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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says his rival John McCain is out of touch with the economic struggles of Americans and doesn’t understand that there’s nothing more fundamental than a job.

Obama hammered McCain’s economic record Thursday during a rally in Michigan, a state struggling with the country’s highest unemployment rate.

Obama told supporters gathered in the cold in downtown Grand Rapids that the government’s jobs report coming out Friday is expected to show a ninth straight month of decline.

He pointed out that recently McCain said that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.” But Obama said it’s clear the fundamentals are not strong and that the country needs a president who understands that.

Democrats in House of Representatives and Senate are working together to “rebut” the government’s bailout plan for Wall Street, a spokesman for House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank said Wednesday.

“We are currently working with Senator (Christopher) Dodd on specific language to rebut the (US) Treasury proposal … so that we can then work with the administration,” spokesman Steve Adamske said referring to the Senate Banking Committee chairman.

He said the idea was to come up with a new financial plan with some changes.

“We believe we are making progress,” Adamske said of the ongoing debate in Congress over the troubled US financial system.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson underwent another day of congressional grilling, after Tuesday’s cold-shoulder reception by senators balking at a swift passage of their 700-billion-dollar bailout plan.

Frank headed Wednesday’s hearing by his House Financial Services Committee.

“But there are still some sticking points,” Adamske said. “We want greater acountability and a large degree of reponsablity,” he added echoing the Democrats’ insistence that any plan should limit compensation packages for company leaders.

Frank told CNN television that “we’re going to set a precedent because we’re going to get restrictions on CEO compensation. They won’t be everything we want, they will apply to only the companies that are benefitting from this, but it’s a pattern I’m trying to take and apply broadly.

“We’re also doing proxy access, where you have these boards of directors that are immune to anybody. And we’re going to give the shareholders the right to petition so they can elect the directors,” he added.

“Next we have in our bill the right of people to invoke bankruptcy for their primary residence residence. Right now, you can for your vacation home, but not your primary residence. … Beyond that, we’re giving them authority they didn’t want, not just to buy paper, but to take shares in the company, that will, a, give the dividends, and b, get warrants so the results of the companies become more profitable than they have been. The federal government gets extra help,” Frank explained.

But “we are also setting up contrary to what they request, a tough oversight board,” Frank stressed.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi “is talking very much about having money to pay for this that would come from some levy on the Securities Exchange themselves or a tax on people of great wealth, but finally, we have been arguing strongly that they should go with a stimulus to provide money for infrastructure, medical care, and low-income energy assistance,” Frank added.

President George W. Bush will make a televised speech late Wednesday in a bid to boost pressure on wary lawmakers to adopt his embattled Wall Street rescue plan, his aides said.

The speech was to come as US lawmakers struggled to find compromise on steps to save troubled US banks, some voicing deep skepticism despite fears, stoked by the White House, that inaction could trigger a global financial meltdown.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, on Wednesday called for the richest Americans to shoulder the cost of Wall Street’s financial debacle.

“If there is a need for a bailout, it is not the middle class that has to pay for it,” he told reporters.

Sanders said the bailout package’s massive bill should be footed over a period of five years with a special 10 percent income tax on individuals with annual incomes above 500,000 dollars and married couples earning more than one million dollars.

“That would raise 300 billion dollars,” he said, adding that an online version of his plan on his website received 8,000 signatures in the first 24 hours.

Sanders called the Bush administration “the most incompetent in the history of this country.”

The aviation computer problem causing flight delays around the country is similar to the outage reported by federal aviation officials less than a week ago.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Web site says the air traffic planning system suffered an outage on Thursday that delayed the departure of at least 134 flights.

The outage in the NADIN — short for National Air Space Data Interchange Network — occurred at the same Georgia facility where computers went down on Tuesday, causing delays at some three dozen major airports.

The Georgia facility is one of two NADIN locations in the United States. The other is in Salt Lake City.

When half the system is not functioning, air traffic controllers have to load flight plans manually, which causes delays.

President Bush on Saturday blamed the Democratic-led Congress for the high cost of gasoline and renewed his call for expanded offshore drilling to increase U.S. oil supplies.

“To reduce pressure on prices, we need to increase the supply of oil, especially oil produced here at home,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Congress left for the August recess without a solution to fuel prices. In a bid to force a vote on offshore drilling, Republicans blocked Democratic proposals to use the nation’s petroleum reserve, curb oil speculation and require oil companies to drill on already leased federal lands.

The president, who is vacationing at his Texas ranch, said Americans support expanded exploration of oil in areas that include the Outer Continental Shelf. The shelf is the shallow, sloping land that stretches for miles undersea between the coastline and the deep ocean.

New oil drilling is only allowed now in federal waters in the western Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled last week the Democrats’ position could be shifting. With energy legislation to be introduced after Congress returns, lawmakers will be able to “consider opening portions of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling, with appropriate safeguards, and without taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil,” she said.

But Bush said the Democrats are pushing a plan that would reduce domestic production and drain the country’s emergency oil supply.

“Democratic leaders know that these counterproductive proposals will not become law,” Bush said. “They need to stop standing in the way of expanding domestic production and take meaningful steps now to address the pain caused by high energy prices.”

Bush said offshore drilling can be done in an “environmentally responsible” way. Experts believe production from below the ocean can produce nearly 10 years’ worth of America’s current annual oil output, he said.

“When Congress returns they should remove this restriction so we can get these vast oil resources from the ocean floor to your gas tank,” Bush said.

The president also said Congress should lift a ban that blocks access to oil shale on federal lands. Oil shale, a sedimentary rock, can be mined and processed to produce oil.

And lawmakers should extend tax credits to encourage the development of alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar, Bush said.

“This Congress has been one of the most unproductive on record. They’ve failed to address the challenge of high gas prices,” the president said. “They need to send me a bill next month that I can sign so we can bring relief to drivers, small business owners, farmers and ranchers and every American affected by high prices at the pump.”

If Sen. Ted Stevens has his way, he’ll soon be spending his days on trial for corruption charges and his evenings and weekends campaigning for re-election.

To manage such a schedule, Stevens needs to persuade a judge to move his trial from Washington to Alaska, where he has been a dominant figure in politics for decades. His lawyers were due in federal court Wednesday to argue for the move.

The Senate’s longest-serving Republican, Stevens is accused of lying on Senate financial disclosure documents about hundreds of thousands of dollars in home renovations and gifts he received from a corrupt oil services contractor.

He asked for, and received, an unusually speedy trial that he hopes will clear his name before Election Day.

“Unfortunately, no matter the outcome of this trial, this schedule alone may not be enough to ensure that Senator Stevens has the ability to compete meaningfully in the upcoming election,” Stevens’ lawyers wrote in court documents recently. “Were venue transferred to Alaska, Senator Stevens would have the opportunity to campaign in the evenings and on weekends during the trial.”

Stevens’ lawyers say they want jurors to visit the senator’s ski resort chalet, which was renovated by VECO Corp. employees. His attorneys argue the cost of those renovations is nowhere near the government’s estimate. Such a visit would be impossible if the trial were in Washington.

The Justice Department opposes the request and a federal judge indicated he was not likely to grant it. Prosecutors say the crime — lying on Senate documents — took place in Washington.

As for the value of the renovations, prosecutors say that’s not the issue. The question, they say, isn’t whether he received precisely $250,000 from VECO; it’s whether the value exceeded the $260 limit that Senate rules say must be disclosed.

“Flip-flopper” is so 2004.

Then, Republicans charged that Democratic nominee John Kerry was a flip-flopper on a number of issues. This year’s presidential campaign has brought similar charges and counter-charges between the Republican and Democratic camps.

But the harshest cut-down in politics these days apparently is “celebrity” and in a television ad out Monday, Democrat Barack Obama is trying to pin the label on GOP presidential rival John McCain.

Celebrities are widely known and often loved by their fans, defined as being a “celebrated person.” So what’s so wrong with that when you’re trying to win a nationwide election?

McCain first used the word in a series of ads that compared Obama to lightweight celebrities like Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. A nice exterior without much substance underneath, the ad implied, not the kind of person you want to entrust your country to.

Hilton’s mom called it “frivolous” and a waste of money, but Obama adviser Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate majority leader, says the celebrity ads have contributed to a dip in Obama’s poll numbers.

In Obama’s response, titled “Embrace” and released while he’s on vacation in Hawaii, his campaign tries to use the word to paint McCain as the consummate political insider.

“For decades, he’s been Washington’s biggest celebrity,” the announcer says, cutting to a “Saturday Night Live” introduction of the Arizona Republican during an appearance on the show.

The ad then shows footage of McCain hugging President Bush.

“As Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back,” the spot says before showing footage of McCain with lobbyists, aides and Bush and on “Saturday Night Live.” “The lobbyists — running his low road campaign. The money — billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours. Lurching to the right, then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes. John McCain. A Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington games.”

The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.

Rielle Hunter’s lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who is not running for public office and that she wishes to maintain the privacy of her and her daughter.

“Rielle is therefore making no statement now or in the future,” Gordon said in a statement. “Furthermore, Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter’s privacy now or in the future.”

On Friday, Edwards admitted to having an extramarital affair with Hunter in 2006 but denied that he was the father of Hunter’s 5-month-old daughter. Edwards offered to take a paternity test to prove he is not the father.

Hunter’s decision means that the issue of who the father is remains an open question.

Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27 this year, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, confessed to ABC News that he had lied repeatedly about the affair with Hunter, then 42, who produced videos for Edwards as he prepared to launch his presidential campaign.

In an interview which aired on ABC’s “Nightline” on Friday night, Edwards said he would be willing to take a paternity test to put the issue to rest but wasn’t sure whether Hunter would be willing to.

“I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established,” Edwards said.

The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, in the run-up to the Democratic primaries, and Edwards denied it.

Last month, the Enquirer carried another story — the blaring headline referred to an Edwards “love child” — stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles where he had met with Hunter after her child’s birth. Edwards called it “tabloid trash.”

In her statement Friday, Elizabeth Edwards said it wasn’t easy to find out about the extramarital affair in 2006 but indicated she did not believe that her husband was the father of Hunter’s daughter.

“This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well,” she said. “Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.”

Edwards declared his presidential candidacy in December 2006. His wife campaigned enthusiastically with him and by herself in the months that followed. She announced in March 2007 that her cancer, formerly in remission, had returned and there apparently was no cure.

Edwards dropped out midway through this year’s primaries. He recently endorsed Barack Obama and had been mentioned as a possible running mate. But as rumors spread of Edwards’ possible affair it became clear that he would not likely speak at the Democratic National Convention later this month in Denver.

Planning appeals, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers asked a judge on Thursday to delay enforcement of his ruling that they must testify before Congress.

U.S. District Judge John Bates did not immediately rule on their request to place a hold on his ruling allowing White House aides to be subpoenaed by Congress. The judge asked House lawyers to respond by next week.

Bates on July 31 rejected White House arguments that presidential confidants are protected from congressional subpoenas by executive privilege, giving free rein to Democrats who have been trying to get President Bush’s aides to testify on the dismissals of nine federal prosecutors.

Without a quick stay of the ruling, Miers and Bolten may be forced to testify before an appeal can be heard, the two said in a court filing. Democrats have announced they would schedule hearings in September, at the height of election season.

“Whatever the proper resolution of the extraordinarily important questions presented, the public interest clearly favors further consideration of issues before defendants are required to take actions that may forever alter the constitutional balance of separation of powers,” the Bolten and Miers request said.

A stay would also benefit Republicans, since the subpoenas expire at the end of the year, not long before Bush leaves office.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said White House lawyer Fred Fielding sent him a letter saying the administration would not let Bolten testify until the appeals process is finished.

“This continuing contempt of Congress is another example of the lengths to which this administration will go and how it uses government lawyers to protect its actions from scrutiny and increase its power, rather than respect the rule of law,” Leahy said.

Bates’ decision gave some teeth to Congress’ power to investigate the executive branch, because earlier disputes had been settled through political compromise instead of the courts.

The judge has scheduled a conference between the litigants on Aug. 27 to assess whether negotiations over the subpoenas had progressed.

In the Senate, Democrats are refusing to adjourn for the August recess. Over in the House, Republicans are refusing to leave.

Senate Democrats, repeating a tactic they have used all year, staged a lightning-fast pro forma session Tuesday, a procedure that keeps the Senate from officially adjourning and stops President Bush from making “recess appointments” without Senate confirmation.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., took 28 seconds to gavel the Senate in and out of session. It’s a process that will be repeated every three working days to keep the Senate from going into recess until lawmakers return in September.

Often it’s senators from nearby Virginia or Maryland asked to do pro forma duty. Reed said he was helping out because he was staying at his Washington home with his 19-month-old child while his wife was traveling.

It was a different universe on the other side of the Capitol, where Republicans were in their third day of a protest on the House floor, demanding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi call the House back into session to vote on an energy bill that includes an increase in domestic oil drilling.

“This is a major message to America and America is listening,” said Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, one of 10 Republicans heading for the House floor Tuesday morning. The only people directly listening to the lawmakers were tourists filling the visitors’ gallery and seats on the House floor. Because the House has formally adjourned, microphones were turned off, the lights were dimmed and the TV cameras were off.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he had written President Bush urging that he call Congress back into session to deal with the energy crisis. Democrats, who say Republicans have blocked numerous bills aimed at dealing with market speculators and forcing oil companies to drill in areas they have already leased, say the GOP protest is a political stunt.

Pelosi, in a letter Tuesday to House Republican leader John Boehner, said a majority of Republicans had voted against 13 Democratic-initiated energy and conservation bills. “While a very small band of your colleagues remain on the House floor to discuss gas prices, their constituents deserve to know why their representatives in Congress have failed to support serious, responsible proposals.”

As of last fall, Bush had made 165 recess appointments. That’s when Democrats started blocking them with pro forma sessions.

By comparison, former President Clinton had a total of 140 recess appointments over eight years, and George H.W. Bush had 77 in his four years. A recess appointee is allowed to serve until the end of the congressional session, which in this case coincides with the end of the Bush presidency.

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said there was no particular nomination they were trying to stop. He said they just wanted to prevent “any mischief from happening.”

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said there were 250 pending nominations — 151 non-career, 50 judicial, nine career civilian and 40 career military.

“It’s really unfortunate that Congress left for yet another recess without dealing with pending nominations, especially for key officials dealing with energy issues, like our nominee for deputy secretary of Energy and three nominees to be commissioners of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission).”

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