memeorandum: Dodd to stay as Banking chair (The Politico)

8:45 AM ET, September 9, 2009

Top Items:

Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care — The president's proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers. — Printer — Friendly — Writing in the New York Times last month, President Barack Obama asked that Americans “talk with one another …

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Media Challenge: Will They Take The Palin Bait?

Discussion: Hot Air

Geoffrey Dunn / The Huffington Post:
Palin No Longer Writing Her Own Script

Discussion: The Immoral Minority

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

How Obama Survived August — At the beginning of the month, I predicted that August might turn out be a bloodbath for Democrats. At the time, the Democratic self-containment on health care had dissolved, cranks were taking over constituent meetings, and that real anxiety about Obama had found …

Discussion: The New Republic, Kausfiles, 24Ahead, The Corner on National …, A Conservative Shemale, Stop The ACLU, QandO, AMERICAblog News, The Political Carnival, Dennis the Peasant, Taegan Goddard's …, marbury and The Hill

Political Punch:

Pelosi and Reid Tell President: We Have the Votes; President Wants Bill Passed Soon — While White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today refrained from telling reporters whether President Obama in his speech Wednesday night will set a deadline for passing health care reform …

Discussion: Hot Air, CNN, Don Surber, Pat Dollard, Conservative Dallas and Pushing Rope

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Adviser losing patience with Obama — One of President Barack Obama's former top campaign advisers is “losing patience” with the White House, he told POLITICO Tuesday morning, as frustrations among the president's liberal allies crest over issues from health care legislation to gay rights.

Discussion: The Swamp, Open Left, The Confluence, Pam's House Blend, The Fix and The Atlantic Politics Channel

Mark Tapscott / Washington Examiner:
Congress has already exempted itself from Public Option

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Pajamas Media

Paul Krugman:

Why the public option matters — Most arguments against the public option are based either on deliberate misrepresentation of what that option would mean, or on remarkably thorough misunderstanding of the concept, which persists to a frustrating degree: I was really surprised to see Joe Klein worrying …

Discussion: Stop The ACLU, TPMDC, Swampland, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, D-Day, Verum Serum, Ezra Klein, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, The Plum Line, TalkLeft, INSTAPUTZ, The Political Carnival and Economist's View

Wall Street Journal:

Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.

Discussion: New York Times, Commentary, Dennis the Peasant, Below The Beltway, Pajamas Media and MyDD

Washington Post:

Obama Speech Aims To Reenergize Effort — Senate Finance Chair Holds Out Hope That Bipartisan Accord Can Be Reached — President Obama will seek to rally Congress to pass health-care reform in a prime-time address Wednesday, even as lawmakers continue struggling to reach broad consensus on some of the toughest issues in the debate.

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts, Donkeylicious, EconomistMom.com, The New Republic, Hot Air, Ezra Klein, The Hill and The Corner on National …

Perry Bacon Jr / Capitol Briefing:
Blue Dog Ross Comes Out Against Public Option

Discussion: Weekly Standard, FiveThirtyEight, The Hill and Commentary

Camille Paglia / Salon:

Too late for Obama to turn it around? — Plus: The left's visionaries lost their bearings on drugs — but the GOP is led by losers — What a difference a month makes! When my last controversial column posted on Salon in the second week of August, most Democrats seemed frozen in suspended animation …

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, Whiskey Fire, NewsBusters.org, Pajamas Media, Vox Popoli and Philly.com

The Culture and Media Institute:

Unmentionable: Best-Selling Conservative Books and the Networks that Ignore Them — Research reveals a glaring imbalance in network coverage of liberal best-sellers and comparable conservative titles. — Culture and Media Institute — The most coveted real estate in the publishing industry …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Riehl World View and Michelle Malkin

Eric Schmitt / New York Times:

Seized Times Reporter Is Freed in Afghan Raid That Kills Aide — Stephen Farrell, a New York Times reporter held captive by militants in northern Afghanistan, was freed in a military commando raid early Wednesday, but his Afghan interpreter was killed during the rescue effort.

Discussion: Times of London, ATTACKERMAN, Gawker, Registan.net, BBC, Guardian, Patterico's Pontifications, Mudville Gazette, the nytpicker, The E&P Pub, Media Decoder and The Page

The Politico:

Dodd to stay as Banking chair — Sen. Christopher Dodd's expected announcement that he will remain in charge of the Banking Committee should give a big boost to his longtime colleague Tom Harkin while setting off a shuffle on other Senate panels. — Dodd has played stand …

Discussion: The Hill and MyDD

Paul Kane / Capitol Briefing:
Dodd Decides Against Taking Over Senate Health Committee

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Open Left

Victor Zapanta / Think Progress:

Rep. Jean Schmidt Tells Birther: ‘I Agree With You’ — Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) spoke at the Voice of America tea party this Labor Day weekend outside of Cincinnati, OH. Following a tense Q&A session — during which, the congresswoman was booed for acknowledging that the Constitution …

Discussion: DISSENTING JUSTICE, The Political Carnival, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Reaction and TPMDC

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:

Olbermann Flip-flops, Tells Kossacks NOT to Dig Up Dirt on Beck — Want to know just how unstable MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is? — Within the course of 48 hours, he asked Daily Kos readers to send him everything they could dig up about Fox News host Glenn Beck, and then called off the dogs.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Hot Air, JammieWearingFool and Pajamas Media

Rachel Slajda / LiveWire:

Chambliss: Obama Better Show Humility In Speech To Congress — Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said today that, because of angry town hallers and the like, President Obama should show “humility” when he speaks to Congress Wednesday night. — “What you're seeing is folks on my side anxious …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, pandagon.net, The Political Carnival, Shakesville and AMERICAblog News

Financial Times:

Obama to seal US-UN relationship — By Harvey Morris at the United Nations — Barack Obama will cement the new co-operative relationship between the US and the United Nations this month when he becomes the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council.

Discussion: Commentary and Atlas Shrugs

Daily Mail:

‘Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby’ — Sarah Capewell begged them to save her tiny son, who was born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy - almost four months early. — They ignored her pleas and allegedly told her they were following national guidelines …

Discussion: Pajamas Media and Don Surber

Kim Zetter / Threat Level:

NSA-Intercepted E-Mails Helped Convict Would-Be Bombers — The three men convicted in the United Kingdom on Monday of a plot to bomb several transcontinental flights were prosecuted in part using crucial e-mail correspondences intercepted by the U.S. National Security Agency, according to Britain's Channel 4.

Discussion: BBC, The Lede and Salon

Patrick Courrielche / Big Hollywood:

WHO SET UP GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contradict — Another conference call has materialized, revealing a concerted effort by government to use the arts to address political issues. — Lee Rosenbaum, a blogger for Artsjournal.com …

Discussion: Power Line, QandO, Flopping Aces, Gawker, Townhall.com, Babalú Blog and Atlas Shrugs

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

It's come to this: August wasn't a setback for us at all, says Gibbs — In which Beltway Bob channels Baghdad Bob. Despite a month of near-daily “Obama's approval rating at new low” headlines and deteriorating numbers for ObamaCare itself, the spin oozes unceasingly forth …

Discussion: Bookworm Room and RealClearPolitics Video Log

Jay Cost / HorseRaceBlog:
Obama To Give Historic Speech...Again

Discussion: The Confluence, Democratic Strategist, Blue Crab Boulevard and American Power

WhiteHouse.gov Blog:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICA'S SCHOOLCHILDREN — THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is everybody doing today? (Applause.) How about Tim Spicer? (Applause.)

Discussion: Washington Post, Scared Monkeys, Christian Science Monitor and Wake up America

Jonathan S. Landay / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush — Smoke billows up Tuesday after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the military entrance to Kabul's airport, killing at least three. Read the story. (Photo by Hal Bernton of the Seattle Times.)

Thomas Sowell / Real Clear Politics:

What Obama Says vs. What He Does — The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them. — The words of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff were apparently quite convincing to many people who were regarded as knowledgeable and sophisticated.

Discussion: Conservative Dallas, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Pundit & Pundette, The Greenroom and Sense of Events

CNN:

Win a dinner with Palin — (CNN) - If you've ever wanted to eat dinner with Sarah Palin, now's your chance. — With bids starting at $25,000, eBay is auctioning off a dinner for five with the former Alaska governor and her husband, Todd. The proceeds will go to “Ride 2 Recovery,” …

Discussion: Cafe Talk Aggregator, The Political Carnival and Mudville Gazette

Herschel Smith / The Captain's Journal:

Taliban Ambush in Eastern Kunar Kills Four U.S. Marines — In a sad for the U.S. Marine Corps, four Marines have perished in Afghanistan. Lamenting their deaths and praying for their families is appropriate, but it's also important to note the circumstances surrounding this incident.

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

New York Times:

U.S. in Delicate Spot as Fraud Claims Mount in Afghan Vote — WASHINGTON — On Monday, as the vote-counting in Afghanistan was nearing an end, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was briefed by the American ambassador in Kabul, Karl W. Eikenberry. The same day, the ambassador delivered …