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Senior White House advisor David Axelrod told Fox's Chris Wallace that American can expect to see results from the stimulus bill soon.

WALLACE: Let's turn to the stimulus plan. Austin Goolsby says it package should be working in six months and one of the signs will be at the end of the year whether unemployment is 8% or 11%. How quickly will we know if the package is working and how should we measure it?

AXELROD: I think there'll be signs quickly. The package will help fund infrastructure programs and other programs that are ready to go around the country but it's going take time for that to -- to show up in the statistics. The president has said it's likely to get worse before it gets better. It is true that without this program, it could be -- it could be much, much worse. And so I don't expect the arrow to bend down by the end of the year, but I do expect the rise in unemployment to be retarded by the things that were done this week.

WALLACE: So does six months sound like a fair marker to begin to see progress?

AXELROD: Well, it depends how you measure progress. As you say, where we see activity as a result of this, absolutely, all over the country you're going to see shovels in the ground. You're going to see construction projects underway. The other thing you're going to see are people not being laid off, police and firefighters and teachers, because states are now going to have funding to forestall those things. I think you'll see an effect of it, but in terms of the overall economy, we're in the worst recession since World War II, and it's going to take -- it took us a long time to get into this mess. It's going to take us a while to get out of.

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When Sen. Judd Gregg announced he was withdrawing his name for nomination as Commerce Secretary, he said that the census was only a minor reason for the withdrawal. Gregg said that the census was such a "slight" issue that it wasn't even worth discussing.

Fox's Washington editor Bill Sammon continued to blame the census for Gregg's withdrawal this morning. "It was all about the census. Do not believe the spin that this is about the stimulus," said Sammon. "The White House is spinning it because it's more useful to say we got a flip-flopping Republican."

Paul Krugman weighs in on the stimulus bill on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with David Shuster. Krugman is pretty lukewarm on how much the bill will help since he believes it was too small. More on that here in his column The Destructive Center.

On the topic of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on MSNBC, the one good thing I can say about David Gregory getting Tim Russert's old slot on Meet the Press is this show is not bearable to watch unless Mika's filling in when it looks like an hour of Morning Joe redux.

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Countdown's Still Bushed! Feb. 13, 2009 with Ridiculous-Amounts-Of-Money-Gate, US Attorneys-Gate and Investi-Gate.

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From Bill Moyers Journal Feb. 13, 2009:

Although he thinks the details are important, Simon Johnson, Professor of Economics at MIT, worries more that Geithner and the Obama administration won't address a big underlying problem and be tough enough on the politically powerful banking lobby.

Johnson explains to Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL that the U.S. financial system reminds him more of the embattled emerging markets he encountered in his time with the International Monetary Fund than that of a developed nation. As such, Johnson believes that the U.S. financial system needs a "reboot," breaking up the biggest banks, in some cases firing management and wiping out shareholder value. Johnson tells Bill Moyers that such a move wouldn't be popular with the powerful banking lobby: "I think it's quite straightforward, in technical or economic terms. At the same time I recognize it's very hard politically."

Without drastic action, Johnson argues, taxpayers are merely subsidizing a wealthy powerful industry without forcing necessary systemic changes: "Taxpayer money is ensuring their bonuses. We're making sure that banks survive. And eventually, of course, the economy will turn around. Things will get better. The banks will be worth a lot of money. And they will cash out. And we will be paying higher taxes, we and our children, will be paying higher taxes so those people could have those bonuses. That's not fair. It's not acceptable. It's not even good economics."

Transcript of the portion of the shown below the fold.

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Worst Person Feb. 13, 2009. Winners John Culberson, Glenn Beck and Jeffrey Frederick who Keith pretty well shreds to pieces here.

February 13, 2009 MSNBC HARDBALL

February 12, 2009 C-SPAN

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified about current and projected national security threats to the United States. In his testimony he said that global economic turmoil and the instability it could ignite had outpaced terrorism as the most urgent threat facing the United States. He also spoke about the threat posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as nuclear development programs in North Korea and Iran.

See more CSPANJunkie videos here.

Wanda Sykes on Karma. Not safe for work.

Wanda Sykes to skewer Prez Barack Obama at Correspondents' Dinner

According to AP, Sykes will be the entertainer -- whose task will be to make jokes at Obama's expense -- at the 2009 White House Correspondents' Assn. dinner in Washington.

What was the first thing she did when she found out she had the gig?

"I made sure my taxes were paid," quipped Sykes.

Not as much fun as when Stephen Colbert roasted Bush perhaps, but the choice of Sykes should liven up this years event. As noted here Wanda came out this past November after Prop 8 passed for anyone that would like to watch the video of her rousing speech at the LGBT Center of Nevada.

Wanda Sykes on Prop 8: We Were Attacked! They Pissed Off the Wrong Group of People!

Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Brian Bilbray square off over the stimulus bill on Hardball, Feb. 13, 2009. Bilbray does his best to run away from the Republican party and their past spending, and George Bush.

Wasserman Schultz sounds like she's got Bilbray's next opponent's campaign ad written for them.

Schultz: What Brian did by voting no today was he voted against giving 385,000 jobs in his own state. 8,000 jobs in his own district. Aid to his state to help....

Matthews: Did you look this up?

Schultz: Yes I sure did. (crosstalk) 8,000 jobs in his own district. Avoiding layoffs of teachers, firefighters and policemen. The bottom line is that this bill is designed to create jobs, turn the economy around, avoid layoffs, move us towards energy independence and the Republicans have just said "No". He can say all he wants, that he doesn't want this bill to fail. This vote for them was all about 2010. They are hoping that this doesn't work so that they can blame the continued poor economy on the Democrats and that is the bottom line.