Top Items:
Jaketapper / DownAndDirty:
CAP smear? — WASHINGTON DC — For Alito, it's all over but the votin'....It does not appear that the Democrats inflicted any real damage on the Supreme Court nominee, excepting of course his wife's mascara. — AP photo — Probing the debate over Alito's having said he was a member …
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E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
A Hearing About Nothing — A listless intellectual fog had fallen over the Senate hearing room on Tuesday, the first full day of questioning for Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. before the Judiciary Committee. As one Democratic senator strode out to the hallway during an afternoon break, he leaned toward me and said: "We have to hit him
Michael O'Hare / The Reality-Based Community:
A piece missing — I have been dipping into the Alito hearings, not following them completely, but enough to form a distinct and I think a fair impression. I read the nominee as a competent, careful, capable legal craftsman, unprejudiced as regards religion or race, and a decent guy.
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Few Glimmers of How Conservative Judge Alito Is — WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - In over 18 hours responding to some 700 questions at his Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. mostly described a methodical and incremental approach to the law rooted in no particular theory.
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
A Right Cautious Nominee — Measured Replies Paint Picture With a Conservative Tint — Samuel A. Alito Jr. did everything he could do to avoid saying how he would rule on the big issues that might come before the Supreme Court if, as now seems likely, he is confirmed by the Senate and succeeds Sandra Day O'Connor.
Economist:
The brainbox and the blowhards — Samuel Alito, George Bush's latest pick for the Supreme Court, faces a tough and dirty battle for confirmation. But he looks as though he'll win — Getty Images — TED KENNEDY is deeply troubled by the ethics of the Supreme Court nominee.
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Washington Times
Washington Post:
Alito Likely To Become A Justice — Liberals See Slim Chance Of Blocking Confirmation — Samuel A. Alito Jr., an appellate judge who could shift the Supreme Court significantly to the right, appeared headed for the high court yesterday after completing three days of interrogation without a serious misstep.
ABCNEWS:
Surge in Sale of Disposable Cell Phones May Have Terror Link — Phones Can Be Difficult or Impossible to Track; Large Quantities Purchased in California, Texas — Jan. 12, 2006 — Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones …
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William Tate / The American Thinker:The controversy following revelations that U.S. intelligence agencies …
Discussion:
Dr. Sanity, Dean's World, The Anchoress, In the Bullpen, Cold Fury, Caerdroia, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, PoliPundit.com and NewsBusters.org
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Maryland Sets a Health Cost for Wal-Mart — ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan. 12 - The Maryland legislature passed a law Thursday that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending on employee health insurance, a measure that is expected to be a model for other states.
Discussion:
TAPPED, TigerHawk, The Conspiracy to Keep …, ACSBlog, UNCoRRELATED, Fantasy Life, Sisyphus Shrugged, EconLog and Preemptive Karma
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Hotline On Call:
Shadegg's In — From a release just crossing our transom: — Phoenix - House Policy Chairman John Shadegg today announced that he will seek the post of House Majority Leader in the elections on February 2. — "For the past several days, I have spoken with members all across our Conference," Shadegg said.
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Jim VandeHei / Washington Post:GOP Contest Guided by Lessons of Battles Past
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Talking Points Memo
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
In New Orleans, Bush Speaks With Optimism but Sees Little of Ruin — NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 12 - President Bush made his first trip here in three months on Thursday and declared that New Orleans was "a heck of a place to bring your family" and that it had "some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun."
Discussion:
BAGnewsNotes, Think Progress, NewsBusters.org, Facing South, The Heretik and BlondeSense
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Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:
Deficit Will Climb in 2006, White House Says — WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - The White House acknowledged on Thursday that the budget deficit would climb back above $400 billion this year, erasing the brief improvement last year and complicating President Bush's vow to cut the deficit in half by 2009.
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Deficit Could Top $400 Billion — Driven by the cost of hurricane relief, the federal budget deficit is expected to balloon back above $400 billion for the fiscal year that ends in September, reversing the improvements of 2005, a White House official told reporters yesterday.
National Review:
The Multilateral Moment? — "Multilateralism good; preemption and unilateralism bad." — For four years we have heard these Orwellian commandments as if they were inscribed above the door of Farmer Jones's big barn. Now we will learn their real currency, since the Americans …
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Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
A Nation of Jonah Goldbergs — There is a widespread, tacit assumption that no matter how apathetic and inattentive Americans become, there is still some line which they will not allow the Government to cross when it comes to exceeding or abusing the limits of government power.
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Opinion Journal:
Saddam's Documents — What they tell us could save American lives today. — It is almost an article of religious faith among opponents of the Iraq War that Iraq became a terrorist destination only after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein. But what if that's false, and documents …
