Obama's Budget  —  Clearly the big story of the day is the deliberate leakage of Obama budget plans.  The highlights:  — Obama wants the 2013 deficit to be half the size of the 2009 deficit he inhereted.  — The 2010 deficit is going to be large.  — Specifically …

A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage  —  IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road.  The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now.  —  We take very different positions on gay marriage.

EPA to Issue Emissions Rules  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's climate czar said Sunday the Environmental Protection Agency would soon issue a rule on regulation of carbon dioxide, finding that it represents a danger to the public.  —  The White House is pressing Congress to draft …

Dark Dark Dark  —  Barack Obama's grandmother told him to smile more.  Bill Clinton tells the new president to strut more.  —  As the country takes a bullet train to bankruptcy, the last Democratic president urged the current one to “embody” that old American spunk.

The quickest and broadest tax cut ever  —  Two important takeaways from the President's Weekly Address this morning.  —  #1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will start having an impact as soon as a few weeks from now, in the form of the quickest and broadest tax cut in history:

Shelby discusses stimulus bill, other issues  —  To Sen. Richard Shelby, borrowing $787 billion is not good fiscal responsibility.  —  “You can't borrow your way to prosperity,” Shelby said.  “We're the largest debtor in the world.  We're stealing from our grandchildren.”

Rahm Emanuel on the job.  —  Rahm Emanuel's office, which is no more than a three-second walk from the Oval Office, is as neat as a Marine barracks.  On his desk, the files and documents, including leatherbound folders from the National Security Council, are precisely arranged, each one parallel with the desk's edge.

Germany: EU backs blanket financial regulation  —  BERLIN - European leaders backed sweeping new regulations for financial markets and hedge funds at a summit Sunday in Berlin as politicians and nations scrambled to tame the global economic crisis.  —  German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted heads …

Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe  —  The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.  —  The populist SVP, the country's biggest party …

Ex-Paterson Aide to Return for Re-election Bid  —  Charles J. O'Byrne, the former top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson whose resignation amid a tax scandal last year destabilized the administration, will return to help oversee the governor's 2010 re-election campaign, the governor's office said on Saturday.

Former Chief of eBay Tries a New Bid.  It's Political.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Meg Whitman, a former chief executive of eBay, once said that running the Internet auction site was like being the mayor of a large city, with the mix of politics, competing constituencies and widespread resistance to change.