Senate OKs Ron Kirk as Trade Rep

President taps adviser to set up consumer protection agency

(AP) - President Obama named Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren a special adviser today and tasked her with setting up a new agency to look out for consumers. Calling Warren "one of the country's fiercest advocates for the middle class," Obama said the new bureau would end abusive practices. "Never again will folks be confused or misled by pages of barely understandable fine print that you find in agreements for credit cards or mortgages or student loans," he said. More»

Critics accuse GOP of 'blinking'

(NEWSER) - Twenty-seven Obama nominees were confirmed last night following a tense exchange between the president and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Critics accused McConnell and the GOP of "blinking" in the face of the president's threat to make recess appointments over the President's Day break. Republicans denied the claim, saying the move simply shows they are not obstructionist. "We cleared something like 35 nominees before the last recess, too," an aide tells Politico . "This isn’t because anyone blinked." More»

(AP) - The Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor today as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. The vote was 68-31 for Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. She becomes the 111th justice and just the third woman to serve. Democrats praised the 55-year-old Sotomayor as a mainstream moderate. But most Republicans voted against her, saying she'd bring personal bias and a liberal agenda to the bench. More»

Senator unable to support a 'judicial activist'

(AP) - John McCain says he'll oppose Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor when the Senate votes on her confirmation this week. Despite Sotomayor's efforts to distance herself from her record, the Arizona Republican said today, Sotomayor is a judicial activist who has used her position as a judge to try to change the law. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s birthday is right around the corner—no matter where Lou Dobbs thinks he was born—but what do you get the leader of the free world? Politico asked various Washingtonians their thoughts for Tuesday's big occasion. Some notable responses:

• Joe Biden: “It’s a surprise!”
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah): “The ShamWow, so he can help clean up this financial mess. He may need a couple, but as I recall, you get two for one.”