Top Items:
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
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.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Raw Story, TalkLeft, The Hill, American Prospect, Coop's Corner, NPR Blogs, Weekly Standard, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Note, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Hot Air, ABCNEWS, Taylor Marsh, MyDD, Daily Kos, Gateway Pundit, Swampland, RedState, The Lonely Conservative, Suburban Guerrilla, American Tory, Indecision Forever, My Left Nutmeg, Jules Crittenden and The Mahablog
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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.
Manu Raju / The Politico:
Dem calls for Lieberman recall — A House Democrat from Connecticut said Tuesday that Sen. Joe Lieberman should be recalled from office over his opposition to the Senate health care bill. — “No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out …
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 …
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
WEINER SCARED LIEBERMAN AWAY?.... Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) spoke with reporters this morning about the state of the health care debate. Lieberman said that if the leadership meets his conditions — no public option, no Medicare buy-in — “I'm going to be in a position …
New York Times:
Lieberman Gets Ex-Party to Shift on Health Plan — WASHINGTON — Just the thought of Joseph I. Lieberman makes some Democrats want to spit nails these days. But Mr. Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, is not the least troubled by his status as Capitol Hill's master infuriator …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Firedoglake, Ezra Klein, Hit & Run, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, skippy the bush kangaroo, American Tory, Indecision Forever, The Foundry, The Caucus, Wonk Room, Wake up America, NewsBusters.org, Guardian, Taylor Marsh, Gothamist, The Politico, PoliBlog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Hill, The Note and The Washington Independent
Ezra Klein:
The heroes of health-care reform — Right on the heels of Joe Lieberman trying to kill the bill because it had a Medicare buy-in proposal, Howard Dean is exhorting Democrats to kill the bill because it doesn't have a Medicare buy-in proposal. Sigh. — So let this serve as an encomium to Ron Wyden …
Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
Snowe has ‘misgivings’ about health bill, Christmas vote — Democrats from the White House to Capitol Hill are still holding out hopes of winning the support of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) for their healthcare bill. But despite major concessions made to centrist Democrats, Snowe has not yet jumped aboard.
Ezra Klein:
Is the Senate health-care reform bill still worth passing? — “Insurance companies win,” Markos Moulitsas tweeted last night. “Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate.” — This was, for progressives, a frustrating vote. But the flip side of it being morally unconscionable …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Matthew Yglesias, Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos, Will Wilkinson and Brendan Nyhan
David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Lieberman: The Fallout — The question is inescapable: by going on national television and threatening to join Republicans to defeat President Obama's top domestic priority, did Senator Joseph I. Lieberman actually save the Democrats' big health care bill? — There is no evidence that Mr. Lieberman's role was scripted.
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them
Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Wake up America, Stop The ACLU, The Lonely Conservative, Pundit & Pundette, Townhall.com and Commentary
The Politico:
Obama: ‘Cautiously optimistic’ on bill
Obama: ‘Cautiously optimistic’ on bill
Discussion:
Connecticut Post, The Swamp, The Hill, The New Republic, msnbc.com, Dow Jones Newswires, JustOneMinute, Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek Blogs, Consumer Reports Health Blog, Hot Air, The Foundry, The Note, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Greenroom, Commentary, ABCNEWS, Iowa Independent, Think Progress, Los Angeles Times and Ben Smith's Blog
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 …
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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, msnbc.com, Indecision Forever, Democrats.com, MyDD, Ben Smith's Blog and Washington Monthly
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Buddy Winston / The Huffington Post:
Bill O'reilly Admits Obama is Smarter than George W. Bush
Bill O'reilly Admits Obama is Smarter than George W. Bush
Discussion:
Mediaite
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.
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Gerry Tuoti / The Taunton Gazette News RSS:
Taunton second-grader suspended over drawing of Jesus — A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross. — The father said he got …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, FOX News Radio, The Lonely Conservative, Michelle Malkin, Stop The ACLU and Joanne Jacobs
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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:
New York Times, Marginal Revolution, Don Surber, YID With LID, JustOneMinute, JammieWearingFool and Maggie's Farm
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 …
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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
Mike DeBonis / City Desk:
Gay Marriage Passes Final D.C. Council Vote — City lawmakers voted this afternoon to legalize same-sex marriages, making the District of Columbia the fifth jurisdiction in the country to have its elected legislature pass such a measure. — “Today is the final step in a long march toward equality …
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The Huffington Post:
Rep. Capuano Tells Fellow Dems: 'You're Screwed' — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — When House Democrats gathered on Friday for their end-of-the week caucus meeting in the basement of the Capitol, caucus chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) told the group he wanted them to hear first from Rep. Michael Capuano …
David Brooks / New York Times:
Obama's Christian Realism — If you were graduating from Princeton in the first part of the 20th century, you probably heard the university president, John Hibben, deliver one of his commencement addresses. Hibben's running theme, which was common at that time, was that each person is part angel, part devil.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, The Other McCain, Atlantic Correspondents, Spiritual Politics and normblog
KOKI-TV:
Oral Roberts Dead At 91 — TULSA, OK — Founder of ORU, Oral Roberts, has died at the age of 91 due to complications from pneumonia. Below is the full text from the Press Release sent out. — Dr. Oral Roberts, a legendary evangelist who rose from humble beginnings to become …