memeorandum: The Politico Gets Played By ACORN (Matthew Vadum/AmSpecBlog)

8:15 PM ET, September 29, 2009

Top Items:

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Harkin says he has the votes to pass public option bill in the Senate — The Senate has the votes to pass a healthcare reform bill including a public option, a key Senate chairman said Tuesday. — Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa.), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Open Left, NOW! Blog, Commentary and The TrogloPundit

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care — WASHINGTON — As if it were not complicated enough, the debate over health care in Congress is becoming a battlefield in the fight over abortion. — Abortion opponents in both the House and the Senate are seeking to block the millions …

Discussion: The New Republic, AmSpecBlog, RedState, Telegraph, Megan McArdle, The Caucus, Prescriptions, RHRealityCheck.org, The BLT, Taylor Marsh, Michelle Malkin, The Foundry, Feministing, Think Progress and The Page

Associated Press:

Key Senate panel rejects public health plan — Outcome of vote on government-sponsored insurance was expected — WASHINGTON - A key Senate panel on Tuesday voted against creating a new government health insurance plan to compete with the private market. — The 15-to-8 vote …

Discussion: TPMDC, The Reaction, Pam's House Blend, The Moderate Voice and Riehl World View

Chris Harris / Media Matters Action Network:

More Americans Believe In UFOs Than Oppose A Public Option … THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE — As health insurance reform makes its way through congress, it's easy to observe the partisan fighting in Washington and believe the country is deeply divided over a “public option.” — Luckily, that is not the case.

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, Taylor Marsh, NOW! Blog and rubber hose

Patrick Yoest / Wall Street Journal:

Senate Committee Rejects Public Option for Health Overhaul — WASHINGTON—The Senate Finance Committee rejected amendments Tuesday that would add a government-run health-insurance plan to the committee's health-care legislation, but debate over whether to adopt a public plan isn't expected to end at the committee.

Discussion: Club for Growth and Fausta's Blog

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Moore: ‘We will work against you’ — Controversial liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday issued a warning to Democrats who have been cool to President Barack Obama's call for meaningful health care reform: Get on board or prepare to lose your seat. — “To the Democrats in Congress …

Discussion: The Hill, The Greenroom, Scorecard's Blog and The Atlantic Politics Channel

The Politico:

Public option may have new life — The public option limped out of August, battered and left to die in the Senate. — But its supporters are working hard this week to bring it back, against the odds, with a series of high-profile votes in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.

Discussion: The Note, The Swamp, New York Times, The Hill, Politics Daily, ABCNEWS, Los Angeles Times, QandO, GayPatriot, TalkLeft, The Foundry, Think Progress, TPMDC and Political Byline

William Branigin / Washington Post:
Senate Finance Committee Rejects Both Public Option Amendments

Discussion: Politics Daily, Don Surber, The Plum Line, Left in the West, Commentary, Truthdig and Wake up America

Ed Hornick / CNN:
Senate Democrats plan to force vote on public option

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, Hot Air, CANNONFIRE, The Media Consortium, Wonk Room, The Nation and Taylor Marsh

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Senate Panel Rejects a ‘Public Option’ in Health Plan

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel and OpenSecrets.org

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DEPRESSING DEBATE.... As advertised, the Senate Finance Committee …

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, Matthew Yglesias and The New Republic

David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Many Options for a Public Option — Even if Not Enough Votes

Discussion: Wonk Room, The Confluence, Think Progress, Facing South and Wonkette

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Short Takes: Politics and the Public Option

Discussion: Washington Post and Hullabaloo

Robert Creamer / The Huffington Post:
Growing Momentum for Public Option

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Katharine Q. Seelye / Prescriptions:
Live Blogging: Senate Finance Committee Debate on Public Option

Discussion: TPMDC, The Huffington Post, The Nation, Firedoglake, Facing South, Blogometer, Prairie Weather, Left in the West, Open Left and Politics Nation

Matthew Vadum / AmSpecBlog:

The Politico Gets Played By ACORN — One thing that journalists don't seem to get about ACORN is that it is a strange, complex creature with tentacles that reach into the highest levels of the United States government, the Democratic Party, corporate America, the labor movement …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Moe Lane, Washington Monthly and American Spectator

Mike Roman / Big Government:

Massive Voter Fraud in NY Linked to ACORN — The Working Families Party and local Democratic Party Officials are at the center of a massive voter fraud scandal in Troy, NY. — According to the Times Union: … What isn't mentioned is that WFP is nothing more than a front group for ACORN.

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Moe Lane

Rasmussen Reports:

Election 2010: Arkansas Senate Race — Another Democratic senator may be at-risk in 2010. Arkansas' Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state. — Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Poll: Blanche Lincoln Trails Republican Challengers

Discussion: TalkLeft

Rasmussen Reports:
61% of Arizona Republicans Say McCain Out of Touch With Party Base

Discussion: The Hill, Politics Daily, HotAirPundit and Weasel Zippers

The Huffington Post:

GOP Rep. Trent Franks Calls Obama “An Enemy Of Humanity” — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — A Republican member of the House of Representatives accused President Barack Obama of being “an enemy of humanity” during a conservative values forum this past weekend. — In a speech Saturday …

Discussion: Right Wing Watch, The Washington Independent, Salon, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice and Wonkette

Associated Press: Lawmaker clarifies ‘enemy of humanity’ remark of Obama

Diane Bell / San Diego Union-Tribune:

S.D. ghostwriter mum on Sarah Palin memoir — One San Diegan knows all the details of Sarah Palin's soon-to-be released memoir, but don't ask her about it. She can't tell. — Lynn Vincent, Palin's ghostwriter, has signed a non-disclosure agreement. She has been hard at work on the book …

Discussion: The Swamp, JammieWearingFool, Christian Science Monitor, TPM LiveWire and CNN

Robert Costa / The Corner on National Review Online:
Santorum Heads to Iowa, Looks Forward to Palin Memoir — By: Robert Costa

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel and Observer

Ed Henry / CNN:

First lady says ‘gloves are off’ in bid for Olympics — WASHINGTON (CNN) — First lady Michelle Obama vowed Monday to “take no prisoners” as she and her husband launch an unprecedented bid for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. — “It's a battle — we're going to win — take no prisoners,” …

Discussion: Fausta's Blog, JustOneMinute, A Blog For All and Jules Crittenden

Steven Erlanger / New York Times:

Europe's Socialists Suffering Even in Downturn — PARIS — A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of Socialism's slow collapse. — Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial system due to “irrational exuberance …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, European Tribune, Matthew Yglesias, Wake up America, Sweetness & Light and Prairie Weather

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish: I'm Still On The Right

Lee Fang / Think Progress:

Right-Wing Panel Agrees Obama Is The ‘First Muslim American President’ — At the How to Take Back America conference last weekend, attended by several Republican lawmakers, former Reagan official and prominent neoconservative Frank Gaffney, right-wing historian Bill Federer …

Discussion: NewsMax.com, Washington Times, Six Meat Buffet, The Political Carnival and Shakesville

Sid Vacuous / Breitbart.tv:

NEWLY DISCOVERED: COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS APPEAR TO ‘PRAY’ TO PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA — The Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus held “a New Orleans style funeral procession as they deliver a casket symbolizing the death of old ways of providing health care and pray for a new day for health care in America.”

Discussion: Hot Air, theblogprof, HotAirPundit, Atlas Shrugs, Gateway Pundit, Nice Deb, Stop The ACLU, RedState, Moe Lane and Whiskey Fire

Michelle Malkin:
Creepy O-cult video of the day: “Deliver us, Obama!” Updated

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, American Power, The Anchoress and The Sundries Shack

Washington Examiner:

Bill — I can think of nothing more disturbing than the use of fallen soldiers as political fodder. Shame on you, you political hacks. May God forgive you. — So the Pres doesn't have time to discuss the General's troop request, but has time to continue pushing Heathcare reform 60% …

Discussion: Power Line, The Swamp, NewsBusters.org, YID With LID and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Josh Gerstein / The Politico:

Generals: Cheneys scaremongering — About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama's effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Comments from Left Field

Carolyn Jones / San Francisco Chronicle:

Berkeley may sign onto U.N. treaties — Berkeley would become the first city in the United States to independently try to comply with U.N. treaties on torture, civil rights and racial discrimination, if the City Council passes a measure on the issue tonight.

Discussion: Riehl World View and Sister Toldjah

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Morning Fix: Attack Dog Needed? — AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dawn Majors — The national debate over President Obama's health care plan has exposed a weakness in the Democratic Party apparatus: it lacks a high profile surrogate to push back — hard — against the rhetorical arguments put forward by Republicans.

Discussion: Democratic National Committee, Commentary, NewsBusters.org, Conservatives4Palin.com and Club for Growth

Washington Post:

Start making your case. — Use the entry form to send us a short opinion essay (400 words or less) pegged to a topic in the news and an additional paragraph (100 words or less) on yourself and why you should win. Entries will be judged on the basis of style, intelligence and freshness of argument …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Accuracy in Media, Wonkette, Gawker, Michael Calderone's Blog, Matthew Yglesias, Reason and PostPartisan

Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:

Did ACORN Elect Al Franken? — Robert Samuelson scorns the egomaniacal “quest for glory” of Congressional Democrats who are trying to pass health care reform. But of course the quest for glory may be the only reason a worthwhile reform could still pass. It ain't going to pass it because it's popular!

Discussion: The Washington Independent, Left Coast Rebel and The Anonymous Liberal

Chris Lee / kff.org:

Public Support For Health Reform Increases in September, Reversing Summer Declines as Congress Takes Up Legislation — Survey Finds Support For New Proposals For Fees And Taxes on Insurance Companies to Help Pay For Overhaul — MENLO PARK, CA — Public support for health reform ended its summer slide …

Discussion: Newsweek Blogs, Think Progress, MoJo Blog Posts and Ezra Klein

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Time for Obama to Act Like a President — Sooner or later it is going to occur to Barack Obama that he is the president of the United States. As of yet, though, he does not act that way, appearing promiscuously on television and granting interviews like the presidential candidate he no longer is.