Top Items:
CNN:
Burris denied entry to Senate — (CNN) — Roland Burris was denied entry to the Senate chambers on Tuesday as he tried to claim the seat once held by President-elect Barack Obama. — Burris said the secretary of the Senate rejected his credentials, and therefore he would not be allowed access to the floor.
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Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Roland Burris v Senate: Showdown live — Roland Burris of Illinois, rejected in his attempt to take a new seat in the Senate this morning, averted any public showdown by quietly accepting the refusal of his credentials inside the Secretary of the Senate's office on the third floor of the Capitol.
Thomas Ferraro / Reuters:
Senate Democrats put off plans to seat Franken — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yielded to Republican threats and agreed on Monday not to immediately seat fellow Democrat Al Franken, whose razor-close victory in Minnesota faces legal challenges.
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Senate Rejects Burris in Spectacle at Capitol
Senate Rejects Burris in Spectacle at Capitol
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
REALLY A MYSTERY — From an observer up on the Hill ... And from a career intel professional ... I used to do a lot of intelligence reporting. But I haven't really done any to speak of in a few years. So I'm coming at this cold. But I feel instinctively suspicious of the congressional reaction to this appointment.
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Washington Post:
Obama Picks Panetta as CIA Director — President-elect Barack Obama stunned the national intelligence community by selecting Clinton White House chief of staff Leon E. Panetta, a longtime Washington insider with little intelligence experience, to serve as the next head of the CIA.
Discussion:
CBS News, The Fix, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog, Spin Cycle, Federal Eye, MSNBC, TIME.com, JustOneMinute and NY Daily News
Luis Martinez / ABCNEWS:
Panetta Gets Mixed Reaction From CIA Officials
Panetta Gets Mixed Reaction From CIA Officials
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Haaretz:
40 Palestinians killed in IDF strike on UN school — Israel Defense Forces tank fire killed up to 40 Palestinians at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medical sources at two hospitals said. — The attack brought the Palestinian death toll to nearly 600 in Israel's 11 …
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Wesley Loy / Anchorage Daily News:
Levi Johnston quits oil field job — PUBLIC SCRUTINY: Rules say he needs diploma for apprenticeship. — wloy@adn.com — Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, has quit his North Slope oil field job over questions about his eligibility to work …
Washington Post:
Obama Pitches Stimulus Plan — GOP Asked to Help Design Bill; $300 Billion in Tax Cuts Sought — President-elect Barack Obama arrived on Capitol Hill yesterday and immediately set to work reassuring skeptical Republicans about his massive economic stimulus package …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Commentary, RedState, Swampland, The Huffington Post, The Reaction and On Deadline
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Washington Post:
Richardson, Obama Teams Trade Blame — Weeks before President-elect Barack Obama chose New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to head the Commerce Department, a small group of volunteers with ethics, tax and investigative expertise — most of them lawyers — scoured his background looking for embarrassing facts or political problems.
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Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Pelosi's power move leaves House Republicans fuming — House Democrats are poised to approve new rules that will significantly increase their authority while taking the bullets out of the few legislative weapons Republicans have in the lower chamber. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) …
Discussion:
Human Events, New York Times, The Next Right, The Caucus, Runnin' Scared, RedState and The Note
Adam C. Smith / St. Petersburg Times:
Senate bid by Jeb Bush iffy, friends say — Republican excitement over the prospect of Jeb Bush running for U.S. Senate has given way to increasing speculation that the former governor will stay out of the race. — Bush declined to comment for this article but was expected to make an announcement perhaps as early as this week.
Guillermo X. Garcia / MySanAntonio.com:
Latinos push Obama on vacant post — READ — After the withdrawal of Bill Richardson's name as an Obama administration Cabinet nominee, Hispanic leaders say they expect the president-elect to name another Latino to head the Commerce Department. — An Obama transition team source …
Eliot Spitzer / Slate:
The Obama stimulus package should be spent on transformative investments, not bridges and buildings. — The incoming Obama administration and Congress are planning a huge fiscal stimulus package. They hope that such a stimulus will catalyze an economic turnaround and be a cornerstone of a “New New Deal.”
New York Times:
Ex-Detainee of U.S. Describes a 6-Year Ordeal — LAHORE, Pakistan — When Muhammad Saad Iqbal arrived home here in August after more than six years in American custody, including five at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he had difficulty walking, his left ear was severely infected …
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
LAURA BUSH GETS $1.6M ADVANCE — First Lady Laura Bush snagged a seven-figure deal to write her life story for the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster. — Bush is said to have received an advance of $1.6 million, according to one well-placed publishing source - although another source …
Forbes:
Five Reasons Why India Can't ‘Do A Gaza’ On Pakistan — Israel has far fewer restrictions. — Over the last week, many Americans (and not a few Indians) have asked me why India does not “do a Gaza” on Pakistan, referring, of course, to an emulation of Israel's punitive use of force …
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
A Conflict Hamas Caused — Nearly a year ago, I was in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, where, on almost any day, you could see the current war coming. “The next Middle East war may start over Sderot,” I wrote back then. I came by my prescience the hard way — in a bomb shelter.
Natan Sharansky / Wall Street Journal:
How the U.N. Perpetuates the ‘Refugee’ Problem — Nowhere on earth do terrorists get so much help from the Free World. — Israel's assault on Hamas is just the latest in a long chain of military clashes, the scripts of which are always the same. On one side, there is the Israeli army.
Dan / GayPolitics.com:
Obama names gay man as director of Office of Management and Administration — Brad Kiley has been named as the director of the Office of Management and Administration by President-elect Barack Obama. Kiley, who is openly gay, is currently the director of operations for the Obama-Biden Transition Project …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Doing It With Twitter — Incumbent RNC Chairman Mike Duncan tries to hold onto his job and explain the future of conservatism: … Not only is this, as Steve Benen says, weirdly inadequate to the size of the conservative predicament, it just doesn't make any sense. I love Twitter.