Top Items:

The Governor Strikes Back: Five New Quotes from Sarah Palin — Last week, the former vice-presidential candidate lashed out at the media's coverage of her campaign. In a brand-new “What I've Learned” interview with Esquire, excerpted here in advance of the March issue, Palin goes even further.
Discussion:
CBS News, FiveThirtyEight.com, Democracy in America, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly, TIME.com, Hot Air and Salon
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Palin slams ‘bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie’ — (CNN) — Sarah Palin fired a new salvo in her war on the media, unloading in a new interview on her home state paper and “bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie.” — The Alaska governor, who has granted a steady stream …

Full text of the Palin-ADN email exchange — Gov. Palin's press office claims that she has pointed out errors in Daily News coverage that we have refused to correct. The only such complaints of which I'm aware are below, in an email from Gov. Palin to the publisher and me.

Senators Raise Questions About Geithner's Nomination at Treasury — Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is raising questions about a housekeeper who worked briefly for Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner without proper immigration papers …
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Source: Treasury nominee failed to pay taxes — WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama's choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.


AP: Clinton acted on concerns of husband's donors — WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found.
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Olmert Says He Made Rice Change Vote — WASHINGTON — In an unusually public rebuke, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been forced to abstain from a United Nations resolution on Gaza that she helped draft, after Mr. Olmert placed a phone call to President Bush.
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Live from the Clinton Confirmation Hearing — Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, a Republican who is retiring, just now love-bombed Clinton and Obama. He notes that a couple of years ago he got to know retired Marine Gen. James Jones and wondered, “Why can't we get this guy in the administration?”
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Rollins: Bush still doesn't get it — Editor's Note: Ed Rollins, who served as political director for President Ronald Reagan, is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign. — NEW YORK (CNN) — One week from today …
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Bush's Mistakes — President Bush infamously couldn't or …
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Commentary

Cheney: NYT Pulitzers for Spying Stories ‘Aggravating’ — Vice President Dick Cheney said that the prizes won by the New York Times for uncovering the Bush administration were “aggravating” to him, and cautioned the incoming administration on the lessons he's learned in office.
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House Judiciary Issues Scathing Report on Bush/Cheney Imperial Presidency
Discussion:
Emptywheel

Emanuel to Bolten: 'I'll Miss You'
Discussion:
TIME.com


My Dinners with Dubya — When a college drinking buddy invited C. Brian Smith to hang out with her parents, he tried not to sweat the fact that they lived in the White House. He even had fun—until 9/11 made watching bad movies with the president feel like a guilty pleasure America couldn't afford.
Discussion:
Wonkette


44 to reverse 43's executive orders — President-elect Barack Obama is expected to move swiftly to reverse executive orders regarding torture of terror suspects, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and other controversial security policies, sources close to his transition said …
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Duncan: Smart Is Cooler Than Ever — Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools chief, told the Senate on Tuesday that he would work for “real and meaningful change” in the nation's schools if confirmed as education secretary, and he said he hoped president-elect Barack Obama's own example as a model student …
Discussion:
TIME.com
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Dem blasts Obama econ team's ‘mumbo jumbo’ — A Democratic senator on Tuesday accused President-elect Obama's incoming director of the Office of Management and Budget of talking “mumbo jumbo” instead of offering hard details on the economy. — “I would think that in this era of freshness …


Meghan McCain Sits Down With MMC To Talk Blogs, Bikers, Politics & Why She Only Takes Off Her High Heels To Swim — Meghan McCain is an American blogger and daughter of the 2008 Republican nominee for President, John McCain. — Most recently, Ms. McCain spent almost two years …
Discussion:
Political Machine, Wonkette, Comedy Central, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Rumproast and marbury

The Crisis and the Policy Response — For almost a year and a half the global financial system has been under extraordinary stress—stress that has now decisively spilled over to the global economy more broadly. The proximate cause of the crisis was the turn of the housing cycle …

The Truthiest New Show on Television — The strongest case against the Department of Homeland Security is that it's not really about homeland security at all. Rather than catch terrorists, DHS officers at the border spend most of their time arresting people for drug and immigration offenses instead.
Discussion:
Democratic Strategist

Does “Black Hawk Down” Portray an American War Crime? — At least nine hundred people, maybe half of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza so far, the overwhelming majority presumably killed by Israel (some people, more than we probably know right now, have been killed by Hamas, mainly Fatah activists in revenge killings).

Nazi? You? — Ever thought about how you would have reacted had you lived in Nazi Germany? Ronald Bailey reflects on a famous experiment that meant to discover whether it could happen here, in America. His conclusion is instructive: … In other words, American culture …
Discussion:
The Corner


Obama inauguration to air in theaters — MSNBC pact puts coverage in 27 U.S. locations — NEW YORK — President-elect Barack Obama is on his way to the big screen, thanks to a deal between MSNBC and Screenvision that will put the news channel's inaugural coverage in 27 theaters around the country.

Steven Chu Eases Up on the Gas Price Pedal — Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate scientist who is President-elect Obama's choice to be energy secretary, said in testimony prepared for his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that high oil prices were a threat to the economy …


Joe the Plumber plunges deeper: ‘Military should decide what information to give the media.’ — Continuing his reporting from Israel, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher tried to clarify his remarks criticizing media coverage of war, in a new Pajamas TV segment.
Discussion:
Sadly, No!

President Bush Honors Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients — THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon to everybody, and thank you all for coming. We have assembled quite a distinguished crowd to honor three good friends — President Uribe, Prime Minister Howard, and Prime Minister Blair.


US could oust Italy as world's No. 1 wine drinker — PARIS - The world just can't get enough wine. — Global wine consumption, on the rise in past years, is forecast to continue to grow in the coming ones, with the United States overtaking Italy as the world's biggest consumer by 2012 …