Top Items:
Washington Post:
White House Is Seeking to Repair Intraparty Rift About Public Option — Public Option Wasn't Intended as Major Focus — President Obama's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that they were unprepared for the intraparty rift that occurred over the fate of a proposed public health insurance program …
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Nat Hentoff / Jewish World Review:
I am finally scared of a White House administration — The members of that ultimate federal board will themselves not have examined or seen the patient in question. For another example of the growing, tumultuous resistance to “Dr. Obama,” particularly among seniors, there is a July 29 …
Discussion:
theblogprof, OpenMarket.org, Dr. Sanity, Taylor Marsh, PoliGazette, Maggie's Farm, Raw Story, Macsmind and Samizdata.net
Rasmussen Reports:
Without Public Option, Enthusiasm for Health Care Reform, Especially Among Democrats, Collapses — Just 34% of voters nationwide support the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats if the so-called “public option” is removed.
New York Times:
Democrats Seem Set to Go Alone on a Health Bill — WASHINGTON — Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority's cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.
Discussion:
Clive Crook, The Hill, Political Punch, Club for Growth, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Plum Line, The Politico, The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Corner on National …, CNN, Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias, The Note, The Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Salon, Newshoggers.com, Hot Air, neo-neocon, Wonkette, Ezra Klein, Daily Kos, Commentary, Room for Debate, Donkeylicious, RedState, MyDD, PERRspectives, Erick's blog, NPR Blogs, MoJo Blog Posts, Front Row Washington, Crooks and Liars, The Strata-Sphere, Hullabaloo, Open Left, QandO, Dennis the Peasant, The New Argument and Sweetness & Light
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
Time to Give Up on the Public Option — Enough already with the public option! — It is not the be-all and end-all of health-care reform. It is not the long-awaited safety net for the uninsured. And if, as many liberals hope, it turns out to be nothing more than Medicare for All …
Discussion:
The Opinionator, USA Today, The Daily Dish, New York Post, Donklephant, PoliGazette, Ezra Klein, The Agenda on National …, Don Surber, TigerHawk, The Huffington Post, Grasping Reality …, Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic Business Channel, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Slate and Left in the West
CNN:
Barney Frank goes toe to toe at health care town hall — (CNN) — Most Congress members conducting town hall meetings this month have chosen a noncombative posture to deal with angry participants who disrupt the proceedings. Not Rep. Barney Frank. — At a lively two-hour meeting Tuesday night …
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The Huffington Post, Fox News, Mediaite, Outside The Beltway, Althouse, Think Progress and Liberal Values
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Was Barney Frank's ‘Nazi’ Questioner a LaRouche Cultist? [UPDATE: Confirmed]
Was Barney Frank's ‘Nazi’ Questioner a LaRouche Cultist? [UPDATE: Confirmed]
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
CNN Fails to Report Woman Comparing Obama to Hitler is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat
CNN Fails to Report Woman Comparing Obama to Hitler is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat
Discussion:
HotAirPundit, TPMDC, NECN, JammieWearingFool, Mediaite, The Washington Independent, Hot Air and Washington Monthly
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
The LaRouche Cult and the Health Care Protests
The LaRouche Cult and the Health Care Protests
Discussion:
New York Magazine
Pew Research Center:
More See White House and GOP Leaders at Odds — Democratic Favorable Ratings Slide — Americans are in an increasingly sour mood about Washington. Barack Obama's approval ratings continue to inch downward and a growing proportion of Americans (63%) think that the president and Republican leaders …
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
White House Will Weather Liberal Anger; Baucus Doubles Down — The White House and Senate Democrats won't buckle to demands from liberals that they revise their health care strategy, officials said today. — White House advisers and Democratic strategists concede that President Obama's poll numbers …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
A deeper look at the birthers — After we conducted polls over the last couple of weeks finding significant numbers of ‘birthers’ in North Carolina and Virginia, we decided to take the question national but also drum down more specifically on where exactly the people who think Barack Obama …
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Is there really a boycott of Glenn Beck? Update: Law of unintended consequences? — We've heard about the boycott of the Glenn Beck Show on Fox News Channel, one where as many as 20 advertisers have dropped their spots, thanks to pressure from left-wing groups angry at ... well, their latest anger du jour.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Sundries Shack, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, DefendGlenn.com and Don Surber
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Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Farmers Insurance pulls Beck ads
Farmers Insurance pulls Beck ads
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BuzzFlash.org
Chris / Law Dork:
BREAKING: Judge Denies LGBT Orgs, Grants San Fran Request to Join Prop 8 Challenge — Protests erupted in California - and across the country - following the passage of Proposition 8 in California, now being challenged in federal court by two of the nation's most prominent lawyers, Ted Olson and David Boies.
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Jo Becker / New York Times:
A Conservative's Road to Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy
A Conservative's Road to Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, The Bilerico Project, ACS Blog, The Corner on National …, New York Magazine, #gay, Law Dork, Law Blog and Overlawyered
Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:
Ted Olson, Law vs. Policy, and the Role of Courts vs. Counsel …
Ted Olson, Law vs. Policy, and the Role of Courts vs. Counsel …
Discussion:
#gay
Domenico Montanaro / msnbc.com:
FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA'S GOOD, BAD NEWS — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg — *** Good news and bad news: The (relatively) good news for the Obama White House in the new NBC News poll is that the contours of the health-care debate haven't really changed …
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The Politico:
Dem investigators target insurers — House Democrats are probing the nation's largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences. — Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents …
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James Brown / CBS News:
TV News Giant Don Hewitt Dies At 86 — CBS News Legend And “60 Minutes” Creator's Career Spanned 60 Years — (CBS) Don Hewitt, recognized as a father of modern television news and the creator of the medium's most successful broadcast, “60 Minutes,” died Wednesday after battling pancreatic cancer.
Carla Marinucci / San Francisco Chronicle:
Senate bid dogged by Fiorina's failure to vote — (08-18) 19:51 PDT — Republican Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, took her first formal step Tuesday to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer - but does she pass the Citizenship 1o1 test?
Warren E. Buffett / New York Times:
The Greenback Effect — IN nature, every action has consequences, a phenomenon called the butterfly effect. These consequences, moreover, are not necessarily proportional. For example, doubling the carbon dioxide we belch into the atmosphere may far more than double the subsequent problems for society.
Dan Strumpf / Associated Press:
NY dealers pull out of clunkers program — NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of auto dealers in the New York area have withdrawn from the government's Cash for Clunkers program, citing delays in getting reimbursed by the government, a dealership group said Wednesday.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
A call with the rabbinate — From the Washington Jewish Week, and confirmed just now by Gibbs: — President Barack Obama needs some outside help pushing health care reform, and he's turning to rabbis to get it. — In a morning conference call with about 1000 rabbis from across the nation …
Greg Giroux / Top Stories from CQ:
McCain: Maverick No More? — He ran for president last year as a “maverick” Republican and had a high-profile meeting with Barack Obama after the election, but Arizona Sen. John McCain has been a staunch Republican vote since failing to win the White House.
Discussion:
Think Progress
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Anti-Reform Group's Internal Memo: “Rumors Of The Death Of The Public Option Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” — In a clear sign that conservatives are worried that the public option could still survive, an internal memo from a top anti-health care reform group claims that “rumors of its death” …