McCain to Aides on Palin Book: This Will Pass

ABC News' Kate Snow reports:

So what does John McCain really think of Palin's book?

Sources tell ABC that there was a conference call on Friday between McCain and many of his top former aides.

On the call, McCain essentially told them that he would prefer that they stay out of the Palin book coverage and not engage in a public debate with Palin. But he told also them he understood if they needed to refute factual errors or protect their own reputations.

Says one aide in the know: “He apologized to everyone on the call for people having to go through this. Said something like ‘You are all my dear friends. This will pass. It’ll pass faster if everyone will just stay out of it.’”

He talked about being proud of the campaign they ran and said he’s moved on, they’ve moved on and he was sorry that the aides were having to go through this.

McCain himself received a signed copy of Palin’s book on Friday. Aides say the Senator hasn’t actually spoken with Palin in months.

‘Top Line’ — Sen. Wyden: Lack of Choice in Health Care Bill Doesn’t Pass ‘Smell Test’

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Almost lost in the coverage of Sen. Olympia Snowe’s decision to vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill was Sen. Ron Wyden’s favorable vote — a slight surprise, since Wyden had been critical of what he sees as major shortcomings in the measure.

While Wyden, D-Ore., ultimately joined Snowe and all the committee’s Democrats in voting yes, he — like Snowe — is serving notice that he may not support the final product.

On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, Wyden renewed his call to inject more choice into the health care system by allowing individuals — not just small businesses — to buy into the new “insurance exchanges” that would be created by the bill.

Intriguingly, Wyden used the White House’s own calls for ensuring choice in the health care system in making his case.

“I’ve made it very clear that when the White House and particularly [Press Secretary] Robert Gibbs talks about choice and competition about three times an hour, and then you have a bill that we’re told leaves 90 percent of the American people outside the marketplace — outside the exchanges — after seven years, that’s not going to pass the smell test,” Wyden told us.

“At every single rally you hear politicians stand up and say the American people ought to have choices like their member of Congress, and of course that’s what holds the insurance industry accountable,” Wyden said.

“And under this bill not only are most Americans not going to have choices like members of Congress, they aren’t going to get any choice at all, even when their insurance company is abusing them.”

Wyden is a longtime proponent of a different means of pursuing universal health coverage, encapsulated in a bill — the Healthy Americans Act, co-sponsored with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah — that emphasizes individual choice over the current employer-based system.

Unless the current bill achieves a similar level of choice for individuals, Wyden said he won’t support it.

“I am trying to export the key principles of the Healthy Americans Act, particularly choice and competition, holding insurance companies accountable so the consumer gets more affordable coverage, to the final bill. And without that, the final bill is not going to have my support,” Wyden said.

Wyden’s amendment to open up the insurance exchanges to individuals was set aside in a parliamentary dispute in the Finance Committee — a fact that irked Wyden.

He’s still trying to include that component in the final bill, and yesterday engaged in an unusual Senate floor discussion with Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., that strongly suggested that a deal is in the works.

Wyden told us today: “I think we got our foot in the door, and I’ve talked at length with Chairman Baucus about it, with Chairman [Chris] Dodd, Senator [Harry] Reid,” the Senate majority leader.

Watch the full interview with Sen. Ron Wyden HERE.

We also chatted with Christina Bellantoni of Talking Points Memo about the pressures being applied by the political left in the health care debate, in addition to President Obama’s (brief) trip to New Orleans today.

We also got her take on the “Goatee Gamble” pitting ABC Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper against NBC’s Chuck Todd, with the Phillies-Dodgers playoff series (maybe) carrying bearded repercussions.

“Now I have a reason to care about baseball. I think Chuck could use a new look so you know, go Phillies,” Bellantoni said.

Click HERE for the full discussion with Christina Bellantoni.

No Smoking: Congress Poised to Pass FDA Regulation for Big Tobacco

ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf and Brian Hartman report: The writing is on the wall – even North Carolina has a smoking ban.

And now Congress wants in on the action. The Senate is poised, after more than a decade of attempts, to pass legislation that would regulate tobacco in the same way the government regulates everything else you put in your body – from Froot Loops to Aspirin.

If you want to compare the ingredients in your breakfast cereal to the ingredients in your cigarettes, you may soon be able to.

Senators voted 84 to 11 this morning to break a filibuster and consider the legislation.

If passed by the Senate as expected, the bill would give the federal government the power to regulate cigarette ingredients, to ban the marketing of “light cigarettes” and to require graphic warning labels.

Most of the tobacco industry has opposed the bill with the notable exception of the giant Altria, which is taking an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach. (Some complain they’ve managed to water down the bill.)

Meanwhile, Big Tobacco has been readying itself for a tougher US regulatory environment by expanding its overseas marketing and developing new smokeless products.

A similar bill already has passed the House. So Senate endorsement of increased tobacco regulation would be a big deal.

And it’s worth noting the nation is now headed by a (supposedly) ex-smoking president.

“We have tried for ten years and we have failed,” said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, in a speech on the Senate floor opening debate on the bill. “Think what kind of a difference we could have made. How many lives we would have saved if we passed this ten years ago.”

A final vote could come later this week. Whatever passes the Senate would still have to pass the House, which has already passed a different version of the bill.

Schumer: Stimulus May Not Pass

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reports: Just yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he had the votes to pass the stimulus. No more, apparently. Now Sen. Chuck Schumer says the bill may not pass.

“We are sitting here, a bill may not even pass because we can’t decide where we can make cuts,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. “We have some who want a number lower. we have some who want a number higher. And the fights are over important issues like education and healthcare and roads and broadband and all of the things we think we need to get this economy working again, some short-term, some long-term.”

Schumer made his comments just minutes after leaving a meeting in Reid’s office with moderate senators Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The moderates didn’t sound optimistic either.

Asked how she felt, Collins said, “Not as good as I felt earlier.”

“Fatigue plays a role,” Nelson said. But Nelson insisted, “It is not slipping,” saying it’s just tough to get a deal acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats.