Morning Must Reads — Pressed conference

President Obama is taking a pasting in the press for the administration’s handling of the BP oil spill and hopes to turn things around a press conference early this afternoon – his first since he gave his opinions on police procedures 10 months ago.

What the president will be offering is a crackdown on offshore drilling, with the administration telling The Associated Press that he will extend the ban on offshore drilling he imposed upon taking office and then partially lifted in March.

Also today:

“Controversial lease sales off the coast of Alaska will be delayed pending the results of the commission’s investigation, and lease sales planned in the Western Gulf and off the coast of Virginia will be canceled, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a midday Obama news conference.”

Also expect a discussion of his planned reorganization of the Minerals Management Service.

The problem for the president is that when he relented on his drilling ban in March, the agencies that regulate the practice were obviously something of a shambles. Environmentalists who hated Obama’s decision to embrace a little drilling even before the leak are having trouble swallowing the White House line that this is a Bush/Cheney problem. How could the president have lifted his ban without checking the condition of his regulatory agencies, especially if they were as deplorable as the administration now claims?

The press conference comes as crews wait to see if shooting tons of drilling mud into the open well will plug the leak (Obama will be able to sound optimistic notes about the process) and as British Petroleum faces testimony that it was putting speed ahead of safety when the well was being capped in a move that was “the riskier way to go.”

As Obama moves through the oil-slicked political waters, he also has to be alert to what else is out there. The biggest danger zone is the allegation by Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak that a white House official tried to bribe him out of his primary challenge of Arlen Specter with his promise of a federal job.

Republicans are now stepping up demands for a special prosecutor and even Democrats are saying that the time has come for a fuller explanation that Robert Gibbs’ stock answer that the administration has cleared itself in an internal investigation. Expect the president to be “perfectly clear” that no wrongdoing occurred. (Read my column today about how Sestak even complicates Obama’s weekend trip back to Chicago here.)

But Obama’s real goal is to avoid being labeled as a the president who dithered while the Gulf was ruined.

After five weeks of pushing back intensely against reporters for even raising the Katrina/BP comparison, the president’s decision to leave his cocoon to discuss the matter in public has broken the levee holding back that analogy.

Karl Rove says “Yes” and suggests that it could even be worse because Obama had the chance to take charge of the situation but did not. I think Rove is reaching a bit. After the initial casualties on the rig, no one else has died. It was the body count that made Katrina so damaging to George W. Bush’s presidency, not whether the blame was fairly or unfairly affixed.

But no doubt, Obama faces anger on the Left and scorn on the Right for talking a lot about his feelings but seeming paralyzed about taking actions. The effort to keep the blame on BP by leaving them in charge has backfired. Americans don’t want a president who shares their outrage as much as they want a president who can solve problems.

After his presser, Obama will take his family back to Chicago and then head down to the Gulf Friday, when he hopes to declare “top kill” a victory.

Writers Mimi Hall, Rick Jarvis and Alan Levin talk about the reception he’ll receive.

“Comparisons to Katrina are limited: More than 1,800 people died when the storm hit and flooded the Gulf Coast in August 2005; 11 men died on the Deepwater Horizon rig when an explosion ruptured the well on April 20.

In both cases, however, local residents complained about what they say is an anemic response from Washington. “The response to this,” [Parish President Billy Nungesser of Plaquemines, La.] says, “has been worse than Katrina.”

Wall Street Journal — U.S. Chides Europe’s Crisis Response

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner touched down in London to start scolding Europeans for their handling of the second dip of their double-dip recession.

Having just spent a few days being summarily ignored by the Chinese in his requests for currency revaluation and new import policies, Geithner probably has some steam he wants to blow off by smacking around the Flemish.

But the real problem is that the crumbling euro and shaky Eurozone economy are rattling the financial markets.

The Dow may snap back today after closing under 10,000 because the Chinese have announced they aren’t selling off a bunch of European assets. When your markets depend on what the Chinese do to the French, it’s scary stuff.

Writers Bob Davis Ian Talley explain that Geithner’s demand is for bigger, swifter action to consolidate debt and stimulate the economy. It’s Geithners’ version of Krugmanism: spend big or go home.

There is growing anxiety apparent in the Obama administration that the European swoon will kill off the tepid recovery here.

Though the weakened Euro is good for U.S. interest rates and gas prices, more economic contraction in one of our largest trading partners and a reduction in the investment of foreign capital could be a disaster.

Today’s New York Times editorial provides a nice encapsulation of the anger on the Left at Germany, which the times accuses of “nationalist illusions” for embarking on a multi-year package of spending cuts and rejecting more interventions.

If you’re willing to invoke Nazism over a bailout package, you know the supporters of Obamanomics are sweating.

But Europeans aren’t feeling as transformative as the Obama team. They’re more worried about avoiding Greek-style crisis in their own government-dependent economies. The idea of running up an even larger debt now for the sake of the fiscal irresponsibility of others in order to avoid having a debt crisis later sounds as foolish to Germans as it does to American voters.

“Mr. Geithner’s comments weren’t directed at his British counterpart, George Osborne, who he appeared to view as an ally during a meeting Wednesday. Messrs. Geithner and Osborne said they agreed on the need for fiscal stimulus to keep economies growing for now and for broad financial regulation.

‘There is a broader challenge to Europe on where is the growth going to come from’ over the coming years, Mr. Osborne said, as heavily indebted European countries ratchet back their spending.”

Washington Post — 100,000 teachers nationwide face layoffs

Examiner colleague Susan Ferrechio explains that since Democrats lost the mojo for their plan for a $250 billion pre-Memorial Day spending blowout featuring a deficit-funded “jobs” bill, the need to turn the supplemental war appropriation for Afghanistan and Iraq into a domestic spending package.

The complication is that unless Doctors to abandon Medicare in even greater numbers, they must approve the $65 billion “doc fix.” Democrats also need $47 billion to extend unemployment benefits to a full 99 weeks.

At the same time, lawmakers are considering two defense bills. The first is the regular defense-spending package. That one is complicated by the addition of an amendment to allow gay members of the military to be open about their sexualities. And we see today that the heads of the branches of service are asking for a delay of any vote on gayness until after a Dec. 1 study of the subject has been completed. The White House got Defense Secretary Robert Gates to sign off on a plan that would enact the openly gay measure now but allow the president to forestall its implementation until a time of his choosing. But the letters badly undercut Gates wishy-washy endorsement.

So, with that bill complicated enough by that and fights over which pet projects and boondoggles will be allowed to survive, that leaves the Democrats to target the legislation that provides for our troops fighting overseas.

Writer Nick Anderson suggests that there’s just as crucial a combatant to be considered: America’s public employee unions.

While Democrats have come up with $50 billion in deficit spending to tack onto the $60 billion Afghan and Iraq supplement, the heart of their push is $23 billion in direct aid to states to avoid teacher layoffs for another year.

States like New Jersey and California are desperate to fire teachers. They would have unloaded them last year, but the Obama stimulus held them at bay. Now, just as the ax is ready to fall, the White House is pushing hard for another round of emergency funding.

The government employee bailout continues.

“The National Education Association, the largest teachers union, said Wednesday that it is funding TV ads in markets that are home to potential swing votes among House Democrats. The ad features children dressed in business suits pleading for a school bailout similar to what bankers received.”

Wall Street Journal – Challenge to Arizona Law Likely

Eric Holder is putting together the public face for what will amount to a class-action suit against the Arizona government over a law that requires police to check the immigration status of those people they detain for other crimes.

President Obama did some fundraising on the issue in California and made it clear to his supporters that he would fight the law. But Americans overwhelmingly support the measure and believe that Washington has failed on the issue of immigration.

Writers Miriam Jordan and Evan Perez explain how Holder is looking to for sympathetic plaintiffs in the case against Arizona. He can’t use an alleged victim of racial profiling because the law hasn’t gone into effect. But he can get police officers to say that they don’t want to enforce the law — sort of like being able to get John Kerry to testify about the Winter Soldier even before Vietnam ever happened.

This is the second step in preparing for the Tombstone showdown. First was dispatching 1,200 national guardsmen to the border.

But so far, the move isn’t providing too much political cover.

It’s upsetting immigration activists, causing other border states to ask: When do we get some troops, and mostly leaving Arizonans unimpressed. They know the 6,000 guardsmen Bush sent in 2006 didn’t do much to stem the tide.

But the Arizona law represents a very direct challenge to federal authority and threatens to make Obama look impotent on the issue of illegal immigration, so Holder will press ahead on stage two, hoping that support from big city police chiefs can help him convince Americans that suing Arizona is the right thing to do.

“Law enforcement in Arizona has been divided over the law. Paul Babeu, sheriff of Pinal County, which is sandwiched between Tucson and Phoenix, supports it. He argues the state has become a hub of human trafficking that has spawned a plague of kidnappings in Phoenix. “We are living the effect and impact of this lawlessness,” he said. …

Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said his officers would enforce the law, which goes into effect July 29. “Our concern is what will the effect be on our resources and relationship with the community,” he said.

Morning Might Reads

George Will — Instead of shrugging, Ron Johnson is running for office

  New York Times — Health Care Study Calls Risk Pool Money Lacking

Washington Post — U.S. withdrawal from Iraq will be on time, Vice President Biden says

  Washington Post — President Obama rethinking his pick for director of national intelligence

Wall Street Journal — Obama’s Russia Tribute

The most transparent morning news digest in history…

In Tuesday’s Morning Must Reads I passed along a report from the Navy Times about the changing tradition at the U.S. Naval Academy’s graduation as midshipmen climb an obelisk.

Knowing that missile cruisers can sail up the Potomac, I now pass along the response sent to me by the public affairs office at Annapolis, where they are keen for you to know that the Obelisk, ungreased this year for safety’s sake, was also not greased in 1969:

>>This was not the first time that the monument was not greased.

>>It is not the graduating 1st Class midshipmen (seniors) who climb the monument, it is our 4/C midshipmen (freshman), also known as plebes, who scale the monument.

>>The official time for this year’s climb was 2 minutes and 5 seconds

>>It was not the new commandant who made the decision not to grease the monument – it was the Superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler. USNA statement: The Superintendent approved a plan that omitted greasing Herndon this year in order to facilitate a safer event. There is historical precedence that Herndon has not always been greased for the climb.

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