Update: Here's the text of Obama's remarks.

President Obama will be in Denver this afternoon to appear at fundraisers for Sen. Michael Bennet. According to his schedule (times changed to Mountain Time):

• 2:50PM: President Obama arrives in Aurora, Colorado
• 3:30PM: President Obama delivers remarks at a grassroots fundraiser for Senator Bennet
• 4:40PM: President Obama delivers remarks at a fundraising reception for Senator Bennet
• 5:35PM: President Obama departs Aurora, Colorado en route Las Vegas, Nevada

Locations:

He will deliver remarks at a fundraiser for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. He will also deliver remarks at a fundraising reception for Bennet at the Sheraton Hotel.

Medical marijuana activists are holding protests, "Patients Picket Obama: "Get the DEA Out of Colorado" across from the Fillmore. One of the reasons for the protest is the Feb. 12 raid on Chris Bartkowicz. Bartokowicz has a detention/bail hearing this afternoon.

What is called "moderation" in the Beltway has proven unpopular in the country. In his column today, E.J. Dionne elides this point:

On health care, months of delay in a futile quest for Republican support got the Democrats the worst of all worlds. The media gave them no credit for reaching out to the other side but did blame them for an ugly, gridlocked process. The demands of moderate Democrats for concessions [. . .] made the process look even seamier. [. . .] Nobody wants to admit that on health care the moderates won all the big fights. [. . .]

And if the Republicans refuse to cooperate, this will not mean that the bill isn't moderate. It will mean only that Republicans refuse to vote for a moderate bill. But if all the media talk about the "failure of moderation" is nonsense, this doesn't get liberals or Obama off the hook.

(Emphasis supplied.) 2009 was a year of "moderate" governance. And no one except the Beltway liked it. That is the political reality.

Speaking for me only

[I]f it is realism that we need, how about this for "realism": Fifteen months ago, America elected the most compellingly progressive president in fifty years. It also elected the largest Democratic majority in the House and Senate in more than a generation. Yet practically every major reform that this young president has promised is now stalled in Congress. [. . .] Loyalists, of course, blame all this on the crazy Republicans. [. . .] The defeats of the past year were not forced on this president by Republicans alone. [. . . MORE . . .]

Former Illinois Senator George Ryan, 76, serving a 78 month prison sentence, is seeking clemency (not a pardon) from President Barack Obama.

Lura Lynn Ryan, who has a terminal lung disease, said she is on oxygen 24 hours a day. Ryan, in federal prison in Indiana for more than two years, also has health problems, including kidney disease and infected teeth, said former Gov. Jim Thompson, who is representing Ryan.

..."There's nothing to be gained by keeping him another five years," Thompson said today. "He's already been punished, they are penniless and Mrs. Ryan has a very life-threatening illness. We're not asking for a pardon, just a release."

WaPo:

Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Eight in 10 poll respondents say they oppose the high court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unfettered corporate political spending, with 65 percent "strongly" opposed. Nearly as many backed congressional action to curb the ruling, with 72 percent in favor of reinstating limits.

[. . .] Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republican lawmakers have praised the ruling as a victory for free speech and have signaled their intent to oppose any legislation intended to blunt the impact of the court's decision.

This issue can be a political tip of the spear for Democrats if they choose to feature a populist message for the 2010 elections. Financial reform, job creation and other Main Street initiatives could help Dems turn their fortunes around. This requires not listening to silly people like Evan Bayh and Mark Halperin though.

Speaking for me only

Scott Horton writes:

What prosecutor can look away when a perpetrator mocks the law itself and revels in his role in violating it? Such cases cry out for prosecution. Dick Cheney wants to be prosecuted. And prosecutors should give him what he wants.

No he doesn't. Glenn Greenwald gets it right:

In general, people who commit felonies avoid publicly confessing to having done so, and they especially avoid mocking the authorities who fail to act.[But Cheney has] gradually escalated his boasting about having done so throughout the year. Why? Because he knows that [. . .] he will never be prosecuted no matter how blatantly he admits to these serious crimes. [. . .] Does anyone doubt that Cheney's assessment is right? And isn't that, rather obviously, a monumental indictment of most everything?

Matt Yglesias writes:

[O]ne of the big problems we have in American government is that politicians vastly overrate the importance of “positioning” and basically meaningless gambits. What the truth about the close linkages between economic performance and political outcomes reveal is that smart politicians should try harder to govern effectively by enacting policies that lead to broadly shares prosperity. The belief that you can just kind of much around for years and then turn things around with a clever speech or single well-honed micro-initiative is what leads to a pernicious level of passivity.

Precisely

I took it easy on myself in my Is That All There Is? post yesterday. Digby, recounting essentially the same story, is a little harder on herself:

I feel ridiculous for having written that. Not because it was a fairly correct analysis of the dynamic. Anyone could have seen that. What's embarrassing is the fact that I seemed so sure that the Democrats would change it. What a foolish miscalculation that was. Less than four years later, the "empty vessel of establishment bipartisan wishful thinking" is president. And my empty vessel of partisan wishful thinking -- the Democratic party --- is running for the hills.

The reality is Digby and I were more than a little hopey changey. Perhaps for different reasons than other folks, but just as naive in our own way. In related news, the 11 Dimensional Chess Brigade is back in full force. Good luck with that folks.

Speaking for me only

Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is announcing today he will not seek re-election.

The party faces several other retirements -- Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., both have said they will not seek reelection -- and challenges ahead in trying to hold on to those seats, among a range of others.

Republicans need 10 seats to re-take the Senate. Will they get them?

Republicans are favored to win in North Dakota. They may also be able to capture Vice President Joe Biden's old Senate seat in Delaware.

Via Andrew Sullivan, from ABC's interview with Dick Cheney:

CHENEY: I was a big supporter of waterboarding. [. . .]

KARL: And you opposed the administration's actions of doing away with waterboarding?

CHENEY: Yes.

It's not new but it remains news. And news mostly unreported -- the Bush Administration sanctioned and engaged in torture - a federal crime, a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Speaking for me only

Is that all there is, is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

Today, in the United State of America, the Democratic Party controls the House, the Senate and the Presidency. In the scheme of things, after 12 year of GOP control of the Congress and 8 years of GOP control of the Presidency, you would expect significant changes. Especially after the landslide result of the 2008 election. But it just has not happened.

Let's be clear -- Democratic governance is better than GOP governance. But let's face it, how could it be worse? The question is this - is this as good as it gets? Is this all that the Democratic Party can deliver in terms of progressive governance? If so, then David Broder has won. The choices we have as Americans are between a Center Right government and a Far Right government. This despite the fact that the American electorate is supportive of progressive ideas. Why is this? I'll think about that on the flip.

Vice President Joe Biden appears on Meet the Press this morning. Here's the transcript of his comments about Dick Cheney (no link yet, received from NBC by e-mail), in which he asserts Cheney is attempting to re-write history. As for his motive, Biden says Cheney is either misinformed or misinforming. Why not just call him what he is -- a disingenuous ex-politician.

DAVID GREGORY: Let me ask you about some of the criticism that's been leveled at this Administration by former Vice President Dick Cheney. He has argued that this Administration has failed to treat the fight against terrorists as war. He cites the decision related to Khalid Sheik Muhammad to offer him a civilian trail as one example. Giving the Christmas Day Bomber the privileges of the American criminal justice system is another example. The decision to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison. What do you say?

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