Lobbying related stories of interest from the Earlybird:

• President Obama will kick off an all-out grass-roots effort today urging Congress to pass his $3.55 trillion budget, activating the extensive campaign apparatus he built during his successful 2008 candidacy for the first time since taking office," the Washington Post reports. "The campaign, which will be run under the aegis of the Democratic National Committee, will rely heavily on the 13 million-strong e-mail list put together during the campaign and now under the control of Organizing for America (OFA), a group overseen by the DNC."

• A broad coalition of left-leaning groups is quietly closing ranks into a new coalition, 'Unity '09,' aimed at helping" Obama "push his agenda through Congress," Politico reports. "Conceived at a New York meeting before the November election, two Democrats familiar with the planning said, Unity '09 will draw together money and grassroots organizations to pressure lawmakers in their home states to back White House legislation and other progressive causes."

• "Some of the special-interest groups opposed to tax increases or spending cuts in" Obama's "proposed 2010 budget plan are facing a more immediate pocketbook problem: The recession has sapped their ability to fight back," USA Today reports.

• Angling for a critical Senate swing vote to pass the 'card check' bill that would make it easier to form unions, Pennsylvania labor leaders promised Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. that they will switch union members from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party to help him win a tough 2010 primary election," the Washington Times reports. "Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William M. George said he pledged Mr. Specter 'all kinds of help from the union' in a series of meetings to woo the Republican senator's support for the bill, which would ease rules favoring secret-ballot elections to unionize workplaces."