Chief of Staff Bill Daley is giving up day-to-day operations at the White House, with Pete Rouse taking over. I’m not sure there’s anything else to the job other than day-to-day operations; that’s kind of what a Chief of Staff does, unless he’s the corporate bagman.

The Obama Administration continued its “we can’t wait” initiative by ordering earlier notification of potential shortages and/or price gouging for medical drugs. But shortages and exorbitant prices are the natural outcomes of allowing drug monopolies and extended patent protection.

Next week in Chicago, the Administration kicks off the eighth round of Trans-Pacific free trade agreement talks with multiple Asian nations. The nine-day negotiation includes talks with Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Peru and Chile, but whatever comes out of the talks is intended to be a “docking agreement” to which larger nations in Asia and South America can sign up. That would include Japan, India and Taiwan; heck, it could include mainland China. This has been in the works for many years, and the Obama Administration has been negotiating since late 2009. The soft deadline for a Trans-Pacific FTA is November, just two months from now.

I’m so old I can remember when Lieberman wanted to expand Medicare. It was in 2009. He endorsed at that time a plan to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 55 and allow people from 55 to 64 to buy into the program. Then he got wind that liberals liked that idea, and revoked his support, killing the idea when it was on the precipice of passing as part of the Affordable Care Act. Now, in this op-ed, he’s gone completely in the other direction, by endorsing a plan to “raise the Medicare eligibility age every year starting in 2014 by two months until it reaches 67 in 2025.”

In addition to having to fend off the slow chipping away of the health care law by the GOP, especially if they gain power over one or both houses of Congress, Democrats have to deal with the foxes they left in the henhouse, who are systematically working to preserve their own profits at the expense of consumers.

Koch Industries and its two leaders, Charles and David, are not only out to destroy progressivism and restore Republican dominance in Washington, though that’s a side benefit. They are out to protect their company’s financial industries, which run the gamut of practically every major policy the Obama Administration has tackled this year.

It’s impossible to counter Schweitzer’s argument. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that the Montana Governor was delivering the official Democratic radio address on this subject. The PhRMA deal in the Affordable Care Act has been universally recognized as ugly; just yesterday the AP credibly alleged that the drug lobby basically won out more than any other stakeholder. And even though Montana’s own Max Baucus can be credited with engineering the deal, Schweitzer continues to press for fair treatment for his constituents and a fair price for their medical care.

The most absurd part of Lincoln’s attack is that it came just a week or so after she attacked Halter for breaking his pledge to run a positive campaign – based on independent expenditure ads not coordinated with Halter, by law. After this dishonesty, Lincoln goes ahead and starts up a negative smear campaign herself. To quote her, “That didn’t take long.”

President Barack Obama told House Democrats on Thursday that he wants to reduce the amount of time certain biotechnology treatments are protected under an agreement in both the House and Senate bills

Is it possible that 31 Senators in the Democratic Caucus traded away $106 billion dollars in savings for consumers — and $19 for the federal budget according to CBO — for an empty promise that hasn’t even been agreed to?