Top Items:
Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
BREAKING: Darrel Thompson Jumps Off Burris Ship — Acting Chief of Staff to Senator Roland Burris, Darrel Thompson, has resigned his position, according to senior staffers in the US Senate. — Darrel Thompson, a former Senior Adviser to Senator Harry Reid, had been dispatched by Senator Reid …
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Chicago Breaking News:
Quinn calls on Burris to quit — Gov. Pat Quinn at his press conference this morning. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) — Gov. Patrick Quinn today called on U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign amid the furor of questions over his contacts with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Discussion:
Political Machine, Chicago Tribune, The Hill, Chicago Sun Times, The Capitol Fax Blog, CBS News, Change of Subject, Democracy in America, The Politico, The Caucus, Salon, The Swamp, The Raw Story, The Next Right, Daily Kos, Progress Illinois, The Reaction, Jack & Jill Politics and The New Editor
Manu Raju / The Politico:
WH to Burris: Think again — CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said Friday that Roland Burris should resign from the Senate and the vacancy should then be filled by a special election, injecting fresh momentum in the growing campaign to oust the man picked to fill President Barack Obama's Senate seat.
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
WH lashes out at CNBC's Santelli — The White House is lashing out publicly and personally at a CNBC reporter whose attack on President Obama's anti-foreclosure plan caught fire on the Internet Thursday. — White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs jumped at the chance to go after the CNBC journalist …
Discussion:
Democratic Strategist
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David Brooks / New York Times:
Money for Idiots — Our moral and economic system is based on individual responsibility. It's based on the idea that people have to live with the consequences of their decisions. This makes them more careful deciders. This means that society tends toward justice — people get what they deserve as much as possible
The Huffington Post:
Gibbs V. Santelli: He Should Read President's Plan (VIDEO) — Rick Santelli, the CNBC reporter who went into a certifiable rant against the Obama housing plan Thursday, found himself in the White House bullseye 24-hours later: the object of scorn and humorous derision from the president's press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Alex Leo / The Huffington Post:
John Gibson Did Not Compare Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum (UPDATED) — UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum.
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johnny dollar's place:
Huffington Post Smear of Gibson Uses Doctored Video! — Updated! HuffPo apology, Gibson response, and more after the jump. — A headline at Huffington Post blares: John Gibson Compares Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum (VIDEO). Writer Alex Leo lays it all out:
Alison Vekshin / Bloomberg:
Dodd Says Short-Term Bank Takeovers May Be Necessary — Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said banks may have to be nationalized for “a short time” to help lenders including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. survive the worst economic slump in 75 years.
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The Huffington Post:
Schumer: Failed ‘Zombie’ Banks Should Be Nationalized — Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) believes that failed “zombie” banks, no matter what their size, should be taken over by the government, which should then wipe out shareholders, fire management, clean up the banks and quickly resell them into the marketplace.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Paul Krugman, Spin Cycle, Open Left and Eschaton
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Needed: Less Talking About Nationalization, More Action
Needed: Less Talking About Nationalization, More Action
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings
Joan Lowy / Associated Press:
AP Interview: Transportation secretary says taxing how much we drive may replace gasoline tax — WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn …
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Foundry, Right Wing News, MoJo Blog Posts, JammieWearingFool and OpenMarket.org
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence — Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday, there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole. — In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack.
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Obama Bans Gimmicks, and Deficit Will Rise — WASHINGTON — For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget …
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Obama's Supine Diplomacy — The Biden prophecy has come to pass. Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, predicted in October that “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.” Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban missile crisis.
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Charles Krauthammer / Real Clear Politics:
‘Kick Me’ Diplomacy — WASHINGTON — The Biden prophecy has come to pass.
‘Kick Me’ Diplomacy — WASHINGTON — The Biden prophecy has come to pass.
Discussion:
Venezuela News And Views
Forbes:
Laissez-Faire Capitalism Has Failed — The financial crisis lays bare the weakness of the Anglo-Saxon model. — It is now clear that this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst economic crisis in the last 60 years. While we are already in a severe …
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings
Eamon Javers / The Politico:
The Obama Cabinet is a CEO black hole — In President Barack Obama's Cabinet, there is a Nobel Prize winner, a former mayor, and a veteran CIA agent. Surrounding him in the White House West Wing are a former four-star general, one of the nation's most eminent economists …
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Jeffrey Goldberg:
Glenn Greenwald is Hysterical — Not funny-hysterical, just hysterical. I think he feels badly about writing for The American Conservative, maybe because he knows that writing for a magazine founded by Pat Buchanan and animated by Buchanan's hostility to Jews and to Israel is a self-marginalizing act …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Washington Post Stands By Climate Change Denialism — For those who are late to the party, recently George Will wrote a column claiming, most broadly, that in the 1970s there was a scientific consensus that the world was suffering from “global cooling” that was as firm as the current consensus about global warming.
Michelle Malkin:
“This is our house now:” ACORN mob begins breaking into homes — On Wednesday, I said prepare for lawlessness as ACORN's civil disobedience mob steps up pressure for President Obama's mortgage entitlement expansion. — Well, are you ready, Baltimore? (Hat tip - Jeff Quinton) …
KDKA-TV:
Sen. Specter Jeered For Voting For Stimulus Plan — PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was greeted with jeers at a press conference in Cranberry Township. — Conservatives are fuming after Specter cast the deciding vote that led to the passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan.
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Land of a Thousand Liebermans — The jungle primary isn't just for Louisiana anymore. — In fact, it isn't for Louisiana at all, which has phased out the system for federal races. But the practice was recently adopted by Washington State. And if a State Senator from San Luis Obispo gets his way …
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Coleman Changes Position Yet Again, Now Wants To Throw Out Already-Counted Ballots He Said Were Legal — The Coleman campaign has just filed a very interesting motion in the election trial, changing their position for the fourth or fifth time on whether to count rejected absentee ballots …
Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
Poll: Obama rating slips, but still high — CNN Deputy Political Director — WASHINGTON (CNN) — A national poll indicates that two out of three Americans approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president of the United States. — The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey …
Jerusalem Post:
Israel: Iran, Syria secretly continuing nuclear projects — “Iran and Syria are secretly working on nuclear technology in a manner which risks peace in the region and the world and while bluntly ignoring their international obligations,” a statement by the Foreign Ministry said Friday evening.