Top Items:
David Espo / Associated Press:
Dems agree to drop gov't-run insurance option — WASHINGTON — Democratic senators say they have a tentative deal to drop a government-run insurance option from health care legislation. No further details were immediately available. — But liberals and moderates have been discussing an alternative …
Discussion:
Open Left, The Reaction, Left Coast Rebel, Hot Air, Liberal Values, Weasel Zippers, AmSpecBlog and Riehl World View
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Reuters:
Democrats reach deal on health plan — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic negotiators said they had reached agreement on Tuesday on a compromise on a scaled-back public insurance plan in a broad healthcare overhaul and would seek cost estimates on the deal.
Jon Walker / Firedoglake:
Public Option Grand Compromise Becomes a Grand Big Nothing — Well, that did not take long. Earlier today, I wrote how closely the new “grand compromise” on the public option at least seemed to closely resemble the theoretical alternative I wrote about several months ago based on several smart ideas.
Discussion:
CNN, DemConWatch, TPMDC, Associated Press, The Political Carnival, TalkLeft and The New Republic
The Politico:
Reid: Dems reach ‘broad agreement’ — Senate Democrats have reached a “broad agreement” on a health reform bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday night — a plan that would replace the public option in the current Senate bill with a new national insurance plan offered by private insurers …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Senate tables Nelson's abortion amendment 54-45 — Senators voted Tuesday afternoon to set aside a healthcare amendment that would have curbed federal support for abortion coverage. — Senators voted to table a measure from Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Pa.) …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, George's Bottom Line, MyDD, The Hill, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Power Line and Gateway Pundit
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Democrats Agree To Tentatively Trade Opt-Out For Trigger, Medicare Buy In, And More — An aide briefed on the negotiations among the gang of 10 offers up the rundown of the most important aspects of the public option compromise being sent to CBO. — If this trade-off carries the day, the opt out public option is gone.
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Washington Post, Angry Bear, Open Left, The Agonist, The New Republic and TPM LiveWire
The Huffington Post:
Medicare Buy-In Proposal Could Begin In 2010 — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — There is “growing enthusiasm” for a proposal that would make Medicare coverage available to more consumers as early as next year, a Democratic source with knowledge of health care negotiations tells the Huffington Post.
Discussion:
TPMDC, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Hot Air, Ezra Klein, Open Left, WSJ.com, The Politico and Think Progress
Prescriptions:Senate Leaders in Tentative Deal to Alter Public Option
Discussion:
The Politico, Newsweek Blogs, Swampland, Daily Kos, TPMDC, AMERICAblog News, The Greenroom and Gawker
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:Snowe Says She Opposes Medicare Buy-In Idea
Discussion:
Open Left, TPM LiveWire, Ezra Klein, The Confluence, Washington Monthly, AmSpecBlog, No More Mister Nice Blog and Wonk Room
Sarah Palin / Washington Post:
Copenhagen's political science — With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public …
Discussion:
Deltoid, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Huffington Post, Climate Progress, Coop's Corner, Little Green Footballs, Get Energy Smart!, The Foundry, James Fallows, American Power, Politics Daily, Top of the Ticket, Atlas Shrugs, GOP 12, The Awl, Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog, Hit & Run and CNN
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Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Sarah Palin: Obama, boycott Copenhagen — In the practice of preaching to the choir, Sarah Palin appears to have all but patented the art of saying what a few want to hear — and it's an all-new tune now. — Palin, who was the Republican Party's nominee for vice president …
Discussion:
D.C. Now
Boston Globe:
Coakley, Brown win primaries for US Senate seat — Attorney General Martha Coakley easily captured the Democratic nomination for the US Senate tonight and took a giant step toward smashing the state's political glass ceiling, as she parlayed her straightforward style and strong appeal among women …
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ABCNEWS:
Massive TSA Security Breach As Agency Gives Away Its Secrets — Online Posting Reveals a “How To” for Terrorists to Get Through Airport Security — In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online its entire airport screening procedures manual …
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, Politics Daily, Debbie Schlussel, Technologizer, Hot Air and The Political Carnival
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
My friend the president — Over the past couple of days, Andrew Sullivan has linked to and published protests from various individuals who are quite angry that people “on the left” are being so mean to President Obama, and several of them are so upset that they have decided they are “leaving the left,” whatever that might mean.
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Michelle Malkin:
Sarah in the Springs — We had frigid weather and several inches of Goreflakes on the ground here in Colorado Springs, but Sarah Palin lit up the town for a Borders signing earlier this evening that drew yet another massive crowd on her nationwide “Going Rogue” book tour.
Discussion:
Pundit & Pundette, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Hit & Run, Conservatives4Palin.com and NewsBusters.org
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Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle:
White House wants suit against Yoo dismissed — (12-07) 11:33 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does …
Walter Alarkon / The Hill:
$446.8B ‘minibus’ moves forward — Appropriators moved forward on Tuesday with a $446.8 billion “minibus” that includes spending bills Congress has yet to approve. — The package, presented as a conference report, leaves out unrelated contentious items, and leaves the Defense spending bill as the likely vehicle for the minibus.
Discussion:
The Politico
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Cheney: Obama ‘more radical’ than seen — President Barack Obama, bowing to other leaders of the world, fails to understand the concept of “American exceptionalism,” former Vice President Dick Cheney contends. — “There's never been a nation like the United States of America in world history …
Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
FDA opposes Senate drug importation amendment offered to healthcare bill — A proposal to enable the importation of cheaper prescription drugs could endanger the U.S. medicine supply and would be difficult to implement, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday
Fox News:
Virginia Veteran Wins Battle to Keep His Flagpole in Yard — RICHMOND, Va. — A 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient can keep his 21-foot flagpole in his front yard after a homeowner's association dropped its request to remove it, a spokesman for Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Tuesday.
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Audit Finds TARP Program Effective — WASHINGTON — The independent panel that oversees the government's financial bailout program concluded in a year-end review that, despite flaws and lingering problems, the program “can be credited with stopping an economic panic.”
Discussion:
The Page
Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog:
The President's Job's Initiative Doesn't Measure Up — Barack Obama is trying once again for balance. On the one hand, he wants enough government spending to offset the timid spending of consumers and businesses. Otherwise, the jobs and wage recession could drag on for years.
Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:
Huckabee: A ‘Big Tent’ Will ‘Kill The Conservative Movement’ — In the wake of two devastating losses in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and the intra-party dispute surrounding the special election last month in New York's 23rd Congressional District, many Republican Party leaders have argued for a “big tent” GOP in order to regain power.
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