Top Items:
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Gibbs responds: Why is anyone still listening to Dick Cheney? — In an interview with Fox News Sunday yesterday, Vice President Cheney aggressively attacked Attorney General Eric Holder for opening preliminary investigation into CIA interrogation abuses. He called it an “outrageous political act …
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Joe Klein / Swampland:
Adios — Looks like the charade of including Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi in the health care negotiations is over. It is not impossible that other Republicans who are not Senators from Maine can be located to support health care reform. But it's also entirely possible that the Republicans …
Ezra Klein:
Chuck Grassley Fundraises Against Health-Care Reform — Chuck Grassley is facing a potentially difficult primary challenge in 2010. As such, he's been working hard to cover his right flank. That would all be fine except for one thing: As ranking member of the Finance Committee …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Plum Line, Wonkette, Think Progress, RedState, Ben Smith's Blog and The Washington Independent
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Gibbs: Enzi's Flipped Over His Cards And Walked Away from the Health Care Table
Gibbs: Enzi's Flipped Over His Cards And Walked Away from the Health Care Table
Mike Allen / The Politico:
George Will calls for pull-out — George F. Will, the elite conservative commentator, will call in his next column for U.S. ground troops to leave Afghanistan, according to publishing sources. — “[F]orces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy …
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George Will / NorthJersey.com:
Why are we still in Afghanistan? — George Will writes for Washington Post Writers Group.
Why are we still in Afghanistan? — George Will writes for Washington Post Writers Group.
Discussion:
Salon
Boston Globe:
Governor sets date for special Senate election, presses for interim appointment — Governor Deval Patrick continued today to press for a change to state law to allow him to appoint an interim replacement for Senator Edward M. Kennedy as he announced that a special election for the seat will be held on Jan. 19.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, Salon, NewsBusters.org, The Swamp, TPMDC, Hotline On Call, Sister Toldjah, The Politico, Wonkette, The Page, Below The Beltway, Real Clear Politics and msnbc.com
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Political Punch:
ABC News Exclusive: National Security Adviser Says President Obama Is Having Greater Success Taking Terrorists Out of Commission Than Bush Did — Responding to criticism from former Vice President Cheney that President Obama is making the nation more vulnerable to terrorism …
Anita Kumar / Virginia Politics:
Who is Jennifer? Another Case of Inter-Campaign Trickery — Bob McDonnell's campaign received a call this morning from a woman who called herself “Jennifer” and claimed to be a freelance reporter from the Connection newspapers in Northern Virginia. She asked for information about McDonnell's schedule.
Discussion:
National Review Online
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
A Different Kind of Liberal — Only 13 days separated the passing of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics, from the death of her brother Ted last week. But amid the wall-to-wall coverage and the stream of retrospectives for the senior senator from Massachusetts …
Discussion:
Shakesville
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Eric Etheridge / The Opinionator:
There Goes the Meritocracy — What can a young woman's new job tell us about America? A lot, apparently, if the young woman is Jenna Bush Hager, the 27-year-old daughter of the most recent President Bush, and the job is “Today Show” correspondent. — Hager teaches at a charter school in Baltimore.
Discussion:
Power Line, Michelle Malkin, Winds of Change.NET, Crooks and Liars and Outside The Beltway
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Big Hollywood:
EXCLUSIVE: Carrie Prejean Takes Legal Action Against Miss California USA Officials — RANCHO SANTA FE, CA - Carrie Prejean's attorney, Charles S. LiMandri announced today that the former Miss California USA is filing a complaint in the Superior Court of California against Miss California USA …
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Why Don't Markets Clear in Urban Storefronts? — Vacant storefront on 1300 block of U Street; good place for a Wendy's? (cc photo by NCinDC) — One of the enduring mysteries of urban life is the prevalence of vacant storefronts. This is understandable in a truly depressed area where the whole local economy has broken down.
Discussion:
Megan McArdle
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Gabriel Sherman / The New Republic:
The Courtship — The story behind the Obama-Brooks bromance. — In the spring of 2005, New York Times columnist David Brooks arrived at then-Senator Barack Obama's office for a chat. Brooks, a conservative writer who joined the Times in 2003 from The Weekly Standard, had never met Obama before.
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Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:
Experts see double-digit Dem losses — After an August recess marked by raucoustown halls, troubling polling data and widespread anecdotal evidence of a volatile electorate, the small universe of political analysts who closely follow House races is predicting moderate to heavy Democratic losses in 2010.
Discussion:
New York Times, NY Daily News, Politics Daily, Hot Air, Political Byline, Open Congress, Think Progress, Christian Science Monitor, The Caucus, Blue Crab Boulevard, Flopping Aces, Commentary, Wake up America, Right Wing Nut House, AmSpecBlog, The TrogloPundit, NPR Blogs, DownWithTyranny!, Don Surber, Ezra Klein, Another Black Conservative and Sister Toldjah
Tory Newmyer / Roll Call:
Burner Helping House Liberals Hold Firm on Public Insurance Option — An organizer for liberal House Democrats says the bloc “isn't bluffing” as it prepares to take a reputation-defining stand to protect a public insurance option in the health care overhaul.
Zachery Kouwe / New York Times:
As Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit — Nearly a year after the federal rescue of the nation's biggest banks, taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.
Jonathan Allen / Notepad:
Obama Asks Federal Workers to Sacrifice — Citing the current economic recession — and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks eight years ago — President Obama says he will use emergency powers to cut the programmed across-the-board January increase in federal employees' pay from 2.4 percent to 2.0 percent …
Jon Henke / The Next Right:
Organizing Against WorldNetDaily — This is just hideously embarrassing for the Right. … In the 1960's, William F. Buckley denounced the John Birch Society leadership for being “so far removed from common sense” and later said “We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner.”
Discussion:
Liberal Values, Media Matters for America, Washington Monthly, The Impolitic and Below The Beltway
Gateway Pundit:
New— Pole Dance Doll For Little Girls & Tassle Tees For Tots — It's come to this. — New for toddlers— Now your little toddler can own her first tassle T-shirt (I'm assuming it's for girls?). — Stroller Derby reported: … And after she outgrows her tassle-T she'll be old enough …
Justin Elliott / TPMMuckraker:
Gun-Toter From Obama Event: I, Like My Pastor, Want The President To Die — The violent anti-Obama sentiment coming out of central Arizona managed to get still more toxic over the weekend. — Chris Broughton, the man who brought an AR-15 rifle and a handgun to an Arizona Obama rally earlier this month …
Howard M. Brandston / Wall Street Journal:
Save the Light Bulb! — Compact fluorescents don't produce good quality light. — Printer — Friendly — The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will effectively phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2012-2014 in favor of compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs.
James Pethokoukis:
Dems/unions push new wave of investment taxes — American equity investors have suffered a lost decade of portfolio performance — the S&P 500 is about where it was back in 1998 — and trillions of dollars of lost net worth, so it may seem a terrible time to hit them with a $100 billion-a-year investment tax.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Key Republican: GOP would repeal health bill if they win in 2010 — Republicans will repeal healthcare reform legislation if they win control of Congress because of that bill, a key Republican pledged late Sunday. — The health bill is “dead on arrival” in Congress, said Rep. Joe Barton …
Ylan Q. Mui / Washington Post:
Blue Chip, White Cotton: What Underwear Says About the Economy — For one answer to the nation's most pressing economic question — when will the recession end? — just take a peek inside the American man's underwear drawer. — There may be some new pairs there, judging by recent reports …
New York Post:
BUZZ BUILDS ON CHELSEA'S NUPS — THOSE rumors of an imminent Chelsea Clinton wedding have picked up steam. A Post reporter yesterday spotted preparations in full gear for a very large gathering on Chappaquiddick island. A big stage was being built (above) and a large tent …