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:
Open Left, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, NOW! Blog, Commentary and The TrogloPundit
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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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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, Left in the West, Think Progress, TPMDC and Political Byline
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 …
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Senate Finance Committee Rejects Both Public Option Amendments
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
Senate Democrats plan to force vote on public option
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, TPM LiveWire, Hot Air, CANNONFIRE, The Media Consortium, Wonk Room, The Nation and Taylor Marsh
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DEPRESSING DEBATE.... As advertised, the Senate Finance Committee …
DEPRESSING DEBATE.... As advertised, the Senate Finance Committee …
Robert Creamer / The Huffington Post:
Growing Momentum for Public Option
Growing Momentum for Public Option
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Many Options for a Public Option — Even if Not Enough Votes
Many Options for a Public Option — Even if Not Enough Votes
Discussion:
Wonk Room, The Confluence, Think Progress, Facing South, Wonkette, Blogometer, Prairie Weather and Politics Nation
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
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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 …
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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.
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
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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 …
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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,” …
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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
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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 …
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
RELATED:
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% …
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.
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.
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!
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
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 …
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, Gawker, Wonkette, Michael Calderone's Blog, Matthew Yglesias, Reason and PostPartisan
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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Salon, Don Surber, The Greenroom, The Mahablog, Washington Monthly, Commentary, Wake up America and NewsBusters.org
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
CQ-Roll Call fires Nutting — After 44 staffers were laid off at CQ-Roll Call last week, veteran editor Brian Nutting emailed the entire editorial staff demanding answers from management about the cuts. — Now, he's been fired, according to multiple newsroom sources.