The Mississippi man arrested for sending letters laced with Ricin to President Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) included the identical phrase, “to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance” and were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message,” the Clarion Ledger reports.

The phrases were also used on his Facebook page and a website “in which he details his discovery of human body parts while doing janitorial work at North Mississippi Medical Center and the numerous times he was arrested in his quest to get someone to investigate his allegations.”

“I see this as just Round One.”

— President Obama, speaking after defeat of an expanded gun background check bill in the Senate.

A letter addressed to President Obama containing a suspicious substance was received at a White House mail facility and is being tested, NBC News reports.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) received a letter yesterday that tested positive for Ricin.

Howard Kurtz says President Obama’s “low-key handling of earlier terror incidents” — such as when a Nigerian man tried to blow up a jetliner on Christmas in 2009 — “may have been a reaction to the intense, color-coded, high-alert ethos of the Bush era.”

Said David Axelrod: “No doubt, we gave him bad advice. This was over a holiday weekend, facts were still evolving and Napolitano was going out on Sunday shows and could brief the nation.”  Still, he says, “that advice neglected the important, ministerial role the president plays in times of crisis. Even though he was in constant contact with his team, people needed go see and hear from him. We all learned that lesson.”

The Washington Post notes Obama will travel to Boston on Thursday “to attend an interfaith service for those who were killed and gravely injured in the attack on the Boston Marathon.”

Liz Sidoti: “He wants to slash funding for the Democratic sacred cows of Social Security and Medicare. He doesn’t agree with a judge and women’s rights groups that girls of any age should have easy access to emergency contraception. He has hinted that he may disappoint environmentalists by letting the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline be built.”

“And, to varying degrees, President Barack Obama seems to be going middle-of-the-road on everything from gun control to immigration reform to drone policy, much to the annoyance of many Democratic activists and liberal lawmakers.”

After two Navy football players presented President Obama with a helmet, USA Today reports someone in the crowd at the ceremony shouted “put it on.” But he refused.

Said Obama “Here’s a general rule. You don’t put stuff
on your head if you’re president. That’s politics 101. You never look
good wearing something on your head.”

Newt Gingrich tells Businessweek why President Obama can’t get a budget deal with Republicans.

Said Gingrich: “My sense is that Obama is a very bad negotiator. Obama doesn’t listen. Clinton listened. Clinton understood the art of getting to a deal because he’d been Arkansas governor. He’d dealt with legislatures. He was used to talking it out, paying attention. Obama is a college professor. He gives a lecture and then he grades you on your ability to understand his lecture. There’s no practical way that a Republican-Obama negotiation is going to work, because they want radically different things.”

President Obama and Vice President Biden have released their tax returns for 2012.

Roll Call: 15 fun facts about the Obamas’ and Bidens’ taxes.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who left his post in 2007 at age 54, refused in a USA Today interview to offer advice on life after politics to President Obama, who will leave the White House in 2017 also at a relatively young age, 55.

Said Blair: “That would be presumptuous. He is, you know, a huge global figure… someone of enormous energy and character and ability, and I’m sure he’ll find something to keep himself occupied.”

First Read: “Despite majorities backing the broad outlines of his legislative priorities on immigration and guns, President Obama confronts a pessimistic public and declining poll numbers. Only 31% of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction – a decline of 10 points since Dec. 2012. His overall job-approval rating stands at 47%, which is down three points since February and which represents the first time he’s been below 50% since just before the 2012 election. In addition, 47% approve of the president’s economic handling (up 3 points from February), and 46% approve of his handling of foreign policy (down 6 from Dec. 2012).”

Washington Post: “In the 3 1/2 years after false rumors started that the Obama administration was giving free cellphones to poor people — and six months after a racially charged video about it went viral — a once-obscure phone service subsidy is getting renewed scrutiny on Capitol Hill.”

“Lifeline was begun not by President Obama but under Ronald Reagan. It
expanded to include cellphone service during the presidency of another
Republican, George W. Bush.”

Howard Kurtz: “Rarely in modern history have so many in Washington labored so hard and produced so little. On every major item on President Obama’s agenda, there is a flurry of activity that may amount to nothing.”

“The gridlocked capital seems unable to act except in an emergency, and sometimes not even then, as we saw with the brief plunge over the fiscal cliff on New Year’s Day. The elusive breakthrough is always next week, next month, after the next recess, as soon as this gang or that group reaches a tentative agreement on the possibility of proceeding.”

Marc Ambinder: Is Washington gridlock starting to ease?

Daily Beast: “America’s 23 million veterans are facing an unprecedented crisis as the backlog of disability claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has grown to nearly 1 million–more than double what it was when President Obama took office.”

“Given the breadth of the crisis, this widespread outrage isn’t surprising. But perhaps what is surprising is that for the first time, several prominent veteran advocates who’ve been staunch supporters of Obama are now joining the chorus of critics who say the president has badly mishandled the VA.”

President Obama “has begun his second term by consolidating his personal control of the White House, Democrats in
and outside the Administration say, reflecting a shift from his less centralized first term,” BuzzFeed reports.

“The shift has become clear in the new style of management under Obama’s new Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, who — unlike his predecessors — acts more as Obama’s enforcer than as a principal in his own right.”

“Once, McDonough’s predecessors, notably Rahm Emanuel, made strategic choices and served as the key liaisons to Congress. Now, Obama sets the strategy and priorities and makes the calls to Capitol Hill himself; and the chief of staff’s role has been handed to a trusted ally who shares the president’s vision.”

“The days ahead could be decisive ones for the main pieces of President Obama’s second-term agenda: long-range deficit reduction, gun safety and changes to immigration law,” the New York Times reports.

“Members of both parties say Mr. Obama faces a conundrum with his legislative approach to a deeply polarized Congress. In the past, when he has stayed aloof from legislative action, Republicans and others have accused him of a lack of leadership; when he has gotten involved, they have complained that they could not support any bill so closely identified with Mr. Obama without risking the contempt of conservative voters.”

Politico: “The window for action on these issues will start to close as the 2014 midterm election cycle whips into full swing at the end of the year. After that, the next Congress figures to be colored by partisan posturing for the 2016 presidential election.”

Garance Franke-Ruta explains why President Obama needed to apologize for calling California Attorney General Kamala Harris “the best-looking attorney general.”

“Just as it’s perfectly appropriate to tell a colleague she looks gorgeous when she’s dressed to the nines for some black tie work event, it would be inappropriate to refer to her as ‘gorgeous over there’ during a work meeting. Doing so takes her out of the system of power and puts her into the system of beauty in a setting in which power is the value that’s brought her to the table. And that, dear readers, is a gaffe.”

Vice President Joe Biden “won’t be following the president’s lead and returning some of his pay to the Treasury, but may if his staff faces furloughs,” Politico reports.

“Several members of the president’s Cabinet have said they will cut
checks to charities or to the Treasury, though most are wealthier than
the vice president. Secretary of State John Kerry’s net worth is
estimated as being as much as $300 million, while Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel’s net worth is estimated to be as much as about $10 million.”

President Obama called California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) to apologize after referring to her as “the best-looking attorney general” during a Democratic fundraiser on Thursday, The Hill reports.

“The comment came under heavy criticism from those who said the president’s remark was sexist.”