Pawlenty ‘Concerned’ About NY GOP Candidate; Plans Endorsement Soon

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

With the Republican Party splintering over a House race in upstate New York, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said on ABCNews.com's “Top Line” today that he has significant concerns about the Republican candidate's positions on key issues, as well as the process by which she was chosen as the GOP nominee.

In New York State's 23rd congressional district, Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava is facing a challenge on her right from Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman — who nabbed the endorsement of former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, yesterday.

Pawlenty, who's widely mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential candidate, said he will “probably” make an endorsement in the race — and sounded as if he's poised to support Hoffman over Scozzafava.

“As a conservative I'm concerned about some of the alleged issue positions that she holds,” said Pawlenty, R-Minn. “I want to be fair to both candidates and look at their records. But there are some things that [I] have been told that you know, she holds dear, that may not be consistent with conservative principles.”

His comments underscore the extent to which the race between Scozzafava, Hoffman, and Democrat Bill Owens is coming to define the direction of the Republican Party.

Scozzafava was chosen by local county chairmen to be the GOP nominee in the Nov. 3 special election, and the Republican National Committee and other national party entities are supporting her. But her support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights, among other issues, has rankled other Republicans, including Palin.

GOP leaders including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are saying they'll support Scozzafava in the interest of winning a moderate district.

But Pawlenty said that as far as he's concerned, having an “R” next to a candidate's name isn't enough.

“As a conservative I am worried about some of the things I've heard in this race about how the person was selected,” he said. “It seemed to be a small group of insiders, as opposed to the party more broadly. But I want to take some time to get to know the records of these individuals before I make a decision about who to endorse or not.”

To watch the full interview with Pawlenty, click HERE.

What about Joe? Much work remains for Dems after Finance vote

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:

All eyes are on the Senate Finance Committee this morning, where there have not yet been any surprises.

But Republicans are circulating snippets from an interview conducted by Don Imus of Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut who caucuses with Democrats. He's one of the 60 votes Democrats will need to pass a sweeping reform bill.

In a reminder that once the Finance Committee passes its bill today, there is still a very long road for health reform, Lieberman told Imus he doesn't support the Baucus bill and he thinks President Obama is trying to do too much.

“I've been saying for a couple of months now that I'm concerned, that I'm concerned that there's a danger that we're trying to do too much here and the president is trying to do two good things. But doing them at once in the middle of a recession may be hard to pull off,” Lieberman said, according to a transcript circulated by Republicans.

He went on: “And the two good things are to bend the cost of health care down by changing a lot of the ways health care is delivered. The second thing is to cover some of the people, millions of people, who are not covered with insurance. So, this puts us in the position where you say, on the one hand, what we're about to do in adopting health care reform will, will reduce the cost of health insurance from what it would otherwise be and the other hand you say, oh incidentally, we're going to raise your taxes or cut your Medicare to the tune of $900 billion or a trillion. And people are beginning to think that maybe they'd do better holding on to what they have now.”

Lieberman's statement underscore the perilous situation for Democrats who will take the Baucus bill and try to marry it with what the HELP Committee passed in July. They will have to attract Lieberman's vote on one end of the spectrum. And only the votes of more liberal senators who think the Baucus bill does not go far enough toward universal coverage. Only one Democrat, Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois, has said he won't vote for a bill that lacks a public option.

“The inclusion of a public option as a central component to any healthcare reform legislation is the only way to create meaningful competition with the insurance companies, and in turn, bring down costs and improve quality of care for the people of Illinois and all Americans,” said Burris on the Senate floor recently.

But other liberals, like Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia have pledged to do their best to force a public option and affordability votes on the Senate floor.

It's hard to square those pledges with changes to mollify Lieberman and other moderates, who opposes a public option.

Wiggle room on the public option could come in the form of wordplay. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose job it will be to marry the HELP and Baucus Finance Committee bills, has said there are different variations of a public option, even suggesting that the series of non-governmental co-ops envisioned by the Baucus bill could substitute for the public option.

But where it comes to affordability for people who currently have health insurance, there is less wiggle room. And there is also the undeniable fact that the Baucus bill does not insure every American.

“The bill before us still falls short of what people need and what people expect from us,” said Rockefeller during today's Finance Committee markup.

“It is not enough,” Rockefeller said. “Universal coverage has always been the goal”

He'll have to swallow his reservations and support the Baucus bill in the committee vote later today if he wants to make changes on the Senate floor in the future.

In “major” speech Clinton will warn Iran about engagement timeline

ABC News' Kirit Radia reports:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will deliver what her aides are touting as a “major” foreign policy address this afternoon, a day before she leaves on her first foreign trip since breaking her elbow in a fall last month.

Some view the speech as Clinton's attempt to “elbow” her way back into the administration's foreign policy limelight. The injury sidelined her for much of the past month, causing her to cancel trips and meetings and miss President Obama's recent trip to Russia, Italy, and Ghana.

The speech is likely to focus on the “big picture” foreign policy approach, according to State Department officials.

According to excerpts of her remarks provided this morning, Clinton will hold the door open for talks with Iran despite Tehran's crackdown on political protestors following last month's election. But, she will warn Iran the offer will not be on the table for ever.

Clinton will call the political crackdown in Iran “deplorable and unacceptable” but adds that “We remain ready to engage with Iran.”

“The opportunity will not remain open indefinitely,” Clinton will say, though the excerpts do not define how long the Obama administration will keep its hand extended to Iran.

What Do You Think About Health Care Reform? Let Us Know…

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: As ABC News announced this week, Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson will be moderating a conversation with President Obama next Wednesday evening about health care reform.

The goal is to include divergent viewpoints from audience members and experts alike, challenging the president to answer questions from various stakeholders who agree and disagree with his proposals.

So what would you ask the president?

ABC News has been reading your questions submitted HERE and is partnering withDigg.com — engaging their 36 million user community — to learn more about what questions people have about how to mend the nation's health care system.

To submit a question, click HERE. Digg up the questions you like and bury the ones that just don't cut it.

Charlie and Diane will ask the president at least one of these submitted questions.
Tune in to ABC for “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” on Wednesday, June 24th at 10 pm ET, and “Nightline” at 11:30 pm ET, and see if your question was asked.

And we’re planning on asking some of the other questions the next day on ABCNews.com’s political Webcast, “Top Line.”

Sarah Palin Calls for Uprising Against Letterman for Joke About Her Daughter

ABC News' David Chalian reports: Gov. Sarah Palin called on the public to rise up in opposition to David Letterman's distasteful jokes about her daughter this week. In a morning television interview on NBC's “Today” show, Gov. Palin described her controversy with the late night comedian as a “sad commentary on where we are as a culture, as a society, to chuckle and laugh through comments such as he had made the other night, I think is quite unfortunate.”

READ MORE: Palin Slams Letterman Joke as 'Sexually Perverted'
WATCH:Palin Vs. Letterman

Mr. Letterman's explanation that he was referring to her 18 year old daughter, Bristol, instead of her 14 year old daughter, Willow, who accompanied her recently to New York was met with derision by Gov. Palin. She called it a “very convenient excuse” that took him a couple of days to present.

“It was a degrading comment about a young woman. I would hope that people really start rising up and deciding it's not acceptable. No wonder young girls especially have such low self esteem in America when we think it's funny for a so-called comedian to get away with being able to make such a remark as he did and to think that that's acceptable,” Palin said.

Gov. Palin was apparently pleased to see women organizations speaking out against the comments and then proceeded to read from her BlackBerry an email she received from someone she described as not a typical feminist. “Every male organization. . . should rise up and shout in defense of their daughters, their sisters, their mothers,” Palin read to NBC's Matt Lauer.

When Lauer pressed Palin on her spokeswoman's response stating “it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman,” Palin said that was not in bad taste.

“I connect the dots to a degrading statement made about young women and that does contribute to some acceptance of abuse of young women,” Palin said in defense of that statement before going on to explain that it can be interpreted in many ways.

“Take it however you want to take it. It is a comment that came from the heart that Willow, no doubt, would want to stay away after he made such a comment,” she said.

Gov. Palin also decried what she sees as a double standard being applied to her and her family both politically and in a broader social sense.

“First, remember in the campaign, Barack Obama said, 'Family's off limits. You don't talk about my family.'”

“And the candidate who must be obeyed, everybody adhered to that and they did leave his family alone. They haven't done that on the other side of the ticket and it has continued to this day so that's a political double standard.”

Gov. Palin went on to describe a second double standard as the “acceptance of a celebrity being able to get away with a disparaging comment that does erode a young girl's self esteem and does contribute to some of the problems we have in society.”

Asked if Letterman owes her an apology, Gov. Palin said no.

“He doesn't have to apologize to me. I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country for contributing to that thread that is throughout our culture that makes it sound like it's ok to talk about young girls that way.”

Rep. Scott Garrett: ‘A Little Bit’ Concerned About GOP Unity on Budget

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

Today on “Top Line,” we chatted with Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., about President Obama’s budget, and about Thursday night’s vote in the House.

We pointed out that more Republicans voted against the GOP budget than the number of Democrats who voted against the Democratic budget — and asked if that concerned Garrett, who serves on the House Budget committee.

“A little bit, but I can understand exactly why some of those members voted against the Republican budget,” Garrett said. “You’re going to get some defections on it, and I think at the end of the day the reality is that everyone knew that all the budgets except for the Democrat budget was going to fail, and so people went to where they felt most — where they fit in best. So, I think some people were even more conservative than the Republican budget went there, and the liberals of course went all the way over to the progressive and the Democrat budget.”

Click here to watch our full interview with Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J.

Garrett questioned whether Democrats were serious about wanting bipartisanship with the budget.

“Despite all the rhetoric that the administration proclaimed at the beginning of this process of saying that they were going to work with us and what have you, I think the Republicans tried,” he said. “I know — I serve on the Budget Committee, and we tried.”

Also on the program, we talked with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos about President Obama’s trip to Europe — and about Gov. Sarah Palin’s political play in calling for a re-vote in the Alaska Senate race.

Click to here watch our full interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.