Thursday's Starting Lineup

Good Thursday morning. If you haven't left your house in DC yet, wear a heavier coat.

Here's OnCall's Starting Lineup, the people on the hotseat today:

SENATE DEMS: Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid is a happy man this morning after the CBO scored his bill well below the House Dems' version and below the upper limit for which Pres. Obama said he was aiming. The measure will move to the floor later this week for key test votes and, if Reid convinces his moderates to follow, debate.

But those moderates are the ones who will matter over the next several days. Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) have not committed to voting for the bill, and they are facing intense pressure from supporters and opponents at home. Yesterday, all three met with Reid before the scores were released, and Lincoln sat down with VP Biden at the Capitol.

One issue: Abortion provisions, which are not quite the same as the Stupak Amendment in the House but represent what Nelson called a "good faith effort" at a compromise. And Nelson, in a statement yesterday, sounds like he is already justifying his vote for cloture. That's a good sign for Reid.

VA GOV. TIM KAINE: Pres. Obama's pick to chair the DNC had a rough start to the month when Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell (R) won VA's top job by wider-than-expected margins. Adding insult to injury, the RNC will announce today it raised $8.9M last month, a record for an off-year month, ABC's Rick Klein reports. That's not a typo: The GOP's main political arm raised more last month than in any off-year month, even when Pres. Bush was in office.

Committee filings aren't due until tomorrow, but we have trouble believing that Kaine's DNC will match Michael Steele's RNC this month. That means the RNC will have outraised the DNC in 3 of 9 months that Steele and Kaine have been on the job. Quick quiz: How many times did the DNC outraise the RNC when Bush was in office? If you guessed zero, you're right.

The DCCC and the DSCC are still in better cash position than their GOP rivals. But the fact that the RNC has outraised the DNC this year should be cause for concern for Dems.

TREAS. SEC. TIM GEITHNER: Keep an eye on this one. After reports revealed that the economic stimulus package has serious oversight problems, a new report from TARP watchdog Neil Barofsky says the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, which Geithner headed last year, spent too much money when it bailed out insurance giant AIG.

Those in and of themselves are enough to cause Geithner heartburn. But could they cost him his job? Ex-Rep. Rob Simmons (R), running against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), became the first candidate to call for Geithner's resignation when he did so yesterday. Also yesterday, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said liberals are beginning to believe that Geithner needs to step down.

"We need a new economic team," DeFazio said, referring to Geithner and NEC chair Larry Summers. "We may have to sacrifice just two more jobs to get millions back for Americans."

(REID WILSON)