Top Items:
Marc Ambinder:
Lynch Will Appoint Republican If Obama Nominates Gregg — Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) indicated today he'll appoint a Republican to replace Sen. Judd Gregg if Obama nominates the New Hampshire senator to be Secretary of Commerce. In a statement, Lynch said that Gregg made it clear …
RELATED:
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Gregg won't leave without a GOP sub — New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg said Monday for the first time that he won't accept an appointment as secretary of commerce unless he's replaced by a Republican, confirming days of speculation and dashing Democratic hopes of obtaining a 60-seat majority.
The Politico:
Is a top Dem stirring Daschle trouble? — Tom Daschle will tell his old Senate colleagues Monday that he made an honest mistake when he failed to pay taxes on the use of a limousine and a driver — and that he considered the services to be a gift from an old friend rather than income he had to report to the IRS.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Driving Mr. Daschle — Tax avoidance and Democratic Party standards. — So Tom Daschle, the erstwhile prairie populist and scourge of multiple Presidential nominees, failed to disclose and pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars of income. He also waited months to pay up and told …
David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
In Daschle's Tax Woes, a Peek Into Washington — The disclosures about Tom Daschle show how he was able to live lavishly by dint of his name and connections.
Discussion:
The Swamp, The Caucus, DownWithTyranny!, The Politico, Wonkette, Washington Post, White House Watch, CBS News, Daily Kos, MSNBC and AmSpecBlog
Thomas Schaller / Salon:
Just how bad off is the Republican Party? — Republicans know what they're against: Barack Obama. They're still figuring out what they're for. — Michael Steele speaks after being elected Republican National Committee chairman in Washington Jan. 30, 2009.
RELATED:
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Some thoughts on Michael Steele — It's tempting to go all roflerz over the RNC's selection of Michael Steele as chairmen. But I think the proper response is a salute. I have no idea whether Steele will be any good, but I think his selection marks the start of excising the Obama is a M00zlim contingent of the party.
Jill Lawrence / USA Today:
New GOP chair comes out swinging
New GOP chair comes out swinging
Discussion:
Washington Post, Commentary, The Daily Dish, AmSpecBlog, ONTD: Politics and Legum's New Line
Scott Horton / Harper's:
Renditions Buffoonery — In a breathless piece of reporting in the Sunday Los Angeles Times, we are told that Barack Obama “left intact” a “controversial counter-terrorism tool” called renditions. Moreover, the Times states, quoting unnamed “current and former U.S. intelligence figures,” …
RELATED:
Jamison Foser / Media Matters:
The LA Times takes a cheap shot at Dr. Jill Biden.
The LA Times takes a cheap shot at Dr. Jill Biden.
Discussion:
Emptywheel
Pam Spaulding / Pam's House Blend:
Conservative Pajamas Media shuts down ad network, righty blogs hopping mad — This story is a little inside baseball about the blogosphere that sounds like another bit of fallout from the election and the economy is rocking the righty blogs right now. A few years ago (2005) …
RELATED:
Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times:
35 years later, Jerry Brown runs for governor again — The ‘reformed reformer’ wants to be governor again — 35 years after first winning the post. — It was 1974 when Jerry Brown ran for governor as a dashing 36-year-old reformer, the embodiment of change in Watergate's aftermath.
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Bailouts for Bunglers — Question: what happens if you lose vast amounts of other people's money? Answer: you get a big gift from the federal government — but the president says some very harsh things about you before forking over the cash. — Am I being unfair? I hope so.
Little Green Footballs:
ElBaradei: 'I'm Not Taking Sides' on the Destruction of Israel — In an interview with the Washington Post, the leader of the UN's blind, toothless International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei (on whose watch Iran's nuclear weapons program has been able to advance almost unhindered) …
RELATED:
Lisa Taddeo / Esquire:
The Man Who Made Obama — Campaign manager David Plouffe got the first black president elected. Now he's moving on to something even more difficult, and potentially more important. — Plouffe with Obama at the second presidential debate last October. The prep was serious, he says, “but we had fun.
Discussion:
The Field on the Narcosphere
Wall Street Journal:
How Government Prolonged the Depression — Policies that decreased competition in product and labor markets were especially destructive. — The New Deal is widely perceived to have ended the Great Depression, and this has led many to support a “new” New Deal to address the current crisis.
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Justice Dept. Under Obama Is Preparing for Doctrinal Shift in Policies of Bush Years — Eric H. Holder Jr., whom the Senate is expected to confirm as attorney general, will have to contend with a new detention policy for terrorism suspects and other issues rapidly.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
DIM BRODER — I'm watching Andrea Mitchell interview David Broder in what's amounting to a sort of parody of High Broderism. But setting aside the unsupported a priori assumption that a bill with input from both parties is necessarily better than a bill put forward by a single party …
Michael Yon:
How Can the World Be Blind to Israel's Existential Threats? — I heard Benjamin Netanyahu, the person who could soon become Israel's new prime minister, speak this week at the Jerusalem Conference. The most pressing point that he talked about was that under no circumstances should Jerusalem be divided.
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Poll: Republicans Want Party To Be Like Palin — A new Rasmussen poll further demonstrates that the GOP could be in for a long stretch in the wilderness: A majority of GOP voters now say that the party should be more like Sarah Palin. — The numbers: 55% of Republicans say the party should be like Palin …
Discussion:
The Hill's Pundits Blog, Washington Monthly, Wonkette, Stinque, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Salon and Don Surber
Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:
WHO GETS WHAT: Billions for cops in Obama plan — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama wants the government back in the policing business, big time. — Obama's huge stimulus plan includes about $4 billion to resurrect grants …
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Media Matters for America:
NBC's David Gregory falsely claimed Social Security will “pay out more than it's taking in by 2010” … During the February 1 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory falsely asserted that “Social Security is about to go — pay out more than it's taking in by 2010.”
Discussion:
PoliticalBase.com Blog
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
ADDING IT UP — As I mentioned over the weekend, I've seen a lot of Republicans on TV complaining that spending programs that demonstrably do create jobs do not create jobs, like buying new and more energy efficient vehicles for government workforces, etc. But where I've really seen …
Sean Cockerham / Anchorage Daily News:
Palin pushes for road to Nome — PIPE DREAM? Project would cost $3 million to $4 million a mile. — scockerham@adn.com — JUNEAU — Boomers talked for decades about building a road to Nome, an epic 500-mile plus project that would run through some of the most remote wilderness of forest, tundra, rivers and valleys in the world.
Discussion:
The Reaction
Alex Isenstadt / The Politico:
The Dems who bucked Obama — Nearly all of the 11 Democrats who voted against the economic stimulus package Wednesday had an incentive other than the plan's hefty price tag: Nine of them hold districts carried by John McCain in 2008. — While none cited that fact when explaining …
Discussion:
Democracy in America
Andrew Breitbart / Washington Times:
The true face of Hollywood — ANALYSIS/OPINION: — Sometimes I just don't get the Republican Party. — Back in 2004, a smart, good-looking moderate Republican Hispanic ran for Congress. At the time Victor Elizalde was just under 40 years old and working as an executive at a big-time Hollywood studio.
Brigid Schulte / Washington Post:
Fresh Look at Martha Washington: Less First Frump, More Foxy Lady — This just in: Martha Washington was hot. Or at least hotter than we thought. — Our image of the mother of our country, vague and insubstantial as it is, is drawn from portraits painted after her death showing a frumpy …