memeorandum: Budget deficit to reach $1.2 trillion (Rich Wolf/USA Today)

2:40 PM ET, January 7, 2009

Top Items:

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

I want to play poker with Harry Reid. Really I do. — Rather than call for a special election in Illinois, Reid sends a letter to Blagojevich signed by everyone in the Democratic caucus asking him to step down. They assert that they will not seat anyone he appoints. — Harumph.

Discussion: The Swamp, On Deadline, Emptywheel, The Hill, theheretik.us, BitsBlog, BuzzFlash.org, Redhot and Jack & Jill Politics

Chicago Breaking News:

Senate leader leaves door ajar for Burris — WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opened a potential path to seating Roland Burris in the Senate after a 45-minute meeting with the former Illinois attorney general at the Capitol this morning. — After days in which Senate leaders …

Discussion: Chicago Sun Times, TPM Election Central, Hot Air, The Capitol Fax Blog and Real Clear Politics

The Huffington Post:

Dem Aide: Obama Team Pushed To Seat Burris — The apparent decision to seat Roland Burris came after aides to President-elect Barack Obama contacted senior Senate Democrats and suggested that they reverse course and accept Gov. Rod Blagojevich's controversial appointment, according to a senior Dem congressional aide.

Discussion: WBBM-TV, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, TalkLeft and MyDD

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

Reid vows to lead till at least 2015 — Harry Reid vowed Tuesday that he'll lead the Senate until 2015 and beyond, taunting Republicans who'd like to unseat him and dashing the hopes of Democrats who'd like to succeed him. — The Nevada Democrat, who is up for reelection in 2010 …

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill, The Impolitic, TIME.com, Taylor Marsh and MSNBC

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Report: Burris Will Get Obama Senate Seat — Roland Burris, the man appointed to Barack Obama's Senate seat by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, will be allowed to take the seat, according to the Associated Press. — Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin are denying the report.

Discussion: Chicago Sun Times, Mercury News and RBO

Walter Dellinger / New York Times:
City of Cold Shoulders

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TalkLeft, The Swamp, Althouse and New York Times

Jacob Sullum / Reason:
Reid Is Backing Down As Fast As He Can

Discussion: Washington Post, Boston Globe, Fox News and Riehl World View

WGN Radio:
Jesse White: “Fall Guy” In Burris Drama {audio}

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, NY Daily News Blogs, CBS News, Political Punch and The Corner

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Illinois Secretary of State backs Burris, downplays own role

Discussion: The Fix, CBS News and Daily Kos

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Reid aide denies Senate seating Burris

Discussion: Weekly Standard, RedState, The Huffington Post and Congress Matters

Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blogs:
Reid: Give Stevens a Get-of-Jail Card

Discussion: The Washington Independent and TPMMuckraker

Washington Post:

Blair House Mystery Solved: It's John Howard — The veil is lifted. We now know who is booked at Blair House, kicking President-elect Barack Obama and his family to the waiting list and across Lafayette Park to the Hay-Adams Hotel. — The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, TPM Election Central, Political Machine, Fausta's Blog, The Jed Report, Macsmind and Jules Crittenden

Ali Frick / Think Progress:

White House Asked Howard To Stay In Blair House To Give ‘Some Plausible Reason’ For Refusing Obama — In December, President-elect Obama asked the White House if he and his family could move into Blair House — the White House's guest house — a week early, so that his daughters Malia and Sasha could start school.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic, The Caucus, The Raw Story, TIME.com and Kevin Drum

Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blogs:
Matthews: Todd ‘just lost his virginity’

Discussion: The Swamp and TVNewser

New York Times:

$1.2 Trillion Deficit Forecast as Obama Weighs Options — WASHINGTON — Changes in Social Security and Medicare will be central to efforts to bring federal spending in line, President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday, as the Congressional Budget Office projected a $1.2 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year.

Discussion: The Baseline Scenario and The Economic Populist

New York Times:

Obama Warns of Prospect for Trillion-Dollar Deficits — WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday braced Americans for the unparalleled prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come,” a stark assessment of the budgetary outlook that he said would force his administration …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Swamp, The Huffington Post, The Politico, Financial Times, QandO, The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, The Confluence, TPMCafe, Buck Naked Politics and Political Machine

Washington Wire:
Obama's Remarks on His Pick for Chief Performance Officer

Discussion: GayPatriot

Rich Wolf / USA Today:
Budget deficit to reach $1.2 trillion

Discussion: The Foundry and The Washington Independent

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

The Mideast's Ground Zero — The fighting, death and destruction in Gaza is painful to watch. But it's all too familiar. It's the latest version of the longest-running play in the modern Middle East, which, if I were to give it a title, would be called: “Who owns this hotel? Can the Jews have a room?

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The Agonist, Mondoweiss, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Jules Crittenden

Marc Ambinder:
Ross, Holbrooke, Haass To Serve As Envoys

Discussion: Foreign Affairs, Ben Smith's Blogs, TIME.com and The Washington Independent

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Sweet on Caroline — Ask not, you know, what your country can, like, do for you. Ask what you, um, can, you know, do for your country. — After a lifetime of shying away from the public spotlight, Caroline Kennedy asked herself what she could do for her country.

Discussion: Commentary, Jon Swift, Buck Naked Politics, Whiskey Fire, Wonkette and Real Clear Politics

Kevin Vance / Weekly Standard:

Team Sarah Infiltrated — Administrators of Team Sarah have uncovered evidence on a left-wing online thread that some Internet trolls sought to discredit the organization by posing as conservative racists on Team Sarah's forums. — Team Sarah, an online community supportive of Gov. Sarah Palin …

Discussion: Washington Times and Flopping Aces

A Soldier's Mother:

The Images they Show... There are images that break your heart. The news is filled with them today and they can easily sway you to think that all of the situation in the Middle East comes down to a picture. How horrible, truly tragic, unacceptable and wrong it is to have a child die.

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs and Little Green Footballs

New York Times:
Israel Accepts Brief Pause in Fighting for Relief Supplies

Discussion: Truthdig, UN Dispatch, Think Progress and The Angry Arab News Service/

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

THE CASE FOR TENURE. — In 2005, the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute was facing so much heat for perceived criticism of the Iraq War that its professors “were worried about what might happen to SSI, even frightened for the organization.” So they stopped speaking out.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Thomas E. Ricks / Foreign Policy:
Fiasco at the Army War College

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money

Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:

CIA Man: Spies' Reaction to Panetta ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ — A retired senior CIA operations officer who quit last summer after 20 years tracking terrorists says the rank-and-file reaction to President-elect Obama's choice of Leon E.Panetta to run the spy agency has been “overwhelmingly negative.”

Discussion: The Washington Independent, MoJoBlog, Blogs and Stories, Taylor Marsh, Firedoglake, The Daily Dish and The Reaction

Daphne Benoit / Agence France Presse:

Obama era expected to end taboo on gays in US military — WASHINGTON (AFP) - Sixteen years after Bill Clinton tried to end restrictions on gays in the military, the US armed forces under Barack Obama may be forced to give homosexuals the same welcome as non-gays.

Discussion: Political Machine and Riehl World View

Yaakov Katz / Associated Press:

IDF steps up anti-tunnel ops, warns civilians to vacate area — The IDF stepped up its operations against weapons smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor on Wednesday night after dropping flyers on Rafah urging residents of the town living near the corridor to vacate the area.

Discussion: Mere Rhetoric, Atlas Shrugs and Israel Matzav

Associated Press:

Joe the Plumber named war correspondent in Israel for conservative Web site — Joe the Plumber is taking on a new job. — The Ohio man, who became famous during the U.S. presidential campaign after asking Barack Obama about his tax plan, is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for a conservative Web site called pjtv.com.

Discussion: Think Progress, Michelle Malkin and TIME.com

Martin Kramer / Sandbox:

ABC: Anything But Cole — Juan Cole is running two campaigns on his blog. One is against Israel—business as usual for Cole. The other is promoting his blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards competition (Middle East category), where there are ten finalists (I am one).

David Harsanyi / Denver Post:

Get out of the way, you old fogies — Warning: This column is replete with ageism — a hazardous prejudice to have in a nation growing progressively older. — The average American's life expectancy (or, as it's referred to in Washington, the “junior senator") is now a crusty 77 years.

Discussion: Reason