ThinkFast: May 15, 2009

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove will be interviewed today by Connecticut prosecutor Nora R. Dannehy, “who was named in September to examine whether former Justice Department and White House officials lied or obstructed justice in connection with the dismissal of federal prosecutors in 2006.” Rove is also “tentatively scheduled to provide closed-door testimony” to the House Judiciary Committee next month.

President Obama yesterday acknowledged that the Employee Free Choice Act doesn’t yet have enough votes in the Senate to pass, but said that there “may be areas of compromise to get this bill done.” Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), an opponent of the legislation, also said that “prospects are pretty good” for a compromise.

Attorney General Eric Holder assured GOP lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday that the Justice Department would not release any detainees from Guantanamo Bay “whom he considered dangerous” on U.S. soil. “We’re not going to do anything, anything that would put the American people at risk — nothing,” Holder said.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), a “key moderate,” endorsed the compromise climate change bill yesterday that “he negotiated with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA).” “I intend to vote yes and I intend to urge all other committee members to do the same,” Boucher said.

Yesterday the House passed a bill “that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested.” However, a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it, accusing Obama of “escalating a war without a clear exit strategy.” “I’m tired of wars with no deadlines, no exits and no ends,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA).

“The House on Thursday passed a multiyear school construction bill with the ambitious goals of producing hundreds of thousands of jobs, reducing energy consumption and creating healthier, cleaner environments for the nation’s schoolchildren.” A similar bill stalled in the Senate last year after President Bush vowed to veto it.

“The former Bush administration official in charge of the federal agency that guarantees pensions for 44 million Americans is under investigation over his contacts with several major Wall Street firms seeking to obtain lucrative contracts.” Charles E. F. Millard “is also being investigated on suspicion of soliciting help from one of the winning firms in his search for a new job once he left office.”

President Obama “will restart Bush-era military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a fiercely disputed trial system he once denounced.” Though Obama suspended the tribunals soon after taking office, administration officials say that they will have new legal protections for terror suspects, including a ban on all evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

“The combination of a deep recession and a foundering housing market has left the government with more than 50,000 houses on its hands,” USA Today reports. In all the government has has acquired at least 110,000 foreclosed houses” and is “spending about $12.2 billion to reimburse lenders after the owners defaulted on government-backed loans.”

And finally: For fans of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s luscious locks, look no further than blagohair.com. Dennis Fath, owner of Delta Laboratories Inc. in Illinois, has created the “Blago It’s Bleep’n Golden” volumizing shampoo and conditioner available for $8 a bottle. “I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea,” Fath said. “He does have a nice head of hair, and [I thought] it would be funny to have something named after him because of his hair.”

Sign up here to receive our daily e-newsletter, The Progress Report.