The Buzz

• Seeking to lick their election ‘08 wounds and cobble together a semblance of a comeback plan for their party, Republican governors are huddling in Miami this week for the Republican Governors Association conference. GOP state leaders from across the country have come to south Florida to toss around ideas to improve the future of the Grand Old Party and figure out just what it was that caused them to get whipped - again - in this year’s campaign. The facade may be shiny and optimistic, but the overall mood from the RGA conference is one of gloom and doom with the painful realization that the party will probably need to be completely retooled and re-branded by 2010 or 2012 in order to chip away at Democratic gains. The pervasive worry is that the age of Obama is at hand, and that the GOP is simply out of touch and will be unable to reach the key demographics that have shown such faith and confidence in the president-elect. Adding to the GOP’s concerns in Miami is the infighting that has seeped into the inner sanctum of Republican politics. Sarah Palin’s media blitz to defend herself from angry McCain campaign accusations and rehab her image in time for a 2012 presidential run has rubbed many in the party the wrong way, and those feelings are only barely hidden at the RGA meeting. From “anonymous” whispers about Palin’s antics hurting the party to Tim Pawlenty’s comments - aimed squarely at Palin - that the Alaska Governor’s “drill baby, drill” strategy is short-sighted and needs to be paired with alternatives, the rancor and disgust is palpably thick. Has Palin hijacked the GOP and driving it into the ground for her own personal ambitions?

• The sobering news on the economy continues to hit hard, with today’s jobless numbers showing the largest number of new unemployment filings in 7 years at 516,000. That staggering amount was more than what was forecasted and indicates just how deep the financial and housing crises are cutting into the broader health of the economy. Remember that new claim numbers over 400,000 are generally considered recessionary. Yet we’re still not technically in a recession… The shocking jobs report and the consistently sinking markets may force the hand of Congress to work on the auto bailout, with economists now wondering how an already bleeding economy would handle the bankruptcy at least GM and the massive job losses in several sectors that development would entail. Does this either persuade President bush to scrap a veto or push President-elect Obama to work personally on a new bailout before January?

• TIME gives us a must-read by the excellent Karen Tumulty today in the form of a piece on the Obama transition. It puts the historical importance of the transfer into perspective and notes the “amicable” nature of the move from Bush 43 to Obama 44. Whether it be the gravity of the economic crisis, a world forever changed by 9/11 or just a more professional team than those of Clinton;s last term and Bush’s first, the current process has so far been tidy and has seen amazing levels of cooperation between the two teams. This only serves to raise the expectations for a President Obama even higher…

• The Obama transition team has released the highly anticipated “Plum Book,” the comprehensive guide to job openings in the pending Obama administration. There are around 8,000 government jobs that need to be filled by the Obama team, with most of them included in the infamous book. Washington politicos and qualified Obama fans are snapping up the publication hoping to squeak past the extensive seven-page questionnaire and land a job in the administration of “change.”

• Mounting concerns over the lack of Bush administration oversight and the changing nature of the $700 billion bailout are pushing the Democratic Congress to look into the controversial plan and hold hearings on just how and where the money that Congress freed for the purpose of stemming the housing and financial crises will now be going. Yesterday brought the shocking news that treasury secretary Paulson unilaterally decided to completely shift the focus of the bailout away from buying bad assets  (mortgages) from banks and lenders and instead giving them cash straight-up in exchange for preferred stocks, allowing the institutions to essentially do with the Fed assistance as they please. Conservative anger at the bailout has now spread to the Democratic caucus, with questions about the lack of oversight for the hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds and just why Paulson felt moved to flip-flop on the goals of the plan. Expect the bailout - and not just the fight over auto industry assistance - to be the major story in D.C. for the next two weeks.

• Will the three high-profile Senate races still deemed too close to call be down to one by the beginning of next week? The Alaska contest between convicted felon and GOP incumbent Ted Stevens and Dem challenger Mark Begich has taken a dramatic turn in favor of the Democratic Anchorage mayor. Boosted by a pile of uncounted early and absentee votes, Begich has now taken what appears to be a safe lead of nearly 1,000 votes over Stevens. Nothing is finalized until the state finishes counting nearly 40,000 ballots. Good news for Begich is that the rest of the ballots are, like those that initiated his turnaround, provisional, early or absentee. Looks like the end of the road for Ted Stevens.

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