Spin Cycle

Despite a significant flap over her refusal to agree to limits or additional disclosure on her husband's foreign fundraising, Hillary Clinton seems headed for confirmation after a deferential hearing in which she emphasized diplomacy.

The Washington Post, LATimes and WSJ all joined the NYTimes in calling for her to offer more transparency on Bill's fundraising, as proposed by Foreign Relations chairman John Kerry and ranking minority Sen. Richard Lugar.

Janison thought the hearing was clubby, full of deference and "somewhat unbearable." The Washington Post's Dana Milbank said it substituted the "admire and congratulate" clause for the "advise and consent" clause.

Obama put out talking points and a big PR push to try to help Timothy Geithner, his Treasury nominee, get past disclosure that he failed to pay two years of self-employment Social Security taxes after being alerted by the IRS that he was supposed to.

In addition to Hillary, confirmation hearings were also held yesterday for Education nominee Arne Duncan, Energy nominee Steven Chu, and HUD nominee Shaun Donovan.

The push is on for a big new chunk of bailout money to purportedly rescue purportedly struggling banks with the $350 billion that hasn't been spent, and Obama threatened a veto to get his way in a private meeting with recalcitrant Dems.

Obama was promising to spend a lot of the money on foreclosure relief for homeowners, a plan with more political than economic appeal, while Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said the money would be needed to buy toxic assets from banks and investment companies -- the plan that was never executed for the first $350 billion.

Yankee Stadium subsidies may be turning into a political thicket for Mayor Bloomberg. Yankees president Randy Levine and a city official have been subpoenaed to testify in Albany today.

But he did win a lawsuit challenging City Council's approval of an extension of the term limits law without a public referendum.

Gov. Paterson is nominating Jonathan Lippman to replace Judith Kaye as chief judge of the Court of Appeals.

Despite his painstaking evasions and feigned disinterest, AG Andrew Cuomo did sit down for a job interview with Gov. Paterson to seek to fill Hillary's Senate seat.

A proposal to have a special election to fill the vacancy instead of letting Gov. Paterson choose has bi-partisan support in Albany, but not much, because it would give Republicans a chance in a process that Democrats now control 100 percent.