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So far as breaking news goes, this ain't all that broken. But in government, structure often dictates function, which, in turn, heavily influences policy. Who reports directly to the president? Who reports to an assistant? Are staff in one bucket allowed to communicate with staff in another? Today, the Obama administration announced the consolidation of the Homeland Security staff and National Security Council staff at the White House, completing a process that began in the latter years of the Bush administration. A newly-named "national security staff" will serve the president as his principal staff coordinators for all homeland security, counterterorrism, transnational and international policy. The announcement today makes plain that Obama has come to value the services of his chief homeland security adviser, John Brennan, who has direct walk-in privileges. Obama writes that he will retain Brennan's position, which -- and this is important -- DOES NOT report to the national security adviser, but reports directly to the President. Brennan, "as my principal White House advisor on these issues, with direct and immediate access to me. The security of our homeland is of paramount importance to me,  and I will not allow organizational impediments to stand in the way of timely action that ensures the safety of our citizens."   

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It looks like Sen. Norm Coleman's last shot at retaining his Minnesota Senate seat will be an appeal to the state Supreme Court.  Al Franken (D) leads Coleman by 225 votes. Today, the judges overseeing the recount trial said they'll review a tiny number of absentee ballots -- just 400.  Assuming that the judges decide to award those ballots to either candidate, Coleman would need to receive roughly 85 percent of them in order to come close to Franken, much less surpass him. Coleman's lawyers are already looking ahead to an appeal before the state supreme court. There, they'll be able to argue that Coleman was the victim of unspecified constitutional violations by various election authorites in the state. An appeal will take about six weeks. Then, Coleman will have to decide whether he wants to suffer the indignity of having the U.S. Supreme Court decide not to hear his case...

This is big news: Democrats have mapped out their legislative strategy for passing health care reform this year. According to George Stephanopoulos, Democrats will work with Republicans to build consensus around a plan, and then, if that doesn't work, they'll write the revenue-generating-and-substracting provisions of whatever health care plan they come up with into the FY 2010 budget resolution. As important: the budget reconciliation process, which circumvents moderate Democratic and GOP discontent in the Senate, will NOT be used to set up a carbon emissions credit trading system.  Cap-and-trade was always the tougher sell to Congress. Americans don't understand it; members of Congress from coal-producing states worry about job losses in their state (they call it a transfer of wealth); consumers would be forced to pay more in the short-term for energy.  Why did Obama chose health care? Here's a good explanantion from the perspective of policy. Politically, health care reform is more easily swallowed than cap-and-trade and probably less expensive, especially if Obama endorses large-but-incremental incisions over massive surgery. Curiously, though, if, during the transition, you had asked (future) administration officials to predict whether, if a choice had to be made, health care or cap-n-trade would see more action this year, just as many would have placed a bet on cap-and-trade.  "As part of our ongoing conversations with Democrats and Republicans on the Hill, senior aides met with Hill aides last night to discuss the budget, but no decisions were made," an administration official said.