It’s Veterans Day. The House and Senate are out until Monday and most federal workers have the day off. But that doesn’t mean business has stopped completely.

On the President’s Calendar: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host a Veterans Day breakfast in the East Room, before heading to the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, where Obama will lay a wreath. Afterwards, he’ll deliver remarks at the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater.

In the afternoon, Obama holds his eighth war council meeting to discuss options on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Biden will also attend.

The Vice President’s List: Vice President Joe Biden, back from delivering remarks Tuesday at a memorial service at Fort Lewis, Wash., and Jill Biden will attend the White House breakfast as well as the wreath-laying ceremony and speech. Their holiday plans also include a luncheon at the Naval Observatory for veterans and active duty service members and their families. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and both Bidens plan to speak.

The First and Second Ladies: Service Nation has snagged Michelle Obama and Jill Biden for its rollout of “Mission Serve,” which aims to join civilian and military service organizations to help troops, military families and veterans.

And in New York: U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. George J. Flynn rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to commemorate Veterans Day.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is pressing the U.S. to get moving on climate change legislation.

Ban met with several members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this afternoon, ahead of next month’s U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen. Ban wants the U.S. to take a lead role in negotiating an international agreement aimed at slowing greenhouse gas emissions to put the brakes on global warming.

While action on legislation is highly unlikely before the Copenhagen meetings, which start Dec. 7,
Committee Chairman John Kerry (D., Mass.) said Democrats are planning to send a framework for climate change legislation to the international summit in an effort to assure negotiators that Washington is committed to a treaty. The framework would combine major provisions of the bills already approved by the environment and energy committees, even though the finance and agriculture panels are expected to make major revisions to the legislation later.

Earlier in the day, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) said that his committee wouldn’t vote on a bill before the end of the year.

Still, Ban told reporters he was encouraged. “Even though I understand the Senate may not take concrete action before they go to Copenhagen…they may agree on a certain framework which can work as a very strong message and as a sign of political commitment that will be quite important and useful for us to get these negotiations,” he said.

Was it George W. Bush’s megaphone-amplified rallying cry on the ruins of the World Trade Center? Bill Clinton’s shared grief and call for restraint after the Oklahoma City bombing? Ronald Reagan’s wrenching tribute to the Challenger crew?

President Barack Obama’s salute to the 13 dead from a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, was largely unemotional. The most personal part of the speech at today’s memorial service at Fort Hood was a series of anecdotes describing the families and aspirations of each of the victims. (The text is here.)

“Every evening that the sun sets in a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—that is their legacy,” he said, addressing the crowd initially estimated at about 15,000.

In coming weeks, Obama is likely to decide to send tens of thousands more troops to fight in Afghanistan. Some military experts say that while the U.S. is fighting two wars requiring repeated deployments of troops, the Army’s shortage of mental health workers is one of its biggest deficits. And with an Army psychiatrist allegedly the Fort Hood shooter, there was some speculation Obama might address the Army’s continuing difficulty in treating combat stress.

But he did not touch on the issue. In fact, he limited his comments the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to only a few lines.

Still, Rep. John Carter (R., Texas), whose district includes Fort Hood, said he thought it wouldn’t have been appropriate for the president to talk about combat stress at the memorial service. “I think he addressed just what needed to be addressed.”

There’s little doubt that the House vote late Saturday to bar abortion coverage in any new government health plan marked a distinct shift among Democrats, 64 of whom voted in favor of the ban.

But if you flash back to eight years ago, the shift among Republicans looks just as sharp.

Yes, Democrats have successfully recruited some Blue Dogs to run—and win—in more conservative districts since the 2000 election. But at the same time, Republicans have seen their moderate ranks significantly reduced, particularly in New England.

That difference is illustrated starkly in a key abortion vote in May 2001.

Shortly after taking office that January, President George W. Bush signed an executive order banning U.S. foreign assistance to any overseas groups that performed abortions or supported abortion rights.

The ban was first imposed by President Ronald Reagan, and then reversed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. Bush’s move was essentially to overturn Clinton’s overturning of the Reagan ban.

Four months later, the late GOP Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois sponsored an amendment to back that ban.

Thirty-two House Democrats voted in favor—exactly half the number of Democrats who supported the ban on abortion funding Saturday night in the health-care package.

But just as striking is that 33 Republicans in 2001 broke with their party to oppose the overseas ban. On Saturday, by comparison, no Republicans crossed the aisle on the abortion vote.

The difference? Of the 33 Republicans who opposed the ban in 2001, 26 have since retired or been ousted from office. Nearly all were replaced by Democrats, with the heaviest shift coming in states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT MEMORIAL SERVICE AT FORT HOOD
Fort Hood - III Corps
Fort Hood, Texas
1:55 P.M. CST

THE PRESIDENT: To the Fort Hood community; to Admiral Mullen; General Casey; General Cone; Secretary McHugh; Secretary Gates; most importantly, to family, friends and members of our Armed Forces. We come together filled with sorrow for the 13 Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. Yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great state and the heart of this great American community. This is the fact that makes the tragedy even more painful, even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that’s been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: Your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we all too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — that is their legacy.

Neither this country — nor the values upon which we were founded — could exist without men and women like these 13 Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill had served in the National Guard and worked as a physician’s assistant for decades. A husband and father of three, he was so committed to his patients that on the day he died, he was back at work just weeks after having had a heart attack.

Major Libardo Eduardo Caraveo spoke little English when he came to America as a teenager. But he put himself through college, earned a PhD, and was helping combat units cope with the stress of deployment. He’s survived by his wife, sons and step-daughters.

Staff Sergeant Justin DeCrow joined the Army right after high school, married his high school sweetheart, and had served as a light wheeled mechanic and satellite communications operator. He was known as an optimist, a mentor, and a loving husband and loving father.

After retiring from the Army as a major, John Gaffaney cared for society’s most vulnerable during two decades as a psychiatric nurse. He spent three years trying to return to active duty in this time of war, and he was preparing to deploy to Iraq as a captain. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Specialist Frederick Greene was a Tennessean who wanted to join the Army for a long time, and did so in 2008, with the support of his family. As a combat engineer he was a natural leader, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Specialist Jason Hunt was also recently married, with three children to care for. He joined the Army after high school. He did a tour in Iraq, and it was there that he reenlisted for six more years on his 21st birthday so that he could continue to serve.

Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger was an athlete in high school, joined the Army shortly after 9/11, and had since returned home to speak to students about her experience. When her mother told her she couldn’t take on Osama bin Laden by herself, Amy replied: “Watch me.”

Private First Class Aaron Nemelka was an Eagle Scout who just recently signed up to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the service — diffuse bombs — so that he could help save lives. He was proudly carrying on a tradition of military service that runs deep within his family.

Private First Class Michael Pearson loved his family and loved his music, and his goal was to be a music teacher. He excelled at playing the guitar, and could create songs on the spot and show others how to play. He joined the military a year ago, and was preparing for his first deployment.

Captain Russell Seager worked as a nurse for the VA, helping veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress. He had extraordinary respect for the military, and signed up to serve so that he could help soldiers cope with the stress of combat and return to civilian life. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Private Francheska Velez, daughter of a father from Colombia and a Puerto Rican mother, had recently served in Korea and in Iraq, and was pursuing a career in the Army. When she was killed she was pregnant with her first child, and was excited about becoming a mother.

Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman was the daughter and granddaughter of Army veterans. She was a single mom who put herself through college and graduate school, and served as a nurse practitioner while raising her two daughters. She also left behind a loving husband.

Private First Class Kham Xiong came to America from Thailand as a small child. He was a husband and father who followed his brother into the military because his family had a strong history of service. He was preparing for his first deployment to Afghanistan.

These men and women came from all parts of the country. Some had long careers in the military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of 9/11. Some had known intense combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some cared for those did. Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity, the decency of those who serve, and that’s how they will be remembered.

For that same spirit is embodied in the community here at Fort Hood, and in the many wounded who are still recovering. As was already mentioned, in those terrible minutes during the attack, soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their clothes. They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety in the backs of cars and a pickup truck.

One young soldier, Amber Bahr, was so intent on helping others, she did not realize for some time that she, herself, had been shot in the back. Two police officers — Mark Todd and Kim Munley — saved countless lives by risking their own. One medic — Francisco de la Serna — treated both Officer Munley and the gunman who shot her.

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know — no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. For what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice — in this world, and the next.

These are trying times for our country. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we’re working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are the tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call — the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm’s way.

We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.

We’re a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln’s words, and always pray to be on the side of God.

We’re a nation that is dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. We live that truth within our military, and see it in the varied backgrounds of those we lay to rest today. We defend that truth at home and abroad, and we know that Americans will always be found on the side of liberty and equality. That’s who we are as a people.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It’s a chance to pause, and to pay tribute — for students to learn the struggles that preceded them; for families to honor the service of parents and grandparents; for citizens to reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made in pursuit of a more perfect union.

For history is filled with heroes. You may remember the stories of a grandfather who marched across Europe; an uncle who fought in Vietnam; a sister who served in the Gulf. But as we honor the many generations who have served, all of us — every single American — must acknowledge that this generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who’ve come before.

We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.

This generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have volunteered in the time of certain danger. They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different and difficult places. They have stood watch in blinding deserts and on snowy mountains. They have extended the opportunity of self-government to peoples that have suffered tyranny and war. They are man and woman; white, black, and brown; of all faiths and all stations — all Americans, serving together to protect our people, while giving others half a world away the chance to lead a better life.

In today’s wars, there’s not always a simple ceremony that signals our troops’ success — no surrender papers to be signed, or capital to be claimed. But the measure of the impact of these young men and women is no less great — in a world of threats that no know borders, their legacy will be marked in the safety of our cities and towns, and the security and opportunity that’s extended abroad. It will serve as testimony to the character of those who served, and the example that all of you in uniform set for America and for the world.

Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to 13 men and women who were not able to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home. Later today, at Fort Lewis, one community will gather to remember so many in one Stryker Brigade who have fallen in Afghanistan.

Long after they are laid to rest — when the fighting has finished, and our nation has endured; when today’s servicemen and women are veterans, and their children have grown — it will be said that this generation believed under the most trying of tests; believed in perseverance — not just when it was easy, but when it was hard; that they paid the price and bore the burden to secure this nation, and stood up for the values that live in the hearts of all free peoples.

So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those that we have lost. And may God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

The ultimatums on health care are rolling in.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.), who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced this morning he would fight any health overhaul whose public option includes an opt-out provision for states, like the one in the Senate bill, saying it would make the public option too weak. “It would be politically disastrous to give state legislatures the power to block access in the name of partisanship,” Grijalva said.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, however, has issued a warning in the opposite direction: He will vote against any bill that includes a public option, even if it has a state opt-out. He does not want the government too involved in health care.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) on a different subject, says he will oppose any health bill that does not contain strong language restricting taxpayer funding of abortion, like that in the House legislation. But House Democrats who support abortion rights are circulating a letter pledging to vote against any bill that includes the language, which they say is an unprecedented overreach.

This encapsulates the challenge facing Democratic leaders who are trying to push through a broad overhaul of the health system. As lawmakers on one side of an issue announce ultimatums and insist that one thing or another is necessary to win their vote, those on the other side feel compelled to issue counter-demands for fear of losing ground.

So leading Democrats are urging lawmakers on all sides to hold off on announcing unalterable positions. “I’m hoping no one will draw a line in the sand about this,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) said on the abortion issue. “I think there are ways to keep alive the grand compromise” that forbids taxpayer funding for abortion.

Democratic leaders are focused on bringing a health proposal to the Senate floor and beginning debate, something that will take 60 votes. When and if Senate debate does begin, they say, there will be dozens of amendments and numerous opportunities to modify the bill and find compromises. Success may depend on whether they can persuade lawmakers to contain their urge to announce hard-and-fast positions before that happens.

Anita Dunn, the White House’s veteran communications director, will be stepping down from her post at the end of November, turning the reins to Dan Pfeiffer, currently the deputy communications director.

In an interview, Dunn said she will stay on in a consulting role, but her communications director title was always meant to be temporary. The first communications director, Ellen Moran, stepped down in April to become chief of staff at the Commerce Department.

Dunn made waves when she publicly decried Fox News as a partisan outfit that would not get cooperation from the White House. That touched off what prognosticators called a war between the cable news channel and the Obama administration. Fox News is owned by News Corp., as is The Wall Street Journal.

In September, Obama appeared on five Sunday news shows – but not on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Earlier, Fox Broadcast Network hadn’t carried Obama’s address on health care to a joint session of Congress.

Asked about Dunn’s departure, a Fox News spokeswoman said, “We wish Anita well in her future endeavors.”

Dunn actually stayed at her post longer than many expected. She parachuted into the Obama campaign for the general election to provide some experienced advice. After President Obama’s election win, she returned to her communications consulting firm, but was called back into service with Moran’s abrupt departure. Moran, an outsider among the tight-knit Obama world, left in part because the brutal hours at the White House were keeping her away from her young children.

Bill is back.

Senate Democrats have invited former President Bill Clinton to address their weekly lunch meeting in the U.S. Capitol today, specifically to talk about health care.

Clinton was the last president to push a plan aimed at providing near-universal access to health coverage for Americans. But his plan famously went down to a crushing defeat, with critics portraying it as a government overreach, a misguided effort to create a hopelessly complex bureaucracy—many of the same attacks, in other words, that are now being directed at President Barack Obama’s proposal.

The Obama administration has tried to learn from Clinton’s mistakes. The Clinton health bill was assembled, in an effort headed by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, largely in secrecy. It was then presented to Congress largely as a done deal. Not surprisingly, few in Congress felt invested in the package, and it made little headway.

In contrast, Obama has left the drafting of his health overhaul mostly to Congress, in a sometimes painfully slow and awkward process. Five different versions have crawled through separate committees, with various deadlines set and missed. Then the bills have had to be melded, a process that is still under way in the Senate. Along the way, Obama has faced the opposite criticism from that directed at Clinton—that he has been too hands-off, that he has been slow to commit himself to any particular proposal and fight for it.

So far, the attempt to rewrite health care has progressed much further under Obama than it did under Clinton. While his oratorical reputation has been eclipsed by Obama’s, Clinton was always known as a top-notch communicator, at his best when speaking about the problems of ordinary Americans.

As Democrats debate health care, they are wrangling over everything from abortion to a public option to a fee on medical equipment makers, and prospects for passage remain uncertain. Democratic leaders see Clinton as someone who knows how hard it is to pass a health care overhaul, recognizes how far the legislation has come this time, and has insights on the process.

Talk about too big to fail… How about too long to read?

Printers are humming in Washington and New York this morning as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s 1,136 page discussion draft on finanicial regulation overhaul is circulating.

While the draft comes in well short of the 1,990-page health-care bill the House passed over the weekend, it is one of the longer bills Congress has ever considered.

The “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2009” would establish the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, which would essentially handle all regulation of banks at the national level. And it would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
It would also set up an Agency for Financial Stability, chaired by a White House appointee who is subject to Senate confirmation. Its objective is to identify systemic risks to the economy, promote market discipline, and respond to emerging risks.

The board would include the Treasury secretary, the Federal Reserve chairman, the head of the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and an independent member picked by the White House.

Doctors unhappy with provisions missing or included in the current health legislation failed to get the American Medical Association to rescind its support for the House version of the overhaul bill.

After spirited debate in Houston at an interim policy-making meeting, the AMA’s House of Delegates yesterday voted to “reaffirm the AMA’s commitment to health system reform.” Here’s the story from the Associated Press.

The vote amounted to a validation of AMA’s president, J. James Rohack, who came under intense criticism Thursday when he announced the organization’s support of the House health bill, which passed on Saturday night. “The time to make health system reform a reality is now,” Rohack said in a statement after the vote.

Rohack reiterated, however, that the House legislation is “not the perfect bill,” since it doesn’t include a solution to anticipated deep Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians next year. “We will continue to advocate for changes that help make the system better for patients and physicians as the legislative process continues,” Rohack said in his statement.

Doctors who opposed the AMA’s endorsement maintain that the group should only lend its support to legislation when it contains the most crucial elements to many physicians, like revamping medical malpractice rules, among other issues. But doctors who support the AMA’s endorsement think it’s better to be at the table to try to influence the legislation as it moves forward — next through the Senate.

The AMA delegates voted down the resolution to rescind the group’s earlier backing of the bill by a 315-199 margin, the AP reported. Another resolution along the same lines went down by a 350-167 vote.

Photo: Associated Press