• The Senate has long been seen as opposing the public health care option in health care reform, but now senior Senate Dems and White House officials are strongly considering including such a measure, but would permit individual states to drop out of the system.

• The White House yesterday forcefully rejected criticism from former Vice President Dick Cheney and other GOP-ers that President Obama’s Afghanistan decision is taking too long. “What Cheney calls dithering, President Obama calls his solemn responsibility,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

• Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved yesterday and sent to President Obama. The measure is named for Matthew Shepard. Many GOP-ers voted against the bill, calling it “controversial.”

• Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died at a hospice in the Bronx. He was 83.

• Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform and the economy.

• Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform and the economy.

• Former Vice President Dick Cheney last night accused the White House of “dithering” over the strategy for the war in Afghanistan and urged President Obama to “do what it takes to win.” Cheney said that signals of indecision out of DC “hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

• President Obama unveiled plans yesterday to refocus spending of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout away from Wall Street’s big financial institutions and toward small businesses. He announced initiatives that would make it easier for smaller community banks to provide credit to small businesses.

• Dems launched a drive at both ends of the Capitol yesterday to strip the insurance industry of its decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws. The change would put an end to “price-fixing, bid-rigging, and market allocation in the health and medical malpractice” insurance areas.

• Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, the patriarch of the first family of Democratic politics, died late last night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He was 77. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live in our hearts forever,” a family statement said.

• Former Vice President Dick Cheney is again taking aim at President Obama, issuing a statement yesterday suggesting the administration’s decision to name a prosecutor to investigate CIA interrogations under President Bush fuels “doubts about this administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security.”

• The White House now expects the 10-year budget deficit to reach $9.05 trillion, roughly $2 trillion more than it estimated earlier in the year. Budget office director Peter Orszag pointed to a number of measures put in place to stem the pain of the economic downturn.

• President Obama announced yesterday he wants to keep Ben Bernanke on as Fed chairman, saying he shepherded American through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

• Ian Millhiser, Legal Policy Analyst for the Center for American Progress, calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform and the Sotomayor hearings.

• U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said yesterday that her hotly disputed judicial philosophy is, in fact, quite simple: Remain faithful to the law. In her first day of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sotomayor sat impassively as senators detailed a deep divide between Dems and GOP on whether she is the best choice to fill the vacancy left by Justice David Souter’s retirement.

• Congressional demands for an investigation grew Monday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill Al Qaida leaders was concealed from Congress for 8 years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The program was cancelled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it.

• President Obama yesterday pressed Democratic leaders to pass health care reform legislation in both houses of Congress before August and expressed confidence about the ultimate outcome for his top domestic priority. “Don’t bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen,” the president proclaimed.

• Attorney General Eric Holder is leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration’s interrogation practices. “Newsweek” is also reporting that Holder has asked his staff for a list of 10 candidates who might serve as that prosecutor if one is named.

• After weeks of meeting senators and preparing for tough questions, Sonia Sotomayor today begins the formal hearings on her nomination to become the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor, 55, received a good-luck phone call yesterday from President Obama.

• Dems on the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday proposed a graduated tax on wealthy Americans to pay for health care reform. The new tax would apply to individuals who make more than $280,000 a year and married couples who make more than $350,000 a year.

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, a news report in South Korea said today, days after new images of him looking gaunt spurred speculation that his health might be worsening following a reported stroke last year.

• Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, calls in at 8:06am Pacific to talk about President Obama’s plan for national security, the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, and the upholding of Prop. 8.

• Melissa Etheridge calls in at 8:30am Pacific to discuss the upholding of Prop. 8 and what that means for her relationship.

• Former President George W. Bush at a speech in Michigan last night repeated Dick Cheney’s assertion that the administration’s “enhanced interrogation” program, which included waterboarding, was legal and garnered valuable information that prevented terrorist attacks.

• President Obama is expected to announce today the creation of the position of cyber czar, a person who will coordinate the nation’s efforts to protect government and private computer systems from hackers, criminal gangs, terrorists, and spies.

• Israel must halt West Bank settlement activity and the Palestinians need to increase West Bank security to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama said yesterday after meeting with Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

• Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the longest-serving GOPer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said yesterday that he believes Sonia Sotomayor is headed for a Supreme Court confirmation.

• Angela V. Shelton and Frances Callier (Frangela) join us in studio at 8:30am Pacific for another edition of Fridays with Frangela!

• President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney offered competing views on how to keep America safe in back-to-back speeches yesterday. Obama said his administration is trying to clean up a “mess” left behind by the Bush administration. Cheney stood up for Bush’s security record, arguing that Obama has weakened the country’s ability to combat Al Qaida and other extremists.

• The Senate late yesterday easily passed a $91 billion spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after stripping the bill of funds to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The Senate included an amendment to prevent the public release of pictures that reportedly document the mistreatment of post-Sept. 11 detainees in U.S. Custody.

• President Obama will sign into law today a bill that will bar credit card companies from arbitrarily raising interest rates on existing balances and charging certain fees. Included in the bill is an unrelated measure that would allow people to bring loaded guns into national parks and wildlife refuges. Most provisions in the bill will take 9 months to go into effect.

• Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about the economy, Gitmo, credit card relief, and other news of the day.

• Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk abou the economy and the current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Carol Leifer joins us in studio at 8:06am Pacific to promote her new book, “When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win.”

***AMERICAN IDOL SPOILER ALERT BELOW***

•President Obama today will try to take the reins on the debate over national security and rally support for his plan to shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in what his administration is billing as a major address at 7:10am Pacific today. Former Vice President Cheney is expected to give an opposing argument today at 7:45am Pacific.

• Congress wrapped up sweeping credit card legislation yesterday that limits sudden hikes in interest rates, limits who can receive a card, and restricts how much time people are given to pay their bill. The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law tomorrow.

• ***SPOILER ALERT!!!***After 100 million votes were cast, Arkansas college student Kris Allen is the new American Idol, beating out the more flamboyant Adam Lambert last night.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bluntly accused the CIA yesterday of misleading her and other lawmakers about its use of waterboarding during the Bush administration, escalating a controversy grown to include both political parties, the spy agency, and the White House.

• The CIA says it has denied a request by former Vice President Dick Cheney to declassify secret internal government memos that detail whether valuable intelligence was gained from the use of torture techniques under the Bush administration. A CIA spokesman says the documents are the subject of pending litigation – making them not subject to declassification.

• President Obama is planning to resume the Bush administration’s highly controversial military tribunal system – which Obama suspended his first week in office – for some Gitmo detainees. The updated system will include expanded due-process rights for suspects. The ACLU called the expected new approach “fatally flawed” despite the changes.

• President Obama urged Congress yesterday to quickly send him legislation ending abusive credit card practices. But his populist appeal also included a stern warning to shoppers whose eyes are bigger than their budgets.

• President Obama called the April jobs numbers showing the nation lost another 539,000 jobs last month “encouraging” yet still a “sobering” economic toll. “It underscores the point that we’re still in the midst of a recession that was years in the making and will be months or even years in the unmaking.”

• President Obama this weekend called on Congress to pass a credit card reform bill so he can sign it into law by Memorial Day. The president highlighted abuses in the credit card industry – including Americans getting ripped off by sudden rate hikes, unfair penalties, hidden fees, and fine print that all too often hides the truth.

• President Obama will deliver a key speech in Egypt on June 4th, the White House said Friday. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the speech will give the president the opportunity to “extend the hand to those that in many ways are like us but simply have a different religion.

• President Obama spared nobody, including himself, at his humorous speech in front of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. He touched on his own gaffes, and harpooned GOPers like Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney.

For those of you in Portland, OR who are wondering where The Stephanie Miller Show went, we have good news! You can now hear us LIVE every weekday from 6am to 9am Pacific on 970AM, The Talker!

• Jenny Pizer, Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about gay marriage in Iowa, Vermont, DC, and California.

• President Obama made a surprise trip to Baghdad yesterday, where he had a raucous meeting with several hundred U.S. troops who cheered wildly when he told them it’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their country. He also met with his top commander in Iraq, and the president and prime minister of the country.

• Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday that his predecessor, Dick Cheney, is “dead wrong” when he says President Obama’s national security policies are making the U.S. less safe. Biden said the exact opposite is true and added that President Bush’s vice president was part of a dysfunctional decision-making system.

• Vermont’s House and Senate voted yesterday to override the governor’s veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. This makes Vermont the 4th state to legalize gay marriage.

• America’s recession will “probably” end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday in a rare television interview. He admitted, however, that recovery hinges on getting banks to lend more freely again and getting the financial markets to work more normally.

• President Obama will today announce a broad package of measures from the stimulus plan that will be used to immediately provide billions of dollars in federal lending aid aimed at struggling small business owners.

• Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that President Obama is making critical national security choices that make the American people less safe. In a television interview yesterday, Cheney said Obama is making some choices that “will in fact raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”

• Ron Silver, who won a Tony for his role in “Speed-the-Plow” and an Emmy nomination for his work in “The West Wing” died yesterday. He was 62 and had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years.

• Comedian John Fugelsang joins us in studio at 7:30am Pacific to talk about the inauguration and to promote his upcoming gigs in New Mexico.

• Angela Shelton and Frances Callier join us in studio at 8:30am Pacific for another edition of “Fridays with Frangela!”

• Promising to return America to the “moral high ground” in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders yesterday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year.

• The other executive orders formally banned torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations, and established an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases.

• New York Gov. David Patterson has chosen second-term Dem. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to succeed Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. She is expected to be named at a noon Eastern public announcement in Albany, NY.

• In an interview with a Conservative magazine, Dick Cheney said that Bush should have pardoned Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby, whom he calls “a victim of a serious miscarriage of justice.”