Hotline After Dark -- Bringing Down The House?

"World News" led with Pres. Obama's Hill meeting with GOPers. "Evening News" led with winter ice storms. "Nightly News" led with Obama's Hill meeting with GOPers.

Pols and pundits weighed in on Pres. Obama's meeting with GOPers on the Hill.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN): "What this bill is and what President Obama heard in what was a frank but cordial dialogue on the House side of the Capitol today was, Look, this bill is a long litany of liberal pet programs that will have very little to do with actually getting this economy moving again. "

More Pence: "This is a flawed bill. And as I said to the president personally, this is a bill that was not fashioned with what I believe is his very genuine desire for a bipartisan compromise on issues like the stimulus. The Democrats in Congress, as I told him, have completely ignored his call for bipartisan compromise, and they're bringing a partisan Democrat bill to the floor tomorrow that will not create jobs, will not lift our economy, and Republicans are poised to oppose it" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 1/27).

CNN's Blitzer, to House Min. Whip Eric Cantor: "Before the meeting, you were urging your fellow Republicans to vote against the measure tomorrow. Do you still feel like that after the meeting?"

Cantor: "This is the message that we delivered to the president. Somehow, his goal of trying to change the way things work here in Washington has not seeped through to the congressional Democrats. In fact, the bill that they are bringing forward to the floor tomorrow does not do what we need to do to stimulate the economy. ... We're in, as the president has said, unprecedented economic times. We have got to get some relief for the families of this country. This bill is not the way to do that."

More after the jump, including the Blago PR blitz and Coleman's first interview since the recount.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

Blitzer: "I will take that as a no. You're going to vote against this measure tomorrow. You want your fellow Republicans to vote against it. The White House now saying they believe some Republicans will support it. You're the whip. Your job is to count votes. How many Republicans in the House do you believe will support the president?"

Cantor: "We don't ever talk about numbers before they happen. But I will tell you, I'm very encouraged by the discussions I have had with members here, in their earnest statements that they want this bill to produce results. And that's what we want to do, join with President Obama and get the bill right" ("Situation Room," CNN, 1/27).

NPR's Liasson: "The White House does have to decide what level of Republican votes they need. They don't need any, actually. They will get this through both houses of Congress. But ... 99 percent of life is showing up, and he set a tone just by going up there. ... If there is going to be any give and take, it will be in the Senate, where they have higher hopes of getting more Republicans. ... The way Republicans are treating this president reminds me a little bit of Democrats and Ronald Reagan. He is personally popular. They don't want to take him on frontally. They are aiming all their fire at the House Democrats as if it is the House Democrats' bill and it's not Obama's. It is Obama's bill" ("Special Report," 1/27).

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), asked if he bought Obama's pitch: "Well, he's a very skilled politician. There's no question. ... He wasn't strongly pitching the exact plan because he even admitted there were problems with the plan, some things that he didn't like in the plan. He listened to a lot of our ideas ... and there was a good give-and-take in the lunch today. The advantage that we have in the Senate is that we're able to amend the bill. I feel sorry for those House members" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 1/27).

Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "He's doing today what he did last night with that Arab television interview. And that is, he is trying to set a new tone in Washington and in the way Washington deals with the world. I think it was very smart. Clearly, this White House is disappointed that it's not attracting more Republican votes. ... But I do think they are building up some goodwill and taking some of the toxicity out of the dialogue in Washington, so that it's calmer. I think it will be reassuring to the country and create more confidence" ("AC 360," CNN, 1/27).

ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME MORE.

IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) went "On the Record."

Blagojevich, asked how many interviews he's done: "I've lost count. I think it's more than three."

Blagojevich, asked if this is a vendetta against him within his own party: "No. It's an effort, as a practical matter, to finally get that income tax increase that they wanted."

Blagojevich, on Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) originally resisting his choice for Senate: "What you saw there with the Senate Democratic leadership, with Senator Durbin, Senator Reid and others, was something that actually predated what happened to me on December the 9th. I think they had some ideas on who they wanted for the Senate and..."

FNC's Van Susteren: "So political reasons?"

Blagojevich: "Well, of course. I mean, it's a political business. And not improper reasons, they just had candidates that they were more interested in. And Roland Burris wasn't one of them."

Blagojevich, on Rev. Jeremiah Wright: "I'm almost now, since what's happened to me, you know, a little less quick to reach a conclusion because I don't know the context in which some of those things that he said were being said. ... I want to judge him based on my own interaction with him, and he was a real gentleman with me."

Blagojevich, asked how he will support his family in the future: "I thought I might want to get my old job as a pizza driver back, but I don't even have a car."

Van Susteren: "On a 1 to 10 scale, if 10 is great and 1 is the worst, where is your life right now?"

Blagojevich: "Two. ... It's pretty bad! ... Two-and-a-half, three because I have two beautiful daughters, and I love them to death. And I love my wife. Five. ... Try four" (FNC, 1/27).

During an appearance on "No Bias, No Bull," Blagojevich was asked "how exactly his media tour is doing the people of IL any good at all."

Blagojevich: "What I'm trying to do to the best of my ability is to highlight to the people of Illinois, because there are a lot of us in Illinois who watch your program, and the people across America that there's a process going on in Illinois, an impeachment process."

CNN's Brown: "But how exactly are you explaining that to the people of Illinois when you go on a show like 'The View' and you let the ladies run their fingers through your hair?"

Blagojevich: "Well, I didn't expect she would do that. She did that on her own. ... How do you stop that when she does it?"

Brown: "But it doesn't seem like, watching you, frankly, that it is about the office of the governor. It seems like you're making it very much about you. ... It seems like you're very much enjoying the drama of all of this."

Blagojevich: "No, I hate all of this."

Blagojevich, asked what he would you say to Pres. Obama right now: "I would say good luck with your economic stimulus package and how can I help?" (CNN, 1/27).

Blagojevich also stopped by MSNBC, appearing on the "Rachel Maddow Show."

MSNBC's Maddow: "You have said that this effort to remove you from office is motivated by politics, that there were efforts to impeach you before the arrest and all these things. ... Was Patrick Fitzgerald in on that?"

Blagojevich: "If you ask, do I think there's some broad conspiracy with the U.S. attorneys, I don't believe that at all. Look, I'm a former prosecutor. ... I still believe they're the good guy and they're trying to do the right thing. And I feel like I'm on the same side as them, and I have this delusion, which I know is a delusion that they'll wake up sometime like tomorrow morning, and then maybe they'll realize there's just one big misunderstanding here. That's likely not to happen."

Blagojevich, on whether he thinks Senate replacements should be voted on or appointed by the gov.: "The people should choose, not governors. Governor Paterson here or me, we shouldn't be in a position to do that. The people should decide it" (MSNBC, 1/27).

FLORIDA! FLORIDA! FLORIDA!

And in his first interview since the recount, Sen.(?) Norm Coleman (R) appeared on "Hannity."

Coleman: "A very simple case we have, and that is the proposition, one that all votes that are validly cast should be counted, and particularly whether it comes to absentee ballots, not just those in Democrat areas, and that's what has happened so far. I was ahead election night, I was ahead when the recount started. The Franken folks want to stop now that he has a tenuous, we believe, artificial lead. But when all the votes are counted, all the absentee ballots are counted ... we believe that we will regain the lead."

More Coleman: "You have more votes than voters. In America, that's not supposed to happen. ... The biggest pool of votes that you touched on were the absentee ballots. There were about 953 that were counted from heavily Democrat areas. We have over 4,000 absentee ballots from across the state, and they were rejected. ... That's classic Bush versus Gore. You can't have different standards in different counties."

Coleman, on Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid wanting to seat Franken provisionally: "Harry Reid will not decide who the next senator for Minnesota is. The voters of Minnesota will decide who the next senator is. They're going to decide when their votes are all counted" (FNC, 1/27).