Weekend in politics: Obama discusses ‘fiscal cliff’ with congressional leaders

President Barack Obama meets Friday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to discuss how to keep the economy growing and how to reduce the deficit. In the short-term, that means figuring how to avoid the "fiscal cliff," meaning that troublesome combination of tax increases and deep spending cuts set to kick in automatically at the end of the year.

Obama will later meet with leaders of civic organizations. The agenda: The same thing — the economy, the deficit, the "fiscal cliff."

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner also will attend both meetings.

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Up on Capitol Hill, former CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned last week after admitting to an extramarital affair, is expected to testify Friday before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack. Both hearings are closed.

On Saturday, Obama departs on a trip to Bangkok, Thailand; Rangoon, Burma; and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The stops in Burma and Cambodia are the first by a U.S. president. Obama will hold a press conference Sunday with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

And then there is this: Republican Sen. Marco Rubio headlines Iowa Governor Terry Branstad's annual Birthday Fundraiser on Saturday. (Has the 2016 race for the White House already started?)

And this: Howard Dean turns 64 on Saturday. Wonder if he will celebrate with the "Dean Scream" he introduced after coming in third in the 2004 Iowa Caucus?

Sources: Yahoo! News, Associated Press