Top Items:
Washington Post:
Most support public option for health insurance, poll finds — Americans still divided on overall packages — A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health-care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Jules Crittenden, The Daily Dish, The Note, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, Behind the Numbers, The Plum Line, ABCNEWS, AmSpecBlog, Hot Air, QandO, Obsidian Wings, TPMDC, Firedoglake, Raw Story, The Confluence, Villainous Company, George's Bottom Line, The ChamberPost, the albany project, AMERICAblog News, Taylor Marsh, American Power, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Hoffmania!, Salon, Macsmind, CNN, Taegan Goddard's …, Left in the West and No More Mister Nice Blog
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Morning Fix: A premature celebration for the GOP — Republicans in Washington can barely contain their glee at the turn of President Obama's political fortunes in the first nine months of the year but a new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests the GOP still faces serious perception problems in the eyes of the American public.
Wall Street Journal:
Public Option Gets New Life in Senate — WASHINGTON — The idea of creating a government-run health-insurance plan, once on life support in the Senate, is making a recovery among Democrats writing health-care legislation. — So far, no one is talking about a nationwide Medicare-like plan …
Discussion:
The Politico, New York Times, Roll Call, Taegan Goddard's …, New York Magazine, Prescriptions and Hot Air
Karen Ignagni / Washington Post:
Defending the insurance industry's report on health reform's cost impact
Defending the insurance industry's report on health reform's cost impact
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Pelosi Aims to Squeeze Skeptics on Public Option With Cheaper Bill Than Senate
Pelosi Aims to Squeeze Skeptics on Public Option With Cheaper Bill Than Senate
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Blanche Lincoln Taken to the Woodshed by Public Option Supporters
Blanche Lincoln Taken to the Woodshed by Public Option Supporters
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Obama: Afghan runoff ‘important step’ — For weeks now, the White House has added a caveat to nearly every public discussion of deliberations underway about the way forward in Afghanistan: — The United States must have an effective “partner” in the government of Afghanistan as it sets a new strategy for an eight-year-old war.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
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John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Scozzafava Calls the Cops — Lowville, N.Y. — Tonight, Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for the November 3 special election in the 23rd congressional district, spoke to about 100 Republicans at the Lewis County GOP dinner at the Elks Lodge 1605.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Scorecard's Blog, Working In These Times, Salon, Political Byline, Power Line, NewsBusters.org, Village Voice, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Michelle Malkin, race42008.com, Pundit & Pundette, Ben Smith's Blog, RedState, Another Black Conservative and The Corner on National …
Ruth Marcus / PostPartisan:
Obama's dumb war with Fox News — There's only one thing dumber than picking a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel — picking a fight with people who don't even have to buy ink. The Obama administration's war on Fox News is dumb on multiple levels.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Media Matters for America, Don Surber, Wizbang, Moe Lane and Commentary
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Robert Bernstein / New York Times:
Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast — AS the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group's critics. Human Rights Watch had as its original mission …
Discussion:
Jeffrey Goldberg, Commentary, Wake up America, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Israel Matzav, Mondoweiss and Yourish.com
David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
Financial Giants Donating Little to Obama Party — WASHINGTON — The Wall Street giants that received a financial lifeline from Washington may have no compunction about paying big bonuses to their dealmakers and traders. But their willingness to deliver “thank you” gifts to President Obama …
Discussion:
Alarming News, Crooks and Liars, The Caucus, naked capitalism, Prairie Weather, Suburban Guerrilla, New York Magazine and Open Left
David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Christie May Have Gotten Improper Aid — When news broke in August that the former United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, had lent $46,000 to a top aide in the federal prosecutor's office, he said he was merely helping a friend in need. He also said the aide, Michele Brown …
Discussion:
TPMMuckraker, Emptywheel, Taegan Goddard's …, Scorecard's Blog, msnbc.com, Kausfiles, AMERICAblog News and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
TheTandD.com:
DeMint watches out for all of us — Recently your newspaper published a letter from state Rep. Bakari Sellers attacking U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and his opposition to congressional earmarks. — There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars …
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Rachel Weiner / The Huffington Post:
GOPers: DeMint Like A Jew “Watching Our Nation's Pennies”
GOPers: DeMint Like A Jew “Watching Our Nation's Pennies”
Discussion:
New York Magazine, The Palmetto Scoop, pandagon.net, Wonkette, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Liberal Values, Matthew Yglesias, MyDD and First Draft
Ben Conery / Washington Times:
Justice concludes black voters need Democratic Party — U.S. blocks N.C. city's nonpartisan vote — Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate …
David Rohde / New York Times:
‘You Have Atomic Bombs, but We Have Suicide Bombers.’ — A NERVOUS-LOOKING Pakistani soldier pointed a rocket-propelled grenade at our pickup truck in late January. The Taliban guard beside me loaded his rifle and ordered me to put a scarf over — my face.
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid offers doctors a deal — The White House and Democratic leaders are offering doctors a deal: They'll freeze cuts in Medicare payments to doctors in exchange for doctors' support of healthcare reform. — At a meeting on Capitol Hill last week with nearly a dozen doctors groups …
Washington Post:
Washington Sketch: When breaking news is broken — Afew minutes after 11 on Monday morning, investors got a surprising bit of news on CNBC. — “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is now getting ready to throw its weight behind strong climate legislation,” the business channel's reporter announced, as “Breaking News” flashed on the screen.
Discussion:
Michael Calderone's Blog, TPMMuckraker, The City Square, Guardian, Grist and Boing Boing
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Laura Rozen / Laura Rozen's Blog:
Maryland scientist arrested for attempted espionage for Israel — The FBI has arrested a former senior NASA space scientist who worked in the George H.W. Bush White House space office for attempted espionage for Israel, the Justice Department announced today.
Discussion:
US Department of Justice, Taylor Marsh, ‘Just World News’ …, TPMCafe, On Deadline and Israel Matzav
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Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Biden says he first said no to being VP — (CNN) - It was an oft-repeated anecdote on the 2008 campaign trail: then-Sen. Joe Biden accepted the request to be the No. 2 on the Democratic presidential ticket at a Delaware dentist office as his wife was undergoing a root canal.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Tomoeh Murakami Tse / Washington Post:
At rescued banks, perks keep rolling — Bosses benefit after bailout Fringe compensation rose 4 percent last year — NEW YORK — Even as the nation's biggest financial firms were struggling and the federal government was spending hundreds of billions of dollars to save many of them …
Anne Schroeder Mullins / The Politico:
GET TO KNOW A CONGRESSMAN — Gregg Harper says at the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, ‘we hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition.’ | Why do you think the majority of congressional representatives are lawyers, like yourself?
Wall Street Journal:
Employers Hold Off on Hiring — Companies across the economy are holding off on hiring even as the profit outlook improves, amid economic uncertainty and their own success at raising productivity in rough waters. — Hiring always lags behind in economic recoveries, but the outlook this time is worse, many economists say.