Top Items:
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
51 Vote Rules May Force a Public Option Too Liberal for Some Dems — As Senate leaders begin work on a Democrat-only health care bill, they're finding themselves confronted with an unexpected irony: Though the caucus has reached an uneasy consensus around a public option that's modeled …
RELATED:
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate — Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate. — Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told the Hill in a recent interview …
Discussion:
Glenn Thrush's Blog, TPMDC, Congress Matters, Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, MyDD and Sunlight Foundation
Aimai / No More Mister Nice Blog:
No, Seriously, Dude, Acolyte? — It is fun to wake up and find [edited to remove extra word] yourself accused of joining a cult—the cult of people who like incredibly detailed, footnoted, analytic, legal arguments about abstruse and painful political crimes? The cult of people who follow links?
Discussion:
TalkLeft
RELATED:
Joe Klein / Swampland:
Glenn Greenwald — Twice in the past month, my private communications have been splashed about the internet. That such a thing would happen is unfortunate, and dishonorable, but sadly inevitable, I suppose. I ignored the first case, in which a rather pathetic woman acolyte of Greenwald's published …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Beltway culture, checks on journalists and secrecy obligations
Beltway culture, checks on journalists and secrecy obligations
Discussion:
TalkLeft
John Cole / Balloon Juice: You Have to Be Kidding Me — Joe Klein on why Glenn Greenwald is not a serious person:
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Please, Not In Front Of The Kids (Or The Sockpuppets... Or The Editors)
Please, Not In Front Of The Kids (Or The Sockpuppets... Or The Editors)
Discussion:
Neptunus Lex
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Obama Slide — Two tides swept over American politics last winter. The first was the Obama tide. Barack Obama came into office with an impressive 70 percent approval rating. The second was the independent tide. Over the first months of this year, the number of people …
RELATED:
CNN:
CNN Poll: Independents disapprove of Obama — WASHINGTON (CNN) — A majority of independent voters disapprove of how Barack Obama's handling his job as president, according to a new national poll. — Fifty-three percent of independents questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation …
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Something New On Health Care: Deal-Breakers From The President — This time, the President is going to be specific. Next week, President Obama is going to give Democrats a health care plan they can begin to sell. — He plans to list specific goals that any health insurance reform plan …
RELATED:
Norman J. Ornstein / Washington Post:
Obama Takes Realistic Approach on Health Care
Obama Takes Realistic Approach on Health Care
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Climate Progress, Slate, The Glittering Eye, AMERICAblog News and New York Times
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Time for the U.S. to Get Out of Afghanistan — “Yesterday,” reads the e-mail from Allen, a Marine in Afghanistan, “I gave blood because a Marine, while out on patrol, stepped on a [mine's] pressure plate and lost both legs.” Then “another Marine with a bullet wound to the head was brought in.
Discussion:
The Opinionator, Commentary, Weekly Standard, The Swamp, democracyarsenal.org, CBS News, The Note, Washington Wire, PostPartisan, The New Republic, ATTACKERMAN, The Jawa Report, Top of the Ticket, The Corner on National …, Associated Press, Swampland, Jules Crittenden, JustOneMinute, Mudville Gazette, ThreatsWatch, Secrecy News, Front Row Washington, The Other McCain, Shadow Government, The Atlanticist, MoJo Blog Posts, The Foundry, National Review Online, Townhall.com, Donklephant, Counterterrorism Blog, Below The Beltway, Flopping Aces, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and TPMMuckraker
RELATED:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
W.H. fears liberal war pressure
W.H. fears liberal war pressure
Discussion:
McClatchy Washington Bureau, Hot Air, Shadow Government, BLACKFIVE, Exurban League, AMERICAblog News, The Swamp, ABCNEWS, The Caucus and Wake up America
Washington Post:
Thesis Thrusts Va. Gubernatorial Candidate's Past Views Into Spotlight — The Virginia governor's race ignited Monday over Republican Robert F. McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis: Democrats assailed him in e-mail blasts and interviews for what he wrote about working women, homosexuals and …
RELATED:
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights — WASHINGTON — Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life …
RELATED:
Joseph Weber / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Gonzales defends Holder's decision on CIA — Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales on Tuesday defended the decision of his current successor, Eric H. Holder Jr., to investigate alleged prisoner abuse by CIA interrogators over President Obama's desire to look forward.
Maggie Haberman / New York Post:
YOU CAN'T KEEP A BAD MAN DOWN — SPITZER IS EYEING A COMEBACK — Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The Post.
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Torture's Ugly Dialogue — Call him Ishmael. — Call him a terrorist or a suicide bomber or anything else you want, but understand that he is willing — no, anxious — to give his life for his cause. Call him also a captive, and know that he works with others as part of a team …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, First Draft, JustOneMinute, TalkLeft, Lawyers, Guns and Money, NewsBusters.org and Betsy's Page
RELATED:
Ernest Luning / Colorado Independent:
Bachmann: ‘Slit our wrists, be blood brothers’ to beat health care reform — U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, chats with a supporter at an Independence Institute fundraiser in Denver on Aug. 31. (Photo/Ernest Luning) — DENVER — In a fiery speech …
Boston Globe:
Coakley makes the first move in race for Kennedy seat — Attorney General Martha Coakley this morning picked up nomination papers to run for the Senate seat of Edward M. Kennedy, becoming the first candidate to throw a hat in the ring for what promises to be a fierce five-month-long race.
Discussion:
The Fix, Associated Press, Scorecard's Blog, Christian Science Monitor, The Confluence and The Caucus
RELATED:
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Grassley: The ‘Only Way To Get A Bipartisan Agreement Is To Defeat A Democratic Proposal On The First Hand’ — Over the August recess, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), one of the three Republicans engaged in the “Gang of Six” health care negotiations, has repeatedly made public statements …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Wonk Room, Prescriptions, The Moderate Voice and The Washington Independent
RELATED:
Rory Cooper / The Foundry:
Obama's Team Crosses the Rhetorical Line — (Update: The website cited below has been suspended by barackobama.com. The screenshot to the right is the original page, but the embedded links will no longer work. Click on the picture to the right for a full-screen view.)
Gateway Pundit:
CAUGHT ON TAPE: Obama HCAN Organizer Instructs Supporters How to Shout Down Opponents & Take Over Meetings — More Hope and Change— A Health Care for America Now (HCAN) organizer is caught on tape outside the meeting instructing supporters on how to shout down opponents who get up to ask …
Megan McArdle:
Does High Speed Rail Have a Future? — Forgive me for talking about high speed rail even though Ryan Avent says I'm not allowed to. I just can't control myself, I'm afraid. — As libertarians go, I'm a big fan of high-speed rail. I think it would be very nice if we had some in the …
Vincent Fernando / Clusterstock:
Hong Kong Broker Pulling A “Borat” On Sarah Palin — Hopefully Sarah Palin realizes she's been invited to Hong Kong as a practical joke. — CLSA, the Asia-focused broker who invited Mrs. Palin as keynote speaker for an Asian investment conference, is well known for their cheeky takes on investment research.
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Jindal uses taxpayer money for a helicopter to shuttle him to church. — A report by The Advocate in Louisiana finds that state taxpayers have been paying for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to go to church...in a helicopter: … Last week, Jindal said that he “visits a church when he receives an invitation” …
Discussion:
WBRZ-TV
Rasmussen Reports:
Republican Voters Say GOP Reps in Congress Still Out of Touch — Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republican voters say their party's representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds …
Tim Nudd / AdFreak:
WWF condemns 9/11 print ad by DDB Brazil — [NOTE: The WWF says it never approved this ad and is condemning it. See the updates below.] Just in time for the anniversary of 9/11 comes this tasteless, nightmarish print ad for the World Wildlife Fund, showing dozens of planes headed for lower Manhattan.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Michelle Malkin, Gothamist, The Corner on National …, City Room and Gawker
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Gestapo Precedent for “EITs” — Marc Ambinder addresses the subject of torture today. Ambers poses the following analogy: … But that is the wrong analogy. The sadism and murder of Jews and gypsies in Nazi Germany do not fall under a torture category.
Lawrence M. Krauss / New York Times:
A One-Way Ticket to Mars — NOW that the hype surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings has come and gone, we are faced with the grim reality that if we want to send humans back to the Moon the investment is likely to run in excess of $150 billion.