Top Items:
John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
Auto Makers to Get $17.4 Billion — The White House announced a $17.4 billion rescue package for the troubled Detroit auto makers that allows them to avoid bankruptcy and leaves many of the big decisions for the incoming Obama administration. — Speaking from the White House …
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New York Times:
Bush Approves $17.4 Billion Auto Bailout — WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday announced $13.4 billion in emergency loans to prevent the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler, and another $4 billion available for the hobbled automakers in February with the entire bailout conditioned …
Discussion:
Buck Naked Politics, Washington Monthly, Bloomberg, Portfolio, Althouse, Washington Post, Associated Press, Kevin Drum, The Impolitic, Gothamist, Truthdig and Spin Cycle
Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:
To the Rescue: Bush to Give Low-Interest Loans to Carmakers — Obama Team Agrees to Bush's Strategy — The White House has decided to come to the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler by providing them with $17.4 billion in low-interest loans to keep them afloat, ABC News has learned.
Discussion:
Think Progress, Washington Post, American Street, Wake up America, Scared Monkeys, On Deadline, PoliBlog and Outside The Beltway
Roosevelt Room / White House:
President Bush Discusses Administration's Plan to Assist Automakers — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. For years, America's automakers have faced serious challenges — burdensome costs, a shrinking share of the market, and declining profits. In recent months, the global financial crisis has made these challenges even more severe.
The Politico:
Bush announces $17.4 billion auto bailout — President Bush stepped in Friday to keep America's auto industry afloat, announcing a $17.4 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler, with the terms of the loans requiring that the firms radically restructure and show they can become profitable soon.
Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Caroline Kennedy Is No Sarah Palin — WASHINGTON — It is a legitimate question: Why is the resume-thin Caroline Kennedy being treated seriously as a prospective appointee to the U.S. Senate when the comparatively more-qualified Gov. Sarah Palin received such a harsh review?
RELATED:
NY Daily News:Caroline Kennedy's voting record proves spotty
Discussion:
ANIMAL New York, Spin Cycle, Commentary, MSNBC, Politics on the Hudson and Riehl World View
Zaz Hollander / Anchorage Daily News:
Levi Johnston's mother hit with drug charges — Arrested: her son was in the spotlight as father of bristol palin's baby. — zhollander@adn.com — WASILLA — A 42-year-old Wasilla woman was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers with a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation.
Discussion:
The Politico, TalkLeft, Gawker, Runnin' Scared, Fox News, JammieWearingFool, The Note, Wonkette and Don Surber
Paul Walsh / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Franken pushes his lead over Coleman past 150 — The state Canvassing Board's first rush of ballot rulings in the U.S. Senate race has unofficially put challenger Al Franken in the lead by more than 150. — The intense scrutiny of “voter intent” resumed this morning by the five-member board charged …
Discussion:
Wilshire & Washington
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Aaron Wiener / The Washington Independent:Franken Takes First Lead in Senate Race
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE
Joe Solmonese / Washington Post:
Obama's Inaugural Mistake — It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation. And the Obama campaign's response to the anger about this decision?
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, The Note, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Time and AMERICAblog News
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
How new is Obama's New Politics? — The disparity is stark between the actual importance of the Inaugural invocation and the anger triggered by Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver it. Obviously, the controversy is a proxy for numerous pre-existing conflicts and agendas that have nothing to do with Rick Warren.
Jeff Poor / The Business & Media Institute:
CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory ‘Arrogant’ — Network's second meteorologist to challenge notion man can alter climate. — Business & Media Institute — Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads - how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, THE TOOT, Pajamas Media, Don Surber, LewRockwell.com Blog and Babalu Blog
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Madoff Economy — The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so. The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, theheretik.us, American Street, Vox Popoli, American Prospect, Prairie Weather and EconLog
Wall Street Journal:
Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits — After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. — The decision represents …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Silicon Alley Insider, GigaOM, Ars Technica, Epicenter, TechCrunch and Legal Blog Watch
Richard A. Epstein / Wall Street Journal:
The Employee Free Choice Act Is Unconstitutional — Free speech and the takings clause are at stake. — A top priority of the incoming Democratic Congress and Obama administration is the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act. The EFCA, as is well known, introduces a card-check procedure …
Chris / TVNewser:
Chuck Todd's “No-Cut” Contract with NBC — Chuck Todd never saw it coming. — NBC's fast-rising political director — named today as chief White House correspondent — was “shocked” when he was offered the plum late last week. — “It came out of left field,” says Todd, 36, who joined NBC in March 2007.
Michelle Malkin:
Anyone want to sue over the illegal UAW bailout? — John Boehner just issued a statement expressing dismay at President Bush's UAW bailout. He called the use of TARP funds for the bailout “regrettable:” … It's not just “regrettable.” As the Heritage Foundation reported, it's illegal.
Charles Homans / Washington Monthly:
Last Secrets of the Bush Administration — How to find out what we still don't know. — In March 2001, U.S. Archivist John W. Carlin received a letter from Alberto Gonzales, then counsel to the newly inaugurated president George W. Bush. It concerned an important deadline that was looming—one that Bush owed to Richard Nixon.
The Politico:
Labor ties drive Solis pick — Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) will take over the Labor Department in an imploding job market, while Big Labor is licking its chops for payback in Washington. — So why is she giving up a potential leadership track in the House for one of the more daunting cabinet jobs?
Wall Street Journal:
Democrats Are the New Ethics Story — Blagojevich is just the tip of the iceberg. — A note to all those visitors who will soon flood Washington for the inauguration: Be careful of the “swamp.” — That would be the swamp Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to drain when she led her party to victory in 2006.
Marc Ambinder:
The Democrats' Card Check Quandary — So - organized labor in the form of the Change to Win coalition and the AFL-CIO spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past several cycles, devoted hundreds of thousands of person-hours, extended itself in myriad ways - to bring Democrats to power …
Discussion:
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