Reviews are in: Geithner clears the bar  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  —  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - who hasn't had many winning days in his short tenure on Pennsylvania Avenue - scored a big political victory Monday …

Bank of America's Bernstein Says Sell Bank Stocks After Rally  —  Investors should sell bank stocks after they rallied 12 percent today because the Treasury Department's plan to buy toxic assets won't stop profits from dropping, Bank of America Corp.'s Richard Bernstein said.

Michele Bachmann on D.C.: “I'm a Foreign Correspondent On Enemy Lines”  —  During a Saturday afternoon interview on WWTC 1280 AM with The Northern Alliance's John Hinderaker and Brian Ward, Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann discussed her staunch opposition to several Democratic-led efforts …

Canadian defense minister to Greg Gutfeld and Fox News: Apologize; Update: Gutfeld apologizes  —  In which a YouTube grassroots brushfire explodes into a full-blown international incident.  You make the call: Below you'll find the “Red Eye” segment that aired on March 17 followed by MacKay's demand for an apology this morning.

I Was Followed, Harassed, And Ambushed By Bill O'Reilly's Producer  —  On March 1, ThinkProgress picked up on a story by News Hounds, which noted that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly — who has made controversial comments about rape victims in the past — was slated to speak at a March 19 fundraiser for the Alexa Foundation.

Groups push reconciliation option  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  An umbrella group of progressive organizations is pressing congressional budget leaders to keep the option of using expedited budget procedures to move President Barack Obama's healthcare initiatives through …

HOW WOULD HE PRONOUNCE “CASSIOPEIA”?  —  Everyone knows that Barack Obama is lost without his teleprompter, but his latest blunder, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via the Corner, suggests that the teleprompter may not be enough unless it includes phonetic spellings.

China calls for new reserve currency  —  China's central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.  —  In an essay posted on the People's Bank of China's website, Zhou Xiaochuan …

Tammy Bruce Calls The Obamas “Trash In The White House”  —  Tammy Bruce, guest host for Laura Ingram's radio show, had some harsh words for First Lady Michelle Obama.  —  Discussing the first lady's visit to a Washington D.C. classroom last week, Bruce incredulously recalled Obama's story …

Townhall: Michelle Obama is a Bitch, Get It?  —  Burt Perlutsky was a TV writer a long time ago.  Then he aged out of it and became a crank.  This wasn't one of those major loses like Steinbeck.  Now he writes a column for Townhall.com, the popular website owned by a Christian radio network.

Same-sex marriage measure sails through Vt. Senate  —  The Vermont Senate on Monday evening overwhelmingly passed a bill that could legalize same-sex marriage in the state.  —  The state Senate voted 26-4 in favor of the measure introduced by Democratic state Sen. John Campbell.

Obama writes letter to Chirac - blogosphere goes crazy  —  Want to know how quickly rumors get spread on the Internet?  Here's a prime example.  —  The right side of the web is apoplectic this morning claiming that President Obama doesn't know who the French president is.

Cuomo Says Most Huge A.I.G. Bonuses Were Returned  —  Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group were giving back their bonuses.  —  He also said 15 of the largest 20 bonus recipients …

The Brutal Truth  —  Alex Knapp: … My sense is that it is a delayed reaction in some ways to Bush, and his betrayal of conservatism.  For all sorts of reasons, most of the current tea-partiers backed the GOP under Bush and Cheney, although some, to be fair, did complain about some of it.

EPA: Global Warming Threatens Public Health, Welfare  —  The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposal to the White House on Friday finding that global warming is endangering the public's health and welfare, according to several sources, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the nation's economy and environment.

SECOND TIME'S A CHARM  —  As far as the market is concerned, anyway, Tim Geithner's second shot at laying out a plan to rescue the nation's banking system is being received a lot better than his first.  At this moment, the Dow is up over four percent.  —  You can read the Treasury Department's description of the plan here.

Rep. Frank calls Scalia a ‘homophobe’ in interview  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a “homophobe” in a recent interview with the gay news Web site 365gay.com.

Accused Qaeda Sleeper Agent in Court  —  PEORIA, Ill. — Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, accused by the government of being a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda and held as an enemy combatant for almost six years, made his first appearance Monday afternoon in the courtroom where he will be tried on charges of providing aid to terrorists.

Dodd's Wife a Former Director of Bermuda-Based IPC Holdings, an AIG Controlled Company  —  No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG.

Barack Obama Industrial Average: Rising  —  The stock market is up, in terms relative to its most recent terrifying trench, and so is President Barack Obama's approval rating, which also bottomed out a while back.  —  The president would like people to think he follows neither indicator too closely …

Law Professor Who Advised Obama Says House AIG Bill May Be Unconstitutional  —  I just got off the phone with Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, who advised Obama during the campaign, and he says he's leaning towards seeing the new House bill to tax back all the AIG bonuses as unconstitutional.

Breaking up the Big Banks  —  My biggest concern about the PPIP approach to the banking system is that even if it works, what it does essentially is return us to the pre-crisis status quo—banks that are so large that they're too politically powerful to regulate effective and too systemically important to be allowed to fail.