Posted by Mike Dorning at 7:20 pm CST.

Hotel and real estate heiress and prominent Chicago liberal fundraiser Penny Pritzker will lead the national fundraising campaign for Barack Obama's presidential bid.

Pritzker, whose personal fortune last year was estimated at $2.1 billion by Forbes magazine, will be national finance chairman for the Barack Obama Presidential Exploratory Committee, the campaign announced on Wednesday evening.

She joins a campaign whose backers include such other prominent billionaire investors as Warren Buffett and George Soros.

Penny Pritzker is among a trio of cousins who manage the family businesses of the Pritzker family, Chicago's richest family. Their corporate empire, estimated to be worth $15 billion, includes the Hyatt hotel chain and the Marmon Group of manufacturing companies

Posted by Frank James at 4:44 pm CST

What can we say about Sen. Joe Biden's comments about Sen. Barack Obama that hasn't already been said?

Needless to say, Biden kind of stepped on his announcement today of his presidential run with his shot heard round the political world regarding Illinois's junior senator, delivered courtesy of today's New York Observer: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:08 pm CST

With longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro believed to be on or near his death-bed, a lot of American congressmen believe the decades-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba should see the same fate.

With hope, perhaps, that they can open the door to Cuba just a little wider, a bipartisan pair of congressmen has offered a bill, the Cuban American Family Restoration Rights Act, to enable people with relatives in Cuba to travel there freely and deliver family aid. Reps. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) today offered their bill as a long-awaited remedy for families divided by a mere 90 miles of the Florida Straits and nearly 50 years of failed American political policy.

Any break in the trade embargo faces rough waters, however, with the Republican, Cuban-American community of South Florida holding Congress and the Bush administration alike to its commitments to exact as much punishment as possible on the Communist Castro regime. And neither party takes Cuban politics lightly – the Clinton administration's insistence on returning the young Cuban refugee, Elian Gonzalez, who had lost his mother in a raft crossing to Florida during the presidential election campaign of 2000, probably cost Vice President Al Gore the state of Florida, and the White House as well.

Posted by Frank James at 3:36 pm CST

The question of whether Sen. Barack Obama, the child of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansas mother who was raised by his white grandparents in Hawaii, is authentically black enough to excite enough African-American voters to win the big prize, won’t go away.

That's largely because journalists like me keep asking it.

Still, I thought I’d find some experts on black voters and put the question to them. So I hung outside the door of where the Congressional Black Caucus was having its weekly meeting today. It just so happened that Obama was at the meeting though he must’ve left through a different door than the one at which I posted myself.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi popped through my doorway. (Who knew she was black?) She was paying a courtesy call to one of her most important House constituencies.

It was also an auspicious day for her to appear at the black caucus meeting since she had just appointed the first African-American to be House Clerk in the nation’s history. She and her security detail were on the move and were out of sight within seconds.

Posted by Christi Parsons at 2:45 p.m. CST

When he makes the official announcement in February that he will run for president, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will do so at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, a venue rich with historic and political significance as the site where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous “House Divided” speech.

The Obama campaign today confirmed the location of the Feb. 10 announcement, when Obama is expected to announce his run for the White House in 2008.

The building served as the center of Illinois government from 1839 to 1876, and Lincoln served there as a state legislator. He used the governor’s rooms as a political headquarters before and after the 1860 presidential election, and his final funeral service was held in the Representatives Hall in May of 1865.

Posted by Frank James at 11:34 pm CST

Another day, another web announcement by a presidential candidate. Today, of course, it was the turn of Delaware Democrat Sen. Joe Biden.

Just like Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.,) Biden went with the announcement-casual look--tieless and open-collared. It's supposed to give politicians a web-savvy, Silicon Valley appeal.

"In my view, President Bush has dug America into a very deep hole," Biden said in the video. "This administration's mishandling of the war in Iraq may be the greatest foreign policy disaster of all time."

Posted by Mark Silva at 8:25 am CST

If many Democrats are feeling uneasy these days, it may have something to do with the way they perceive their front-runners in the campaign for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.

While likely Democratic votes view Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York as most likely to win the party's nomination, and while Clinton out-paces Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in a number of measures -- with many more voters viewing Clinton as most qualified to be president -- a new survey shows that Obama is viewed as more likeable than Clinton. The survey also accords the senator from Illinois higher ethical standards than the senator from New York.

"The most promising dimension for Obama, and by contrast Clinton's weakest area, is with respect to human relations,'' says a report from the Gallup Poll on its survey that shows Clinton rated not only as most qualified among likely Democratic voters, but also the strongest leader, best debater, best in a crisis and best manager. Yet another telling response: Fewer than 50 percent of those likely Democratic voters surveyed say Clinton has the best chance of beating the Republican nominee. And then again, only 27 percent perceive Edwards as having the best chance, 21 percent Obama. For more on the way Democrats are sizing up the three, see the survey:

Posted by David Lightman at 7:23 am CST

Name recognition is what's driving a lot of the early 2008 presidential election polling.

Just ask Chris Dodd, the Democratic senator from Connecticut whose name was recognized by just one or two -- people, not percentage points -- in a recent survey.

For more on the name game, see the Courant's story:

Posted by Mark Silva at 7:11 am CST

In that money primary, the one where a realistic candidate for president hopes to have $50 million banked by the start of January's primary elections and caucuses, Republican Mitt Romney is conceding nothing to Arizona Sen. John McCain on the senator's home turf.

Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, has assembled an Arizona fundraising team.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CST.

Backers of Sen. Barack Obama have rapidly built up large networks of supporters using the popular social web site Facebook. The political value of the social networking groups is unclear but they provide a potential base of supporters to turn to for volunteer activities or, possibly, small contributions.

One group on www.Facebook.com, popular among college and high school students and recent alumni, already has attracted more than 175,000 members, with a goal of building a list of at least 1 million by the time Obama is scheduled to make his official announcement on Feb. 10.

The group, "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)", writes on its information page that it was created on Jan. 16 by Farouk Olu Aregbe, a recent University of North Dakota alumnus now living in Washington, DC. Aregbe could not immediately be reached.

The organization Students for Barack Obama also began as a Faecebook group, "Barack Obama for President in 2008," with more than 53,000 members now.

Posted by Josh Drobnyk at 6:10 am CST

With the money primaries of the 2008 presidential election campaign well underway, Arizona Republican John McCain has staked a serious claim to the Keystone State, with former Pennsylvania Gov. and ex-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge supporting the senator's campaign.

Following introductory meetings, two of the state's top fundraisers have signed onto a campaign that McCain, who also sought the GOP's nomination in 2000, has not even formally announced yet.

For more on the story, see the report from the Morning Call:

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Wednesday, January 31, 2007 as collected by the Associated Press.

The Commerce Department is releasing the Gross Domestic Product report for the 4th quarter. 8:30 a.m.

The Joint Economic Committee is holding a hearing on the impact of middle class economic insecurity on long-term economic growth, with former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers and others. 9:30 a.m.

President Bush is speaking on the economy in New York. 11:05 a.m.

Posted by Frank James at 4:23 pm CST

Sen. Barack Obama had promised recently that he would introduce legislation embodying his idea of a phased redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Today he unveiled his bill, the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007. His legislation would cap the number of troops at the level that existed as of Jan. 10. Furthermore, it would require a redeployment of U.S. combat forces to start by May of this year and be completed by March 2008.

If the Iraqis meet the benchmarks set by the Bush Administration, the redeployment could be temporarily suspended, although it seems that if the Iraqis make enough progress to meet the benchmarks, that would make an even stronger argument for continuing the redeployment, not suspending it.

Keep going to read the Obama press release.

Posted by Mark Silva at 2:45 pm CST

Mo Elleithee, a veteran of Democratic state and presidential campaigns, is becoming a senior campaign spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 “exploratory’’ presidential campaign.

Elleithee has helped Democrats explore, and win, some fertile new political ground in Virginia – where he served as communications director for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s campaign in 2005, and served as press secretary for former Gov. Mark Warner’s campaign in 2001.

Posted by David Lightman at 3:35 pm CST

WASHINGTON--Congress' leading reformers today proposed a dramatic revamping of the presidential campaign financing system, changes that would allow taxpayers to contribue $10, instead of the current $3, to help publicly fund White House bids.

The checkoff would be used to provide more money to the current public financing system--a system experts say is badly broken.

The current system, created after the Watergate scandals of the early 1970s, provides candidates with up to $45 million for their nominating campaign and at last $75 million for the general election. Candidates are then subject to strict spending limits.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) testifies on global warming before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 30, 2007. Chicago Tribune photos by Pete Souza.

Posted by Frank James at 1:23 pm CST

Congress can't usurp the military role of the president as commander-in- chief during wartime but lawmakers definitely call the shots when it comes to who the U.S. fights, for how long and where, according to constitutional scholars on Capitol Hill today.

Given that, the majority of the scholars said Congress would be well within its constitutional power, to draw the Iraq conflict to a close.

"In my judgment, a statute that says as of six months of the date of enactment, the U.S. shall no longer be engaged in hostilities in Iraq is presumptively constitutional," said Bradford Berenson, who was a lawyer in President Bush's White House from 2001 to 2003 who advised on executive authority.

Former Secretary of State James Baker (l) and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton who co-chaired the Iraq Study Group testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007. Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza.

Posted by Mark Silva at 1 pm CST

Remember Baker and Hamilton?

The Republican and Democratic co-chairmen of the Iraq Study Group that called the situation in Iraq “grave and deteriorating’’ and recommended a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the early part of 2008? Republican James Baker, the former secretary of state, and Democrat Lee Hamilton, the former congressman from Indiana, appeared together today in testimony before a Senate committee.

Baker and Hamilton have called for a dramatically stepped up U.S. diplomatic effort with all of the nations in Iraq’s region, noted Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who has joined Democratic leaders in sponsoring a resolution opposing the president’s new troop deployment in Iraq. Critical of the president’s strategy, Hagel today called it “all surge, all military… But where is the diplomatic effort?’’

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:12 pm CST

There was a time, recalls retiree Paul Weishaar, when “just about everybody in Peoria worked for Caterpillar.’’

Now that Caterpillar is doing well with the sales of a lot of equipment overseas, the Korean War veteran and retiree from a union job with the Operating Engineers Local 649 acknowledges, they are not alone –when it comes to out-sourcing work, “every company is, really.’’

With a bid to underscore successes in the American economy this week, President Bush headed to Peoria, Ill., today to tout the success of companies such as Caterpillar and praise how they have adjusted to a global economy. “It’s good to be in the heartland of America,’’ Bush said. “People have said, ‘Why would you want to go to Peoria?’… I wanted to get out of Washington.’’

Posted by Christi Parsons at 11:00 a.m. CST

The House today will consider a resolution congratulating Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy for becoming the first African-American NFL head coaches to go to the Super Bowl.

We're reminded of this by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the deputy Democratic whip who will be in the chair when the House takes up the matter.

For the record, Schakowsky, who grew up in Rogers Park and lives in Evanston, says she is "for da Bears."

Posted by Pete Souza at 10:38 am CST

Adm. William J. Fallon testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his nomination hearing to become commander of U.S. Central Command. Chicago Tribune photos by Pete Souza.

Posted by Christi Parsons at 9:10 a.m. CST

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is telling friends that he doesn't want the job as U.S. ambassador to Japan, a post many had assumed he would pursue.

But close friends say that Hastert's wife isn't interested in spending that much time outside the country and is urging her husband to consider other opportunities.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Tuesday, January 30, 2007 as collected by the Associated Press.

President Bush is talking about the economy at a Caterpillar Inc. plant in Peoria. 11:45 a.m.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on Congress’ constitutional power to end a war.
Location: Room 226, Dirksen, 10 a.m.