Top Items:
William Kristol / New York Times:
Will Obama Save Liberalism? — All good things must come to an end. Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era. — Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy. And a good thing, too!
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, The New Republic, RedState, Guardian, Ben Smith's Blogs, Michael Calderone's Blogs, The Corner, Newsweek, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Gawker, BuzzFlash.org, The Reaction, TPMCafe, The Mahablog, theheretik.us, TBogg, AmSpecBlog, Liberal Values, Political Machine, driftglass, Sister Toldjah, If I Ran the Zoo, ATTACKERMAN, Prairie Weather, Discourse.net and No More Mister Nice Blog
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
KRISTOL LEAVES THE TIMES.... At the end of an otherwise uninteresting New York Times column from Bill Kristol, there are six heartening words: … There's been some question as to whether Kristol's one-year contract with the paper of record would get an extension, and today, we get our answer: he's done.
Attaturk / Firedoglake:
And how'd that work out for you? — Hey, can't show him getting pied every time. — The most significant and intelligent part of Bill Kristol's column in the New York Times wasn't written by him. … You may now resume pointing and laughing. Besides the man is still going to be out “moraning” in public at other places.
ABCNEWS:
Blago Says He Thought of Oprah for Senate — Blago Goes on ‘GMA’ and Skips His Impeachement Trial — Illinois' beleaguered Gov. Rod Blagojevich said today that when he was deciding who would take President Obama's Senate seat he considered appointing talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
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CNN:
Blagojevich makes TV circuit rounds as trial starts — (CNN) — Impeachment proceedings against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are scheduled to begin Monday in the state Senate, but the embattled governor is expected to skip the trial and instead appear on several television programs.
Jane Mayer In / New Yorker:
BEHIND THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS — On Thursday, President Barack Obama consigned to history the worst excesses of the Bush Administration's “war on terror.” One of the four executive orders Obama signed effectively cancelled seven years of controversial Justice Department legal opinions authorizing methods …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, The Plum Line, The Daily Dish, Ben Smith's Blogs, ATTACKERMAN, The Washington Independent and Wonk Room
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Bad Faith Economics — As the debate over President Obama's economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the plan's opponents aren't arguing in good faith. Conservatives really, really don't want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don't want to see government activism vindicated.
Wall Street Journal:
The Stimulus Time Machine — That $355 billion in spending isn't about the economy. — The stimulus bill currently steaming through Congress looks like a legislative freight train, but given last week's analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, it is more accurate to think of it as a time machine.
Discussion:
Washington Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias, The Hill, Commentary and Betsy's Page
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Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
Three Crises In One — We all want President Obama to succeed …
Three Crises In One — We all want President Obama to succeed …
Discussion:
Commentary
New York Post:
JUST PLANE DESPICABLE — ‘RESCUED’ CITI BUYING $50M JET — Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. — Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, Gawker, Townhall.com, Gateway Pundit, Redhot, Gothamist, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! and QandO
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Nationalization Gets a New, Serious Look — WASHINGTON — Only five days into the Obama presidency, members of the new administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are already dancing around one of the most politically delicate questions about the financial bailout …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Angry Bear, theheretik.us, The Big Picture, Booman Tribune and Connecting.the.Dots
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Louise Story / New York Times:
For $10, Fuld Sold Florida Mansion to His Wife — Housing prices are falling around the country, but this one sounds hard to believe: A seaside mansion on Jupiter Island in Florida, bought for more than $13 million five years ago, was just sold for $10. — That's right, 10 bucks.
Discussion:
Reuters
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Rail in the Stimulus — Rep Peter DeFazio has authored an amendment that would increase the level of rail funding in the stimulus bill. It's an excellent idea. Funds for highway repairs are a fine use of stimulus money, but insofar as we're investing in new transportation capabilities …
Discussion:
Eschaton
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Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
New, Transparent WhiteHouse.gov Forgoes Press Briefing Transcripts? — Barack Obama's administration may be promising the “greatest ethical standard ever administered to an executive branch,” and increased transparency over his predecessor, but it seems to be forgoing at least one transparency practice …
Lyndsey Layton / Washington Post:
Senate Seat Is Latest Stop On Bennet's Unlikely Ride — Learning on the Job Has Become Coloradan's Hallmark — Michael Bennet has been sleeping in his mother's Woodley Park house and taking the Metro to a borrowed conference room in the Hart Senate Office Building to meet with staff members, who are also on loan.
Discussion:
The Caucus
Dawson Bell / Detroit Free Press:
Bill Ayers denies '70s plot to blow up Detroit police sites — Bill Ayers, leader of a 1960s radical anti-war organization who helped launch Barack Obama's political career in Chicago in the 1990s then threatened to derail it when their relationship became an issue in the 2008 campaign, will be in Michigan Monday.
Discussion:
protein wisdom
Jerusalem Post:
Top EU official: Hamas fully responsible for Gaza war — Hamas bears full responsibility for the war in Gaza, a top EU official said Monday in the Strip, calling the group “a terrorist movement.” — “At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas,” Louis Michel …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Feingold Introduces 28th Amendment — I hope you'll excuse the hubristic headline. Constitutional amendments are introduced all the time in the Congress. Most of them are used to make a political point of one kind or another and stand little chance of becoming law.
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama's Initial Approval Ratings in Historical Context — Rank among the best for a newly elected president since World War II — USA - Government and Politics - Leadership - Presidential Job Approval - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America — PRINCETON, NJ …
Discussion:
USA Today
Washington Post:
Franken Has the Lead, but Coleman Has His Day in Court — The longest-running Senate campaign in the nation heads into the home stretch this week. We think. — Today in St. Paul, Minn., a three-judge panel will kick off a trial featuring Norm Coleman, the incumbent Republican senator who …
Drudge Report:
PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic “stimulus” package, claiming “contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”
Examiner:
Police officer stalks man who caught him breaking the law — Police are supposed to abide by the same rules as the rest of us, right? They don't get a pass on taxes, they're not supposed to knock over liquor stores, they don't get to slap their kids and spouses around and they're bound …
Discussion:
Reason
E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Ready-for-Disaster Republicans — Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation in the midst of a grave crisis lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns to the task of getting it back. — Party politics has not been suspended.
Discussion:
Democracy in America
Directorblue / Doug Ross:
And on the fifth day, subpoenas were served to Obama's senior staff — On Saturday morning, the list of subpoenas served by the U.S. Attorney's office in the Governor Rod Blagojevich case was made public. The list included one major surprise for the new administration.