Top Items:
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Blagojevich questions censored on Transition site — President-elect Barack Obama's Transition today launched “Open for Questions,” a Digg-style feature allowing citizens to submit questions, and to vote on one another's questions, bringing favored inquiries to the top of the list.
Discussion:
Hot Air, JammieWearingFool, RedState, The Politico, Don Surber, The Caucus, CNET News, Mashable!, Gawker, NO QUARTER, 24Ahead, Sunlight Foundation, TPM Election Central, Political Punch and Tim Blair
RELATED:
Brian Ross / ABCNEWS:
Sources Say Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is ‘Senate Candidate #5’ — Feds Plan to Interview Chicago Congressman as Part of Blagojevich Probe — Chicago Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) is the anonymous “Senate Candidate #5” whose emissaries Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich reportedly claimed offered …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Trust, But Verify, Pantagraph, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Moderate Voice, The Hill, Political Machine, Washington Post, Chicago Breaking News, Progress Illinois, Crooks and Liars, JustOneMinute, MSNBC, Emptywheel, Power Line, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, NO QUARTER, JammieWearingFool, Blue Crab Boulevard, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Gateway Pundit, Firedoglake, RedState, The Campaign Spot, On Deadline, The Raw Story, PoliticalBase.com Blog and Flopping Aces
Washington Wire:
Blagojevich's Big Conference Call and Valerie Jarrett's Clean Break — Cam Simpson reports on Rod Blagojevich — Among the hundreds of hours of conversations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich secretly recorded by the FBI since Oct. 22, one phone call is drawing particular scrutiny among politicos …
Discussion:
The Other McCain
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Reid Prefers Senate Appointment to Special Election — Updated, 5:56 p.m. ET: The entire Senate Democratic caucus has signed the Reid letter to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. — Original Post — The momentum for a special election to replace President-elect Barack Obama ran …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Trust, But Verify, FiveThirtyEight.com, Blue Crab Boulevard, Chicago Sun Times and Flopping Aces
The Politico:
7 Blago questions for Obama — Here are seven worth asking: — 1 - “Did you communicate directly or indirectly with Blagojevich about picking your replacement in the U.S. Senate?” — Obama issued a categorical statement Tuesday that he personally hadn't spoken with Blagojevich about the seat …
Chicago Sun Times:
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is ‘Senate Candidate 5’ in Blagojevich criminal complaint
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is ‘Senate Candidate 5’ in Blagojevich criminal complaint
Discussion:
Shakesville, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Taylor Marsh, Balloon Juice, CANNONFIRE, Washington Wire and Don Surber
Matthew Bigg / Reuters:
Conservatives gleeful over governor's arrest
Conservatives gleeful over governor's arrest
Discussion:
Trust, But Verify, The Swamp, Michelle Malkin, The Hill, DownWithTyranny!, No More Mister Nice Blog and Hot Air
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Jackson gets pulled deeper into scandal
Jackson gets pulled deeper into scandal
Discussion:
The Crypt's Blogs, Wizbang, The Swamp, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and The Capitol Fax Blog
The Trail / Washington Post:
Obama: Blagojevich Should Resign
Obama: Blagojevich Should Resign
Discussion:
Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Trust, But Verify, The Caucus, Associated Press, Lynn Sweet and Commentary
Washington Post:
Nobel Physicist Chosen To Be Energy Secretary — Browner, Two Others to Get Climate Posts — President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to be the next energy secretary, and he has picked veteran regulators …
RELATED:
Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
CHU TO BE ENERGY SECRETARY — From NBC's Savannah Guthrie — Obama will name Steven Chu his choice for Energy secretary, Lisa Jackson for EPA administrator and Carol Browner as energy “czar” reporting to the president. — It is unclear whether the Browner position is cabinet level.
John M. Broder / New York Times:
Obama Team Set on Environment — Carol M. Browner, left, ex-E.P.A. chief, is favored for a climate post. Steven Chu, a physicist, is in line for energy secretary. Lisa P. Jackson, a New Jersey official, is to head the E.P.A. — WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has selected …
Wall Street Journal:
Obama Picks Team to Guide Energy Agenda
Obama Picks Team to Guide Energy Agenda
Discussion:
rubber hose, Open Left, Weekly Standard, Taegan Goddard's … and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Deborah Charles / Reuters:
Obama picks leaders of energy team
Obama picks leaders of energy team
Discussion:
CNN, Reuters, Chronicle of Higher Education, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Boing Boing and Oliver Willis
Chris Strohm / GovExec.com:
House Democrat urges Obama to keep Bush's intelligence chiefs — The House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat said Tuesday he has recommended that President-elect Barack Obama keep the country's current national intelligence director and CIA chief in place for some time to ensure continuity …
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Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Rep. Reyes: Since Torture Might Be Necessary, Obama Should Keep …
Rep. Reyes: Since Torture Might Be Necessary, Obama Should Keep …
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny!
The Sun:
Fem-bot's my love machine — Inventor Le Trung, 33, created Aiko, said to be “in her 20s” with a stunning 32, 23, 33 figure, shiny hair and delicate features. — She even remembers his favourite drink and does simple cleaning and household tasks. — “Fem-bot” Aiko, who has cost £14,000 …
Discussion:
Hot Air
White House:
The President Participates in a Ceremony for 2008 Recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal — BACKGROUND — The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in November 13, 1969, to recognize U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation.
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Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal:
Poll Shows Obama Gains Support — Public Roots for His Success in Face of Economic Crisis but Is Wary of Big Spending — WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama is entering the White House with an enormous reservoir of goodwill from an American public that is rooting for his success …
John / Power Line:
GOODBYE TO NEWSWEEK — Much attention has been paid to the decline of print newspapers, less to the similar decline of news magazines. The cases are not identical: most obviously, the news weeklies never depended on classified advertising, as newspapers did.
New York Times:
Kerrey Gets Vote of No-Confidence at New School — Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska governor and senator known for his acerbic tongue and iconoclastic tendencies, earned an overwhelming vote of no-confidence on Wednesday afternoon from the senior faculty at the New School, the Greenwich Village university he has run since 2001.
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Hit by Recession, NPR to Lay Off Seven Percent of Staff — Faced with a sharp decline in revenue, National Public Radio said today it will pare back its once-flourishing operations, and institute its first organization-wide layoffs in 25 years. — Washington-based NPR said it would lay off …
The Politico:
GOP may seek Bill Clinton's testimony — Senate Republicans are considering asking Bill Clinton to testify at his wife's confirmation hearing about potential conflicts of interest involving his worldwide charitable enterprises. — “There are concerns about his international work across the board …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Jindal says no — Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, seen by many Republicans as the most promising standard-bearer for a remade party, said at a Richmond, Va press conference that he isn't running for president in 2012. — At a news conference Wednesday with Bob McDonnell …
Martin Kady II / The Crypt's Blogs:
Specter calls for delay in Holder hearings — Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has just thrown a wrench into the Eric Holder hearings planned for early January, saying Holder's involvement in the Marc Rich pardon is a “red flag” and a “very serious matter.”
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Joe the traitor now flushing good friend John McCain — Maybe you remember Joe the Wurzelbacher, an Ohio plumber who so sincerely quizzed a campaigning Barack Obama on a Toledo cul-de-sac that his videotaped answers about the Democrat's damaging “tax cuts” attracted the opportunistic eye of Republican John McCain's aides.
Dan Gerstein / Forbes:
Chrysler's Hidden Coffers — Why is Cerberus, one of the world's richest private equity firms, begging for a bailout? — When I wrote about the bailout blunders of the auto industry two weeks ago, I thought the Big Three had most likely topped out on the political outrage meter.
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Liberal Legal Group Is Following New Administration's Path to Power — WASHINGTON — When Eric H. Holder Jr. addressed a convention of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy in June, he urged young lawyers to get involved in the liberal legal network, saying America would soon be “run by progressives.”
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy
Salon:
What do the Clintons have on Obama? — Meanwhile, Sarah Palin's rehabilitation has been well launched. Step by step over the past five weeks since the election, headlines about Palin in the mainstream media and some Web news sites have become more neutral and even laudatory, signifying that a shift toward reality is already at hand.
Discussion:
Eunomia