Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Forgive and Forget? — Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don't believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
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John Conyers Jr / Washington Post:
Why We Have to Look Back — This week, I released …
Why We Have to Look Back — This week, I released …
Discussion:
Democracy in America
Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Obama Pledges Reform of Social Security, Medicare Programs — President-Elect Says He'll Reshape Social Security, Medicare Programs — President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare “bargain” with the American people, saying …
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Marc Ambinder:
No Delay On Card Check, So Far — Is the administration going to slow-walk the Employee Free Choice Act, or card check? President-Elect Obama told the Washington Post yesterday that “while he favored the legislation, said there may be other ways to achieve the same goal without angering businesses.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Senate Releases Second Portion of Bailout Fund
Senate Releases Second Portion of Bailout Fund
Discussion:
MSNBC, The Washington Independent, The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, The Big Picture and LiberalOasis
Joe Conason / Salon:
The real reason Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich — Eric Holder is sworn in at his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. — From beginning to end, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Eric Holder's nomination as attorney general observed …
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Joseph F. Connor / Los Angeles Times:
Terrorists killed my dad — Atty. Gen.-nominee Eric Holder helped pardon terrorists linked to my father's murder in 1975. — In 1975, when I had just turned 9, my father was killed by terrorists. — He was supposed to be home early on that Jan. 24 for a family celebration of my birthday …
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Waterboarding Is Torture, Holder Tells Senators
Waterboarding Is Torture, Holder Tells Senators
Discussion:
CBS News, New York Times, The Hill, Spin Cycle, Los Angeles Times, The BLT, Wall Street Journal and ImmigrationProf Blog
Ernie Singer / Arutz Sheva:
“Iranian Unit” Destroyed, Hamas was Suprised — (IsraelNN.com) The so-called “Iranian Unit” of Hamas has been destroyed, according to Gaza sources cited Thursday by the Haaretz daily. The sources said most of the unit's 100 members were killed in fighting in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City.
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Amy Westfeldt / Associated Press:
Hudson River hero is ex-Air Force fighter pilot — NEW YORK (AP) — The pilot who guided a crippled US Airways jetliner safely into the Hudson River — saving all 155 people aboard — became an instant hero Thursday, with accolades from the mayor and governor and a fan club online.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Fausta's Blog, The Smoking Gun, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, AmSpecBlog, The Impolitic, MSNBC and Gothamist
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J. Lynn Lunsford / Wall Street Journal:
Praise Heaped on Veteran Airman for Pulling Off Rare Feat — The pilots of US Airways Flight 1549 achieved one of the rarest and most technically challenging feats in commercial aviation: landing on water without fatalities. — Although commercial jetliners are equipped with life vests …
Discussion:
San Francisco Chronicle, neo-neocon, MoJoBlog, Silicon Alley Insider and The Other McCain
Matthew L. Wald / New York Times:
Plane Crew Is Credited for Nimble Reaction
Plane Crew Is Credited for Nimble Reaction
Discussion:
NY Daily News, USA Today, New York Post, neo-neocon, Silicon Alley Insider, Gothamist, Gateway Pundit, City Room and The Moderate Voice
Laura Rozen / The Cable:
The secret dinner with Obama you haven't heard about — At a quiet dinner meeting late last week in Washington's Ronald Reagan Building, President-elect Obama reached out to outside foreign-policy experts, trying to resist the presidential bubble that is rapidly closing around him.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs, The Washington Independent, Washington Post, Kevin Drum, War and Piece and USA Today
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
4 days to Inauguration — The president-elect's secret foreign-policy dinner —The Neighborhood Inaugural Ball goes interactive — President Bush: ‘May God bless this house and our next president’ — Memorable “new contact info” e-mails - Jim Wilkinson meets Hilary Rosen - Mike DuHaime to Mercury Public Affairs
Wall Street Journal:
The Wiretap Vindication — FISA sets the record straight. — Ever since the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program was exposed in 2005, critics have denounced it as illegal and unconstitutional. Those allegations rested solely on the fact that the Administration …
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Washington Post:
Pragmatist-in-Chief — PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama came to The Post editorial board yesterday with two messages sketchy on details yet reassuring in approach: a commitment to fiscal discipline, and a determination not to be bound by liberal, or indeed any, orthodoxy.
Daniel Libit / The Politico:
King: Obama ‘bizarre’ to use ‘Hussein’ — Apologize? Not so much. — But Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who last March predicted Al Qaida would be “dancing in the streets” if Barack Obama were elected president, now concedes that the dynamic has merely “shifted” on the terrorist front.
Beth Reinhard / Naked Politics:
Sink not running for Senate — Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is expected to announce today that she's not running for the U.S. Senate, opening the field to a crop of lesser-known contenders. — Sink, the only statewide officeholder on the Democratic shortlist, was seen …
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Wall Street Journal:
Suspend Your Disbelief — How to enjoy an inauguration fully. — Washington — Flying in, we take the route over the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson, the Tidal Basin: the signs and symbols of the great republic. And you've seen it all a thousand times but you can't stop looking, and you can't help it, your eyes well.
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Prashant Gopal / Business Week:
America's Best High Schools — A state-by-state look at the best-performing high schools in the U.S. Does your child already go to one? — Watch the Video... Kimberly Lynch, a redhead with freckles, had a keen interest in sunblock. So much so that she spent the past year developing …
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DON'T BELIEVE YOUR LYING EYES.... Presidents don't have to give televised farewell addresses at the end of their term. Indeed, George H. W. Bush didn't bother, preferring to let his record speak for itself. The son would have been wise to follow his father's example.
Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:
Did Cheney nod off during Bush's farewell address? » — Last night during PBS's coverage of President Bush's farewell address to the nation, for a brief moment, the camera panned to Vice President Cheney, who appeared to momentarily doze off. But it seems that he quickly caught himself and then sat upright in his chair.
Discussion:
Examiner
John Schwartz / New York Times:
Some Ask if Bailout Is Unconstitutional — While much of the debate over the $700 billion federal bailout plan has focused on whether the money is being spent wisely or well, concerns are growing among many conservatives about its constitutionality. — Some conservatives have argued …
Kevin Diaz / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Coleman can keep office until Feb. 4, senators say — WASHINGTON - Democratic and Republican leaders agreed Thursday to reopen Norm Coleman's U.S. Senate offices until Feb. 4 to archive and transfer case files on constituent services. — The agreement, approved unanimously by the Senate …
Patrick Walters / Associated Press:
American painter Andrew Wyeth dies at 91 — PHILADELPHIA - Artist Andrew Wyeth, who portrayed the hidden melancholy of the people and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as “Christina's World,” died early Friday. He was 91.
Frank Newport / Gallup:
Obama Wins 83% Approval Rating for Transition — Forty-five percent rate Obama's appointments as above average or outstanding — USA - Favorability - Government and Politics - Leadership - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America — PRINCETON, NJ — President-elect Barack Obama receives …
Robert Herguth / Chicago Business:
Hastert ‘Individual C’ in Blago complaint: sources — (Crain's) — Former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is the ex-congressman anonymously referenced in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, sources tell Crain's. — Mr. Hastert, R-Plano, who is not accused of wrongdoing …
Discussion:
Scorecard's Blogs
Anne Hull / MSNBC:
Wary of Obama's America — Rural areas that rejected the president-elect are wary of his urban views — BRINKLEY, Ark. - Wayne Loewer's truck reveals a lot about his life. A 12-gauge shotgun for duck hunting rests on the floorboard. A blue thermal lunch bag containing elk meat …