... though it's not the questionably valuable business tax benefits that are catching the most flak. Before Democrats ducked into a private briefing with Obama's White House economic adviser-in-waiting, Larry Summers, those on the Senate finance committee had a closed-door session to talk shop on the stimulus. They came out decidedly unimpressed by Obama's proposed payroll tax cuts -- which amount to $500 per person, distributed in small amounts over several paychecks.

The Democratic senators were equally doubtful about Obama's proffered $3,000 tax credit to business that hire new workers. As Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), a bellwether centrist, told CNN:

I think it's unlikely to be effective. If you think about it, business people are not going to hire people to produce products that are not selling. Who is going to hire in the auto industry if you give them a $3,000 credit to make cars that people are not buying?

No one's saying this will bring down the bill. In fact, the House ways and means committee is already said to be scheduling drafting sessions. But stepping back to look at the timeframe, the stimulus will still need to be cleared by as many as three committees on each side of the Capitol by the end of Inauguration week, which leaves three more weeks for simultaneous debate in both houses of Congress as well as a conference committee to produce a unified final product.

The old question about deadline pressure still applies.

So with Chris Matthews now officially out of the race for Senator from Pennsylvania against Republican incumbent Arlen Specter, who are the more established (though less colorful) local Democrats who could end up going for it?

A Pennsylvania Dem source told us that while it could be a few months before we have any official candidates, and there are no true frontrunners at this point, these are the potential candidates who have dropped their names in the gossip circles of state Democratic politics, looking to see what the reaction might be:

• Jack Wagner: The second-term state Auditor, who was just re-elected in a landslide this past November, and is said to be weighing whether to run for governor or Senate in 2010. Like Sen. Bob Casey, he is a pro-life and economic populist Democrat, which would make for a fun match-up against the pro-choice and pro-business Specter -- and if he won, the state would have two pro-life Dem Senators.

• Allyson Schwartz: Congresswoman and former state Senator from the Philadelphia area. She previously ran for Senate in the 2000 primary, so it's hardly unrealistic to see her trying for it again.

More potential Senate candidates, after the jump.

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This move has been in the works for a while, but it just became official: Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a dedicated advocate for strong climate change legislation, just took over the key House subcommittee on the energy and environment from Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), a very nice man also joined at the hip with the coal industry.

This clears the way for Markey to join the new House energy and commerce panel chairman, Henry Waxman, in making a full-court press for carbon emissions caps this year. Sweet.

SEIU president Andy Stern just put out a statement calling for Congress to quickly pass Barack Obama's stimulus package, showing how labor is falling in line to mobilize support for the new president's agenda.

Stern rebuts anyone complaining about the price-tag of the package, pointing out that Congress didn't have too many problems with a different big-spending bill a few months back:

"If Congress needs just three weeks to pass a Wall Street bailout, then we should be able to count on our leaders to pass Main Street relief with as much urgency. Now is the time to make that change that works by getting our economy back on track and building a country where the dreams we have for our families and our children can come true."

Full statement after the jump.

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Norm Coleman is now a Senate un-person.

Mother Jones reports that the updated Senate phone listings have just been printed out -- and Norm Coleman's name isn't in them. After all, his term expired this past Saturday, and he's now in court to force the election results to be changed so that he's winning instead of Al Franken.

Think about this, Norm: Joe Biden is going to resign his seat within the next two weeks, and even he's still in the Senate phonebook.

The Senate has just passed, by voice vote, a resolution defending and praising Israel for its war in Gaza, an operation that yesterday won condemnation from the Red Cross.

The House is expected to follow suit with its own conspicuously pro-Israel resolution by week's end, with only a few lawmakers -- Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are two leaders on this issue -- expected to resist the tide.

We're looking into whether any senator was bold enough to decline to co-sponsor the measure, which somewhat dubiously asserts that Israel "facilitated humanitarian aid" in Gaza. But in the meantime, a couple of things jumped out when comparing the House and Senate drafts.

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Nancy Pelosi had a message for the president-elect today. The House Speaker wants the Bush tax cuts for wealthy individuals, which Barack Obama had been hinting he would let expire in 2010 rather than proactively repeal, gone for good -- and quickly.

"Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest in America repealed," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol today. On her way to her weekly press conference, she made the point more overtly to the Politico.

Repealing the cuts for those making between $250,000 and $300,000 per year and above would be Pelosi's preference. Looks like there's a new bargaining chip on the table for the stimulus bill.

While Democrats and Barack Obama are hard at work thematically outlining their economic recovery goals, Republicans got down to brass tacks this afternoon. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) signaled pretty strongly that they have a ceiling for an acceptable amount of stimulus spending -- and it ain't a high one.

Obama told CNBC yesterday that his transition is starting at the low end of the possible stimulus spending scale because "our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we'll see how it develops". Yet McConnell, speaking to reporters in the same ornate Senate room where Democrats unveiled their "top 10" bills yesterday, all but ruled out the trillion-dollar stimulus that some economists and state governments have urged.

Boehner didn't mince words. "An $800 billion to $1 trillion package, on top of the deficit we already have; you're adding an awful lot of weight to the debt," he said, adding: "It's those of us not here" -- the classic GOP touch of referring to future generations inheriting the unpaid bills they helped create -- "who are going to pay the debt."

"You can't buy prosperity with more government spending," Boehner finished.

Even Martin Feldstein thinks you can, congressman.

Barack Obama just finished his big speech on the economy, laying out what he saw as the urgency of passing his stimulus package. It was very much a bully-pulpit sort of affair, laying out general ideas and asking for Americans to come together to support it -- that is, putting pressure on Congress -- rather than laying out hard policy points.

The key point was this section, discussing how the plan will cost a lot of money -- but without specifying any amount -- and saying that large-scale government intervention has become necessary: "It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy."

Obama put the blame for the current crisis on "profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC," citing the lack of a proper regulatory structure that allowed easy credit to circulate with no attention to what would happen when all those loans came due. Obama's message, in short: I'm inheriting this mess, and now we have to fix it.

As for his own plan, Obama reiterated much of what we've heard before: modernizing government buildings, more computers for schools, and the revamping of the country's energy grid, etc. There was no mention of the large business tax cuts that had been reported in the last few days -- probably not the best thing to get on a soapbox about while also lambasting corporate irresponsibility -- with a $1,000 middle-class tax cut for families being the only tax break mentioned.

So again, this was not so much a policy speech as much as it was a political speech, focused on convincing people that his big plan -- whatever it might look like by the time we're done -- has to be passed.

In a conference call with reporters just now, Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats promised to move tomorrow to pass a piece of legislation that was held up in the last Congress, but now has a very strong chance of winning in the expanded Dem majorities: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

The law would undo a Supreme Court ruling that ruled that a paycheck discrimination filing had to be done within six months of the first unfair check -- even if the victim didn't know about it for years, and was in fact forbidden from knowing about her colleagues' different pay scales. The new law would specifically say that any new discriminatory checks from this point on would be separate discriminatory acts, and make it easier for employees to find out about each others' pay.

The bill passed the House in the last Congress, but came up three Senators short of overcoming a Republican filibuster. Since then, five GOP Senators who voted No have been replaced by Democrats who are sure bets to vote Yes. A vote could happen in the Senate as soon as next week.

In a very funny moment that shows how Democrats are still getting used to the idea of being in power, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) said that Congress will work as quickly as possible to pass the bill "and send it to Senator O-- I love this -- President Obama" to sign into law.

As the president-elect prepares to expand upon his economic recovery proposal today, it's worth digging deeper into one of the business tax cuts that's said to be a done deal for the package.

Its name is not often used in press coverage -- it's described as "a measure that would allow companies to deduct large portions of recent losses" from their taxes by the Post -- but its full name is the "net operating loss carryback". And it's a pretty nice score for the housing industry from the Obama team.

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The Republicans now have an open seat that they'll have to work very hard to retain: Four-term Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri has announced that he isn't running again.

Expect a tight race for this one. John McCain carried the state in a squeaker, but the Dems took over the governorship in a landslide and also hold a lot of other major offices. The Republicans have a deep bench, too, with majorities in the state legislature and in the House delegation.

At first glance, an obvious potential Democratic candidate might be Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the daughter of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan and former Sen. Jean Carnahan. On the GOP side, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder would be an obvious choice as the only Republican other than John McCain to win statewide in 2008. But again, both parties could have plenty of candidates to pick from.

Obama: Stimulus Could Grow To Over $1 Trillion
Barack Obama told CNBC that his stimulus package potentially could grow well beyond its initial target of $775 billion. "We've seen ranges from $800 (billion) to $1.3 trillion," said Obama. "And our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we'll see how it develops."

Obama Delivering Economic Speech Today
Barack Obama is delivering his big economic speech at 11 a.m. ET this morning in Fairfax, Virginia. Obama will make the case that his stimulus is absolutely necessary, while also promising efficiency and accountability.

Obama Rolling Out Tim Kaine For DNC Chairman
Barack Obama and Tim Kaine will be holding a 3:30 p.m. ET press conference at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, obviously the official announcement of Kaine as the next chairman of the DNC. Kaine was elected governor of Virginia 2005, endorsed Obama's presidential candidacy very early on in 2007, and did a lot of work to help turn Virginia blue this past November.

Burris Testifying To Impeachment Panel
Roland Burris is scheduled to testify today before the Illinois House's special committee to impeach Rod Blagojevich. Burris' job here is to make it clear that even if there are allegations that Blago tried to sell the Senate seat, there were nevertheless no shenanigans in the actual selection of Burris himself.

Daschle Up For Confirmation Hearing Today
Tom Daschle is scheduled to appear today before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the first Obama cabinet nominee to face a confirmation hearing. Daschle's nomination is likely to get through the Senate very easily.

Congress To Officially Certify Obama's Victory Today
Congress will count the electoral votes today, officially certifying Barack Obama's win and bringing the 2008 presidential election to an end.

Obama Site Getting Questions About Bush Administration's Torture Policies
The New York Times reports that the Obama transition team's "Open for Questions" site has received heavy support in favor of one particular subject: Whether the Obama Administration will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate George W. Bush and other officials for policies such as torture. This comes after liberal blogs endorsed the question and asked readers to vote for it.

Cheney Expects Total Retirement From Public Life
In an interview with CBS radio, Dick Cheney said he expects to fully retire from public life after he leaves office. "I've got a lot of rivers to fish," said Cheney. "So I don't think anybody will feel sorry for me. They shouldn't."

Barack Obama will be giving a major speech at 11 a.m. ET this morning in Fairfax, Virginia, making his case for his stimulus package, saying that the situation is urgent. From pre-released excerpts:

I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible. If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world.

In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

Obama will also promise accountability, assuaging skeptics who would say the stimulus is getting out of hand:

I understand that some might be skeptical of this plan. Our government has already spent a good deal of money, but we haven't yet seen that translate into more jobs or higher incomes or renewed confidence in our economy. That's why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan won't just throw money at our problems - we'll invest in what works.

...

Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible. Every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent. And as I announced yesterday, we will launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending that has never been more unaffordable for our nation and our children's future than it is right now.

Full excerpts after the jump.

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An MSNBC executive has announced that Chris Matthews won't be running for Senator from Pennsylvania, having told the Hardball staff of his decision earlier today.

Polling had shown Matthews in a tight race against GOP incumbent Arlen Specter, but Specter is hardly out of the woods. There is a good-sized bench of elected Democrats in Pennsylvania -- and on top of that, Specter could very well face a tough challenge in the Republican primary like he did in 2004.