Rep. Brad Miller was impressed that Barack Obama mispronounced Peter Orszag's name.

Relaxing after a workout at the YMCA last week, the Raleigh Democrat was watching the president-elect's press conference on TV announcing his pick for the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

An acquaintance of Orszag's from Washington, he quickly noticed that Obama got his name wrong. (It's ORR-zog, not ORR-zag.)

"I thought, 'He must not know Peter very well,'" said Miller. "That means he hired him on the basis of his reputation and his credentials, and not just because he was a buddy."

Miller said he's impressed with Obama's other picks.

"He has put together a very impressive group, very accomplished and very knowledgeable," he said. "I think that he will get a very helpful debate within his own administration that will help him see pitfalls in a way that the Bush administration did not."

More after the jump.

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Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cribbed a few details today from a Democratic colleague for their version of the GI bill, which helps pay for college for military veterans.

But both men say their version is still superior to the one offered by Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, which is wrapped inside the massive war supplemental package being considered in the Senate, reports Barb Barrett.

The pair, along with Sen. John McCain of Arizona, increased the annual payment for books to $1,000, allowed Guard and Reservists to more easily qualify for benefits and eliminated the $1,200 join-up fee for military members to participate in the program.

All match details of the Webb bill.

But in a news conference today, Burr and Graham said their bill will better help retention in the military. It allows military members to transfer half their college benefits to a spouse or child after six years, and 100 percent of the benefits after 12 years.

“I am not going to sit on the sidelines and under feel-good politics create a program that will hurt America’s ability to retain its force,” Graham said. “Now is not the time to put a benefit on the table that incentivizes people to leave the military.”

Read more after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said that four percent is the magic number.

At the President's Day Dinner tonight, the Salisbury Republican stressed her proposal to spend at least four percent of the country's gross domestic product on defense, signaling that it would be a major issue in her ongoing re-election campaign.

That would require an additional $40 billion in fiscal year 2008.

Dole said that the military took a "procurement holiday" during the 1990s and fell behind on replacing aging equipment. She noted that while the United States is building just one Virginia-class submarine a year, China is building five a year. 

"The Air Force is flying planes that should have been retired," she said.

She noted that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen recently testified on behalf of the resolution. 

A Chapel Hill couple met with President Bush to talk about health care for veterans.

Also in the meeting were Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Sen. Bob Dole and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.

Ret. Sgt. Ted Wade and his wife, Sarah, joined about a dozen other veterans' advocates in the meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Barb Barrett reports.

Ted Wade lost his right arm and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in 2004 while serving in Iraq.

His wife, Sarah, has been working on Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of her husband and other veterans. She has supported legislation to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act for the families of injured veterans and testified in a hearing last month that she lost her job at a Chapel Hill restaurant because, she was told, she had too much going on in her life.

More after the jump. 

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Memo from U.S. Rep. David Price to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: Um, hello?

Gates’ ideas for reviewing private security contractors’ work in Iraq falls short and arrives late, Price said in a letter today to the Defense chief, reports Barb Barrett.

“This review is welcome, although it is long overdue,” wrote Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat.

Then he gave a few suggestions for issues Gates should look into: Under what constitutional authority could private security contractors suspected of crimes be prosecuted? Why have no contractors been held accountable for felony abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan so far? And just how does Gates’ inquiry apply to the latest Blackwater incident, which took place during the company’s work for the State Department?

“While I welcome the current attention you are placing to this essential accountability issue, I must say I am disappointed that it has taken years for your Department to get engaged in this area,” Price wrote.

Read the full letter after the jump.

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