OFA's spot targets fellow Democrats and centrist Republicans.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Obama’s political team is expanding its ad buy pressuring lawmakers to support the administration’s health care plan, adding 15 more markets as the president’s August target date for congressional passage of the package nears.

The 30-second TV ad from Organizing for America, the president’s political arm at the Democratic National Committee, is already airing in eight states — Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Ohio – represented by moderate Republican and conservative Democratic senators the White House needs on board for any vote on the massive health care overhaul.

"It's Time" will now begin airing in the Savannah, Palm Springs, Seattle, Nashville, Bloomington, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Little Rock, Columbus, Marquette, Grand Rapids and Medford media markets, according to the DNC – all areas within districts represented by members of Congress who are viewed as swing votes on a key committee weighing the president’s plan. Four-fifths of those lawmakers are Democrats.

The ad — which features ordinary Americans relating health insurance difficulties they’ve faced — does not mention legislators by name, but does ask viewers to call Capitol Hill, and provides the telephone number for the U.S. Capitol switchboard.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Pennsylvania state workers' paychecks are a little light these days.

Struggling to resolve a 17-day-old budget impasse, Pennsylvania is withholding pay for 69,000 state employees for time worked after July 1. Workers Friday received only 70% of their salary, covering days worked in June. Starting two weeks from now, they'll get nothing on payday until a state budget is approved.

Related: California's budget mess

Pennsylvania is one of three states that have yet to pass budgets for fiscal 2010, which began July 1. The other two — Connecticut and North Carolina — are operating under temporary spending measures. Still two others, Illinois and Ohio approved their 2010 budgets this week.

Full story

WASHINGTON (CNN) – With the White House deadline for congressional passage of his health care agenda just weeks away, President Obama and the GOP faced off on the issue Saturday.

High-profile White House events this week made the hard sell for the plan currently being considered by Congress. On Friday, a bipartisan group of half a dozen senators asked the president to slow the pace, and relax the summer timeline he’s given Congress to act.

In his radio and Web address broadcast Saturday — titled "Health Care Reform Cannot Wait" — Obama resisted that effort, and shot back at critics of his plan.

“We know the same special interests and their agents in Congress will make the same old arguments, and use the same scare tactics that have stopped reform before because they profit from this relentless escalation in health care costs,” said the president. “And I know that once you’ve seen enough ads and heard enough people yelling on TV, you might begin to wonder whether there’s a grain of truth to what they’re saying. So let me take a moment to answer a few of their arguments.”

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The Obamas will head to Martha’s Vineyard next month.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – It's official: the first family is heading to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts for some vacation next month.

White House aides confirmed on Friday night what had been rumored for months but had been kept under wraps for security and other reasons, including the fact that vacation plans are very sensitive in the middle of a painful recession.

The aides said President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia will spend the final week of August together in Martha's Vineyard, a favored vacation spot for then-President Bill Clinton and his family in the '90s.

Aides have privately held open the possibility that Mrs. Obama and the girls may arrive at the vacation spot a few days earlier while the president works on a variety of issues, including his push for health reform.

Full text of President Obama's weekly address Saturday, a released by the White House:

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Right now in Washington, our Senate and House of Representatives are both debating proposals for health insurance reform. Today, I want to speak with you about the stakes of this debate, for our people and for the future of our nation.

This is an issue that affects the health and financial well-being of every single American and the stability of our entire economy.

It’s about every family unable to keep up with soaring out of pocket costs and premiums rising three times faster than wages. Every worker afraid of losing health insurance if they lose their job, or change jobs. Everyone who’s worried that they may not be able to get insurance or change insurance if someone in their family has a pre-existing condition.

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Full text of the GOP's weekly radio address Saturday, as released by the Republican National Committee:

SENATE MINORITY WHIP JON KYL (R-AZ) DELIVERS WEEKLY REPUBLICAN ADDRESS

TRANSCRIPT:

“Hello. I’m Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl, of Arizona.

“Republicans believe all Americans should have access to quality health care and that we must find ways to reduce health care costs.

“The debate in Washington is about how we can achieve these goals.

“Republicans have put forward common-sense ideas, including rooting out Medicare and Medicaid fraud, reforming medical liability laws to discourage frivolous lawsuits, strengthening wellness and prevention programs that encourage healthy living, and allowing small businesses to band together and purchase health insurance like large corporations do.

“These changes do not require government takeover of the healthcare system, or massive new spending, job-killing taxes, or rationing of care.

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Sarah Palin tweeted Friday that her new, personal twitter account would be established later this month.

(CNN) — Sarah Palin says she's ready to be unleashed.

The Alaska governor, who is set to resign her post at the end of this month, took to the social networking site Twitter Friday to proclaim she's looking forward to being a little less restrained.

"10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site," Palin declared.

"I'll stay in touch w/whomever wants via personal twtr site; launch July 26," she also tweeted.

The former GOP vice presidential candidate announced earlier this month she would step down at the end of July instead of serving out the remaining year and a half of her term.

Palin later told reporters she intends to spend her days out of the governor's mansion traveling the country in support of candidates — Republican or Democrat — whose ideas she agrees with.

President Obama's approval rating has dropped under 60 percent according to a CNN Poll of Polls released Friday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — An average of five national polls conducted in July indicates that President Barack Obama's approval rating has slipped under 60 percent.

Fifty-seven percent of Americans surveyed approve of the job Obama's doing as president, according to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled and released Friday, with 36 percent disapproving. In early June, Obama's average approval rating was 62 percent. It dropped a point to 61 percent by mid-June and stayed at that level through the rest of the month.

"Recent polls indicate that Obama's lowest ratings — and biggest losses — come on the public's perception of how he is handling the economy," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "And the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows a double-digit drop in the number of Americans who think that the President has a clear plan for solving the country's problems. The public may not be as willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt after six months on the job as they did when he first took office."

So how does Obama compare to his most recent predecessors six months into office?

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Congress is considering a new agency designed to give consumers more financial protection.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — If you hold a credit card, mortgage or a student loan, Congress is considering a new agency designed to give you a lot more protection. Called the Consumer Financial Products Agency, it would set new rules to simplify contracts, eliminate fine print, and get rid of the tricks and traps that led so many people to unwittingly sign up for mortgages they couldn't afford.

Guess who is fighting it? The financial services industry. According to one of the industry's top lobbyists, stopping the agency is "our number one priority." That's no small thing given the industry that spent $373 million on lobbying last year alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He insists any changes in the industry would have devastating effects on the economy. He worries the agency "basically has no restrictions on what they can do in the area of consumer protection" and warns this could freeze up the credit market: "If credit goes up and costs more, some people that are eligible for credit today will not be eligible in the future."

"This is the biggest financial fight I have seen in the 20 years I've been in Washington," says Ed Mierzwinksi, with of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), a consumer advocacy organization. Consumer groups are outraged by the industry's opposition. "The people who are gearing up to kill the agency are the companies whose irresponsible practices and abuses led to the collapse of the world economy," says Mierzwinski. PIRG is one of approximately 200 groups which have formed a coalition called Americans for Financial Reform, which will be pushing Congress to approve the new consumer agency.

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President Obama says health care is at the top of his domestic agenda.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The fight over health care reform took center stage on Capitol Hill on Friday, as the House Democratic leadership stepped up its push for passage of a bill before the August congressional recess.

An influential group of Senate moderates, however, broke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama by releasing a letter urging a slower timetable.

Obama, who has put health care reform at the top of his domestic agenda, pushed Congress to get the job done.

"Now is not the time to slow down, and now is certainly not the time to lose heart," the president said from the White House.

"Those who are betting against this happening this year are badly mistaken," he said. "It will happen this year."

Full story

The official White House Twitter feed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House, for the first time ever, announced a primetime press conference on the social media site Twitter. @WhiteHouse (with 713,521 people following them at the time of the announcement) wrote, “You heard it here first: Primetime presidential news conference at the White House, Wed. 7/22 @ 9PM EDT”.

UPDATE: The White House press release about the announcement was sent out to reporters (by e-mail) two hours after the tweet.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The House Intelligence Committee will investigate whether any laws were broken when the CIA concealed a now-canceled counterterrorism program from Congress, the panel's chairman announced Friday.

Among the things the committee will look into is "whether there was any past decision or direction to withhold information from the committee," Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said in a statement announcing the probe.

"I intend to make this investigation fair and thorough, and it is my goal that it will not become a distraction to the men and women of the CIA," he said.

"However, in order to assist them fully and keep them well-resourced, it is the responsibility of the executive branch to ensure that the committee is kept fully and currently informed of all significant anticipated intelligence activities."

CIA Director Leon Panetta told a congressional committee in June that he was told former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the intelligence agency to withhold information about the secret program from Congress. Panetta terminated the program when he found out about it last month. The spy agency said Thursday that the program was never put into full effect and played no significant role in the battle against al Qaeda and other violent extremists.

Sen. Olympia Snowe announced Friday her support for Sonia Sotomayor.

(CNN) – GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Mel Martinez of Florida Friday both publicly announced their support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, bringing the tally of Republican senators supporting Obama's pick to three.

"Judge Sotomayor is knowledgeable of the law, would be a fair and impartial judge, and seems to have a good understanding of the limited role the judiciary plays in our democracy," Martinez said in a statement.

Martinez, who was born in Cuba, also praised the historic nature of Sotomayor's nomination.
"As an Hispanic American, I take great pride in Judge Sotomayor's historic achievement. Given her qualifications and testimony this week, I intend to vote in favor of her confirmation."

Snowe said in a statement she was impressed with Sotomayor's performance at the hearings. "She appears neither rigid nor dogmatic in her approach to the essential task of constitutional interpretation," Snowe said.

Earlier Friday, Indiana Republican Dick Lugar also announced his support of Sotomayor.

Gov. Mark Sanford's security clearance was erroneously suspended by a DHS employee.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's federal security clearance was wrongly suspended by a Department of Homeland Security employee in the days following the governor's admission of an extramarital affair, department officials confirmed Friday.

Sanford's security privileges were suspended on Wednesday, July 1, according to DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Sean Smith. Smith would not identify the employee who suspended Sanford's security clearance, or say why the action was taken.

But the suspension came just one week after the governor emerged from a mysterious absence and revealed his relationship with an Argentine woman.

The employee sent a letter to Sanford notifying him of the suspension, but Sanford likely did not receive the letter until Monday, July 6, the end of the long holiday weekend, Smith said. On that same day, Sanford met in Charleston with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a pre-scheduled meeting focused on port security.

The following day — July 7 — senior DHS officials learned that Sanford's status had been suspended and immediately moved to restore it, the DHS said.

DHS spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the employee who suspended Sanford's security clearance "acted on their own volition."

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Gov. Mark Sanford's communications director said Friday that he will resign his post in August.

(CNN) – The communications director for Gov. Mark Sanford said Friday he will step down from his post, weeks after the South Carolina Republican disappeared for five days and later admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

Joel Sawyer — who, like the rest of Sanford's staff, did not know where the governor had gone but was tasked with explaining his whereabouts to the press — said in a statement he will leave the governor's office in August to pursue opportunities in the private sector. He also said his decision was not related to the ongoing controversy surrounding Sanford.

"I want to be crystal clear that my departure is purely about what's best for me and my family on a personal and financial level," he said. "I wish Mark and the rest of my talented and dedicated colleagues the best."

In a separate statement, Sanford praised Sawyer as "a wonderfully devoted and skillful member of our team."

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Six key senators – three Democrats, one independent and two moderate Republicans – sent a letter to Senate leaders calling for a slowdown in the push for a health care overhaul, in light of the Congressional Budget Office's assessment that the Democratic plan currently being considered would not cut medical costs

CNN Radio: Hear Ben Nelson on “44 with Ed Henry”

"We believe taking additional time to achieve a bipartisan result is critical for legislation that affects 17 percent of our economy and every individual in the U.S.," read the letter, signed by Democrats Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Ron Wyden. independent Joe Lieberman and Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who also said they were "firmly committed to enactment of comprehensive reform this year."

The letter echoes concerns raised by many conservative Democrats on the House side.

Full text of the letter after the jump.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he will vote against the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will vote against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, his office announced Friday, marking the first time the Kentucky Republican has ever opposed a nominee to the high court.

"Judge Sotomayor's record of written statements suggests an alarming lack of respect for the notion of equal justice, and therefore, in my view, an insufficient willingness to abide by the judicial oath," he said in a written statement. "This is particularly important when considering someone for the Supreme Court since, if she were confirmed, there would be no higher court to deter or prevent her from injecting into the law the various disconcerting principles that recur throughout her public statements. For that reason, I will oppose her nomination."

McConnell, who also opposed Sotomayor's 1998 appellate court nomination, has previously voted to confirm every Supreme Court nominee since joining the senate in 1985, including Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

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