Boehner to GOP: Vote against stimulus  —  President Barack Obama is coming to the Capitol later today in a bid to curry favor with congressional Republicans.  But it appears GOP leaders have already made up their minds to oppose his $825 billion stimulus plan.

OBAMA AL-ARABIYA INTERVIEW: FULL TEXT  —  Here is the full text of President Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya Arab TV Network:  —  INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY HISHAM MELHEM, AL ARABIYA  —  Map Room  —  Q Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, we really appreciate it.

GOP's Tedisco vying for Gillibrand seat  —  New York Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco has been tapped as the Republican nominee for Kirsten Gillibrand's vacant 20th District House seat, according to several New York GOP sources.  —  The decision was made this afternoon in Albany …

STATING THE OBVIOUS  —  I hear a lot of talk about whether Obama's governing approach can be ‘bipartisan’ if a good number of Republicans don't vote for his Stimulus Bill.  But that dubious point seems to be obscuring a more obvious and telling reality: the Republican leadership in both houses …

Q & A: Former McCain Blogger Michael Goldfarb  —  “I was a cudgel.  I pissed off the media.” … Kate Klonick: You spent the last six months as the official campaign blogger for the McCain campaign, taking leave from your position as Web editor at The Weekly Standard.  What were you expecting when you made the switch?

PALIN'S GOT PAC AND VIP STATUS  —  ASK not what Sarah Palin can do for your country, ask only what you can do for Sarah Palin.  And the answer is, pay attention.  Trust me, Alaska's governor is moving faster than those glaciers.  —  Traveling with one of her ladies-in-waiting and invited by a rich GOPnik …

E-Mail Outage Forces White House to Operate the Oldfangled Way  —  The guy on the computer help line at the White House seemed a bit harried yesterday afternoon.  —  Shortly after the workweek began, the tech-savvy Obama administration was hit with a mysterious “server outage” …

High-Flying Citigroup Grounds Plans for $50M Jet  —  Obama Aide Called Citigroup to Complain About Jet  —  The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.

Congressional Budget Office compares downturn to Great Depression  —  The nation's current recession is likely to be the longest since World War II, and by some measures could be the worst since the Great Depression, a new Congressional Budget Office forecast said Tuesday.

The Same Old Song  —  What's up with the Republicans?  Have they no sense that their policies have sent the country hurtling down the road to ruin?  Are they so divorced from reality that in their delusionary state they honestly believe we need more of their tax cuts for the rich …

PATERSON LYIN' KING OF STATE  —  KNOWS KENNEDY LEAKER  —  ALBANY - Gov. Paterson yesterday insisted he had no idea who did the slime job on Caroline Kennedy - although the source of the information is about as close to him during the day as his wife is at night.  —  He's a liar.

Ten Things You Can Do To Save The Planet  —  A Go-Green Guide for the Hollywood Community  —  More than ten years after the Kyoto accords, our planet continues to careen helplessly toward certain environmental destruction.  The skies are choked with pollutants.  Adorable helpless polar bears plunge through thinning ice caps.

Kristol Severs Ties With the N.Y. Times  —  Bill Kristol and the New York Times parted company yesterday, one year after he began writing a weekly opinion column that became a high-profile target for his detractors on the left.  —  But the conservative commentator, who edits the Weekly Standard …

GOP-ers Swoon Over Obama Despite Differences  —  President Obama won praise from some of the House's most conservative lawmakers as “engaging” and “respectful” during his meeting with congressional Republicans Tuesday.  —  Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) said that Obama was sincere and “impressive” …

ATTACKING OUR WORST DRUG PROBLEM  —  by Harold Pollack And he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. … Noah was not the first person to go astray due to his alcohol use.  He certainly wasn't the last.  For millennia, problem drinking had harmed many drinkers …

Another Lobbyist Headed into Obama Administration  —  Leaves Critics Questioning the President's Commitment to Changing Washington  —  Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration, a recent lobbyist for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs …

Top-Selling Pastor Goes Quarterly  —  Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Connection Joins a Tough Magazine Market  —  He has written one of the best-selling books in history.  But can pastor Rick Warren sell a magazine?  —  The test starts this week, with the debut of Purpose Driven Connection …

Transcript Excerpts: Cynthia McFadden Interviews Gov. Rod Blagojevich  —  Illinois Governor Expects to Be Vindicated, Says 'I'm a Very Honest Politician' … MCFADDEN: So, let me just give you an opportunity to answer this question, which I think is on the minds of a lot of people very directly.

A Dark Age of macroeconomics (wonkish)  —  Brad DeLong is upset about the stuff coming out of Chicago these days — and understandably so.  First Eugene Fama, now John Cochrane, have made the claim that debt-financed government spending necessarily crowds out an equal amount of private spending …

Morning Bell: What Is the Spending Multiplier on a Pack of Condoms?  —  This Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created quite a stir when she attempted to defend Section 5004, of the House's economic stimulus plan which allows the Medicaid bailout portion of the spending plan to be spent on family planning clinics.