Top Items:
Adam Schefter / ESPN:
Sources: Checketts to drop Limbaugh — Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources. — Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL's St. Louis Blues and the point man in the Limbaugh group attempting to buy the Rams …
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House, JustOneMinute, PoliBlog, Macsmind, Outside The Beltway, Firedoglake, Big Hollywood, Confederate Yankee, The American Mind, Riehl World View, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Times, BuzzFlash.org, The Reaction, Conservative Dallas, Left Coast Rebel, The Democratic Daily, Newsbroke, Breitbart.tv, The Hill, JammieWearingFool, Salon, Think Progress, The Moderate Voice, NBC Sports, Gothamist, Wonkette, The Corner on National …, Hot Air, Raw Story, Gateway Pundit, 24Ahead, Media Matters for America, NY Daily News and NBCSports.com
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Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:
So Much for the Post-Racial America — By: Andy McCarthy — I'm hunkered down on some projects and just heard about the phony attacks on Rush by the race-hustlers extraordinaire, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. I know Rush has big shoulders and he'll handle it just fine.
Discussion:
Pundit & Pundette
Mark Steyn / The Corner on National Review Online:
Monday Morning Quarter-backtrack — By: Mark Steyn — My old London Telegraph colleague, Toby Harnden, has a piece on Rush and the fake slavery/James Earl Ray quotes that's better than anything you're likely to read in the dying U.S. monodailies: … Can anyone play this game?
John / Power Line:
Rush Is Out — It's official: Rush Limbaugh has withdrawn as a minority participant in a group that is trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. This follows opposition to Rush's participation from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and, shamefully, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Kos / Daily Kos:
Harry Reid abdicates his leadership role — Bill Frist never had 60 votes. Bill Frist never cared. Republicans ran the Senate as if they owned the place, even when enjoying razor-thin majorities. — Yet when Democrats took the chamber, the first thing Harry Reid did was complain …
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Associated Press:
GOP senator's protest grinds Senate to a halt — Oklahoma's Coburn tries a filibuster after pet idea dropped from bill — WASHINGTON - The Senate ground to a halt Wednesday in a display of what an individual senator can do to protest his treatment by some of Capitol Hill's most powerful barons.
Tony Romm / The Hill:
RNC hits Reid for Biden visit — The Republican National Committee is using the vice president's upcoming visit to Nevada as fodder in its fight to spoil Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's re-election bid. — In a new radio advertisement, scheduled to air at the end of this week …
David Espo / Associated Press:
Senate Dems seek higher doctor payments
Senate Dems seek higher doctor payments
Discussion:
The Note, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and Cato @ Liberty
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
President Obama's Crucial Afghanistan Decision — Afghanistan could be the most important decision of Barack Obama's presidency. Maybe that's why he is, in effect, making it twice. — What's odd about the administration's review of Afghanistan policy is that it is revisiting issues …
Discussion:
Commentary
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Fox News:
Tentative Inspection Program Would Allow Russia to Visit U.S. Nuclear Sites — The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted. — FOXNews.com
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Darya Korsunskaya / Reuters:
Russia's Putin warns against intimidating Iran
Russia's Putin warns against intimidating Iran
Discussion:
QandO, Power Line, The Greenroom, Don Surber, Jihad Watch, Hit & Run, Weekly Standard and Dean's World
Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
Why Joe Biden Should Resign — Joe Biden met with CENTCOM chief Gen. David Petraeus this morning to talk about Afghanistan — an issue that has pushed the vice president into the spotlight, landing him on the cover of the latest Newsweek. — I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention …
Eli Lake / Washington Times:
‘Dead’ al Qaeda terrorist surfaces for media — Doubts raised on drone tactics — A key al Qaeda military planner thought dead by the United States and Pakistan gave an interview this week to a Pakistani reporter, illustrating the uncertainties of a military strategy based on air strikes by unmanned drones.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Public Option Is Next Big Hurdle in Health Debate — WASHINGTON — As the White House and Congressional leaders turned in earnest on Wednesday to working out big differences in the five health care bills, perhaps no issue loomed as a greater obstacle than whether to establish a government-run competitor to the insurance industry.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TalkLeft, The Hill, McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Page, Wall Street Journal, AMERICAblog News, Prescriptions, Washington Post, The Note and ABCNEWS
Tim Cavanaugh / Hit & Run:
When Your Neighbor Loses His Job It's A Recession. When You Screw AWhore Behind Your Wife's Back, Get Caught, And Lose Your Job,It'sACatastrophic Economic Meltdown — Disgraced criminal Eliot Spitzer has for reasons unknown been occupying a columnist spot at Slate.com for some period of time.
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Tom Coghlan / Times of London:
French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban — When ten French soldiers were killed last year in an ambush by Afghan insurgents in what had seemed a relatively peaceful area, the French public were horrified. — Their revulsion increased with the news …
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Third-party pooper: GOP's N.J. dilemma — The surging campaign of third-party candidate Chris Daggett has turned the New Jersey governor's race into a dead-heat and left Republicans divided over the seriousness of the threat he poses to GOP nominee Chris Christie.
Rasmussen Reports:
Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate Election — 2010 Pennsylvania Senate: Toomey Leads Specter, Runs Even With Sestak — Republican-turned-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter trails potential GOP challenger Pat Toomey by five points in an early look at Pennsylvania's 2010 Senate race.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Real Clear Politics, Power Line, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, pa2010.com and PittsburghLIVE.com
The Politico:
Maverick fallout: GOP won't retaliate — Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe's decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. — That's about all they can do.
Washington Post:
Stagnant Prices Prevent Social Security Increase — President Obama on Wednesday attempted to preempt the announcement that Social Security recipients will not get an increase in their benefit checks for the first time in three decades, encouraging Congress to provide a one-time payment …
Discussion:
Wonk Room, The Caucus, Wall Street Journal, AmSpecBlog, Angry Bear, Michelle Malkin and Capital Gains and Games blogs
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Hillary Clinton Now More Popular Than Barack Obama — Secretary of state viewed favorably by 62% of Americans, president by 56% — PRINCETON, NJ — Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, but in one respect she now ranks ahead of Obama.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:
Report Card Due on Stimulus — Data to Provide Clues on Job Creation, Though Few Details — The public will get its first granular look Thursday at how the $787 billion stimulus package is being spent — but the information may leave armchair auditors dissatisfied, and the data on job-creation data will be less than definitive.
Discussion:
The Page
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Free Perks With Medicare Advantage Plans Aren't Really Free — Plans' Free Perks Are Subsidized By Government — TUCSON — Patrick Higney, 66, doesn't want to give up the freebies that come with his zero-premium Medicare Advantage plan: free aspirin and free Band-Aids, a free blood pressure machine and a free ear thermometer.
Reid Wilson / The Hill:
House Republicans may face a ‘civil war’ over Scozzafava bid — The House GOP conference is bitterly divided over a centrist New York Republican's run for the House seat vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh. — Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who backs abortion rights and has voiced support …
Discussion:
Erick's blog
Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:
Democrats and Schools — The Democratic Party has battled for universal health care this year, and over the decades it has admirably led the fight against poverty — except in the one way that would have the greatest impact. — Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute
Walter Shapiro / Politics Daily:
Health Care for All? Not Exactly — In late January 2007, fledgling presidential contender Barack Obama made an unequivocal pledge to redeem the dream that had animated Democrats since the days of Harry Truman. Speaking at a Washington conference organized by the liberal advocacy group Families USA …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
New York Times:
Coordinated Attacks Hit Multiple Sites in Pakistan — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Teams of militants dressed in police uniforms simultaneously attacked three law enforcement agencies in Lahore on Thursday morning, the fifth major attack in Pakistan in the last 10 days.
Discussion:
The Page