Top Items:
Joseph Curl / Press Association:
Bush takes swipes at Obama policies — Defends interrogations — Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector not government will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Top of the Ticket, DownWithTyranny!, Megan McArdle, Indecision Forever, The Fix, Opinion L.A., No More Mister Nice Blog, The Swamp, Swampland, DISSENTING JUSTICE, At-Largely, Weekly Standard, Don Surber, Washington Times, White House Watch, Think Progress, Gawker and Political Punch
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ALL-TIME LOWS.... I've seen a few Republican blogs today crowing about the latest national polls, which show some lukewarm support for some of White House's policy priorities. There are a couple of numbers, though, that should give them pause. — For one thing, President Obama's approval ratings still look quite strong.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
The Most Important Number in Politics Today — Seventy-two percent. — That's the number of people in the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll who say that President Obama inherited the “current economic conditions” gripping the country as compared to just 14 percent who said the situation was the result mostly of his policies.
Discussion:
msnbc.com
New York Times:
Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care
Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Think Progress, CBS News, Atlantic Correspondents, Firedoglake, The Atlantic Politics Channel, NewsBusters.org, Swampland, Reuters, White House Watch, Latest Open Salon Blog, Maggie's Farm, Eunomia, The Swamp, Los Angeles Times, TVNewser, Taylor Marsh, Wake up America, The New Republic, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog News, Hot Air and No Sheeples Here!
Economist.com l WASHINGTON / Democracy in America:
Or maybe the honeymoon's not over — IT'S possible to read …
Or maybe the honeymoon's not over — IT'S possible to read …
Patrick Gavin / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Froomkin out at Washington Post (UPDATED) — POLITICO learned today that the Washington Post has terminated its relationship with liberal columnist/blogger Dan Froomkin. Froomkin authored the “White House Watch” blog and was told today that the blog had essentially run its course.
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why? — (updated below - Update II - Update III) — One of the rarest commodities in the establishment media is someone who was a vehement critic of George Bush and who now, applying their principles consistently, has become a regular critic …
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Torture-Mongers vs Froomkin — The WaPo's statement drips with condescension: — Sometimes features must be eliminated, and this time it was the blog that Dan Froomkin freelanced for washingtonpost.com. — My italics. But Hiatt will publish op-eds peddling dishonest partial numbers …
Ezra Klein:
Health Care Reform in Danger — Health reform is, I think it fair to say, in danger right now. The news out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee was bad. The Congressional Budget Office had scored a partial bill and the result was a total fiasco.
Discussion:
The Treatment, Bloomberg, The Hill, Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Democratic Strategist, Cato @ Liberty, DownWithTyranny!, About.com US Liberal Politics, The Confluence, Wonk Room, The Impolitic, Blue Mass. Group, Corrente and Ben Smith's Blog
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Jared Allen / The Hill:
Bipartisan group wants reconciliation off table
Bipartisan group wants reconciliation off table
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
The Huffington Post:
Daschle Urges Obama To Drop Federal Public Health Care Plan — The man once slated to head Barack Obama's health care system overhaul is now coming out against one of the chief components of that effort. — Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said on Wednesday that the Obama White House …
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Gorman Gorman / The Note:
Daschle Folds on Federal Public Health Care Plan
Daschle Folds on Federal Public Health Care Plan
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, AmSpecBlog, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Weekly Standard, Commentary and AMERICAblog News
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Bipartisan Heavy Lifters for Team Up for Health Care Reform
Bipartisan Heavy Lifters for Team Up for Health Care Reform
Discussion:
CBS News, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Foundry, First Draft, New York Times, The Treatment and The Fix
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
U.S. Struggling for Right Response to Iran — Obama Seeks Way to Acknowledge Protesters Without Alienating Ayatollah — The political unrest in Iran presents the Obama administration with a dilemma: keep quiet to pursue a nuclear deal with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader …
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Shirin Ebadi / The Huffington Post:
Iranian Authorities Must Void Elections to Restore Peace on Streets
Iranian Authorities Must Void Elections to Restore Peace on Streets
Discussion:
niacINsight
Chicago Tribune:
Senator questions firing of 3 inspectors general — Removal of 2 inspectors general prompts questions — WASHINGTON - — He was appointed with fanfare as the public watchdog over the government's multi-billion dollar bailout of the nation's financial system.
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Politics in Minnesota:
Two sources: Supreme Court ruling on U.S. Senate race to arrive tomorrow! — PIM has now heard from two sources on different sides of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race recount scene that the final Minnesota Supreme Court ruling is expected to arrive tomorrow, Thursday, June 18th.
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Washington Wire, Alas, a blog, Talking Points Memo and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
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Andy Barr / The Politico:
Olive Garden pulls Letterman ads — Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor's daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman's “Late Show” for the rest of the year.
The Independent:
Robert Fisk: Secret letter ‘proves Mousavi won poll’ — They were handing out the photocopies by the thousand under the plane trees in the centre of the boulevard, single sheets of paper grabbed by the opposition supporters who are now wearing black for the 15 Iranians who have been killed in Tehran …
Associated Press:
PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly — Rights group seeks compassion for curious and ‘least sympathetic animals’ — WASHINGTON - The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.
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Lee Speigel / Political Punch:
PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama a Humane Fly Catcher
PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama a Humane Fly Catcher
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Blaine Harden / Washington Post:
Global Insurance Fraud By North Korea Outlined — Government Has Collected Millions Of Dollars on Large, Suspicious Claims — For Kim Jong Il's birthday, North Korean insurance managers prepared a special gift. — In Singapore, they stuffed $20 million in cash into two heavy-duty bags and sent them …
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Bill Posey, Congressional Birther, Finds Some Friends and Bashes ‘Angry Woman’ Rachel Maddow — Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), who has introduced a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, has collected four more co-sponsors — Reps. John R. Carter …
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David Corn / MoJo Blog Posts: mojo:
Kenneth Starr Endorses Sotomayor — Kenneth Starr, the lawyer who chased after President Bill Clinton and his wife, said on Thursday that he supports President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. — Starr voiced his backing of Sotomayor …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Gay Dems complain DNC cut off funding, drop support for Biden event — Theboard of directors of the National Stonewall Democrats are dropping their support for a June 25 DNC fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden over, they wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO, a combination of policy slights …
Joe Nocera / New York Times:
Only a Hint of Roosevelt in Financial Overhaul — Three quarters of a century ago, President Franklin Roosevelt earned the undying enmity of Wall Street when he used his enormous popularity to push through a series of radical regulatory reforms that completely changed the norms of the financial industry.