Top Items:
New York Times:
Obama to Detail Any Staff Talks on Senate Seat — CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama pledged Thursday to disclose any interaction between his transition team and the office of besieged Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, while declaring again that he and his staff had no involvement …
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Jack Healy / New York Times:
Obama Says He Never Spoke to Governor on Senate Seat — President-elect Barack Obama sought on Thursday to separate himself from the political scandal swirling around Governor Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, saying he never talked to the governor about who would replace Mr. Obama in the United States Senate.
Jason Rosenbaum / The Seminal:
BREAKING: Schakowsky Will Run For Senate In Illinois — Last night at the Midwest Academy Awards and 35th Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown introduced Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky by saying, “We may have a special election in Illinois, and if Jan Schakowsky runs, I'll support her.”
Chicago Sun Times:
Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel ducks reporters' questions — President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
New York Times:
G.O.P. Opposition Puts Bailout of Detroit in Doubt — WASHINGTON — Senate negotiators worked feverishly on Thursday night to revive a government rescue of the American auto industry after Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion emergency loan package approved by the House.
Discussion:
Open Left, Wall Street Journal, Balkinization, Salon, Don Surber, Guardian, naked capitalism and Below The Beltway
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Elizabeth Kolbert In / New Yorker:
NOTE TO DETROIT: CONSIDER THE REFRIGERATOR — This past summer, Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who currently heads Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—and who has been tapped to be the next Secretary of Energy—delivered a talk on climate change and how to combat it.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Wall Street Journal:
Auto Bailout Talks Collapse in Senate — GM Retains Bankruptcy Counsel — WASHINGTON — A frantic, last-ditch attempt to forge an emergency-relief package for the Big Three auto makers collapsed in the U.S. Senate, amid a sharp partisan dispute over the wages paid to workers at the troubled manufacturing giants.
Associated Press:
$14B auto bailout dies in Senate — WASHINGTON - A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts. — The collapse came after bipartisan talks on the auto rescue broke …
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Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Senate Leaders Try to Work Out Compromise on Auto Bill
Senate Leaders Try to Work Out Compromise on Auto Bill
Discussion:
Townhall.com, McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Corner, Wonk Room, TIME.com, WattHead, Hot Air and naked capitalism
Washington Post:
Bipartisan Report on Detainee Abuse Blames Rumsfeld, Other Top Bush Officials — A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay …
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New York Times:
Report Blames Rumsfeld for Detainee Abuses — WASHINGTON — A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee said top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bore major responsibility for the abuses committed …
Aluf Benn / Haaretz:
Obama's atomic umbrella: U.S. nuclear strike if Iran nukes Israel — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a “nuclear umbrella” against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week.
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DEMINT WARNS OF BAILOUT ‘RIOTS’.... In general, those who warn of dire consequences for the automotive industry tend to support a rescue package. As the argument goes, the auto manufacturers are the backbone of U.S. manufacturing, and the collapse of the industry could have devastating ripple effects in the midst of a financial crisis.
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Wall Street Journal:
Blagojevich Left Legal Bills Unpaid — CHICAGO — The criminal complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich alleges that he complained about financial troubles. Those problems include more than $500,000 in unpaid legal bills, according to people familiar with the matter.
CNN:
Powell: GOP ‘polarization’ backfired in election — (CNN) — The Republican party must stop “shouting at the world” and start listening to minority groups if it is to win elections in the 21st century, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday. — In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria …
Paul Krugman:
Nosedive — Another day, another terrifying economic report, this time on unemployment claims. — So are we now losing jobs at the rate of 600,000 a month? 700,000? If fiscal expansion takes, say, 8 months to kick in (and that's optimistic), where will that leave us?
TwinCities.com:
In Senate recount, wrongly rejected votes seem more numerous than first thought — At least 358 Minnesotans did everything right on their absentee ballots — they sent them in on time, signed them where they should have and were properly registered — but their votes were not counted.
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
The Unreal Bill Ayers — Three Decades After the Weather Underground's End, He's Still Justifying Its Means — I never thought Barack Obama's acquaintance with former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers disqualified him for the White House. And now that Obama has been elected …
Reason.tv:
Killer Chic — Gisele Bundchen wears him on the runway, Johnny Depp wears him around his neck, and Benicio Del Toro becomes him in the new, highly acclaimed, two-part epic film from Steven Soderbergh, Che. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the revolutionary who helped found communist Cuba, is the celebrity that celebrities adore.
Discussion:
Reason
Rep. Barney Frank / The Huffington Post:
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Does It Again — Recently, the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal repeated unsupported and flat out wrong conservative talking points about me and the root causes of the subprime mortgage crisis. I sought to counter their accusations in a letter to the editor …
Discussion:
The Crypt's Blogs
Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
FIRST THOUGHTS: NO ORDINARY HONEYMOON — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann — *** No ordinary honeymoon: While the political world continues to focus on the Blagojevich scandal, which at this point has been only a headache for the incoming Obama administration …
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Malkin: Democrats Will ‘Turn On A Dime’ Against Patrick Fitzgerald — This morning on Fox and Friends, right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin took up the conservative mantra of linking President-elect Obama to disgraced governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL). (In fact, Obama may have “indirectly contributed to the downfall” of Blagojevich.)
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
McCain pollster: Wright wouldn't have worked — John McCain's top pollster, Bill McInturff, said this evening that attacking Barack Obama over his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright would not have helped McCain's campaign and could have destroyed his presidency, had he been elected.