At tonight’s White House press conference, NPR’s Mara Liasson asked President Obama what lessons he has learned through the process of negotiating with Republicans over the economic recovery package. Obama explained there’s a lot of people who “sort of want to test the limits of what they can get.”

Reflecting further, Obama reminded the journalists present that the conservatives had originally expressed their approval of Obama’s plan to offer over $300 billion in tax cuts. But over time, they decided not to negotiate in good faith:

They were pleasantly surprised and complimentary about the tax cut that were presented in that framework. Those tax cuts are still in there. I mean, I suppose what I could have done is started off with no tax cuts, knowing that I was going to want some and then let them take credit for all of them. And maybe that’s the lesson I learned.

He added, “People have to break out of some of the ideological rigidity and gridlock that we’ve been carrying around for too long.”

Obama went on rip Republicans who now lecture about the need for fiscal responsibility. “It’s a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they presided over a doubling of the national debt,” he said. “I’m not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.” Watch it:

In early January, when Obama unveiled his recovery plan, ThinkProgress’ Matt Yglesias warned of the problem with starting off the stimulus negotiation with a healthy amount of tax cuts. “It’s one thing to unveil a compromise as a result of a bipartisan negotiation, and another thing to unveil an opening bid that you say you hope conservatives can get on board with,” he wrote.

CNN reports that adult film star Stormy Daniels may be considering a Senate run against Sen. David Vitter (R-LA). Vitter, who was involved in the D.C. Madam prostitution ring, prides himself as being conservative on social issues. When asked about a possible senate run against Vitter, Daniels took a swipe at Vitter:

“I don’t see how I can possibly embarrass him more than he already embarrassed himself…Honestly, I’m not sure I’m willing to take the pay cut that comes with being a senator.”

This year, an ad appeared on Craigslist seeking “a female in some aspect of the adult-entertainment industry” to run against Vitter, reports Max Blumenthal.

- Michael Wilson

As the Senate prepares to vote on its paired down version of the recovery package, Rush Limbaugh is still inventing reasons to oppose its passage. Today on his radio show, Limbaugh zeroed in on a $20 billion portion of the bill devoted to increasing the use of health care IT. Limbaugh warned, “Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system” and declared that this and similar health care provisions have “nothing to do with stimulus but have everything to do with advancing the liberal agenda”:

LIMBAUGH: Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Now there are arguments back and forth about whether or not this is a good thing. The opportunity for the loss of privacy is huge here by digitizing and making everybody’s health care records computerized. Especially having a major federal database where everybody’s health records are.

To illustrate his flawed argument about the “loss of privacy,” Limbaugh noted today’s revelations that Alex Rodriquez used performance enhancing drugs in the early part of this decade. “[A]sk Alex Rodriguez about privacy,” he remarked. Watch it:

Limbaugh can rest assured that his drug records (that have already been disclosed) and Americans’ health care records will be protected by “stringent privacy and security controls” even if they are digitized. In fact, President Bush’s former Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. David Brailer, explained that he is even concerned that “the House bill [goes] so overboard on privacy that it may inhibit the flow of information.”

In addition, Limbaugh is wrong to suggest that the recovery package would create a “major federal database” of every citizen’s health records. Rather, most summaries of the legislation explain that physicians will be offered financial incentives in the form of direct grants and increased Medicare reimbursement rates for adopting “certified electronic health records” and proving that they utilize them “effectively.” Indeed, while the government will be subsidizing the creation of this “nationwide system to exchange health data electronically” — it will not be running it.

Finally, Limbaugh’s claim that investment in health care has “nothing to do with stimulus” — a common right-wing canard — is false. The funding related to health care IT alone is projected to create over 200,000 jobs. As Igor Volsky recently noted, “Investing in Health IT not only saves money, creates jobs and reduces medical errors, but it also helps primary care physicians afford the infrastructure for expansion.”

The Senate voted 61-36 just moments ago to pass a cloture motion on the economy recovery package, thus ending debate on the bill and moving to a vote on final passage. The motion received just one more than the 60 votes needed. Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Olympia Snowe (ME), and Arlen Specter (PA) — voted with the Democrats.

The final up-or-down vote on the bill is expected to occur at noon tomorrow.

Yesterday on CNN, media reporter Howie Kurtz and CBS Evening News’s Katie Couric discussed the criticism Couric has received as the first woman to anchor a network news program. “I’ve always had enough confidence in my abilities and my work to know that sometimes there are larger issues at work here about the role of women in society,” Couric said, adding, “I always sort of feel bad for them, that this is how they spend their time.” Yet somewhat ironically, Kurtz then asked Couric if her new hairstyle has something to do with her most recent successes:

KURTZ: We’re going to put up some pictures of you over the years, and I’m going to ask you whether you think at all a factor in your recent success could be this new hairstyle.

COURIC: I don’t know. You know, you should ask Charlie Gibson about how he’s changed his part a little bit, or how Brian looks more tan on the air. I really don’t know, Howie.

The ensuing photo montage Kurtz aired contained one photo of Couric while pregnant. Watch it: