The Note: Table for 60 — Dems Seek Leadership, as Obama Hosts Birthday Lunch

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Let’s bring everyone together in one place (since that worked so well for streamlined messaging out of the Cabinet over the weekend . . . ). It’s leadership time for President Obama and his White House. (And now that we have not one but two Clintons unleashed to work on foreign-policy hotspots — good luck breaking through in this news environment.) President Obama celebrates his birthday Tuesday by bringing the Senate Democratic caucus to the White House for lunch, to deliver a message everyone in the room knows all too well: Failure is not an option on health care. It’s time for some of that trademark Obama cool — in the service of a party that needs a pep talk. (And you know you’ve always wanted to hear Jeff Bingaman and Barbara Boxer sing happy birthday.) The photo ops may help public perceptions and private morale heading into the August recess. But it’s the action outside the White House that continues to roil the Democratic Party during this critical stage of the legislative push. There are currently four Democratic health care bills to defend. The Senate is stalled until a fifth can be completed. Liberal groups are aiming their fire at Democrats now — their patience having run out. As for the town halls intended to drum up support for reform — everyone from Sen. Arlen Specter to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, are getting heckled and booed out there: “The protests, organized by loose-knit coalition of conservative voters and advocacy groups, were a raucous start to what is expected to be weeks of political and ideological clashes over the health care overhaul President Obama is trying to push through Congress,” David M. Herszenhorn and Sheryl Gay Stolberg write in The New York Times. “The conservative groups, including FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, are harnessing social networking Web sites to organize their supporters in much the same way Mr. Obama did during his election campaign.” Democrats’ “ability to make their case on health care at public events during the August recess is mostly in the hands of the people who turn out for the events. And if those people want to be disruptive — especially en masse — there’s not much the Democrats can do about it,” Alex Isenstadt and Abby Phillip report for Politico. More infighting — coming from MoveOn.org Tuesday: “MoveOn.org Political Action announced today that they will run radio ads in the districts of Blue Dog Democrats John Barrow (D-GA), Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Charlie Melancon (D-LA) who voted against the bill in the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee last Friday, July 31st. The radio ads will air in the Congressional districts beginning tomorrow and lay out the real cost to citizens in these districts when their leaders side with special interests and vote to stop health care reform.” Listen to the ads HERE. More pressure on House Democrats: Liberal activists are pressuring progressives to commit to voting against a bill that doesn’t include a public option. “The president campaigned on this — this was part of his health care program. If they can’t deliver this right now, we’ve got real problems,” Jane Hamsher, of FireDogLake.com, said Monday on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line.” Americans United is also launching a new ad — making it personal against Cigna CEO Ed Hanway in pushing back against the insurance industry. Of alliances and erstwhile allies: “The pharmaceutical industry’s political transformation provides an example of Obama’s approach to achieving his healthcare goals, which includes negotiation and compromise, even with those he and his allies have painted as a source of the problem,” Tom Hamburger reports in the Los Angeles Times. “The benefits to the White House go beyond budget savings. Tauzin’s trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, is helping to underwrite a multimillion-dollar TV advertising campaign touting comprehensive healthcare legislation.” In this environment, the push for unity. Table for 60 for lunch (and birthday cake?) at noon ET at the White House, with the president bringing Senate Democrats together just one last time before the break. “Just as Obama did when Democrats bristled that centrists were working with Republicans to water down this year’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill, the president is expected to remind Senators of all stripes that the party must stick together to accomplish big things,” Roll Call’s Emily Pierce and Tory Newmyer report. “Obama, who is expected to try to heal rifts among Democrats on health care as well as make the case for more funding for the popular ‘cash for clunkers’ program, will likely tell his former colleagues that they need to remember that all of their political fortunes — including his — are intertwined.” Clash over cash-for clunkers: “I have spoken to a number of senators who just don’t like this program,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported on “Good Morning America” Tuesday. (But additional funding is likely to be approved by the end of the week, he reports.) “This is a horrible policy idea,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. “Why not $4,500 for old refrigerators?” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. New pushback from the White House message machine: As reported by Politico’s Mike Allen, Linda Douglass headlines a hastily arranged video clip that’s designed to push back on another video clip that’s getting a Drudge push: The White House video: “Hi. I’m Linda Douglass. I’m the communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform, and one of my jobs is to keep track of all the disinformation that’s out there about health-insurance reform. And there are a lot of very deceiving headlines out there right now, such as this one — take a look at this one. This one says, ‘Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will Eliminate Private Insurance.’ Well, nothing can be farther from the truth.” Your new, new health care deadline: Sept. 15. “Waiting any longer would put Democrats in danger of not being able to use their ace in the hole — the procedural tactic in the budget process known as reconciliation — to pass a more piecemeal health reform overhaul without Republican support. The Sept. 15 date is written in pencil and not officially announced, it would seem, but hard to move,” ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports. Or: “Not so, Baucus said Monday after meeting the ‘gang of six’ senators — Democrats Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) and Kent Conrad, and Republicans Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Mike Enzi (Wyo.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine),” per The Hill’s Jeffrey Young. “But a deadline will be set, he said.” What you say when you miss a few deadlines: “The urgency behind reform has nothing to do with the schedule of Congress and everything to do with the needs of the American people,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius writes in a Washington Post op-ed. Then there’s the economy: “In public appearances this week, President Obama will attempt to regain the initiative on the economy after what one senior administration official called several ‘rocky’ weeks of declining support for the president and his major policy efforts,” Scott Wilson and Michael A. Fletcher report in The Washington Post. “He and his Cabinet advisers will fan out across several swing states to declare that the recovery has moved from the rescue stage to rebuilding, even though unemployment continues to increase and his advisers have been making contradictory statements about whether the administration may need to consider a tax increase for middle-class Americans,” they continue. “Obama’s insistence that the first phase of the recovery is over amounts to a strong defense of his intervention in the private-sector economy — and of the administration’s overall competency — as lawmakers head into their August recess with the fate of health-care and energy reform still undetermined.” Got this now? (This couldn’t have been a trial balloon since everyone knew it would pop — loudly.) “The White House [Monday] tried to quell concerns that the president would go back on his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year,” per ABC’s Jake Tapper and Kristina Wong. “The president was clear. He made a commitment in the campaign. That commitment stands,” press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “I want to just state again clearly here that the president has made a very clear commitment to not raise taxes on middle-class families.” Those were some important people to have off-message: “The White House chastised Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers on Monday for leaving open the possibility of a middle-class tax hike,” Ken Bazinet writes in the New York Daily News. “The media and the GOP immediately jumped all over the remarks – and Summers and Geithner had to be reined in during a high-level morning staff meeting at the White House, aides said.” Walter Shapiro counsels patience — and a little less math from reporters: “Maybe the press deserves to be faulted for being too sycophantic to presidents on the way up and too vicious to presidents on the way down. But it is folly for the pundit parade to over-react to normal fluctuations in a president’s poll numbers. If you want to play the numbers, buy a lottery ticket. But if you want to take politics seriously, play the skeptic at the next premature poll vault,” he writes for Politics Daily. No such thing as overexposure? “As public support for health-care reform erodes –polls show it’s now below the 50 percent mark — it’s no accident that the White House is making the most of brand Obama,” Jennifer Senior writes for New York. “It’s a large helping of Obama, surely. But those who think the White House has overdone it are missing the point. In today’s media environment, ubiquity is not the same as overexposure. It’s a deliberate strategy. And it’s critical to any understanding of the Obama presidency.” Staff shake-up? “Obama administration officials are holding discussions that could result in White House counsel Gregory Craig leaving his post, following a rocky tenure, people familiar with the matter said,” Evan Perez reports in The Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Craig, the top lawyer at the White House and a close aide to President Barack Obama, has helped lead the administration’s efforts on several national-security issues that once enjoyed popularity but have since become . . . political liabilities for Mr. Obama. These include the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the release of Bush administration-era national-security documents, and efforts to find legal ways to indefinitely hold some detainees who can’t be put on trial.” More intrigue: “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blasted top U.S. financial regulators in an expletive-laced critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration’s faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation, according to people familiar with the meeting,” The Wall Street Journal’s Damien Paletta and Deborah Solomon report. Today’s foreign policy is brought to you by the number 42: “Former President Bill Clinton went to North Korea on Monday to negotiate the release of two American television journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, a person who was briefed on the mission said,” The New York Times’ Mark Landler and Peter Baker report. “Clinton was met at Pyongyang airport by Kim Kye Gwan, the country’s chief negotiator at talks to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear capability, Korean Central News Agency said today. The mission to secure the release of the journalists would not last long, an official traveling with Clinton’s wife, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said during a stopover in Spain,” Bloomberg’s Heejin Koo reports. “The one thing that is clear here is that Bill Clinton would not have gone to North Korea unless he was certain that he would be coming back with the two journalists,” ABC’s Martha Raddatz reported on “GMA” Tuesday, noting that the North Koreans wanted a high-profile emissary to make the trip. Gibbs statement: “While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment. We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton’s mission.” That other Clinton: “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday urged the Iranian government to ‘help determine the whereabouts’ of three American freelance writers missing since a Saturday hike on the border of Iran and Iraq,” Donna Leinwand reports for USA Today. The secretary is headed to Africa next: “Ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s seven-nation trip to Africa this week, the Obama administration is texting all Africans (or non-Africans in Africa, like this reporter) who sent a question or comment during last month’s Ghana visit,” ABC’s Dana Hughes reports. “This time the administration isn’t asking to hear from Africans, but wants them to follow Hillary’s trip on America.gov, Facebook, and Twitter using the searchable term #HillaryAfrica.” Debate begins Tuesday afternoon on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation by the full Senate. But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took what was left of the suspense away: “An excellent resume and an inspiring life story are not enough to qualify one for a lifetime of service on the Supreme Court,” McCain said on the Senate floor, per ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf. What does an $18 million Web site look like? We’re not allowed to tell you: “Big portions of the contract award — including what appear to have been screen grabs of a new interactive portal, information about subcontractors, and how much Smartronix plans to pay its employees for work on the project — are redacted,” per ABC News. “Particularly unilluminating is the 33-page vision for the site submitted by Smartronix to the GSA as part of its bid proposal. The project schedule is blacked out. So are all of pages 30-33 — the entire section titled ‘CONCLUSION.’ The few ‘visual representations’ included in the proposal are, without explanation, in faded black-and-white.” Happy birthday (sort of), Mr. President: “On Monday — just in time for the president’s birthday — WorldNetDaily, a conservative Web site that has become the clearinghouse for birther conspiracies, published an unauthenticated document purporting to be a birth certificate for Obama issued in Kenya,” per ABC’s Russell Goldman. “This is the second such document making rounds on the Internet. This first Kenyan birth certificate was discredited last week as an obvious hoax. Liberal bloggers have already picked apart the new document, citing inaccuracies in the name of the hospital where the document claims Obama was born and point out the document uses the name the Republic of Kenya, though it is dated before the country officially began calling itself that.” Making if official: “After weeks of hints and almost-declarations, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak plans to make it official today: He will challenge veteran Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2010 Pennsylvania Democratic primary,” Thomas Fitzgerald reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “The second-term congressman from Delaware County, a former Navy vice admiral, scheduled a morning rally at his home VFW post in Folsom, followed by a two-day tour that will take him to Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Harrisburg, and Scranton — ending with an appearance tomorrow on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.” (Yes the Democratic establishment tried to clear the field as thanks to the party-switching Specter. But is having a more liberal challenger nipping at Specter’s heels a bad thing for the Obama agenda in the Senate?) The latest excerpt from the new Dan Balz/Haynes Johnson book (on sale starting Tuesday) focuses on how Barack Obama secured Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement — and how Bill Clinton mishandled that relationship, helping make it happen for Obama. What should be the last word on Gates-gate: The Boston Globe’s Alex Beam writes the episode up as Shakespeare (complete with a Fool).
The Kicker: “I told the president, ‘Look, if you’d have done this in Pennsylvania, my life would have been a little easier last spring.’ ” — White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, after the president beat his famously pathetic campaign bowling score of 37 by 107 over the weekend. “Right now, I’m still building up that track record.” — Barack Obama, in a 1993 interview that’s part of a new documentary on the president’s rise. For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note’s blog . . . all day every day: Today on the “Top Line” political Webcast, live at noon on ABCNews.com: Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and Republican strategist Kevin Madden.
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