ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Ehud Barak, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich with George Will, Jake Tapper, Robert Kagan and Arianna Huffington.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Sen John McCain (R-AZ), Mohamed ElBaradei, Ahmed Zewail and Sameh Shoukry.

CNN's "GPS" with Fareed Zakaria: On Egypt with Richard Haas and Steven Cook.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Edward Walker and Jacob Lew, Obama budget director.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of Budget Committee, with Bill Kristol, Nina Easton, Liz Cheney and Juan Williams.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), with Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL), Dee Dee Myers, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Mark Halperin.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters (Pawlenty)

Hey, after a hard day's demonstrating successfully against the Egyptian regime of President Hosni Mubarak, a protester's gotta catch some sleep wherever he can.

And what could possibly go wrong dozing off inside the tracks of a tank weighing upwards of 40 tons? It's parked. No big deal.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

March over here to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Mohammad Abed / AFP / Getty Images

Good morning. I’m Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. 

Last week, the nation, and the world, celebrated the centennial of President Ronald Reagan’s birth. 

Ronald Reagan once told Americans that they faced a time for choosing. The choice then was between the constitutional liberty of free men and women, and a future of higher taxes, bigger government and less opportunity for families and businesses. 

Last fall, American citizens again had a choice to make. Would they ratify the agenda of trillion-dollar deficits and an out-of-control debt that the president imposed on the nation? Or would they ...

After more than seven years speaking for and to Senate candidate Barack Obama, Sen. Barack Obama, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and President Obama, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs held the 250th and his last White House news briefing Friday.

The departure cover story is that he wants to spend more time with his family. (See the briefing's full text below.)

Despite the Alabama accent, Gibbs has been one of the more effective recent presidential press secretaries because of his long, intimate knowledge of the boss, strong emotional ties forged....

Remarks by President Obama on the situation in Egypt, as provided by the White House

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody. There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place.  This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.

By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt’s transition. It’s a beginning. I’m sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered.  But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks.

For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.

The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now....

Two of the key indicators to watch in the lead-up to any presidential election: gas prices and the unemployment rate. High ones of either or both usually spells trouble for a White House incumbent.

Gas prices are well above $1.50 a gallon now. Just kidding. They're well above $3 a gallon now with predictions of $4-$5 becoming common. Or worse, if Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's plan to avoid retirement turns into a Brett Favre-like saga and something bad happens to the Suez Canal.

Unemployment was officially listed this morning as the nation's No. 1 problem, according to a new Gallup Poll. Thirty-five percent of Americans (the highest in 28 years) now say unemployment is the most important national issue. Related Item is here.

The national unemployment rate has now been at or above 9% since the fourth month of President Obama's reign, which began with the promise that if we just spent $787 billion we didn't have fast enough on stimulating the economy, then unemployment couldn't possibly go above 8%. So, add that one to the Close Guantanamo promise pile.

The jobless rate has begun to slide recently, which Democrats did not hail as proof that the Bush tax cut extensions were working. But it did look politically promising, on the surface.

Actually, the rate has declined not because so many people have found new jobs. But because so many people have given up looking for new jobs, completely stopped. And that decision takes them out of the standard unemployment rate count. So, fewer people get counted as unemployed, even though they remain jobless.

Here, thanks to the ubiquitous lens of C-SPAN, is an entertaining couple of video minutes. It is, like President Obama, another South Side Chicago Democrat, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Jackson Jr., now in his eighth House term, is remembered nationally as the fellow who enthusiastically nominated himself to impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich as the perfect person to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by said Obama.

Blagojevich chose instead Roland Burris, another Chicago Democrat, who has since been replaced by Republican Mark Kirk.

Anyway, despite his Democratic affiliation with the president, Jackson is complaining on the House floor about the way the federal government counts -- or, more accurately, doesn't count -- those unemployed who've given up.

OK. Jackson's Second District has numerous unemployed who might conceivably be watching C-SPAN. But what in the world is Jackson doing there with his right hand? (If the video doesn't load, watch it here.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of jobs, help protect ours: Click here to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: M. Spencer Green / Associated Press. Video: C-SPAN

You don't have to live in New York's upstate 26th Congressional District to know now about Chris Lee. The U.S. representative was one of the Republicans' few success stories in the 2008 elections.

Now, he's a former representative, having immediately resigned after this week's publication on a gossip website of his photo, shirtless, which the married congressman reportedly sent to a prospective female date on another website.

Following the time-honored American political tradition of kicking someone after they have knocked themselves down, Hardees Cleaners in Lancaster just east of Buffalo had its own humorous comment posted in the store window Thursday. 

If you don't get the laundry's joke, the original news story is readable right here.

According to New York law, a panel of party county chairmen, weighted by party membership, will select their respective candidates for a special district election later this year.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of resign, resign yourself to clicking here to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photos: Robert Kirkham / Buffalo News via Associated Press; Gawker via Associated Press.

As a special pre-Valentines treat, The Ticket invited popular Los Angeles talk-show host John Phillips to guest-blog on his impressions of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this week.

That's an annual gathering with speakers who want to be seen as conservatives and often as possible presidential candidates, at least in their own eyes. The convention is available live online here.

Here's Phillips' first report, hopefully not his last:

When you put G. Gordon Liddy, conservative activists and free booze in one Washington hotel, you either have trouble brewing at the Watergate or a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference.  Since Richard Nixon is long gone, we can confirm that CPAC has set up shop in the nation's capital.

The Marriott Wardman Park Hotel is where all the action is late this week. if you're planning on stopping by, here's a word of advice: make sure the cab driver takes....

Forget all the futuristic talk about solar panels. Windmills. And the high-speed trains that someday might move a handful of people very quickly at enormous expense.

Americans have collectively ruled on what is their top issue right now. And it's none of the above.

It's unemployment. Make that, Unemployment.

A new Gallup Poll out this morning finds more Americans saying unemployment is the most important issue than at any time in nearly three decades, a span involving five presidents.

Thirty-five percent now say that.

And Americans don't seem fooled either by the latest national unemployment rate of 9%.

It drifted down there last month from 9.4% not because a puny 36,000 new jobs were created, but because so many thousands of Americans gave up looking for work, thus removing themselves from that bellwether unemployment count.

People with a memory going all the way back to 2010 recall Vice President Biden's emphatic repeated promises that the Recovery Summer would produce hundreds of thousands of new jobs every single sunny month.

Of course, he also predicted his Democrats would maintain control of both houses of Congress in November's midterm elections.

The national unemployment rate has been at or above 9% since the fourth month of the Obama era.

Of course, the entire economic problem is clearly the fault of Obama's predecessor president.

Obama recently agreed to extend the Republican's signature tax cuts in desperate hope they would stimulate the economy more than his $787 billion of stimulus spending that was going to hold unemployment below 8% but didn't come close.

Not surprisingly, Gallup has found the economy a major concern throughout the recession. But in the last two months unemployment has surged into the top concern spot by a considerable margin. The general economy is rated the top concern by 29% with healthcare trailing at 16% and dissatisfaction with government at 12%.

The federal deficit that so many D.C. pols are talking up these days comes in No. 5 at 11%.

Egypt and Hosni Mubarak's forced retirement, the topic that has dominated broadcast news for two weeks now and even drew the presence of Katie Couric, doesn't show up on the list of concerns.

There are 634 days left before the next national election. If unemployment remains a top voter concern anywhere close to that time, it could cause additional unemployment -- in the ranks of Washington politicians.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of resign, resign yourself to clicking here to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press (Obama waves at the screen during a teleconference in Michigan, Feb. 10, 2011); Larry Downing / Reuters (Obama and Biden share a large laugh).

Remarks by House Speaker John Boehner to the Conservative Political Action Conference, as provided by his office

Thanks to David Keane for his leadership; congratulations to Al Cardenas, the new ACU chairman; and special thanks to Cleta Mitchell for her leadership and friendship. I’m honored by this recognition -– but as with the office I hold, this isn’t about me.

I wouldn’t be Speaker of the House if Americans last year had not stood up and reasserted control over their government.  And many of the people in this room helped lead that uprising. So I should be thanking you. Our new majority is intent on honoring the commitment we made to the American people.

We pledged we would listen, and we pledged we would do things differently if given the opportunity to run the House. We pledged we would focus on....

The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient.

Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world.

The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity. 

As we have said from the beginning of this unrest, the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. But the United States has also been clear that we stand for a set of core principles.

We believe that the universal rights of the Egyptian people must be respected, and their aspirations must be met. We believe that this transition must immediately demonstrate irreversible political change, and a negotiated path to democracy.

To that end, we believe that the emergency law should be lifted. We believe that meaningful negotiations with the broad opposition and Egyptian civil society should address the key questions confronting Egypt’s future: protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens; revising the Constitution and other laws to demonstrate irreversible change; and jointly developing a clear roadmap to elections that are free and fair.

We therefore urge the Egyptian government to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made, and to spell out in clear and unambiguous language the step by step process that will lead to democracy and the representative government that the Egyptian people seek.

Going forward, it will be essential that the universal rights of the Egyptian people be respected. There must be restraint by all parties.

Violence must be forsaken. It is imperative that the government not respond to the aspirations of their people with repression or brutality. The voices of the Egyptian people must be heard.

The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people.

Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change.

In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential.

In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America.    ####

Click photos to enlarge. Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times (Egyptian protestors respond to President Mubarak's speech, Feb. 10, 2011); Tara Todras-Whitehill / Associated Press; Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters (Demonstrators gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, Feb. 10, 2011).

Talk about needing RoboCop to help again.

Back to Deficit City we go with the State of the State address from newly installed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. A former state assemblyman and Milwaukee county executive (Walker's official bio is here), he chose his first day in office to call a special legislative session to deal with an issue Washington has been talking about for more than two years: job creation.

Walker was part of a major Republican political takeover in the Badger State in November, securing the Legislature, the governor's office and knocking out of office the onetime unbeatable Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

So determined is the new governor to drive his signature jobs issue that he smartly seized the public relations moment a few weeks back for a little elbow-swinging interstate competition.

When Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, celebrated legislative passage of a 66% increase in the state income taxes, Walker showed up all over the media with the slogan and phrase "Wisconsin is open for business." If some Illinois businesses flee Democratic taxes by moving next door to Wisconsin, Iowa or Indiana, all run by GOP chief executives, it will not be the first time.

The Midwest may be rusting in many industrial ways, but politically it is a coveted....