White House Gaggle With Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Superbowl
The president is throwing a bipartisan Superbowl party Sunday with 30-40 guests. Rep. Joe Cao (R-La.) has been invited. As you may remember, he was the sole Republican to vote in favor of health care reform legislation. Service members will also be in attendance.

Paygo
The president will likely sign the paygo legislation that passed yesterday Tuesday or Wednesday.

Deficit Reduction Commission
Obama will be signing an executive order to establish a deficit reduction commission. Gibbs quipped that they would have liked to set it up legislatively, but some members of Congress felt differently about it this week than they did last week.

Unemployment
When discussing the new unemployment numbers, Gibbs reminded reporters that this has been the worst recession in modern memory coupled with the most job losses.

D.C. Snowstorm
During the opening days of his presidency, Obama mocked D.C. for panicking over a couple inches of snow. In regards to the projected 26 inches that are coming Gibbs said: “Even a transplant from Hawaii to Chicago has respect for a forecast of 2 feet of snow.”

Haiti
There are no plans for the president to go to Haiti.

Senate Republicans
Gibbs took aim at Republican Senators Bond and Shelby. As for Shelby, Gibbs said the hold he put on 70 qualified nominees is mind-boggling and essentially described his as the poster-child for what is wrong with D.C. Gibbs called for Bond to issue an apology following remarks the Senator made insinuating that law-enforcement officials leaked information on the underwear bomber's interrogation.