Top Items:
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
No Boiled Carrots — Barack Obama even needs a teleprompter to get mad. — On St. Patrick's Day, the president spoke a bit of Gaelic, dyed the White House fountains green and talked about his distant relatives in the tiny Irish town of Moneygall, aptly named since money and gall are the two topics now consuming him.
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Edward M. Liddy / Washington Post:
Repairing AIG and Repaying the Public — The government rescue of American International Group (AIG) and other financial firms has produced a palpable wave of anger on the part of Americans and a rising public demand for accountability from corporate and government leaders.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, The Atlantic Business Channel, The Caucus, Think Progress, Associated Press, New York Times, TalkLeft, MSNBC, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Boston Globe, DealBook, The Corner, DownWithTyranny!, The BLT, QandO, The Hill, Democracy in America, Pajamas Media and Patterico's Pontifications
Ian Swanson / The Hill:
AIG staff: We deserve this money — AIG's new management team last year proposed that its employees give up their “retention” bonuses, or at least reduce them. The response from the 370 or so employees set to rake in $450 million in bonuses through 2010? — Take a hike.
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
Wall Street's Dangerous Refusal to Learn — You have to wonder what else has to go wrong, how much more wealth will need to be destroyed, before the people on Wall Street get the message that it's no longer business as usual. — The latest outrage, of course, is over the $400 million …
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Paying Workers More to Fix Their Own Mess
Paying Workers More to Fix Their Own Mess
Discussion:
Megan McArdle, Matthew Yglesias, Portfolio, The Baseline Scenario, Clusterstock, Runnin' Scared, Prairie Weather and The Caucus
Tim / Sky News:
The Obama 100 — Earlier in the day, the president claimed an Irish ancestry, saying his mother's family could be traced back to Ireland. — He joked to Cowen: “We may be cousins. We haven't sorted that through yet.” — Speaking in the Oval Office, he told the Irish premier …
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Associated Press:
Begorra! Irish PM trips over White House speech — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar.
Julie Hirschfeld Davis / Associated Press:
Washington knew AIG was preparing to pay bonuses
Washington knew AIG was preparing to pay bonuses
Discussion:
CNN, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Wake up America, The Smirking Chimp and Power Line
Wall Street Journal:
Financial Journalists Fail Upward — “Listen, you knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months and months,” said “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart to CNBC superstar Jim Cramer in their much-discussed confrontation last week. “The entire network was, and so now to pretend …
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David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
@ McGraw-Hill: NBCU's Zucker Calls Out Jon Stewart: Blaming CNBC Is ‘Absurd’ — NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeff Zucker, in a Q&A with Ellen Pollock, executive editor, BusinessWeek, opened the *McGraw-Hill* Media Summit by taking on Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, who on the Daily Show …
Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:
CNBC's woes may open the door to its competitors — Commentary: Jon Stewart's criticisms could resonate with viewers … NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — When Jon Stewart excoriated CNBC on “The Daily Show,” he barely mentioned its competition. That seemed to imply that the Fox Business Network …
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
President's Budget Strategy Under Fire — Tactic May Break Obama's Bipartisan Pledge, GOP Says — Senior members of the Obama administration are pressing lawmakers to use a shortcut to drive the president's signature initiatives on health care and energy through Congress without Republican votes …
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
LOWERING THE BAR FOR MOB RULE.... About two weeks ago …
LOWERING THE BAR FOR MOB RULE.... About two weeks ago …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
Andy Katz / ESPN:
Presidential pick 'em at the White House — ESPN.com takes an exclusive look at President Obama's bracket — WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama has studied Lincoln and FDR to help guide him through the early stages of his presidency. — But he is very much a modern man …
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Rahm: Obama Believes AIG Mess Is A “Big Distraction” — White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel offers an intriguing glimpse into President Obama's thoughts about the AIG furor: … Without polling on the question, it seems best to reserve judgment on how damaging the AIG mess is to the White House.
Discussion:
New York Times, Open Left, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Daniel W. Drezner and Washington Monthly
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Rob Gillies / Associated Press:
Bush says it's ‘essential’ to help Obama — CALGARY, Alberta - Former President George W. Bush, making his first public speech since leaving office in January, says he wants Barack Obama to succeed and that it's “essential” to support the new leader. — Bush declined to critique …
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Matt Corley / Think Progress:
The Husband Of Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Is A ‘Protector Of The Palin Brand’ — During the presidential campaign, Fox News's Greta Van Susteren had perhaps the best access to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of any journalist. In September, she hosted a one-hour “documentary” …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Some Members of Evan Bayh's New Anti-Progressive Caucus Too Frightened to Admit Membership — It's been known for a while now that Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) has been planning to form a caucus of “moderate” Senate Democrats hoping to soak up special interest cash in exchange for blocking the progressive agenda.
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Ben Katcher / The Washington Note:
Guest Post by Lawrence Wilkerson: Some Truths About Guantanamo Bay — Lawrence B. Wilkerson was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell and is chairman of the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative. — There are several dimensions to the debate …
Alex Conant / The Politico:
The 5 biggest myths about Obama — By trade if not by choice, I have become something of a Barack Obama aficionado. POLITICO's Mike Allen wrote last week that I have “probably listened to more President Obama speeches than any human besides [White House spokesman Robert] Gibbs.”
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Stayin' Alive — The inside story of health care reform's near-death experience. — In early January, most of Barack Obama's senior staff assembled with the president-elect for a meeting inside a windowless, eighth-floor office at the transition headquarters in Washington.
Bsetser / Brad Setser:
A bit more to worry about; foreign demand for long-term Treasuries has faded — I wanted to highlight one trend that I glossed over on Monday, namely that foreign demand for long-term Treasuries has disappeared over the last few months. Consider a chart showing foreign purchases of long-term Treasuries over the past 3 months.
Noemie Emery / www.dcexaminer.com:
Palinphobes and the audacity of type — Now that the Obama presidency is nearing the 60-day mark, it's time to thank those fastidious scribes on the left and the right who worked so hard to warn us against Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and the dire things that would surely occur if she ever got close to executive power.
Discussion:
Eunomia