Top Items:
RushLimbaugh.com:
Let's Hear Some Straight Talk — BEGIN TRANSCRIPT — RUSH: A new California poll taken just after Fred Thompson's withdrawal from the Republican primary shows Mitt Romney as leading big over McCain in California when it comes to which candidate best represents the Republican Party.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Daily Dish, Macsmind, Hot Air, Riehl World View, PoliGazette and DownWithTyranny!
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Jim Ash / News Press:
Poll: Romney slightly ahead in Florida — TALLAHASSEE — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a slight edge in Florida over his closest GOP rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, with just five days to go before Tuesday's presidential primary, according to a poll released today.
Steven Stark / Real Clear Politics:
Who Said Freddy's Dead? — The Republican race is coming into focus. Well, sort of. If John McCain can win the Florida primary on January 29, he'll be the clear front-runner heading into Super Tuesday a week later. — But Florida is hardly a sure thing for McCain.
David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Tentative Deal on Economic Stimulus Plan — WASHINGTON — House leaders and the White House on Thursday announced a tentative agreement on an economic stimulus package of roughly $150 billion that would pay stipends of $300 to $1,200 per family and provide tax incentives for businesses to encourage spending.
Discussion:
Washington Post, PrestoPundit, Buck Naked Politics, Norwegianity, The Carpetbagger Report, Truthdig, PoliGazette and The Agonist
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Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
THE STIMULUS DEAL....Apparently a fiscal stimulus package …
THE STIMULUS DEAL....Apparently a fiscal stimulus package …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Matthew Yglesias, Wake up America, Taylor Marsh and Political Machine
Washington Post:
Some in Party Bristle At Clintons' Attacks — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign aired a new radio ad here Wednesday that repeated a discredited charge against Sen. Barack Obama, in what some Democrats said is part of an increasing pattern of hardball politics by her and former president Bill Clinton.
Discussion:
MoJoBlog, The State, The Opinionator, The Politico, The Huffington Post, TIME: Swampland, Commentary, The Moderate Voice, The Nation, The Daily Dish, Liberal Values, MCDAC, TPM Election Central, David Corn, Pollster.com, Greenville News, Weekly Standard, The Caucus, Trailhead, Dick Polman's American Debate, MSNBC, Classical Values, Norwegianity, TIME, The Campaign Spot, Political Radar, michellemalkin.com, Hot Air, GINA COBB, Real Clear Politics, Wizbang, The Strata-Sphere, The Heretik, Marc Ambinder, JustOneMinute, Riehl World View and Blue Crab Boulevard
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Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog:
Bill Clinton's Old Politics — I write this more out of sadness than anger. Bill Clinton's ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former President, his legacy, or his wife's campaign. Nor are they helping the Democratic party.
Gail Collins / New York Times:
Editing Hillary's Story — Last summer, I asked Hillary Clinton if she had any reservations about using her husband in her campaign. She said no, that having Bill on the team was “a great gift. I have always believed you should get the very best people to advise you." — I never really made use of the interview.
Marc Ambinder:
(Updated) Clinton Campaign Pulls The Misleading South Carolina Ad.... First described here. — Working to figure out why.... Update: — A Clinton aide said the ad was not intended to air for long, had finished its rotation, and had yielded its space to a “closer” ad that focuses on policy.
Discussion:
TIME: Swampland
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Jay Rockefeller's unintentionally revealing comments — As the Senate takes up “debate” today over granting the President new warrantless eavesdropping powers and granting immunity to lawbreaking telecoms, the individual who joined forces with Dick Cheney to get this ball rolling …
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Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Feingold: “I Really Do Disagree” With Reid On FISA
Feingold: “I Really Do Disagree” With Reid On FISA
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker, Talking Points Memo, feingold.senate.gov, Crooks and Liars, D-Day and Hullabaloo
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:
The Dems just gave away your stimulus check — According to AP, congressional leaders have reached a deal on those economic stimulus checks. And rather than being geared towards helping the economy, they're apparently geared towards redistributing wealth (that would be our wealth) to the poor.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs, Shakespeare's Sister, Corrente, Outside The Beltway, The Mahatma X Files and Donklephant
Robert A. Guth / Wall Street Journal:
Bill Gates Issues Call For Kinder Capitalism — Famously Competitive, Billionaire Now Urges Business to Aid the Poor — Free enterprise has been good to Bill Gates. But today, the Microsoft Corp. chairman will call for a revision of capitalism. — In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos …
Amanda / Think Progress:
Boxer Chastises EPA Administrator For Redacting Documents With Duct Tape: 'I'm Worked Up' — In December, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson rejected “California's long-standing request for a waiver from federal law to be able to implement its own landmark regulations to slash greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.”
Ian Austen / New York Times:
Canadian Military Has Quit Turning Detainees Over to Afghans — OTTAWA — The Canadian military secretly stopped transferring prisoners to Afghanistan's government in November after Canadian monitors found evidence that they were being abused and tortured. — The suspension, which began Nov. 5 …
Agence France Presse:
Bono confesses sins to ‘father’ Al Gore — Having climate campaigner Al Gore round to your house is to open yourself to a self-flagellating guilt trip, Irish rock star Bono confessed Thursday. — Sharing a stage with the former US vice president at the annual gathering of world movers …
NPR:
‘Internal and External Threats’ — But it also includes a provision that promises to maintain the stability of Iraq's government from “internal and external threats." This sentence is raising alarms for some U.S. lawmakers. — Any such agreement would be considered a treaty by many legal experts.