The Obama administration has spent the last couple days trying to win back the narrative and news cycle. News came this morning that Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder would go to Philadelphia and announce a round $1 billion in grants to keep cops on the streets and hire new blue in cities. Barack Obama badly needed a "Obama Backs Cops" headline.

That billion-dollar volley is not ideal press however, as it represents only $1 of $7 in requests from the Community Oriented Policing Services.

Still, the billion for blue headline (that Huffington Post was--surprise--quick to lead with) gives Obama some good law-and-order news on the heels of word yesterday that Obama would indeed host the prof and the cop for a beer.

Harvard's Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge's Sgt. James Crowley will, at Crowley's suggestion, have a cold one Thursday at a picnic table (yes, political theater is shameless) on the south lawn of the White House. As an expert at happy hour diplomacy, I'll suggest that Obama let them do most of the talking and make sure he does not ethnically or racially (or class) profile the beer preferences of his guests. I hope Crowley requests perhaps a 25 oz. Belgian Raspberry Lambic and Gates a Bud Light; that would finely screw up everyone's stereotypes of cops and profs.

On a more serious note, since Obama's impromptu media comme(right, nts Friday, this White House stagecraft has been well played. But Obama has not fully recovered. He inserted himself into the race debate, rather than floating above it. He has lost political capital and had to expend precious time to correct his comments last week, all as the era of Obama is not going so well in Congress of late.

While the cop and prof narrative plays out, word has come that the Senate Finance Committee is very near to dropping the government subsidized "public option" and employer mandate for coverage. It's hard to conceive what Democratic health care reform looks like minus those two provisions.  And not surprisingly, the delayed health care debate will also likely force Congress to pass a stopgap spending bill, or like legislation, to keep the government offices open until health care is settled and Democrats can resolve delayed spending measures.

Obama's few words of opinion on the cops were bad form and bad politics last week. But I can see this White House welcoming the larger race discussion this week. An abstract discussion on race may be preferable, for team Obama that is, over the bad policy and politics facing Democrats these days. I understand why the president needs a drink.

Chris Dodd & Kent Conrad can't seem to shake the ghost of Angelo Mozilo:

Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, John Ensign can't seem to shake the ghost of, well, himself:

Last week Ensign announced a wholesale shake-up of his top staff.

Ensign's chief of staff, John Lopez, is stepping down after spending much of his professional career with the senator, as is his communications director, Tory Mazzola. [snip]

Questions remain unanswered about the senator's relationship with Cynthia Hampton, a campaign staffer when the affair started in late 2007. Her husband, Doug Hampton, was a top Ensign aide at the time. The affair ended in August 2008.

And new questions are emerging.

The latest is why Mazzola received a 50 percent salary increase during the six months from April 2008 to September 2008, about the time the Hamptons stopped working for the senator.

Maybe. The new Case-Shiller index is out and 15 of the 20 cities listed did not suffer month-to-month declines.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison vs. Governor Rick Perry on the opinion page of the Austin American-Statesman.

Hutchison - who is mounting a primary challenge against Perry in his bid for reelection - smacks the Guv for playing politics for refusing $550 million in federal unemployment aid. Hutchison writes, "To make a political statement, Perry instead turned a huge and unnecessary debt over to the state's employers, including small business owners, during a tough economic climate."

Perry fires back that he rejected the money because it came with strings attached that would have "mandated the State of Texas to pay costlier benefits and put higher taxes on Texas employers indefinitely." The Governor further argued that the state's unemployment trust is on solid ground and that despite the fact unemployment has risen in Texas, the state has the 2nd best economy in the country.

Who wins the round? It seems a much tougher proposition for Hutchison, as a matter of principle, to appeal to the Republican base in Texas by arguing in favor of taking more aid from the federal government.

The normally sensible Michael Crowley of TNR pens a conspicuous sentence here:

And while it's hard to defend Crowley's arrest of Gates, he does seem to be winning the spin war over character and temperament (particularly after African-American members of the Cambridge police force came to his defense last week).

It's hard to defend a guy for doing his job? Sgt. Crowley's fellow officers - of all races - didn't seem to have a problem defending him, and based on the other information we learned about Crowley's background we can understand why. He is an exemplary officer who deserved to be defended against charges of racism.

As much as people want to deconstruct this story to find the "teachable moment" about race, or privilege, or class, the real lesson seems to me far simpler: don't be a raging asshole to police officers who are doing their jobs or you'll be arrested - whether you're black, white, blue or purple and whether you're a professor from Harvard or the shirtless redneck on the front lawn in a COPS episode.

New Rasmussen poll shows President Obama's job approval rating at 46% in Arizona, with 53% disapproving. Republican Governor Jan Brewer's approval rating is split evenly at 48%.

Other notables from the poll: by a measure of 51 to 45, respondents said immigration reform was more important to them than health care reform. On a related question, 42% indicated they "strongly opposed" the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and Democrats in Congress, while 24% said they "strongly approve" of the plan.

Republican Congressman Thad McCotter is going to introduce a resolution on the House floor calling on President Obama to apologize to Sergeant Crowley.  Despite the fact Obama handled this situation badly, I'm not sure the House should be in the business of trying to force politicians to make public apologies.

"I think that the new administration is overreaching. Most political recoveries are triggered by mistakes made by the other side, and I think they're making plenty of them. They're giving us lots of ammunition." - South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune, in an exclusive interview with RealClearPolitics.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been elected Vice-Chairman of the RGA.

Okay, so its not Stix Nix Hick Pix, but it'll do.

Anyway, the latest UNH poll for Deval Patrick is one of the grimmer polling reports I've ever seen for an incumbent in a state that leans heavily to his or her political affiliation.  Every demographic group except those 35 and under thinks that the state is heading the wrong direction, and majorities of every demographic group except Democrats, recent transplants to the state, and those living in Western Massachusetts (there's substantial overlap among these groups)  disapprove of his job performance.  African Americans disapprove 44%-56%.  His numbers among Independents are an atrocious 16% approve, 68% disapprove.  Not many incumbents win re-election that way.

And in normal situations, he wouldn't.  Patrick trails Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charlie Baker 41%-35%, and trails former MTA Turnpike Authority member Christy Mihos 41%-40%.

Patrick does have one silver lining, however.  Treasurer Thomas Cahill is planning to run as an Independent.  This splits the anti-Patrick vote, and gives the Governor a fighting chance.  In a three-way race, Patrick and Cahill tie with about 30% of the vote, while either Republican receives about 20% of the vote.