Sunday Snapshot: Harry's Hairy Sunday

Well, Harry Reid's news cycle from Hades continues. Fortunately for him, the main guy calling for his resignation, GOP chairman Michael Steele, doesn't have much credibility in his party right now.  On Fox News Sunday, Steele talked of a "standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own. But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism."  Steele, incidentally, apologized for using the phrase "honest 'Injun'" last week -- or, as Fox's transcribers initially wrote, "honest engine."

BTW: Jon Ralston notes that Fox News suggests the source of Reid's comments was...Harry Reid...in a conversation with author Mark Halperin.

And Chuck Todd noted on Meet: "But, you know, Harry Reid's been a gaffe machine in the past and he's gotten over it, but you do wonder, if he somehow wins reelection, he would be doing something that an incumbent senator, I don't think, has done in 50 years, which is recover from a double-digit deficit.  It doesn't happen."


DNC chairman Tim Kaine on the '10 cycle: "But the good thing about President Obama's team is that they're not used--not--to an uphill climb.  We're going to do a lot better than people think, for three reasons."

The White House put out Christina Romer to put the recent economic numbers in their context. 

On State of the Union with John King, Romer made sure to take the opportunity to blast reports of 8-digit bonuses for Wall Street executives:

ROMER:  For heaven's sakes, people, you know, it does seem really ridiculous.  You know, we have had to take extraordinary actions to rescue the financial system.  We always did it because that's what had to be done for the American people.  No one wanted to bail out the banks just for the bank's sake.  It's because we know that credit is the lifeblood of a modern economy and without it families can't get loans to buy cars or send their kids to school and small businesses can't get loans.  So we know that the financial sector matters.  But at the same time, right, we have had to take these extraordinary actions.  And you would certainly think that the financial institutions that are now doing a little bit better would have some sense.  And this big bonus season of course is going to offend the American people.  It offends me. 

(Q: Will the President say this this week?)

On various programs, Romer acknowledged that the December jobs report "was a disappointment."

Also:

Interesting exchange on Face the Nation:

SCHIEFFER: Dianne Feinstein, what about that, that we shouldn't release anybody to a country where there's an Al Qaeda presence? Do you go along with that?

FEINSTEIN: Yes, I tend to agree with that, actually.

And Sen. Joe Lieberman said he disagreed with John McCain's radio ad claim that President Obama has embarked on an "extreme left-wing crusade" to bankrupt America.