Senate Dems Put Jobs Plan On Hold For China Currency Bill

* Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a procedural vote targeting China’s currency practices for Monday and Chuck Schumer expects it to get bipartisan support and sail to Obama’s desk

* Obama has been silent on it, says it’s reviewing the legislation

* Reid and Schumer say the best option for creating jobs is to level the US trade deficit with China - the bill’s important to senators from rust states which have lost a lot of jobs to China, and where Dems are trying to hold on to seats and the Senate majority

* Sherrod Brown Oh, Bob Casey Pa and Debbie Stabenow Mi have all been prominent supporters of the measure, which looks to pressure Beijing into letting the value of its currency rise - it’s believed China keeps its currency too low

* Bill would require US to treat currency manipulation as an anti competitive trade practice and take countervailing action to boost domestic companies, and set in motion govt studies of intnl monetary policy and currency exchange rates

* Republicans in the Senate are generally supportive — Jeff Sessions (Ala.) is a key ally of Senate Democrats on the issue

*** But Eric Cantor’s office says there are no plans to schedule a vote in the House - Cantor, Boehner and McCarthy, the Whip all voted against the measure last year

** Senate Dems could criticize the GOP House if the currency measure doesn’t move forward

*** Voters (6 in 10) want US officials to “get tough with China” but the conservative Club for Growth has weighed in on some Senate races where China could be an issue

Christie Team Assessing 2012 Run

* NYT reports his political advisers are working to determine whether they could move quickly enough to set up effective political operations in Iowa and New Hampshire

* Challenges: raising money and spending it effectively - meeting filing deadlines, hiring staff members, recruiting volunteers, putting together a travel schedule, devising a media campaign

* They say it’s just “due diligence’ and no formal planning will begin unless he decides to run

** Those pushing him include Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kissinger, Nancy Reagan and William Kristol

** He’s under a lot of pressure and political strategists say the next week to 10 days is key and he needs to decide then

** His weight has become a public issue - but with so many Americans overweight or obese, maybe they’d see him as an everyman?

* Herman Cain says he’s too liberal and conservative voters won’t like his positions on immigration, climate change and immigration

Rick Perry's New Problem

* Texas Gov Rick Perry spent Sunday on the defensive - a report in WaPo about a West Texas hunting camp he once leased with his father with a racial epithet in its name

*** It’s the latest controversy to dog him - he also said on Saturday in New Hampshire he’d send US troops into Mexico to combat drug violence there - his campaign’s tried to walk that back, but not been clear whether he’d do it with or without cooperation

* The word “Niggerhead” was painted in block letters across a large rock flanking the property’s entrance - Perry’s called the name “offensive”, says his father painted over it shortly after leasing the land

** Problem is seven people cited in the story say differently and it remains unclear when or whether Perry dealt with the name while using the camp

* Herman Cain says “There isn’t a more vile, negative word than the n word and for him to leave it there as long as he did it’s just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country”

* Perry’s camp’s put out several statements trying to do damage control

* David Axelrod, chief strategist for Obama’s re-election, said “campaigns are like an MRI for the soul - whoever you are, people eventually find out, time will tell whether this comes to reflect him or not”

** Perry in New Hampshire tried hard to counter the perception that he’s soft on immigration over the weekend, taking tough questions from voters

Supreme Court Starts New Term Today

* Shift in focus from corporate law to criminal justice and First Amendment cases - and challenge to 2010 health care law, if they decide to hear it (likely) - will be huge, and could decide Obama’s re-election

* Fun stuff to be decided:

* Whether police need a warrant to put a GPS on a car and monitor movements over several weeks?

* Does the First Amendment allow the govt to regulate cursing and nudity on broadcast TV (ie celebs on award shows and yes - all the way back to female buttocks on NYPD Blue)

* Whether a ministerial exception bans suits between religious groups and employees whose work includes religious duties - can you be fired by a church

* Does the Fourth Amendment allow jails to conduct strip searches of all people detained for minor offenses without individualized suspicion?

* Can the missed deadline, the result of a mix up in a law firm’s mailroom, be suspended when the inmate was blameless and a court clerk who received a court order marked “return to sender” did nothing to set things right? Upshot - death row inmate lost chance to appeal decision against him because lawyers missed a filing deadline

* Do eyewitness ids made in suggestive settings require judicial scrutiny when the police were not responsible for the suggestiveness?

The Supercommittee Gears Up For Work

* All 12 committee members are picked, the supercommittee MUST meet by 16 September - at the moment they’re NOT required to meet in public, though there’s a push in Congress for public meetings, and to force them to declare their fundraising.

* They’re saying nice things but: Sen Pat Toomey (R) says the panel must focus on cutting spending, regulations; and Rep Jim Clyburn (D) says the panel needs to work to close the growing gap that divides rich and poor in America, says the human side gets lost in the debt and deficit talk.

* However, others say they’re flexible: Rep Xavier Becerra (D) pledges to “be as open as possible, check my ego and my preconditions at the door.”

* Rep Dave Camp (R) who chairs the tax writing Ways and Means Committee says nothing should be off limits.

* Sen Patty Murray (D) the co chair (and the only woman) says members need to “look each other in the eyes and find common  values that we have to move forward”

** IF they don’t, there is an automatic trigger of $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years split between domestic and military spending.

** Chances they’ll reach consensus: 50/50 at this time - chances they’ll reach consensus after they’ve met.