The Note: Verdicts & Visits — Agenda delayed, Obama seeks to grab back narrative

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: When an administration that asked to be judged starts doing judgment-worthy things, there's no shortage of people who stand ready to serve as judges.Keeping in mind that a week ago health care looked back on track — and Speaker Nancy Pelosi's CIA-is-lying storyline had played itself out — and we'd heard the last of AIG bonuses — and nobody really remembered what Sen. John Ensign even did — and that Gov. Sarah Palin was still going to be in office for a while — and that Gov. Mark Sanford wasn't . . . This was something of a judgment week.The judges include Republicans who pounced on a powerful admission (and more powerful numbers) to make a case against spending; Democrats who are taking advantage of the White House's light hand to devour each other over health care; and reporters who are taking the administration's own numbers and timelines seriously.(And it won't take more than one bonus story to bring TARP and its tentacles back into political play.) But before he faces this fun back home, President Obama has a chance to change perceptions of his foreign trip.An 8 am ET press conference in Rome, an audience with the Pope later in the morning, and Ghana by nightfall — fresh headlines in the offing. "President Barack Obama is ending three days of often-wonkish policy discussions with fellow world leaders to embark on two of the most photogenic and emotional events of his young presidency: meeting the pope at the Vatican and becoming the first black American president to visit a mostly black African country," per the AP's Chuck Babington. "Mr. Obama is likely to receive a much warmer reception in the Vatican on Friday when he meets Pope Benedict XVI for the first time," Laurie Goodstein writes in The New York Times. "Both the pope and the president recognize that despite their differences, they have an opportunity to join forces on international issues that are mutual priorities: Israel and the Palestinians, climate change, nuclear nonproliferation, increased aid to poor nations and immigration reform." Building on: "President Obama [Thursday] pledged a strong U.S. role in global efforts to curb climate change and called upon his fellow attendees of the Major Economies Forum on Climate Change to work in the coming months to come up with commitments to lessen greenhouse gases," per ABC's Jake Tapper and Karen Travers. "But like the Group of Eight industrialized nations Thursday, the MEF today committed to nothing more than non-binding goals." And what does the Pope think of the public option? Does His Holiness have any ideas that would free up $1 trillion or so? Amid what signs of progress there are back home, rifts offer themselves up. (Is it this piece of the process — the decision to negotiate separately inside the House and Senate, in the hopes of getting the hard work done in conference — that most threatens a final health care product?)Plus — what if it's even too late for a second stimulus?Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column: "The bad employment report for June made it clear that the stimulus was, indeed, too small. But it also damaged the credibility of the administration's economic stewardship. There's now a real risk that President Obama will find himself caught in a political-economic trap." "It was disturbing when President Obama walked back Mr. Biden's admission that the administration ‘misread' the economy, declaring that ‘there's nothing we would have done differently.' There was a whiff of the Bush infallibility complex in that remark, a hint that the current administration might share some of its predecessor's inability to admit mistakes. And that's an attitude neither Mr. Obama nor the country can afford," Krugman continues.Speaking of attitudes: "With 10 percent unemployment creeping up, the Obama-ites better have their economic Newspeak ready," Alex Beam writes in his Boston Globe column. "As hundreds of thousands of Americans file new jobless claims each week, the administration brags about the vast numbers of jobs it has ‘created or saved.' All administrations claim to create jobs, even in periods of high unemployment, but economists are marveling at Obama's new, bogus metric of jobs ‘saved.' " Look to the fall for another package, Charlie Cook writes for National Journal: "If the mix of statistics doesn't improve by the end of the summer, Obama may have little choice but to propose a fresh package, despite knowing that adding it to his agenda would weaken the prospects of his health care and climate-change initiatives. Less than six months into his presidency, ain't nothing easy about this situation for Obama."  "No second stimulus any time soon," ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported on "Good Morning America" Friday. "One caveat: If this unemployment rate continues to go up towards the end of the year, I think you could see a kind of rifle-shot extension of unemployment benefits.Watching those indies: The president's "approval rating is down most significantly among independents, to 53% so far in July from an average of 59% in June; it has dropped two points among Republicans (from 25% in June to 23% so far in July) and has gone up a point among Democrats, to 90%," per the latest Gallup numbers, with a 58 percent approval rating overall (down from 61 percent last month). Watching health care: "House and Senate Democrats appeared on Thursday to be on a collision course over how to pay for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system, with the House planning to propose an income tax increase on the wealthiest Americans, an idea that Senate negotiators have all but dismissed as unworkable," David M. Herszenhorn writes in The New York Times. "Paying for the roughly $1 trillion, 10-year cost of the health care legislation is arguably the biggest hurdle confronting lawmakers and the White House." (Arguably.) About that bill that was supposed to be finalized this week: "Conservative House Democrats are demanding significant changes before they can support a sweeping health care overhaul, forcing the House to join the Senate in delaying action on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority," the AP's Erica Werner reports. "The Blue Dog Democrats' list of demands came on the eve of House Democratic leaders' planned unveiling of their final bill Friday." New tax ide a: "The Senate Finance Committee is considering whether to apply Medicare taxes to capital gains and other non-wage income to help pay for an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, two people familiar with the talks said," per Bloomberg's Ryan J. Donmoyer. He'd get more than a few Democrats to agree: "Why doesn't the president give himself a well-deserved treat and slow down a bit on health-care reform?" Michael Kinsley writes in his column. "Instead of going for a total overhaul, go for some smaller successes, or what business executives and gorillas call the ‘low-hanging fruit'? Pick half a dozen, get Congress to swallow them and see where we stand?" About that timeline: "U.S. President Barack Obama suffered a double-barreled setback in Congress on Thursday when members of his own party moved to apply the brakes on his top legislative priorities, healthcare and climate change," Reuters' JoAnne Allen writes."The core of President Obama's congressional agenda stalled Thursday as new obstacles emerged to climate change and health care legislation, possibly crushing Democratic leaders' hopes for rapid progress this summer," the Washington Times' Jennifer Haberkorn reports. "Senate Democrats have punted climate change deeper into the fall, a delay that underscores the steep climb the White House faces in convincing Congress — and the world — to dramatically slash greenhouse gas emissions," Politico's Lisa Lerer reports. What's back upon us now: "American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor," Brady Dennis and David Cho write in The Washington Post. "The request puts the administration's new compensation czar on the spot by seeking his opinion about bonuses that were promised long before he took his post." Lessons learned? "The insurance giant is taking steps to avoid a similar furor as it prepares to dish out more bonuses," per ABC's Matt Jaffe. "Therefore, the company has been engaging in an active dialogue with the government, the source said, to get to a point where everyone is comfortable with the plans. As part of this effort to get everyone on the same page and avoid any surprises, the source said the company is trying to be as open and clear as possible with the government about handling compensation in an appropriate manner." That letter from Democratic lawmakers may have backed up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's contention that the CIA lies to Congress — but does she really want this fight back?"Pelosi, D-Calif., may feel vindicated, but Republicans are delighted that this latest dust-up revives the controversy surrounding her war of words with the CIA just when it had seemed to fade away," per ABC's Jonathan Karl. "At issue is a hastily arranged classified briefing by Panetta to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on June 24. Panetta called the briefing to inform the committee about a covert CIA operation that had begun shortly after September 11, 20001. Panetta himself had just found out about the program and believed Congress should have been informed of it long ago." "The incident has reignited a long-running dispute between congressional Democrats and the CIA, with some calling it part of a broader pattern of the agency withholding information from Congress," Paul Kane and Ben Pershing write in The Washington Post. "Some Republicans, meanwhile, privately questioned whether Panetta — who has stood with CIA officers in a dispute with  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — was looking to score points with House Democrats." Thickening the plot: "CIA Director Leon Panetta has ordered an internal inquiry into the agency's handling of a contentious and still highly classified intelligence program that has caused a heated dispute between the CIA and Democrats on the House intelligence committee," Newsweek's Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff report. "The move by Panetta appears to be an implicit acknowledgment by the agency that it should have disclosed information about the post-9/11 secret program to Congress much earlier than it did." Pelosi's not playing. Per NPR, "Persistently pressed by [Melissa] Block about whether the House Intelligence Committee and its chairman, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, should proceed with an investigation of the allegations, Pelosi became increasingly combative." "You know, Melissa," Pelosi said, "I don't know how many more times I have to tell you: I did not have the briefing myself."Who would have thought a Supreme Court fight is what Democrats would look forward to? "Unemployment keeps rising, the stimulus package is off to a slow start, health and energy bills are falling behind schedule on Capitol Hill, and foreign policy isn't getting any easier. But President Obama does have one practically worry-free item on the front burner these days: Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court," Jill Lawrence writes for Politics Daily. Still playing: the John Ensign scandal."Sen. John Ensign appeared to be losing support among his Republican base Thursday as the lawmaker disclosed that his parents, who made millions in the casino industry, paid the family of his affair partner $96,000 around the time she and her husband stopped working for him," J. Patrick Coolican and Lisa Mascaro report in the Las Vegas Sun. Said Ensign, R-Nev.: "I said before, I always planned on serving and working hard — working harder than I ever worked — and I'm going to continue to do that."Said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas: "It's not good.""A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked the Justice Department to investigate the allegation because neither the campaign nor the PAC had reported the expenditure," the Los Angeles Times' Ashley Powers and Mark Z. Barabak report. "Politically, Ensign may be saved by the poor state of the Nevada Republican Party. GOP Gov. Jim Gibbons has faced his own set of scandals, including accusations of infidelity. Lacking strong leadership and absent an obvious candidate to replace him, the state party establishment is not likely to pressure Ensign to step aside." CREW's Melanie Sloan tells ABC's David Wright, on "Good M orning America" Friday: "When you have an affair with someone in your office who's married to someone else in your office, and then you fire them both, and then on top of it you have your rich parents come in and pay them off — I think it's hard to imagine a situation that's more embarrassing." "All of this makes it likely that the senator is going to face an ethics committee investigation, and quite possibly an investigation by a grand jury as well," Wright reports.Quips Politico's Ben Smith: "Pattern of generosity risks entering the lexicon right beside ‘wide stance' here." Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., bows to the inevitable (and gives himself more time to update his tombstone). He'll make it official at an appearance in Chicago at 3 pm ET."The decision by Burris, 71, is an acknowledgment that prospects of mounting a multimillion-dollar fundraising effort for a high-profile statewide race are low in the face of widespread public criticism over how he got the job," John Chase and Rick Pearson report in the Chicago Tribune. "Almost two months after his appointment, a Tribune poll found only 37 percent of voters wanted Burris to run. As of the spring, he raised $845 with more than $111,000 in debt, a campaign filing showed." "After 20 years in government service, Burris didn't want the last four months in office to be that legacy," a source tells the Chicago Sun-Times' Michael Sneed.  From $845 to . . . $4.3 million? Adam C. Smith, in the St. Petersburg Times: "[Gov. Charlie] Crist announced Thursday that in just 50 days he raised an eye-popping $4.3 million for his U.S. Senate campaign. That not only dwarfs the previous Florida Senate fundraising record set by Republican Mel Martinez — $1.7 million in his first fundraising period in 2004 — but it highlights the huge hurdles for Republican Senate rival Marco Rubio, who raised just $340,000 in the same period." Tracking stimulus spending: "Signs of progress: Stimulus-funded road construction is underway across the country — but what about the signs?" ABC's Jonathan Karl reported Friday on "Good Morning America." The recovery signs cost "500 bucks a piece in Maryland and New Hampshire . . . $1,700 in Georgia . . . $2,000 per sign in Pennsylvania and New York . . .  and $3,000 per project in New Jersey. New York alone is spending about a million dollars on signs."That's cheap compared to a Website. Fallout continues from the $18 million Website contract — which you read about first on The Note blog. About half of the sum is to redesign the site and get it up and running by fall: "I do think $9.5 million is a bit much," OMB Watch's Craig Jennings tells ABC's Ned Potter. By way of comparison: "USASpending.gov gives details down to the individual transaction level for contracts going all the way back to 2000. The Office of Management and Budget bought the software for that site from the group OMB Watch for $600,000," David Freddoso writes in the Washington Examiner. "The award to Smartronix, a Maryland-based company which does a lot of military work, has been criticized for its size, secrecy, and exclusivity. Smartronix did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday," per The Wall Street Journal.  Where's Hillary? We're about to find out: "After missing two overseas trips due to surgery to repair a broken elbow, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to deliver a major foreign-policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington next week before departing for India and the ASEAN conference in Thailand on Friday, July 17,” Foreign Policy’s Laura Rozen reports. The Kicker:"We're not here to waste the taxpayers' money." — Edward Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, on the $18 million contract awarded to remake the Recovery.gov Website. "I'm blessed. Thank God." — Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla., announcing his record-breaking fundraising haul for his Senate bid. Today on the "Top Line" political Webcast, live at noon ET: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and ABC's George Stephanopoulos. Follow The Note on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thenote For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note's blog . . . all day every day.