Top Items:
Patrick O'Connor / The Politico:
Boehner to GOP: Vote against stimulus — President Barack Obama is coming to the Capitol later today in a bid to curry favor with congressional Republicans. But it appears GOP leaders have already made up their minds to oppose his $825 billion stimulus plan.
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Is Rush Limbaugh the New Face of the GOP? — Conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh. AP Photo/Ron Edmonds — It's one week into President Obama's term and his arch nemesis isn't Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
The Politico:
Republicans find their voice — Congressional Republicans, who only weeks ago were sheepish about their own electoral failures and cowed by Obama's polish and popularity, are suddenly punching back — hard — on both sides of the Capitol. — The Senate GOP surprised the administration Monday evening …
Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Obama Goes to Capitol to Lobby G.O.P. on Stimulus — WASHINGTON — President Obama arrived on Capitol Hill early Tuesday afternoon for back-to-back meetings with Republicans in the House and Senate to try to draw bipartisan support for — and tamp down criticism of — his $825 billion economic timulus plan.
Discussion:
Connecting.the.Dots
Lindsay Beyerstein / The Washington Independent:
Obama Begs Waxman to Yank Birth Control from Stimulus
Obama Begs Waxman to Yank Birth Control from Stimulus
Discussion:
Congress Matters, Feministe, RHRealityCheck.org, Associated Press, RHRealityCheck.org blogs and Yahoo! News
Rod Blagojevich / The Huffington Post:
OBAMA AL-ARABIYA INTERVIEW: FULL TEXT — Here is the full text of President Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya Arab TV Network: — INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY HISHAM MELHEM, AL ARABIYA — Map Room — Q Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, we really appreciate it.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, The Campaign Spot, New York Times, Balloon Juice, Marc Lynch, theheretik.us, Guardian, Salon, Jihad Watch, The Raw Story and Washington Monthly
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Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Obama on a Nuclear Iran: Yes They Can? — From Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya: … Wouldn't a simple ‘no, a nuclear Iran is unacceptable to the United States and our allies’ have sufficed? Instead Obama says that Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon is “unhelpful,” that it's “not conducive to peace.”
Jules Crittenden:
Al-Hopiyah, Al-Changiyah! — In the rubble of the United Nations compound, Gaza City, partially blown-up Mortar Pit No. 6: — Farouk: Look, Achmed! Ali, come quick. The new Emir of Amerikiyah, Sheikh Hussein Obama, is being interviewed by al-Arabiyah! Even before he speaks to his own people upon the TV, he speaks to us!
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Al-Arabiya Move — It popped up on television last night and I had two reactions. The first was a sense of met expectation. Part of the rationale for Obama's presidency from a foreign policy perspective was always his unique capacity to rebrand America in the eyes of the Muslim world.
Discussion:
PoliticalBase.com Blog
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Rove Ordered to Testify To Congress on Firings — House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) issued a new subpoena yesterday to former Bush White House aide Karl Rove, months after Rove deflected an earlier effort to compel his testimony about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys …
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
STATING THE OBVIOUS — I hear a lot of talk about whether Obama's governing approach can be ‘bipartisan’ if a good number of Republicans don't vote for his Stimulus Bill. But that dubious point seems to be obscuring a more obvious and telling reality: the Republican leadership in both houses …
Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:
High-Flying Citigroup Grounds Plans for $50M Jet — Obama Aide Called Citigroup to Complain About Jet — The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.
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Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Kristol Severs Ties With the N.Y. Times — Bill Kristol and the New York Times parted company yesterday, one year after he began writing a weekly opinion column that became a high-profile target for his detractors on the left. — But the conservative commentator, who edits the Weekly Standard …
Conn Carroll / The Foundry:
Morning Bell: What Is the Spending Multiplier on a Pack of Condoms? — This Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created quite a stir when she attempted to defend Section 5004, of the House's economic stimulus plan which allows the Medicaid bailout portion of the spending plan to be spent on family planning clinics.
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Bob Herbert / New York Times:
The Same Old Song — What's up with the Republicans? Have they no sense that their policies have sent the country hurtling down the road to ruin? Are they so divorced from reality that in their delusionary state they honestly believe we need more of their tax cuts for the rich …
Fredric U. Dicker / New York Post:
PATERSON LYIN' KING OF STATE — KNOWS KENNEDY LEAKER — ALBANY - Gov. Paterson yesterday insisted he had no idea who did the slime job on Caroline Kennedy - although the source of the information is about as close to him during the day as his wife is at night. — He's a liar.
Discussion:
City Room, The Daily Politics, NY Daily News, Runnin' Scared, Gawker, Spin Cycle, New York Times, Ben Smith's Blogs and TIME.com
www.dcexaminer.com:
The Washington Examiner adds K Street columnist, society writer — The Washington Examiner announced today that Timothy P. Carney, who has been writing a weekly op-ed column for the paper, was joining the staff full time to oversee a new K Street page. — Carney will write a lobbying column …
Iowahawk / Big Hollywood:
Ten Things You Can Do To Save The Planet — A Go-Green Guide for the Hollywood Community — More than ten years after the Kyoto accords, our planet continues to careen helplessly toward certain environmental destruction. The skies are choked with pollutants. Adorable helpless polar bears plunge through thinning ice caps.
Marist Poll:
46% of New York Voters Endorse Gillibrand Appointment Paterson Loses Ground Against Potential 2010 Opponents — This Marist Poll reports: — · On the Money...Plurality of New York State Voters Approve of Gillibrand's Appointment to U.S. Senate...One In Three Voters Unsure …
Kate Klonick / CJR:
Q & A: Former McCain Blogger Michael Goldfarb — “I was a cudgel. I pissed off the media.” … Kate Klonick: You spent the last six months as the official campaign blogger for the McCain campaign, taking leave from your position as Web editor at The Weekly Standard. What were you expecting when you made the switch?
Paul Krugman:
A Dark Age of macroeconomics (wonkish) — Brad DeLong is upset about the stuff coming out of Chicago these days — and understandably so. First Eugene Fama, now John Cochrane, have made the claim that debt-financed government spending necessarily crowds out an equal amount of private spending …
ABCNEWS:
Another Lobbyist Headed into Obama Administration — Leaves Critics Questioning the President's Commitment to Changing Washington — Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration, a recent lobbyist for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs …
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Gates: Aghanistan demands more troops — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, saying the war in Afghanistan has become America's “top overseas military priority,” told lawmakers today that the number of U.S. troops there will increase dramatically this spring and grow through the summer.
Discussion:
The Politico
John F. Harris / The Politico:
Power, politics, gossip on daily call — The conversations don't begin with hello. They don't end with goodbye. Most often they pick up with a low, drawling voice uttering something between a sentence and a grunt. — “Wahzgoanawn?” — For those not accustomed to hearing James Carville …