Top Items:
Klaus Marre / The Hill:
White House asks NYT to remove sub-headline from CIA tape story — The White House on Wednesday took the rare step of publicly asking The New York Times to change the sub-headline of a story on the destruction of CIA tapes showing the interrogations of suspected terrorists.
Discussion:
Agence France Presse, TPMmuckraker, Talking Points Memo, On Deadline, New York Observer, Think Progress, Firedoglake, Emptywheel and Salon
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Michael Calderone / The Politico:
NY Times changes CIA headline for WH — The New York Times has changed the subheadline in Wednesday's front-page story on the CIA's destruction of secret interrogation tapes, following a formal request by the White House. — The correction has already been made online …
Discussion:
Emptywheel
Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
The Tell-Tale Stall — The best indicator of how seriously this White House is involved in a political scandal may be how emphatically it refuses to comment. — By that standard, the CIA's destruction of its torture tapes is shaping up to be a doozy of a White House story.
New York Times:
Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes
Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes
Discussion:
Washington Post, Think Progress, The Carpetbagger Report, The Hill, Associated Press, HorsesAss.Org, Firedoglake, Emptywheel, JURIST, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Salon, TPMmuckraker, Political Machine, At-Largely, The Gate, The Daily Dish, Talking Points Memo, The Swamp, Balkinization, The Plank, RealClearPolitics, The Heretik, The Corner, ACSBlog, Shakespeare's Sister and Comments from Left Field
National Enquirer:
UPDATE: NATIONAL ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: JOHN EDWARDS LOVE CHILD SCANDAL! — Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught up in a love child scandal, a blockbuster ENQUIRER investigation has discovered. — The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Rielle Hunter, a woman linked to Edwards …
MeMeMeMeMe / Little Green Footballs:
Fire in Cheney's Office Causes Leftists to Rant Uncontrollably — There was a fire in Dick Cheney's office this morning, and as usual the leftist blogosphere is brimming over with lunatic ranting. — At Think Progress, the Morlocks who inhabit their comments are sure this is a ploy to cover up the destroying of documents.
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CNN:
Fire hits building next door to White House — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Firefighters battled thick smoke and flames Wednesday inside the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House, which houses the vice president's ceremonial offices.
Roger Simon / The Politico:
Fred Thompson: Lazy as charged — WAVERLY, Iowa — When is retail politics not retail politics? When candidates refuse to get off their big buses and go do it. — Fred Thompson rolled into this small town on the Cedar River in north-central Iowa on a giant brown bus Tuesday.
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Tancredo to get out? — Tom Tancredo has scheduled a press conference in Des Moines tomorrow afternoon to make a “major announcement regarding the campaign,” according to a media advisory his campaign sent out today. — Asked whether Tancredo intended to drop out of the race …
Marc Ambinder:
A Real Edwards Surge — Is John Edwards's surge a media-created phenomenon, a collective reaction formation to the media's desire to see a three-person race, or guilt for building up Barack Obama? Does the media really have that power? — Or are we seeing something more organic?
Discussion:
Salon
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David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Reid's Relationship With Bush Enters Deep Freeze — WASHINGTON — Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has called President Bush a loser and a liar and has referred to him derisively as King George. Mr. Reid has also apologized — but only, he likes to point out, for the “loser” line.
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Paul Krugman:
Interesting Obama history — I've been alerted to an interesting Boston Globe article about Barack Obama's role, when he was in the Illinois legislature, in the attempt to get the state committed to universal health care. It turns out that the story very much prefigures the debates we're having right now.
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Michelle Malkin:
Incandescent stupidity: Washington outlaws 100-watt lightbulbs — You know the energy bill that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law today? Tucked into the legislation is a provision that mandates the phase-out of the 125-year-old incandescent bulb in the next four to 12 years …
United States Senator:
Democrat Speed Reading: 3,417 Pages, 46 Hours and 8 Minutes — Last night, Democrat Whip Dick Durbin (Illinois) insisted that every senator had ample time to read the 3,417-page omnibus spending bill. — From the Senate floor Durbin declared: “For 46 hours and 8 minutes …
Discussion:
Redstate
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Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows — Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national reconciliation …
Adi Ignatius / Time:
Person of the Year: Vladimir Putin — A Tsar Is Born — No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin's. The Russian President's pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Boston Herald, Associated Press, The Nation, The Campaign Spot, The Sundries Shack, PERRspectives Blog, AMERICAN DIGEST, Gates of Vienna, Truthdig, Captain's Quarters, Wonkette, BLACKFIVE, The Moderate Voice, Sweetness & Light, On Deadline, The Glittering Eye and Macsmind
Brent Budowsky / The Hill:
Torture Tapes are the Watergate of Our Times — As I write these words on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 19, high- and low-level officials of the Bush administration involved in torture, and the destruction of the torture tapes, are consulting their criminal lawyers as The New York Times reports …
John Podhoretz / Commentary:
“Mitt Romney...Helped Save My Daughter” — At first blush, this seems like a genuinely great campaign ad — the story of how Mitt Romney basically closed down his business, Bain Capital, in 1996 when the daughter of one of his partners went missing in New York City and Romney sent dozens …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
Donna J. Miller / Cleveland Metro News:
Dennis Kucinich's 52-year-old brother found dead — Perry Kucinich, 52, was found dead in his home in the 4100 block of East 71st Street. — His brother Larry found him about 9 a.m. There were no signs of violence, officials said. The Cuyahoga County Coroner is performing an autopsy this hour.