taxes through 2008.

Not only that, but the would-be nominee had, in fact, overpaid his federal income taxes since 2005.

Worse, he has yet to claim any refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, even when his oversights were repeatedly pointed out to him by a team of administration lawyers. This has left the federal government holding several thousand dollars that belong instead to the taxpayer.

Given the lengthening record of back-tax problems with numerous other administration appointments this year -- Tom Daschle, Timothy F. Geithner, Nancy Kelleher, Hilda Solis' husband, and, just yesterday, Kathleen Sebelius -- the nominee was said to feel that proceeding with his appointment and the predictable array of awkward questions surrounding such inexplicable behavior would be a major distraction to a governmental administration facing such serious challenges as how to live up to five-year automotive warranties during a four-year presidential term.

The nominee, a Washington veteran who wants to spend more time with his family, knew that his inadvertent oversights totaling some $8,800 were insignificant in a city where sums of money with 10 zeroes are routinely described as "a small percentage of total spending" without laughter. And he knew full well he'd be appearing before an open Senate committee dominated by fellow party members totally in the tank for him before they flossed that day.

But he felt that given the state of the nation's economy on April 1, just 15 days before the income tax deadline for regular people, and the rowdy tenor of politics on Capitol Hill right now, it would be politically untenable to explain in public hearings how any normal American, let alone an appointed federal official in Washington, could conceivably leave such a sum of his own money unpocketed in this day and age.

More details if they emerge on this April Fool's Day.

-- Andrew Malcolm

It is true, however, that if you click here, you can register for instant Twitter alerts to each new Ticket item.

Now, Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's latest Health nominee, also reports back-tax errors

Maybe having back-tax problems is a new requirement to join the new White House administration. Today, news of more "unintentional errors" on back income taxes for another Barack Obama Cabinet nominee.

The Associated Press is reporting this afternoon that Kansas Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the president's latest nominee to head the giant Health and Human Services Department, has divulged to a Senate committee that she has now paid in excess of $7,000 in back taxes plus $878 interest since her nomination.

Sebelius was actually a replacement Obama nominee for ex-Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, who admitted paying about $140,000 in back taxes and penalties from recent years. Others, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, performance officer Nancy Kelleher and ex-Democratic Rep. and now Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, also had back-tax problems, which were paid up and disclosed after their nominations.

Kelleher, like Daschle, withdrew her name. The others were confirmed anyway.

AP reports Sebelius said her accountant uncovered the mistakes to her benefit while reviewing documents for her and her husband, Gary, a federal magistrate, in preparation for Senate hearings including this Thursday before the Finance Committee. The "unintentional errors" involved charitable and mortgage deductions, she said.

-- Andrew Malcolm

No taxes necessary to click here and register for instant Twitter alerts to new Ticket items.

Bush refuses to criticize Obama, says 'essential' to help him; split with Cheney grows

A surprising split -- or perhaps a chasm -- appearing now between the former White House team of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who seemed so solidly in sync for eight years.

After a previous interview with Politico.com, the ex-vice president was on CNN last weekend, again criticizing the new Barack Obama administration for what Cheney characterized as decisions that could seriously threaten American national security, including changes in terrorist interrogation policy and closing Guantanamo Bay. The former VP did say Bush should not be blamed for the economic meltdown.

But Cheney was also openly critical of the decision not to pardon his former chief of staff, Lewis Libby in the closing days of the Bush administration.

That decision, perhaps needless to say, was made by Cheney's boss, President Bush, who unexpectedly chose Cheney as his two-time running mate in 2000 after originally asking Cheney to lead the search for a VP partner. So the right-hand guy is letting the world know now his post-administration displeasure with the boss.

Since flying home to Texas after the Obama inauguration on Jan. 20, Bush has been totally silent, staying first on his Crawford ranch and then moving into a new house in the Preston Hollow section of north Dallas to begin work on a book and his presidential library at Southern Methodist University.

Tuesday in Calgary, the 43rd president gave the first of about a dozen paid speeches arranged so far by the Washington Speakers Bureau on his 2009 schedule. And here's what Bush told about 2,000 business persons about his successor, the 44th president:

"There are plenty of critics in the arena. He deserves my silence."

Bush said something else too:

"I love my country a lot more than I love politics. I think it is essential that he be helped in office."

Not exactly the Rush Limbaugh failure line of comment. Or the Dick Cheney tone. Bush also said if the new president wanted his help, "he's welcome to call me."

The former president received two standing ovations from the Canadian audience, which paid $3,100 per table for "A Conversation with George W. Bush."

Bush said he was pleased to make his maiden post-presidential speech in a place like Alberta, (named for a daughter of Queen Victoria), which is Canada's most conservative province and one with close and deep energy-economic ties to Texas.

Bush joked that he'd need more such engagements to pay for the house his wife, Laura, bought without him seeing it. "I actually paid for a house last fall," he told the crowd. "I think I'm the only American to have bought a house in the fall of 2008."

The ex-president seemed to enjoy himself in the question-and-answer session, saying he was prepared to stay all day. "I'm flattered people even want to hear me in the first place."

Bush also revealed the outlines of his book, which will be built around what he regards as his 12 toughest decisions. "I want people to understand what it was like to sit in the Oval Office," he said.

We have a brief video with pictures below. And Mark Silva has more details on the story over in the Swamp.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Register here now for automatic alerts via Twitter on each new Ticket item.

Photo (top): Former President Bush talks with former Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna in Calgary. Credit: Ewan Nicholson / tinePublic via Associated Press

Photo (bottom): Bush arrives for speech. Credit: Associated Press

Conservative evangelical James Dobson retires from Focus on the Family

Dr. James Dobson, the conservative evangelical leader who founded Focus on the Family 32 years ago and turned it into a major political and media force with millions of followers across the country, suddenly resigned as chairman today.

The Colorado Springs group framed the resignation as part of an ongoing turnover of ministry leadership to the next generation. The 72-year-old Dobson's wife, Shirley, who is chairman of the National Day of Prayer, also left the Focus board.

A story on the organization's website said Dr. Dobson would continue his regular radio broadcasts from the Focus studios that are carried daily by hundreds of radio stations. He will continue to write for the Focus newsletter, which has 1.6 million monthly subscribers. And the couple said they wanted to spend more time grandparenting.

A statement attributed to the board said:

"One of Dr. Dobson's objectives during the last decade has been to help identify the next generation of leadership for the ministry, and to see it established securely before he stepped away from administrative oversight. That purpose has now been fulfilled, and we applaud Dr. Dobson for this concern for the future of the ministry."

Jim Daly, who's been Focus' chief executive since 2005, will continue in that role. Retired Air Force Gen. Patrick Caruana becomes the new board chairman.

While Dobson routinely sought to keep his conservative political views separate from his nonprofit organization's, he made little secret last year of his disdain for both Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, primarily over the Arizona's campaign finance work that put added political restrictions on public outreach by nonprofit groups like Focus. At one point he suggested he might not vote at all.

When it became clear that McCain would win the GOP nomination, Dobson endorsed former Baptist preacher and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He later said that, given the candidate put forth by the Democrats and his abortion stance, he had a moral obligation to vote, presumably for McCain.

-- Andrew Malcolm

No retirements at The Ticket. Register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo credit: Jeff Fusco / Getty Images

Oath-muff mocker Joe Biden muffs Hillary Clinton's oath

As everyone knows, Vice President Joe Biden is usually one of the planet's most circumspect when it comes to the spoken word.

So that same world was stunned when on the Obama administration's first afternoon in office, Biden stepped up to administer the oath of office to some staffers and made a sarcastic crack about needing the text to read because his memory wasn't as good as that of Chief Justice John Roberts, who had muffed Barack Obama's presidential oath the previous day in front of a few hundred million people.

Obama quietly reached out and squeezed Biden's left elbow to say, "Enough." And Biden later phoned the chief justice to apologize.

Today, with no foreign funerals ready yet, Biden was sent over to the State Department to re-administer the oath of office to Hillary Clinton. She actually took the oath just off the Senate floor moments after being confirmed last month. But a new administration can never have too many happy photo ops showing everyone getting down to work.

So in front of an eager pro-Clinton audience Biden stepped up to the new secretary of State with her oath on a piece of paper in hand.

And you just know what happened.

See it on video here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of oaths, take one now to register here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Now, it's Tom Daschle who forgot to pay taxes--$128,000 worth

More simple, inadvertent, overlooked, accidental, good-faith tax mistakes in the would-be Obama Cabinet.

This time it's Tom Daschle, the former South Dakota senator and Senate Democratic leader who got knocked off by the Republicans in 2004, shown here demonstrating the size of his tax mistakes over three years.

President Obama had wanted Daschle to be secretary of Health and Human Services and also honcho the administration's signature healthcare reform out of the White House.

But it turns out Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes over three years in private life when he was getting paid $1 million a year to offer advice to rich people. Good thing Daschle wasn't nominated to be secretary of the Treasury.

Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for the top Treasury officer to also make simple, inadvertent, overlooked, accidental, good-faith, ultimately corrected tax mistakes?

Oh, wait that did happen. Timothy Geithner missed paying $43,000 in taxes and didn't repay some until the Obama transition team insisted. But because it was so accidental and he's so good with money and numbers, Geithner got confirmed anyway by his party's Senate. So now he's lecturing bonused bankers about their outrageous greed.

What do you suppose will happen to Daschle over the revelation, initially by ABC News, that he didn't pay nearly three times that much money in taxes? His confirmation hearing is yet to be scheduled, but committee records indicate he filed amended returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007 just 29 days ago and has so far paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest.

The White House issued a statement late Friday night saying, "The president has confidence" that  Daschle's the right guy for healthcare reform. Which isn't the question actually.

Daschle was way too busy to speak Friday, so he sent out his poor spokeswoman, Jenny Backus. She said: "Sen. Daschle is embarrassed and disappointed by these errors."

Well, as long as he's embarrassed, it's probably OK for Daschle to join the administration of the ex-senator from Illinois who's going to be transparent, not allow a single lobbyist anywhere near power and change the way things are done in Springfield.

No, uh, make that Washington.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of taxes, there aren't any to register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle now as well.

Photo: Ron Edmonds / Associated Press