Top Items:
Jonathan Weisman / Wall Street Journal:
Volcker Tapped for Advisory Role — Ex-Fed Chief to Lead New Economic Panel of Outside Experts Who Will Brief Obama — President-elect Barack Obama will appoint former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping …
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Washington Wire:
Live-Blogging Obama's News Conference — Day Three — For the third time in as many days, President-elect Barack Obama will be holding a news conference in Chicago to announce appointments to his economics team and field questions from reporters. — Today's event, in Chicago at 10:45 EST …
Scott / Power Line:
MINNESOTA SENATE RECOUNT, UPDATE VIII — The Franken campaign and its allies such as Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman are now focusing on rejected absentee ballots. In today's Star Tribune Kevin Duchschere shows that Ritchie is improvising …
Discussion:
Let Freedom Ring, Wall Street Journal, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Hot Air and Washington Wire
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Dave Orrick / The Politico:
Franken loses absentee ballot appeal — The state Canvassing Board today rejected Democrat Al Franken's request to count absentee ballots his campaign says were wrongly rejected by poll judges. — Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's team had argued that the board lacks the power to include those ballots in the recount.
Amanda Carpenter / Townhall.com:
A Crippling Blow for the Franken Campaign
A Crippling Blow for the Franken Campaign
Discussion:
Political Machine
Paul Walsh / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Canvassing Board meets today about rejected absentee ballots
Canvassing Board meets today about rejected absentee ballots
Discussion:
TPM Election Central
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Joe Klein's extreme revisionism — (updated below) — Joe Klein, this week's Time Magazine, on George Bush's legacy: … Joe Klein, Face the Nation, May 4, 2003, with Bob Schieffer — 3 days after Bush's Mission Accomplished speech: … I'm glad that many people, including some journalists …
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Richard Esposito / ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: NY Rail Plot Details Based on ‘Reliable’ FBI Source — New Information in Last 48 Hours Led to Public Warning — Uniformed police officers have flooded New York City's Penn Station, home to the Long Island Rail Road, following a warning from the FBI of a “plausible but unsubstantiated” …
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Associated Press:
Feds warn of terror plotting against NYC subways — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Federal authorities are warning law enforcement personnel of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway and train systems during the holiday season …
Mike Allen / The Politico:
55 days to Inauguration — Obama daughters will make their beds, do chores in the White House — President-elect speaks at 10:45 a.m. ET — Obama to Britain on April 2 — Paul Volcker to head new White House body of economic wisefolks, the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board …
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Jeanne Carstensen / Salon:
Why churches fear gay marriage — For author Richard Rodriguez, no one is talking about the real issues behind Proposition 8. — While conservative churches are busy trying to whip up another round of culture wars over same-sex marriage, Rodriguez says the real reason for their panic lies elsewhere …
Washington Post:
Send Bill Clinton to the Senate — Amid the blizzard of résumés blanketing Washington as the Obama era dawns, there is a superbly qualified candidate for full employment whose name has been overlooked. We refer, of course, to William Jefferson Clinton, America's 42nd chief executive and commander in chief.
Christina Bellantoni / Washington Times:
Obama beats record for press conferences — In the 22 days since winning the White House, President-elect Barack Obama has taken 22 questions from reporters and has done two sit-down television interviews. — The Democrat held his fourth press conference since Nov. 4 in Chicago Wednesday morning …
Discussion:
The Washington Independent
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Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:
Michelle Obama's ‘Mommy’ Stamp — When Michelle Obama took to describing her new role as mom in chief, my first reaction was to wince at her words. My second reaction was to identify with them. — I was okay, actually, with what Obama said. But I worried: Did she have to say it out loud, quite so explicitly?
New York Times:
So Who Picked Up the Tab? — More questions are being raised about the doubtful ethics of Representative Charles Rangel of New York, the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. The latest sniff of scandal — a breakfast meeting with a donor seeking tax protection …
Discussion:
The Daily Politics
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Josh Drobnyk / Los Angeles Times:
Democrats may play hardball in Pennsylvania — MSNBC's Chris Matthews could be in the mix of candidates hoping to win Republican Sen. Arlen Specter's seat in 2010. — Reporting from Washington — The Northeast's dwindling cast of Senate Republicans has Democrats circling Arlen Specter's seat …
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
“Unlikely” Or Lesbian? — Every now and again, someone gets the fame they deserve. Rachel Maddow is photographed by Roger Erickson for the Out 100 this year, the magazine's tally of the 100 gay people who made the biggest impact in America in 2008. From Julia Baird's profile in Newsweek:
Discussion:
Political Machine
FlyOnTneWall / FlyOnTneWall's Blog:
Keeping Gates Signals Change — Keeping Bob Gates as Secretary of Defense was the most dramatic signal Barack Obama could have sent that he intends to implement major changes in defense policy. That may sound counterintuitive, but it has the virtue of being true.
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Opinionator, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mudville Gazette and marbury
Reason.tv:
Where's Sock Puppet's Bailout? — Live from Congress, the infamous Pets.com mascot, Sock Puppet, comes to lobby Washington for a bailout. — Approximately two minutes and 20 seconds. — To embed this video at your website, go here. — “Where's Sock Puppet's Bailout?” was written and produced by Ted Balaker.
Jack Goldsmith / Washington Post:
No New Torture Probes — There has been much speculation about how the Obama administration will deal with what many view as the Bush administration's harsh, abusive and illegal interrogation program. Some have called for an investigation by Congress or the Justice Department, possibly leading to criminal sanctions.
Robert D. Kaplan / The Atlantic Online:
Obama's Foreign Policy: Buying in at the Bottom — In the spring of 1977, Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel and surprised everyone by choosing as his foreign minister not someone from his own Likud Party, but a star of the opposing Labor Party, Moshe Dayan.