• Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) calls in at 6:33am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• The Obama administration is planning to push for new sanctions against Iran, targeting its energy, financial, and telecommunications sectors if it does not comply with international demands to come clean about its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials.

• The Senate Finance Committee today is expected to consider whether the government should offer its own insurance plan for the middle class in competition with private carriers. A public option is the top goal for Liberals, but it has no GOP support and moderate Dems say the Senate will never go along.

• In two cases, judges appointed by GOP presidents have refused at an early stage to dismiss lawsuits against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Justice Department official John Yoo. The lawsuits stem from law enforcement and intelligence efforts after 9/11

• The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a survey on Facebook that asked whether people thought President Obama should be assassinated. The poll was taken off the site quickly after Facebook officials were alerted to its existence.

• Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform and Afghanistan.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform and his town hall meetings.

• Comedian John Fugelsang joins Steph in studio in NYC at 8:05am Pacific for more discussions of everything politics and pop culture.

• President Obama took his health care message to talk radio yesterday, telling listeners of a Philadelphia host that he wants to overhaul the nation’s health care system out of necessity rather than politics.

• Senate health care negotiators agreed late last night to ignore the increasingly strident rhetoric from GOP and Dem leaders and to keep working toward a bill that can win broad support from the rank-and-file in both parties, according to sources familiar with the talks.

• Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge says he successfully countered an effort by Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to raise the nation’s terror alert level in the days before the 2004 presidential vote.

• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) calls in at 6:05am Pacific to talk about the torture memo debate.

• Comedian Michael McDonald calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about his upcoming gig at The Improv in Hollywood, CA.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned yesterday that Pakistan is in danger of falling into terrorists’ hands because of failed government policies and called on Pakistani citizens and expatriates to voice more concern. Pakistan is a nuclear-armed state.

• Ramping up his campaign to crack down on credit cards, President Obama will meet today with executives of 14 leading companies to press his case for new consumer protections. Meanwhile, the House moved forward on a bill Tuesday to ban “arbitrary” interest rate increases, prohibit excessive fees, and order more disclosure.

• Condi Rice, John Ashcroft, and other top Bush administration officials approved as early as the summer of 2002 the CIA’s use at secret prisons of harsh interrogation menthods, including waterboarding, a technique that Attorney General Eric Holder has described as illegal torture.

• Brushing aside the president’s suggestions, congressional Dems pushed ahead firmly yesterday toward investigations into the Bush administration’s harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects including hundreds of instances of waterboarding and other abusive practices.