memeorandum: Nelson: 'I'm not on the bill' — The White House meeting … (Carrie Budoff Brown/The Politico)

12:00 AM ET, December 16, 2009

Top Items:

Howard Dean: “Kill The Senate Bill” — In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Why Progressives Are Bats**t Crazy to Oppose the Senate Bill — Pick your subheadline: — a) It's time to stop being polite and start getting real. — b) Here's hoping a picture is worth 1,000 words. — Any questions? — OK, I imagine that there will be a few. Here's how I came up with these numbers.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Pollster.com All Content, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Night Light, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, PoliBlog and The Moderate Voice

David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:

Burris Pushes Back — The backlash has begun. — Senator Roland W. Burris, Democrat of Illinois, has vowed that he will not vote for a health care bill that does not include a government-run insurance plan, or public option. — And on Monday, after Democrats indicated that they were prepared …

Discussion: Hit & Run, MyDD and Kausfiles

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Health Reform Would Dramatically Expand Access to Health Insurance

Ezra Klein:
Is the Senate health-care reform bill still worth passing?

Discussion: Daily Kos, Mother Jones, AMERICAblog News, Talking Points Memo, Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, Will Wilkinson, RIGHTWINGSPARKLE, Megan McArdle, Swampland and Taegan Goddard's …

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Kill The Bill? Operatives Say Yes, Wonks Say No

Discussion: The Huffington Post, AMERICAblog News, TalkLeft and Washington Monthly

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them

Discussion: Roll Call, The Foundry, Stop The ACLU, Hot Air, The Jawa Report, Wake up America, The Lonely Conservative, Pundit & Pundette, Taylor Marsh, Townhall.com and Commentary

Bob Kinzel / Vermont Public Radio News:
Dean On Health Care: “Kill The Senate Bill”

Discussion: Newsweek Blogs, Firedoglake, MyDD, The Hill and The Politico

Darcy Burner / Open Left:
Joe Lieberman's Healthcare Bill Is Worse Than Nothing. Kill It.

Discussion: MyDD, AMERICAblog News, Hit & Run, Ben Smith's Blog, The New Republic, The Politico, CANNONFIRE and Los Angeles Times

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Nelson: 'I'm not on the bill' — The White House meeting Tuesday between President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats has raised expectations that they have nailed down 60 votes for the health care bill. — But as he prepared to leave for the White House with other senators, Sen. Ben Nelson …

Discussion: Power Line, Politics Daily and Wonk Room

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

Pssst. This Isn't Over. (Updated) — Via Politico, here's what Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson said as he left a White House meeting with the rest of the Democratic caucus a little while ago: — I'm not on the bill. I have spoken with the president and he knows they are not wrapped up today.

John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:

The GOP had at most 55 Senators during Bush's presidency — I've heard people say that it's not fair to criticize the Democrats for botching health care reform because the Democrats never truly had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Sure, they have 60 votes in principle …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Democrats.com, MyDD, msnbc.com, Ben Smith's Blog, Indecision Forever, Ezra Klein and Washington Monthly

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:

Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60 — While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of both.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, protein wisdom, msnbc.com and Stop The ACLU

Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
Snowe has ‘misgivings’ about health bill, Christmas vote

Discussion: The Politico, White House.gov Blog Feed, TPMDC, The Note and The Political Carnival

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
White House using base-closure process to extort Nelson's vote on ObamaCare?

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Jawa Report and The Greenroom

The Politico:

Conn. colleagues ‘fed up’ with Joe — Liberal anger at Sen. Joe Lieberman spread across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with a House Democrat from Connecticut calling for his recall and Lieberman himself acknowledging the angst he has caused. — “No individual should hold health care hostage …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, New York Times, The Hill, Washington Monthly, NPR Blogs, TPMDC, Capitol Watch and The Political Carnival

David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Lieberman: The Fallout

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post, Open Left, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Ta-Nehisi Coates, TPMDC, Hit & Run, The Washington Independent, Megan McArdle, Indecision Forever and Washington Monthly

Ezra Klein:
The heroes of health-care reform

Discussion: TalkLeft, Swampland and TigerHawk

Booman Tribune:
Spiteful Joe

Discussion: Whiskey Fire

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
WEINER SCARED LIEBERMAN AWAY?.... Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) …

Discussion: Associated Press, Prescriptions, The Foundry, Open Left, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Political Carnival

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Lieberman spoke, acknowledged Dem anger

Discussion: AMERICAblog News

ABCNEWS:

Double Punch of Economy, Health Care Sends Obama to New Lows in Approval — ABC News/Washington Post Poll: President Obama's Approval Ratings Keep Sliding — A double punch of persistent economic discontent and growing skepticism on health care reform has knocked Barack Obama's key approval ratings …

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

WaPo/ABC poll: Obama hits new lows on health care, overall approval rating — His numbers are down across the board since last month, so technically there's a trend here. But not really. The problem with WaPo's polls is that they've been using samples that skew overwhelmingly Democratic …

Discussion: GayPatriot

Washington Post:
Public cool to health-care reform as debate drags on, poll finds

Discussion: Pollster.com All Content and Real Clear Politics

Charles Gasparino / New York Post:

The two faces of O — Prez's lovefest with Wall St. ‘fat cats’ — In public, President Obama is on a tear against Wall Street. In private, not so much — Over the weekend, Obama attacked fat-cat investment bankers, telling “60 Minutes” he didn't become president to aid and abet Wall Street …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, naked capitalism, Credit Writedowns and The Lonely Conservative

Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:
An Odd Post-Crash Couple

Discussion: Raw Story, Wonk Room, Open Congress, MyDD, Bloomberg and The Big Picture

Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:

It's Official! Media Matters Morphs Into One-Stop Fisting Information Clearinghouse — It's official... MEDIA MATTERS: ALL THINGS FISTING — The Soros-linked far left website is now your premier stop for defending fisting and dental dam indoctrination of children.

Discussion: The Other McCain and The Jawa Report

Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:

Pranksters Make Short Work of GOP's URL Shortener for Conservatives — The Republican National Committee's GOP.am home page was offline Tuesday morning, and several URLs entered into the system by pranksters have been blocked. — Revised and expanded at 12:50 ET, with comment from Political Media president Larry Ward.

Discussion: Raw Story and TechCrunch

John Cole / Balloon Juice:
Someone Hose Off Vitter

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, American Tory and Little Green Footballs

Tim Craig / Washington Post:

D.C. Council approves bill legalizing gay marriage — Bill heads to Fenty's desk, still must survive congressional review period — The D.C. Council gave final approval Tuesday to a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, setting off a wave of excitement in the gay community even as opponents vow to continue the fight on Capitol Hill.

Discussion: The Corner on National …, Hit & Run, Wonkette and The Political Carnival

Ian Urbina / New York Times:
D.C. Council Approves Gay Marriage

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Truthdig

Mike DeBonis / City Desk:
Gay Marriage Passes Final D.C. Council Vote

Discussion: Hot Air

Daily Express:

CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL: 100 REASONS WHY — HERE are the 100 reasons, released in a dossier issued by the European Foundation, why climate change is natural and not man-made: — 1) There is “no real scientific proof” that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man's activity.

Discussion: YID With LID, Don Surber, Marginal Revolution, New York Times, JammieWearingFool, Maggie's Farm, JustOneMinute and American Thinker

Jon Walker / Firedoglake:

President Obama Lies About Health Care Reform Cost Control — After exiting a meeting with the Senate Democratic caucus, President Obama approached the microphone and proceeded to tell a bald-faced lie about health care reform: … This statement is 100% false-and Obama knows that.

Lance Mannion:

Time for another blogger bailout — I apologize for this, but I need to do some serious begging here. The car's making noises like it can't decide which of three potential problems it wants to develop and my settle on all three. The laptop desperately needs an upgrade and a new power cord.

Paul Rolly / Salt Lake Tribune:

Check from Palin in the mail? — Sarah Palin not only annoyed leaders of the Utah Republican Party when she didn't have time for them during her book signing stop in Salt Lake City last week. She also took off from her hotel after arranging for a last-minute hair appointment without paying …

Discussion: The Political Carnival

AnnArbor.com News:

Young Pittsfield Township man struggles with sex offender label — Matthew Freeman is struggling to move on with his life, six years after being convicted of having sex with a high school girlfriend who was one year below the legal age of consent. — Freeman, who is required to register …

Discussion: Hit & Run

New York Times:

Obama Tells Prison to Take Detainees — WASHINGTON — In ordering the federal government to acquire an Illinois prison to house terrorism suspects who are currently held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, President Obama on Tuesday took a major step toward shutting down the military detention facility …

Discussion: The Washington Independent, TalkLeft, Blog of Rights, Room for Debate, The Foundry and Power Line