Michael Shear writes for the Washington Post reports that raccoons have invaded the White House grounds.

The National Park Service is in pursuit of one very large raccoon and several medium-sized raccoons, who have been spotted roaming the grounds around the Executive Mansion and the West Wing, a spokesman said.

“The idea of raccoons on the White House grounds give us great pause,” spokesman Bill Burton said.

Was that pause or paws?

The National Park Service has put out live traps, but to no avail. Local critter trapper Tim McDowell says the NPS probably is using the wrong cages, or cages that don’t smell right. McDowell has offered to catch the raccoons for free.

McDowell has already removed birds that were flying inside the U.S. Capitol, but he says that he’s always dreamed of catching a raccoon on the White House grounds.

An unusual ambition, but to each his own.

According to legend, President Calvin Coolidge had several “unusual pets” including two raccoons, a bobcat and a donkey.

They were Grace’s pets, I think. At least the raccoons were.

We knew it wouldn’t be easy. We knew President Obama would make mistakes. Let’s make a quick assessment of where we are now.

First, you may have seen headlines that the popularity of the stimulus bill has tanked. Nate Silver says this is not so. It may have slipped a little in popularity, but a majority of the public still supports it.

Second, E.J. Dionne writes that President Obama is not fighting back hard enough against the hysterical and mostly frivolous and misleading charges being made by Republicans against the stimulus bill. I agree with this. Yes, the Daschle debacle threw the President off his game, but that was yesterday’s news. Now he has to start punching.

And lo, Peter Nicholas writes for the Los Angeles Times,

President Obama abruptly changed tactics Wednesday in his bid to revive the economy, setting aside his bipartisan stance and pointedly blaming Republicans for demanding what he cast as discredited “piecemeal measures.”

Obama’s comments were a marked departure from the conciliatory tone he has maintained as he courted Republican votes for his stimulus package through compromise. Against the wishes of his own party, Obama crafted a plan that relied heavily on tax cuts rooted in Republican economic doctrine.

As part of this counter-offensive, President Obama has written an op ed for today’s Washington Post.

In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We’ve seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.

Every day, our economy gets sicker — and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now.

That’s good, but that message needs to be read to everyone in America.

Meanwhile, the executive cap idea is getting legs and endorsements by most people outside of Wall Street. I think this could be a very popular measure that Republicans oppose at their peril. The Los Angeles Times argues that it would help restore public confidence in the economy.

Finally, as Republicans still are tripping all over themselves to placate El Rushbo, Max Blumenthal says Limbaugh is one of the least liked people in America.

An October 24, 2008, poll conducted by the Democratic research firm Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner has Rush Limbaugh enjoying a public-approval rating of just 21 percent among likely voters, while 58 percent have “cold” feelings toward the right-wing radio-talk-show host. Limbaugh was the least popular of the all the political figures the firm polled. He polls seven points lower than Rev. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright and eight points below former Weather Underground domestic terrorist William Ayers.

If the Democrats were smarter than I believe they are (alas), they’d be working overtime to make Rush a block of cement around the GOP’s feet.