Top Items:
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.
Discussion:
The Mahablog, The Strata-Sphere, Jezebel, National Review, Commentary, George's Bottom Line, Gateway Pundit and The Note
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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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Economist's View, EconLog, Another Black Conservative, The Confluence, The Atlantic Business Channel, Sister Toldjah, The Greenroom, The New Republic, Hit & Run, Ruby Slippers, Capitol Briefing, Washington Monthly, Open Congress, On Deadline, Left in the West, QandO, The Foundry and Politics Daily
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL — The internet is alive with the sound of people analyzing the CBO's “scoring” of the Max Baucus aka Senate Finance Committee Health Care Bill. Before everyone gets too deeply into their thoughts, please keep in mind the following (get ready, all CAPS, bold, indented signifies a really important concept):
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 …
New York Times:Health Care Bill Gets Green Light in Cost Analysis
Discussion:
The Hill, The Note, The Faster Times, The Caucus, Indecision Forever, msnbc.com, Prescriptions, Prairie Weather and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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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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, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! and Firedoglake
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.
Dave Helling / KansasCity.com Prime Buzz:Dole: Health care reform coming late this year or next; “you lost” …
Discussion:
Wonk Room, Prescriptions, MyDD, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Glenn Thrush's Blog
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.
Discussion:
Jeffrey Goldberg, msnbc.com, Gothamist, City Room, New Jersey Online, Clusterstock, JammieWearingFool and National Review Online
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Corzine Attempting “Juvenile Schoolyard Taunts” Strategy — Um, really? … On the one hand, this seems like it couldn't possibly work. Who's going to be anything but repulsed from Corzine by these tactics? On the other, it does often seem that prejudice against the overweight …
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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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
David Aaronovitch / Times of London:
American troops in Afghanistan losing heart, say army chaplains — Martin Fletcher at Forward Operating Base in Wardak province, Afghanistan — American soldiers serving in Afghanistan are depressed and deeply disillusioned, according to the chaplains of two US battalions that have spent nine months …
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 …
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.
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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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 …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, Another Black Conservative, Liberal Values, Gateway Pundit, Daily Pundit and Weasel Zippers
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:
Townhall.com, Room for Debate, Gawker, Jezebel, msnbc.com, No More Mister Nice Blog and Brilliant at Breakfast
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
ROMAN POLANSKI BACKERS GAVE $34K TO BARACK OBAMA, DNC — Movie industry types calling for the release of director Roman Polanski last year gave $34,000 to Obama's presidential campaign and the Democratic Party, FEC records show. — Polanski's arrest late last month by Swiss authorities …
Washington Wire:
Humor With a Political Punch: Lesson for GOP? — Alistair MacDonald reports on U.K. politics. — Here's something for the GOP to think about as the party tries to regain power in Washington: Britain's opposition Conservative Party may have lost three elections in a row, but it hasn't lost its sense of humor.
New York Times:
Leader Ousted, Honduras Hires U.S. Lobbyists — WASHINGTON — First, depose a president. Second, hire a lobbyist. — In the months since soldiers ousted the Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, the de facto government and its supporters have resisted demands from the United States that he be restored to power.
Alexander C. Hart / Los Angeles Times:
Obama and students space out at the White House — 'Don't let anybody tell you that there is knowledge that is beyond your reach,' the president tells 150 middle-schoolers at a special astronomy night. — Reporting from Washington - In a brief diversion from terrestrial concerns …
Choire Sicha / New York Times:
Blogged and Sold — NOT long ago I was approached by a brilliant marketing firm. Their proposal: using any means necessary, could I convince America that a certain youth-appealing president, whose name rhymes with The Rock o' Llama, favored a specific brand of attire?
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 …
Keith Olbermann / msnbc.com:
Health care reform: Saving American lives — Keith Olbermann on what really matters when it comes to health reform — SPECIAL COMMENT — Since August 23rd of this year I have interacted daily with our American Health Care system and often done so to the exclusion of virtually all other business.
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