Top Items:
Barb Shelly / Midwest Voices:
Bob Dole outs naysayer Mitch McConnell — Bob Dole supports health care reform. — “This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes,” the former Republican Senate majority leader and presidential candidate told an audience in Kansas City today.
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Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:
Senate GOP Folding Over Health Care Reform [updated] — I am told quite reliably that in a meeting today on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators began to rapidly move toward concessions on health care because they are afraid they cannot hold their members. Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.
Discussion:
theblogprof, Michelle Malkin, The Other McCain, Raw Story, CNSNews, Daily Pundit, Taegan Goddard's … and Riehl World View
The Huffington Post:
Dems Discussing Public Option With Opt-Out Clause: The Silver Bullet? — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Senate Democrats have begun discussions on a compromise approach to health care reform that would establish a robust, national public option for insurance coverage but give individual states the right to opt out of the program.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Daily Kos, TPMDC, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Wonk Room and AMERICAblog News
Dave Helling / KansasCity.com Prime Buzz:
Dole: Health care reform coming late this year or next; “you lost” when Clinton-era reform failed — Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole says “there will be a signing ceremony” for a health care reform bill either late this year or early next. — But the former presidential candidate says he isn't sure what the bill will say.
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Preliminary Analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's Mark As Amended — CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have just issued a preliminary analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's mark for the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009 …
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Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
The GOP Is Winning the Health-Care Debate — Gallup says independents now favor Republicans by nine points. — Printer — Friendly — Passing health-care reform could be harmful to the health of congressional Democrats. — Just look at how President Barack Obama's standing has fallen as he has pushed for reform.
Ezra Klein:
Meet the New Health-Care System, Not That Different From the Old Health-Care System — You probably can't see that table particularly well. Click on it, and it'll enlarge. It comes from one of the final pages of the Congressional Budget Office's score (pdf) of the Senate Finance Committee's bill …
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL — The internet is alive with the sound …
Discussion:
And So it Goes in Shreveport, Wizbang, Fausta's Blog, The Sundries Shack, Riehl World View and Pundit & Pundette
Jeffrey Young / The Hill:CBO: Baucus bill costs $829 billion, reduces deficit by $81 billion
Discussion:
Don Surber, Ben Smith's Blog, The Politico, thedanashow.wordpress.com, The Note, The Swamp and George's Bottom Line
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:CBO's Latest Projections Out. Reason for Relief? And Concern?
Discussion:
The Note, New York Times, Bloomberg, AmSpecBlog, The Politico, Left in the West, Open Congress and Ezra Klein
Allahpundit / Hot Air:CBO: Baucus's ObamaCare bill would reduce deficit by $81 billion over 10 years
Discussion:
Blue Crab Boulevard
Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:
Civilian, Military Officials at Odds Over Resources Needed for Afghan Counterinsurgency — In early March, after weeks of debate across a conference table in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the participants in President Obama's strategic review of the war in Afghanistan figured …
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New York Times:
Afghan War Debate Now Leans to Focus on Al Qaeda — WASHINGTON — President Obama's national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the Taliban in Afghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the United States, officials said Wednesday.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Time, Reuters, Washington Post, The New Republic, ABCNEWS and BAGnewsNotes
Megan McArdle:
Baucuscare: Score! — So, the CBO report is out, and my estimate of the contents is totally wrong. WonkRoom has a pretty good summary: — Old CBO Score Of Baucus Bill — New CBO Score Of Baucus Bill — Costs — Reduce deficits: $49B/10yrs — Net Cost: $500B/10yrs — Gross cost: $774B/10yrs
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Daily Mail:
Thugs attack two transvestites... who turn out to be cage fighters wearing fancy dress — Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men - when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.
David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Corzine Points a Spotlight at His Rival's Waistline — It is about as subtle as a playground taunt: a television ad for Gov. Jon S. Corzine shows his challenger, Christopher J. Christie, stepping out of an S.U.V. in extreme slow motion, his extra girth moving, just as slowly, in several different directions at once.
Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR's Treatment Of Rape — In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Boing Boing, Alas, a blog, Raw Story, The Reality-Based Community, Washington Monthly, The Confluence, TPMDC, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Blog entry, Feministe, Brilliant at Breakfast, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, MyDD, TBogg, MinnPost, Minnesota Independent, The Sideshow, Wonkette, The Impolitic, Facing South, Blue Gal, The Political Carnival, Shakesville, The Huffington Post, DownWithTyranny! and Naked Politics
Steve Farley / PennLive.com:
Gun-toting soccer mom is shot dead … Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter's soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Discussion:
Whiskey Fire
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Religion Largely Absent in Argument About Cross — WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court argument on Wednesday about the fate of a cross in a remote part of the Mojave National Preserve in southeastern California largely avoided the most interesting question in the case: whether the First Amendment's ban …
Discussion:
The BLT, Washington Post, CNN, The Reality-Based Community, SCOTUSblog and Associated Press
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Rachel D'Oro / Associated Press:
Father of Palin's grandson to pose for Playgirl — ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Levi Johnston is going for the ultimate exposure—his bare body. — Posing nude for Playgirl is next for the 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin's grandchild. Johnston's attorney, Rex Butler …
New York Times:
In First Lady's Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery — WASHINGTON — In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs …
Discussion:
Room for Debate, Townhall.com, Jezebel, Gawker, No More Mister Nice Blog and Brilliant at Breakfast
Gerald F. Seib / Wall Street Journal:
It'll Be Hard for GOP to Party Like It's '94 — A big question hangs over American politics: Could next year be 1994 all over again? — That was the year a bitter debate over health care led to a disastrous congressional election for Democrats, in which they lost 54 House and 10 Senate seats …
Discussion:
Gallup
Wall Street Journal:
Intelligence Fiasco Footnote — The authors of the 2007 Iran NIE have some explaining to do. — Printer — Friendly — When it comes to politicized intelligence in the Bush years, the critics may finally have a point. Perhaps the work of America's intelligence agencies was manipulated …
Discussion:
Salon
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
McCaughey And Me — I said my piece about this on this blog a while back. I do not think it's professional to air the specifics of internal battles after the fact, and I take full responsibility for being the editor of the magazine that published the piece. I accepted an award for it.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, MoJo Blog Posts, TalkLeft, J. Bradford DeLong's …, Eschaton, Ezra Klein and Balloon Juice
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