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, The TrogloPundit and Commentary
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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 …
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 Moderate Voice, The Reaction, Pam's House Blend, Michelle Malkin and Riehl World View
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 …
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 Hill, New York Times, The Swamp, Politics Daily, ABCNEWS, Los Angeles Times, QandO, GayPatriot, TalkLeft, The Foundry, Think Progress, TPMDC, Political Byline and Washington Post
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.
Ed Hornick / CNN:
Senate Democrats plan to force vote on public option — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two members of the Senate Finance Committee plan to put their Democratic colleagues on the spot on Tuesday by offering amendments on whether to give uninsured Americans the opportunity to join a government insurance program.
Discussion:
The Hill, TPM LiveWire, Hot Air, CANNONFIRE, Wonk Room, The Nation, The Media Consortium and Taylor Marsh
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.
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Senate Finance Committee Rejects Both Public Option Amendments — The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected two Democratic amendments that would have created a government-run “public option” as part an overhaul of the nation's health-insurance system, with the panel's chairman bowing …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Plum Line, Left in the West, Commentary, Truthdig and Wake up America
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DEPRESSING DEBATE.... As advertised, the Senate Finance Committee …
DEPRESSING DEBATE.... As advertised, the Senate Finance Committee …
Katharine Q. Seelye / Prescriptions:
Live Blogging: Senate Finance Committee Debate on Public Option
Live Blogging: Senate Finance Committee Debate on Public Option
Discussion:
TPMDC, The Huffington Post, The Nation, Firedoglake, Facing South, Blogometer, Prairie Weather, Open Left, Left in the West and Politics Nation
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 Moderate Voice, The Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, Salon and Wonkette
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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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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Obama to Afghanistan? — A prediction: President Obama will add a “surprise” visit to Afghanistan to his Olympics-lobbying trip to Copenhagen. — The president and his advisers must realize, in Mark McKinnon's words, that “people elected Obama to be president—not the head of the Illinois Chamber …
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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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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, Atlas Shrugs, HotAirPundit, Nice Deb, Gateway Pundit, Moe Lane, Stop The ACLU, RedState and Whiskey Fire
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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.
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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 …
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, Don Surber, The Greenroom, The Mahablog, Commentary, Washington Monthly, Wake up America and NewsBusters.org
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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!
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:
Ben Smith's Blog, Commentary, NewsBusters.org, Conservatives4Palin.com and Club for Growth
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
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 …
Wall Street Journal:
The Neocons Make a Comeback — Neocons are back because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin never went away. — Printer — Friendly — The other day I was asked by a writer for a mainstream French newspaper to say something about the “return” of the neoconservatives.
Chris Herring / Wall Street Journal:
Fund-Raiser Hsu Sentenced to 24 Years — NEW YORK — A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu to more than 24 years in prison for illegally funneling tens of thousands of dollars to U.S. political candidates and for his role in a Ponzi scheme.
Reuters:
U.S. to Israel: Probe alleged Gaza war crimes to advance peace — The United States called on its close ally Israel on Tuesday to conduct credible investigations into allegations of war crimes committed by its forces in Gaza, saying it would help the Middle East peace process.
Jim McElhatton / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Porn surfing rampant at U.S. science foundation — Number of cases overwhelms watchdog, costs taxpayers — Employee misconduct investigations, often involving workers accessing pornography from their government computers, grew sixfold last year inside the taxpayer-funded foundation …
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.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
400 Pages In Four Months — That's Sarah Palin's achievement for Jonathan Burnham, who runs the marketing company, Harper Collins. Several questions naturally arise. Did she actually write those 400 pages? Please. Her peregrinations in the couple of months since she quit her “day-job” …