Good Tuesday morning, Washington and beyond. Democrats won't get a fillibuster-proof majority in the Senate. But at least they still have one in the Cabinet.

**Cabinet News
*President Obama will announce Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) as his new Commerce secretary this morning at the White House.

*"The deal appears to be done" in New Hampshire, reports the Union Leader's DiStaso. Judd Gregg takes the Commerce post, and Gov. John Lynch will name a Republican to replace him.

*But not all Democrats are happy with the deal. "I'm still hoping Barack Obama comes to his senses," said state Rep. Jim Splaine. "It's a lose-lose for Democrats." Radio host Arnie Arnesen: "I keep hearing about this deal. After Blagojevich, I don't want to hear about deals any more."

*Gregg apparently hasn't always supported the department he's about to lead, however, once voting to abolish it in 1996.

*Tom Daschle's tax issues remain in the news. Politico reports that before the tax flap came up, Daschle had lobbied Obama to select Leo Hindery to his Cabinet. Hindery "hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing in Daschle's failure to declare the value of the limo service on his taxes."

*Obama pledged a "new era of responsibility," but "what he did not talk much about were the asterisks," the New York Times reports. Now, "the Obama team finds itself being criticized by bloggers on the left and the right, mocked by television comics and questioned by reporters about whether Mr. Obama is really changing the way Washington works or just changing which political party works it."

*On the op-ed page, the Times says Daschle's nomination should be pulled. "In both the Geithner and Daschle cases, the failure to pay taxes is attributed to unintentional oversights. But Mr. Daschle is one oversight case too many. The American tax system depends heavily on voluntary compliance. It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws." The paper also notes his ties to "major players" in health care community as potentially "more troublesome."

*Smoother sailing at the Justice Department. The Senate confirmed Eric Holder as U.S. Attorney General on a 75-21 roll call vote. No Democrats opposed his confirmation. Holder becomes the nation's first black Attorney General.

*Washington Post: "The Senate vote occurred four days after Holder overcame concerns by a small but vocal group of GOP lawmakers about his position on national security and gun rights, as well as his recommendations in two controversial clemency decisions by President Bill Clinton."

**Economic Stimulus
*Yesterday, Obama downplayed "modest difference" between Democrats and Republicans on the stimulus. But in a meeting with Democratic leadership, Obama "took a blunt tone" and urged them "to drop whatever needs to be cut from the bill to gain bipartisan support and to pass Congress soon."

*The Senate began debate on their version of the bill yesterday, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans' goal is to "reformulate" it, "not kill it."

**L.A. Times: "Senate Republicans will propose a panoply of amendments to make the bill more palatable -- including moves to strip out spending they consider inappropriate in an economic stimulus bill. One target: $75 million to help people quit smoking. Such changes, if accepted, could win support for the plan from conservative Democrats such as Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, as well as Republicans."

*The AP has a breakdown of the "highlights" of the Democrat-written Senate stimulus plan.

*Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), on MSNBC's "Morning Joe": "To sustain a filibuster, we need just 41 Republicans to stay together. If we stay together in the Senate like they did in the House, we can shelve this bill; we can hold it up. ... But I'm willing to put the 41 together if we can and hold together."

*The Democrats increased their majorities, but now Blue Dog Democrats are pushing the party leadership to resume regular order, The Hill reports. "Since last year, many senior House Democrats -- many of them subcommittee chairmen -- have grown overly frustrated with how only small and select bands of legislators have been responsible for writing bills. ... Democratic leaders have acknowledged that the 'regular order' process of methodically developing and writing bills in subcommittees and committees has been abandoned recently. But they have defended the handling of such sensitive and important legislation by only an exclusive group of leadership and senior lawmakers as a necessary tactic during exceptional times."

*Gallup: 75% of Americans want Congress to pass some version of a stimulus bill -- 38% want the bill passed as Obama proposed it, while 37% want major changes to the bill. 47% think the plan will make the economy a little better, and just 17% think the bill could make things a lot better.

**Palin Alert
*Sarah Palin already has picked sides in a potential intra-party battle in Texas, picking incumbent Gov. Rick Perry over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2010.

*Newt Gingrich thinks Palin has "a substantial base" in Iowa in 2012, if she runs. He also called her "very formidable," and "suggested the Alaska governor spend time developing 'fairly sophisticated positions' on a range of issues."

**Blago Watch: The now ex-gov is doing a second media tour, including stops today on NBC's Today and tonight on David Letterman, the Chicago Tribune reports.

**Sports Alert: The Lakers' Kobe Bryant dropped 61 points on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden last night, setting an arena record. He surpassed Michael Jordan's opponent record of 55 points and Bernard King's home record of 60 points -- not bad company. We didn't see the game or King's record-setting day in 1984, but we'll never forget watching Jordan (wearing No. 45 after just coming back from playing baseball) torching the Knicks on national TV and delivering the game-winning assist to Bill Wennington.

--Kyle Trygstad and Mike Memoli