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, The Sundries Shack, Emptywheel, The Huffington Post and No More Mister Nice Blog
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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 …
The Huffington Post:
Dem Aide: Obama Team Pushed To Seat Burris
Dem Aide: Obama Team Pushed To Seat Burris
Discussion:
TPM Election Central, Ben Smith's Blogs, WBBM-TV, CBS News, The Moderate Voice, Weekly Standard and Congress Matters
Walter Dellinger / New York Times:
City of Cold Shoulders
City of Cold Shoulders
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Chicago Sun Times, TalkLeft, Althouse, New York Times and The Swamp
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Illinois Secretary of State backs Burris, downplays own role
Illinois Secretary of State backs Burris, downplays own role
Discussion:
CBS News, WGN Radio, The Fix, Pajamas Media, AmSpecBlog, Daily Kos and NY Daily News Blogs
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:
Liberty Street, Outside The Beltway, Fausta's Blog, Political Machine, TPM Election Central and Macsmind
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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:
The New Republic, Taylor Marsh, Matthew Yglesias, The Caucus, D-Day, DownWithTyranny!, The Raw Story and Jules Crittenden
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blogs:
Matthews: Todd ‘just lost his virginity’ — After a record-setting number of transition press conferences in Chicago, Obama answered questions from reporters in Washington for the first time as President-Elect. On hand were several new members of the White House press corps.
Associated Press:
Joe the Plumber to become war correspondent — TOLEDO, Ohio - Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter's notebook. — The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.
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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.
Thomas E. Ricks / Foreign Policy:
Fiasco at the Army War College — Did faculty members at the Army War College curtail their criticism of the Iraq war for fear of institutional retaliation? — That seems to be the bottom line in a situation I stumbled across just a few days ago. A friend passed along a 2005 e-mail note …
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Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
THE CASE FOR TENURE. — In 2005, the Army War College's …
THE CASE FOR TENURE. — In 2005, the Army War College's …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
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 …
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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?
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CNN:
Porn industry seeks federal bailout — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
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Andy Barr / The Politico:
Kemp diagnosed with cancer — Former GOP vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, 73, has been diagnosed with cancer. — According to a statement from his consulting firm, Kemp Partners, doctors are still testing Kemp before determining a course of treatment.
Erica Werner / Associated Press:
Feinstein says she supports Panetta for CIA — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday she intends to support President-elect Barack Obama's choice for CIA chief …
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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:
The Fix, Commentary, Politics on the Hudson, Whiskey Fire, Wonkette, NewsBusters.org, Jon Swift, Buck Naked Politics and Spin Cycle
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 …
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 Huffington Post, The Washington Independent, Blogs and Stories, MoJoBlog, Taylor Marsh, The Reaction and Firedoglake
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.
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
PARTISAN SELF-DECEPTION. — Matt Yglesias notes that left-of-center commentary has been notably more pessimistic on the state of the economy than right-of-center commentary. He offers three hypotheses (left-wing positions are psychologically correlated to pessimism, pessimism was correct …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
NY Daily News:
Vid shows pol manhandling gal - sources — A Queens state senator who denies beating his girlfriend was caught on security cameras dragging the scared, bleeding woman from his apartment, law enforcement sources told the Daily News. — Newly elected Sen. Hiram Monserrate …
Ron Kampeas / The Telegraph:
The best reporter in Gaza — Ibrahim Barzak is one of the best reporters I know. — We got to know each other back in 1992, when he was about 16; I had just started with AP, and he had inherited his father's correspondency. Hikmet Barzak, who married late in life, had died after reporting Gaza for the AP since the 1950s.