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Charlie Crist has taken heat for his appearance with President Obama one year ago.

(CNN) - Fort Myers, Florida, is home to nearby beach resorts, exotic birds and the spring training facility for the Boston Red Sox.

The Gulf Coast city also happens to be ground zero for the volatile Republican Senate primary between Gov. Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

One year ago Wednesday, President Obama arrived in Fort Myers to promote his $787 billion stimulus package. It was a piece of legislation, he argued, that would return precious jobs to a state reeling from the implosion of the housing market. Crist, eager to be seen with a president whose approval ratings were soaring at the time, joined Obama for the event.

Appearing on stage at Harborside Event Center during a rally for the Recovery Act, Crist embraced the president before the cameras, a gesture now widely mocked in Florida politics as "The Hug."

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Brown has plans to write a book in part about his upset Senate victory.

(CNN) – Newly minted Sen. Scott Brown has plans to write a book about his life story and improbable win in Massachusetts last month.

Brown - who rocketed to stardom in the Republican Party after scoring the upset victory to fill the seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in January - has been "approached by many people who want him to tell his inspirational personal story," spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.

"He will tell his story in a book in hopes of providing insight and encouragement to others and also to ensure that the record is complete and accurate," Gitcho also said in a statement. "Part of the book proceeds will be donated to charity. Senator Brown will work with a collaborator so he can continue to focus fully on his service to the people of Massachusetts, which is, and always will be, his first priority."

The terms of Brown's book deal will be negotiated by Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer who has sealed lucrative deals for several high profile politicians including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Senate rules do allow Brown to write a book while in office, but it will first be approved by the Senate Ethics Committee.

Norquist endorsed John McCain's reelection bid Tuesday.

(CNN) - On the same day he endorsed the conservative Marco Rubio in the Florida Senate race, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist announced he is backing another Republican who isn't exactly a darling of the right - Sen. John McCain.

McCain has two challengers on his right flank in the Arizona Republican Senate primary - former congressman and talk show host J.D. Hayworth and Chris Simcox, a co-founder of the Minuteman movement.

Praising McCain for his long-standing opposition to federal earmarks and his signing of the ATR "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," Norquist said the 2008 Republican presidential nominee "consistently votes against tax increases and for spending restraint."

"John McCain, along with most of the Republicans, has been very good on not raising taxes," Norquist told Phoenix radio host Mike Broomhead on Tuesday. "But he's also been a leader on the issue that has always been important but hasn't been focused on sufficiently until this year, and that's the spending issue."

Norquist also took a swipe at Hayworth, who lost his House re-election bid in 2006 to Rep. Harry Mitchell.

"J.D. Hayworth, the challenger, needs to explain why he lost his House seat, okay?," he said. "If you can't get yourself re-elected to your House seat, what do you bring to the table on a Senate race?"

Referring to Hayworth's loss in 2006, Norquist said, "When you throw away a race like that it's very expensive to the rest of the party."

Washington (CNN) - Michelle Obama expressed confidence Tuesday that Congress will enact some sort of change to improve the nation's health care system.

"We don't have a choice," the first lady told CNN's Larry King in an interview that aired Tuesday night. "When we look at these statistics, we're spending billions of dollars on preventable diseases, and new health care legislation could go a long way to improving prevention, first and foremost."

She addressed the need for people to have access to specialists such as pediatricians who can gather critical information and track it.

"So we have to get this done and I'm hopeful that Congress will come together, that the American people will recognize that doing nothing is absolutely not an option."

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President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive Tuesday at the concert honoring songs of the civil rights movement.

Washington (CNN) – Civil rights songs were the soundtrack of the movement that helped bring President Obama to the White House. On Tuesday, Obama welcomed an array of artists to celebrate those songs.

An all-star lineup including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, John Mellencamp, gospel singer Yolanda Adams and others performed some of the best-known numbers from what Obama called the "soundtrack" of the civil rights movement.

The concert, "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement," was originally scheduled for Wednesday night but was moved to Tuesday as another snow storm moved into the Washington area. According to the White House Web site, the concert marked the beginning of the 2010 White House music series and celebrated Black History month.

Black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. decided on communities to organize when they saw the people were "disciplined and serious enough to be singing freedom songs," Obama said.

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Washington (CNN) – First lady Michelle Obama sidestepped questions Tuesday about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has been publicly critical of her husband's presidency.

"I try not to make or set opinions about people I haven't had any substantive interaction with," Michelle Obama said in an interview scheduled to air on CNN's Larry King Live. "I mean, I know what you see on TV."

Asked later if she considered the 2008 vice presidential nominee to be a "phenomenon," the first lady again withheld criticizing Palin.

"Again, I mean, I think it's wonderful to have strong, female voices out there, but I don't know her," Obama said.

With her keynote address at last week's Tea Party convention, Palin has continued a pattern of hard-hitting critiques of President Obama that began on the campaign trail in 2008.

The first lady did defend her husband's record after a year in the Oval Office. "Democracy is about critique and the president is not immune to criticism," she said.
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Washington (CNN) – New York Gov. David Paterson vowed Tuesday that he would not allow unfounded rumors to drive him from office and pledged to run for his own four year term in November.

"Let me let you know this: The only way I am not going to be governor next year is at the ballot box and the only way that I will be leaving office before is in a box," Paterson said at news conference he called Tuesday to discuss the winter storm headed for his state.

While the focus of the news conference was supposed to be about the weather, Paterson was peppered with questions about his personal life. The governor has been dogged for weeks by rumors of womanizing and illegal drug use.

"There hasn't been one shred of evidence that any of these charges that were made against me were even true," said a defiant Paterson, who stood behind a podium with the state seal.

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The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world.

WASHINGTON/POLITICAL
For the latest political news: www.CNNPolitics.com

CNN: Obama open to 'incremental steps' on job growth
President Obama and top congressional leaders from both parties expressed cautious optimism Tuesday that they can reach agreement on a new jobs bill.The positive assessment came after Obama spent much of the morning huddling with a bipartisan Capitol Hill delegation to discuss ways to help lower the country's 9.7 percent unemployment rate.

CNNMoney: Senate jobs bill: What's missing
Senate Democrats' draft plan for job creation, circulated Tuesday, contains a couple of employment measures and a lot of leftover business. What's not included in the $85 billion draft legislation is additional funds for states or stimulus money for infrastructure, which Republicans have said they will not support.

Investors Business Daily: Economic Optimism Falters In February; Losing Faith In Gov't
Voters are souring on the economy and the government's remedies, according to the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index released Tuesday. It fell 4.1% to 46.8 in February, back to December's level and the weakest since July.

CNN: U.S. ready to offer Iran alternative to nuclear plan
In what appears to be an attempt to call Iran's bluff on its nuclear program, the United States is poised to offer Tehran a way to obtain medical isotopes that Iran says it desperately needs to treat cancer patients, according to the State Department. The United States, along with "other countries," will present a new proposal to the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide Iran with those isotopes, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday.

New York Times: Pakistan Is Said to Pursue Role in Afghan Talks With U.S.
Pakistan has told the United States it wants a central role in resolving the Afghan war and has offered to mediate with Taliban factions who use its territory and have long served as its allies, American and Pakistani officials said.

The Hill: Climate-change legislation buried under record snowfall in capital
Record snowfall has buried Washington — and along with it, buried the chances of passing global warming legislation this year. Cars are stranded in banks of snow along the streets of the federal capital, and in the corridors of Congress, climate legislation also has been put on ice. Democratic senators say a bill that was once a top priority for the party and for President Barack Obama cannot be dug up again during 2010.

CNN: Obama, Republicans spar over starting point for health care summit
President Obama said Tuesday his televised health care summit with Republican leaders on February 25 should involve true give-and-take negotiations instead of mere "political theater."In a rare appearance at the daily White House media briefing, Obama said he wants the meeting - which also will include health care experts - to "establish some common facts" on the health care issue and reach agreement on the most pressing health care problems facing the country.

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Washington (CNN) - White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made a dig at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Tuesday during the White House daily briefing.

"I wrote a few things down. I wrote eggs milk and bread, but I crossed out bread just so I can make pancakes for Ethan if it snows," Gibbs said showing the palm of his hand with notes written on it. "Then I wrote down hope and change just in case I forgot that."

Gibbs was apparently taking a jab at Palin who had notes written on her hand during a question and answer session at the Tea Party Convention Saturday night in Nashville, Tennessee.

It was later determined Palin had written the words "Energy," "Tax Cuts," and "Lift American Spirits" in her palm.

(CNN) – With Washington blanketed in snow and the federal government shut down, the State Department used Twitter Tuesday to announce that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would soon be traveling to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Clinton's trips are usually announced in the daily press conferences, followed by a press release and then possibly by a tweet. But Clinton's visits to Qatar and Saudi Arabia were made public on Twitter first and then a news release was sent out approximately two hours later.

The tweet came from @DipNote, the official U.S. Department of State Twitter account: "Secretary Clinton will travel to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, February 13-16, 2010. #hillarytravel."

Carville: The Saints are a large part of the fabric of the community here and have helped to bring everyone together in the toughest of times.

Underdogs and comebacks are hailed in American culture; perhaps this is why there will be so much said and written about our New Orleans Saints’ 31-17 victory in Super Bowl XLIV and what it means to a once-water-logged city and its tenacious residents.

I am as excited about the outcome of the game as any other member of the Who Dat Nation, but perhaps as important as bringing home the Vince Lombardi trophy, this win gives New Orleans an opportunity to highlight how far she has come and how promising her future looks today.

For as challenging a decade as the 2000s were for New Orleans, the 2010s may prove to be the brightest time in the city’s nearly 300-year history. The confluence of the Saints’ win and the historic mayoral election, which Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu won in a landside across racial lines, line up for the city’s best two days since the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

While we celebrate the team’s victory this evening at the parade, the city and the region will also be celebrating how far we have come as a community. The Saints are a large part of the fabric of the community here and have helped to bring everyone together in the toughest of times. Following the Super Bowl and the mayoral election, there is a unity of spirit and purpose unlike any time in our history. And it’s on display for the world to see.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday his televised health care summit with Republican leaders on February 25 should involve true give-and-take.

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama said Tuesday his televised health care summit with Republican leaders on February 25 should involve true give-and-take negotiations instead of mere "political theater."

In a rare appearance at the daily White House media briefing, Obama said he wants the meeting - which also will include health care experts - to "establish some common facts" on the health care issue and reach agreement on the most pressing health care problems facing the country.

To signal his willingness to compromise, Obama said he would consider a Republican push to include limits on medical malpractice lawsuits in a health care bill if the proposal can be shown to truly reduce overall health care costs. The president acknowledged the issue could "make my party uncomfortable," an apparent nod to traditional Democratic support among trial lawyers who oppose such limits.

However, Obama said bipartisanship on health care reform cannot mean only that "Democrats give up everything they believe in."

"Bipartisanship depends on a willingness among both Democrats and Republicans to put aside matters of party for the good of the country," he said.

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New York (CNNMoney.com) - Senate Democrats' draft plan for job creation, circulated Tuesday, contains a couple of employment measures and a lot of leftover business.

What's not included in the draft legislation is additional funds for states or stimulus money for infrastructure, which Republicans have said they will not support.

President Obama met with Senate and House leaders on both sides of the aisle Tuesday to push for a jobs proposal. The House passed a $154 billion bill in December, but momentum has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats recently lost their 60-vote filibuster-proof edge.

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said lawmakers need to pass a jobs bill this week, Republicans were not so sure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said GOP lawmakers need to know more about the package.

"My members need to be able to feel like they understand what they are being called upon to support," McConnell said.

The Republican leader, meanwhile, said he'd like to explore a competing vision for job creation that centers around international trade and clean energy.

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Washington braced Tuesday for a second major winter storm. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Washington (CNN) - The wheels of justice have been slowed but not paralyzed by the one-two punch of wintry blasts forcing much of the federal government to shut down this week.

Justice officials said Tuesday that essential personnel - including Attorney General Eric Holder - have managed to keep critical counterterrorism and other priority missions up and running - even as the nation's capital is buried in snow and bracing for more.

"All of the necessary national security functions and public safety functions are fully operational," FBI Assistant Director Michael Kortan told CNN.

But the weather has forced the closing of various U.S. attorneys' offices, affecting more than a thousand federal prosecutors and support staff in the Washington metro area alone.

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Washington (CNN) – Nearly two-thirds of Americans want Congress to keep trying to pass a health care reform bill, according to a new national poll.

The ABC News/Washington Post survey released Tuesday afternoon also indicates that the public spreads the blame when it comes to a lack of bipartisanship in the nation's capital.

Fifty-eight percent of people questioned in the poll say that congressional Republicans aren't doing enough to seek compromise with President Barack Obama on important issues, with 44 percent feeling that Obama is doing too little to forge compromise with the GOP.

The survey indicates that 56 percent of independent voters say congressional Republicans aren't doing enough to try and work with the president and Democrats in Congress. Half of independents see the president as too unwilling to compromise and 28 percent feel both parties are not doing enough when it comes to bipartisanship.

According to the poll, 63 percent of Americans think federal lawmakers should keep trying to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, including 88 percent of Democrats questioned, 56 percent of independents and 42 percent of Republicans. Fifty-five percent of Republicans feel Congress should give up on health care reform.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not intervene on behalf of 10 Americans detained in Haiti.

Washington (CNN) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not get directly involved in the case of the 10 Americans detained in Haiti on child abduction charges, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

"It would be highly unusual for the secretary of state to intervene in a case involving the judicial process of another country," spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an off-camera question-and-answer session.

Reginald Brown - the Washington lawyer who represents one of the detained Americans - sent a letter to Clinton on Tuesday asking her to personally intervene with Haitian authorities.

"This is all the result of a colossal misunderstanding and we are hoping it will resolve itself," Brown said about the arrest and detention of his client, Jim Allen, and the other nine Americans. "We would appreciate it if you could continue to devote significant personal attention to this matter, as we are confident that with your assistance this misunderstanding could be quickly resolved."

He asked Clinton to make "a personal request" to Haitian authorities to allow Allen to speak to his wife and her lawyers and to have fresh supplies.

"As far as I can tell, the one thing our detained American citizens have been able to do is communicate with just about anybody who wants to talk with them," Crowley said at the State Department. "If family members wish to talk to them, I think that is something that can be easily facilitated through our embassy in Port au Prince or through the Haitian government."

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that negotiators are close to an agreement on a jobs package.

Washington (CNN) - Senate negotiators are close to a bipartisan agreement on a jobs package and the Senate could work through the weekend to pass it, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday.

The measure, which aides said has a price tag of about $85 billion, combines tax breaks for businesses that hire new workers with spending on infrastructure and extended benefits for the unemployed.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats that his members might need more time to study the bill before voting on it. "My members need to be able to feel like they understand what they are being called upon to support," he said on the Senate floor.

For Democrats, swift passage is critical. In addition to believing the aid is desperately needed in order to kick start hiring, Democrats are anxious to recover from their set back on health care reform and prove to voters they can get things done.
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Last December a billboard popped up north of Minneapolis on I-35 featuring former President George W. Bush's image next to the words "Miss Me Yet?". (Photo by Bob Collins/ Minnesota Public Radio)

(CNN) – A political mystery of sorts in Minnesota may have been solved.

A billboard popped up north of Minneapolis on I-35 featuring former President George W. Bush's image next to the words "Miss Me Yet?" last December. But until Tuesday it wasn't known who paid for it.

While the identities of the sign owners are still unclear, the general manager of the advertising company who owns the billboard space told Minnesota Public Radio it was financed by "a group of small business owners who feel like Washington is against them."

"They wish to remain anonymous. They thought it was a fun way of getting out their message," said Mary Teske, of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising.

Schubert & Hoey did not return CNN's request for comment.

Governor David Paterson defended himself Monday in an interview with the Associated Press.

(CNN) - New York Gov. David Paterson defended himself Monday from rumors of womanizing and drug use, describing these unfounded reports as "outrageous," during an interview with the Associated Press.

"For the last couple of weeks I have been the subject of what, even by Albany standards, has been a spate of outrageous rumors about me," Paterson told the AP.

Despite rumors of drug use and gallivanting, Paterson told the AP he hasn't used an illegal substance since his early 20's and rarely eats dinner outside of his home. He also said he hasn't had sexual relations with another woman in more than 10 years. Both Paterson and his wife have previously admitted to extramarital affairs in their past.

The embattled Democratic governor, who is serving the remainder of former Gov. Elliot Spitzer's term, also criticized some reports in the media about his life as "callous and sleazy."

Paterson specifically pointed his finger at the New York Post, which reported late last month that a state police officer caught the governor involved with a woman who wasn't his wife. Paterson said the room he was supposedly caught in doesn't even exist. The Post stood by its reporting in a statement to CNN.

Paterson also blamed the spate of rumors on an investigation that The New York Times is reportedly working on about Paterson's private life. The governor said that investigation has "spawned a bunch of speculations that are so way out that it's shocking."

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