Top Items:
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.
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TalkLeft, Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Washington Post, msnbc.com, AMERICAblog News, Suburban Guerrilla, NOW! Blog, The Page, National Review, Prescriptions, The Note, The Hill and ABCNEWS
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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, McClatchy Washington Bureau and Cato @ Liberty
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.
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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 …
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 …
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 …
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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?
Discussion:
Philly.com, CNN, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Jules Crittenden, pw, Bookworm Room and Doug Ross
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 …
Tim Cavanaugh / Hit & Run:
When Your Neighbor Loses His Job It's A Recession. When You Screw A Whore Behind Your Wife's Back, Get Caught, And Lose Your Job, It's A Catastrophic 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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Eliot Spitzer / Slate:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce must be stopped. Here's how to do it. — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the self-proclaimed voice of business in Washington—has been wrong on virtually every major public-policy issue of the past decade: financial deregulation, tax and fiscal policy …
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 …
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Commentary
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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 …
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.
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.
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.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
CNN Admits That On-Air Commentator Has Ties To Insurance Industry, Promises Full Disclosure — Looks like the insurance industry has another PR mess on its hands. — CNN has acknowledged in a statement to me that a high-profile Republican commentator who frequently discusses health care …
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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.
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
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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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.
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
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, Power Line, Real Clear Politics, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, pa2010.com and PittsburghLIVE.com
Adam Nossiter / New York Times:
With Obama in White House, U.S. Words Have New Weight in Guinea — CONAKRY, Guinea — The Club Obama does not look like much, just a square thatched-roof platform jutting out to the ocean where jembe music, beer and the young mix at the edge of the pungent Boulbinet fish market.