CNN

In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

The state of the economy and of our politics dominated the Sunday conversation. To sum up the administration’s message in a sentence: We have hit the bottom, but it is choppy.

There was also a Republican promise to have a detailed health care proposal – complete with a scoring from the Congressional Budget Office – by the end of this week.

And a lot of talk about whether the conservative-Republican divide in a special New York congressional election is a healthy struggle, or a sign of festering internal tensions that will carry over and hurt the GOP’s chances in next year’s midterm elections.

A lot to digest, so let’s get right to the best Sound of Sunday:

ECONOMY AND JOBS

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking with CNN’s Ed Henry earlier in the week
“I’m confident we’ve hit bottom, the question is, look, we’re not going to be satisfied Ed until I’m able to sit in front of you and say look, this month we grew jobs. The net effect is growing jobs. It doesn’t say a lot to people to say, you know, there would have been a million more or six million more jobs lost but for this (stimulus).”

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“I don't think anybody knows whether we've hit bottom. The one thing I do know that there's no model for estimating how many jobs could have been saved or created as a result of the stimulus package. All I know are the facts. The president said that when he signed the bill that unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. Now we have unemployment nearly 10 percent. He also said that jobs would be created immediately and the fact is, they haven't.”

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“Three million Americans have lost their jobs sense the stimulus was signed into law. And yes, the economy grew last month. But after $1 trillion of an economic stimulus plan was spent, probably another $7 trillion or $8 trillion that the fed has pumped into the economy, I would hope that we've seen some economic growth. But Americans all around the country continue to ask the question, where are the jobs?”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on NBC’s “Meet the Press”
“This is going to be a different recovery than the past because Americans are going to have to save more. A lot of damage was caused by this crisis; it's going to take some time for us to grow out of this. Could be a little choppy, it could be uneven. And it's going to take a while, but I think this is encouraging signs.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on NBC’s “Meet the Press”
“Unemployment is worse than almost everybody expected. But growth is back a little more quickly, a little stronger than people thought and growth is a necessary condition. With growth, jobs will come but growth has to come first.”

The treasury secretary also said the administration was “going to have to make some hard choices” to restore fiscal discipline to federal spending and make inroads in cutting the deficit. But he was coy when pressed on whether those “hard choices” might include additional tax increases.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on NBC’s “Meet the Press”
“Right now we're focused on getting growth back on track. And we're not at the point yet where we have to decide what it's going to take. And I just want to say very clearly, he (President Obama) was committed in the campaign and he said very clearly he wants to make sure we do this in a way that is not going to add to the burden of people making less than $250,000 a year. Now it's going to be hard to do that, but he's committed to doing that. And we can do that.”

Leader Boehner walked into our “State of the Union” studio in the middle of a workout of sorts: lugging the 1,990 page House Democratic health care bill.

What he was not carrying was a comprehensive GOP alternative, but he told us there would be one in the week ahead.

HEALTH CARE AND THE GOP
House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on CNN’s “State of the Union”
Boehner: “We are going to have a proposal.”

Boehner: “We do not raise taxes, do not cut Medicaid or Medicare, and do not have mandates on individuals or businesses.”

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman held fast in his threats to block health care legislation if it contains any form of public option.

WHAT ABOUT THE PUBLIC OPTION?
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on CBS’ “Face the Nation”
“I feel so strongly about the creation of another government health insurance entitlement, the government going into the health business, I think it’s such a mistake, that I would use the power I have as a single senator to stop a final vote.”

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod on CBS’ “Face the Nation”
“I think both the House and Senate are going to move forward on bills that will likely have a public option. The president believes the public option is valuable to create competition within the insurance industry. In this – among this group of people who don’t have insurance today, it will reduce costs and it will be a positive thing.”

White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett on ABC’s “This Week”
“This has been an unusual process, it's been open, it's been transparent, often times the sausage making in Washington is a little off- putting, but look how far we've come. Five different committees have approved health care. It's not being debated and all of those five committees have, the content of those bills is consistent with what the President put forward.”

Tuesday’s elections were a hot topic, and a good deal of time was spent on NY 23 – the congressional race in upstate New York. The endorsed Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, dropped out of the race Saturday, leaving Democrat Bill Owens in a battle with Doug Hoffman, who is the Conservative Party’s candidate.

The race has become a national debating point because some prominent conservatives and conservative organizations backed Hoffman, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Now, the question is whether their actions send a broader signal that moderates are not welcome in the GOP, or, as most conservatives argue, whether this was an isolated race with peculiar circumstances and should not be considered a leading indicator of future behavior.

TUESDAY’S STAKES
House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“This is a pretty unusual situation. You had seven county chairmen who chose Dede to be our nominee. And clearly, she would be on the left side of our party. We accept moderates in our party and we want moderates in our party. We cover a wide range of Americans.”

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod on CBS’ “Face the Nation”
“I think we've seen an interesting development over this weekend in a special election in upstate New York in a congressional district. The Republican candidate withdrew because of the strong third-party movement behind a very right wing conservative. Certainly Mr. Limbaugh and others were behind that. I think it sends a clear message to moderates within that party that there's no room at the inn for them.”

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“The state party chairman who left office, instead of having a primary where all the Republicans could have a voice in who they wanted, instead they let a handful of people pick somebody who is not just a liberal Republican, she's more liberal than many of the Democrats. But that's not the issue. The issue is that people didn't get a choice and so they didn't feel beholden to this state representative.”

Other Sunday Flashpoints:

AFGHAN ELECTION TURMOIL
House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“Dr. Abdullah's exit from this race, I think, really says more about the fact that he knew he wasn't going to win. But that should not hamper our decision with regard to Afghanistan.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S VISIT TO DOVER AFB
Radio Talk Show Host Rush Limbaugh on “Fox News Sunday” “It was a photo op. It was a photo op precisely because he's having big-time trouble on this whole Afghanistan dithering situation. He found one family that would allow photos to be taken. None of the others did. And, of course, when you have sycophantic media, following you around able to promote and amplify anything you want. Then he can create the impression he has all this great concern.”

White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett on ABC’s “This Week”
“He wouldn't have done it in public if the families had objected. So the first and foremost thing is what's important to the families, and I think it's for us all to recognize what's at stake, and so when you talk about numbers like 40,000 troops as I said a minute ago, I think it's a reminder about how deep the sacrifice is, and it's something that's open and transparent, and it's a way for him as President to convey to those families, on behalf of the American people, how much we appreciate that enormous sacrifice we have made.”

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and the week ahead,

John King