Now that Congress is back from its week-long Memorial Day recess, it’s time for the U.S. top brass to hit the road. President Barack Obama heads to the Middle East today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Honduras, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in China and U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke promises a visit to Pakistan this week.

Closer to home, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor starts making the rounds on Capitol Hill in advance of her confirmation hearings. Meantime, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal faces questions at his confirmation hearing today before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. McChrystal’s nominated to be the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

This might be an opportune time for travel. The Ipsos/Reuters poll indicates global consumer confidence is stabilizing, after dropping for 18 months.

Obama’s Mideast trip is in part a fulfillment of a campaign promise to deliver a speech to the Islamic world from a major Muslim capital early in his presidency. He’ll make the speech in Cairo on Thursday, where T-shirt vendors are ready with a version that reads “Obama: New Tutankhamon of the World.” His first stop in the region will be Saudi Arabia, where the discussion is expected to focus on oil prices.

Sometimes it’s not the distance traveled but what you say when you get there. That may be true for Dick Cheney, who last month emerged from his undisclosed location for a high-profile confrontation with Obama — they weren’t in the same room but Cheney started talking moments after Obama finished — over how to handle the threat of terrorism and its aftermath. The former vice president went to the National Press Club last night to offer support for gay marriage, regulated on a state-by-state basis. He has done this before, but doing it now puts him to the left of Obama, who favors civil unions for gay couples.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Amr Dalsh (Souvenir shop shows the latest on June 1 in Cairo)

President-elect Barack Obama is seeking peace at his inauguration, but gay and lesbians see his choice of pastor as a nakedly political continuation of war.

“It is important for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues,” the prez-elect said, defending his choice of Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren — a same-sex marriage opponent. Obama said he personally would continue be a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans.

Equality California chief Geoff Kors said the decision amounted to choosing someone who ‘declared war on one minority community’.

Warren’s evangelical ministry is known more for its focus on social issues than many other evangelical pastors seen as strong political conservatives.

He calls his grand plan PEACE: Promote reconciliation, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, Educate the next generation.

So is it war or peace?

Obama says the expression of diverse views was the spirit of his campaign that he hopes to carry over to his administration, starting on Jan 20 with his inauguration, where others who disagree with Pastor Warren will also speak.

“And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America is about,” Obama told reporters. “That’s part of the magic of this country – that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.” 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Chip East (Pastor Rick Warren speaks at Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Sept. 26, 2008)

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama may be in the lead in the polls, but he’s leaving little to chance especially among younger voters.

He went on MTV to answer questions from young voters ranging from student loans and taxes to gay marriage and whether ordinances should be passed prohibiting sagging pants — yes sagging pants.

“I think people passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time. We should be focused on creating jobs, improving our schools, health care, dealing with the war in Iraq,” Obama said.

But he added: “Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What’s wrong with that? Come on.”

MTV said his Republican rival John McCain was offered a similar opportunity to answer questions from young voters, but he declined.

Obama also tried to explain his remark about taxes and spreading the wealth around that came out during his conversation with Joe the Plumber and was lampooned by McCain.

He argued that he proposed returning tax rates back to what they were in the 1990s for those making over $250,000 a year, a move of about 3 percentage points, and that would not limit their success.

“Back in the 1990s, we created more millionaires, more billionaires, because the economy was growing, everything was strong, at every income bracket, people were doing well,” Obama said. ”So this idea, that somehow everybody is just on their own and shouldn’t be concerned about other people who are coming up behind them, that’s the kind of attitude that I want to end when I am president.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama arrives at a rally in Jacksonville, Fla.)