memeorandum: The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker (David D. Kirkpatrick/New York Times)

4:25 PM ET, December 18, 2009

Top Items:

Pass the Bill — A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you're disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable.

Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

Dean's Blind Spot — Maybe one reason former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and so much of the digital Left can so casually dismiss the Senate health care reform bill is that they operate in an environment where so few people need to worry about access to insurance.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, NPR Blogs, The Politico, TalkLeft and The Washington Independent

Washington Wire:
Rahm Emanuel: Don't Worry About the Left

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Firedoglake and The Washington Independent

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Journalists Cheerfully Urinating On Senate Bill's “Ideological” Critics

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Open Left, Daily Kos and Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Liberal Revolt on Health Care Stings White House

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, American Power, DISSENTING JUSTICE, QandO, Firedoglake, Wake up America, Beat the Press, Taylor Marsh, The Politico, The Reaction, Booman Tribune and The Plum Line

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

End It Today, Ben — There's a really big snowstorm coming to D.C.tonight. It would be unsafe to ask all the staffers and Hill employees who'd be needed at the Capitol if Congress stays open all hours this weekend, as Harry Reid intends, to drive to and from work—especially since …

Discussion: The New Republic, The Atlantic Politics Channel, No More Mister Nice Blog, Jules Crittenden, Pundit & Pundette and The Politico

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Hardest Call — The first reason to support the Senate health care bill is that it would provide insurance to 30 million more Americans. — The second reason to support the bill is that its authors took the deficit issue seriously. Compared with, say, the prescription drug benefit …

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, JustOneMinute, Hot Air, Commentary, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Weekly Standard, Washington Post, Democratic Strategist, The Corner on National … and National Review

Patricia Murphy / Politics Daily:

Washington in 60 Seconds: Reporter to James Inhofe — 'You're Ridiculous' — Good morning, Capitolists! The Senate has officially gone from herding cats to Christmas chaos, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announcing last night that he will hold procedural votes at 7:30 a.m. Saturday …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, The Politico and Big Government

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
BILL KRISTOL, PUBLIC SAFETY ADVOCATE.... Bill Kristol makes …

Discussion: The Hill and Weekly Standard

Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
THE LATEST HEALTH-CARE SCHEDULE

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Guardian:

Obama speech fuels frustration at Copenhagen — US president offers no further commitment on reducing emissions or on finance to poor countries — Barack Obama stepped into the chaotic final hours of the Copenhagen summit today saying he was convinced the world could act “boldly and decisively” on climate change.

Discussion: It's Getting Hot In Here, Richard Black's Earth Watch, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs, The Washington Independent, The New Republic, protein wisdom, The Huffington Post, Open Left, Environmental Capital, American Power, MyDD, JustOneMinute, Saberpoint and Bloomberg

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:

Obama: ‘Time for talk is over’ — COPENHAGEN — A visibly angry Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet at China and other developing nations Friday, declaring that the time has come to “not to talk but to act” on climate change. — Emerging from a multinational meeting boycotted …

Discussion: Watts Up With That?, The Cable, Right Wing Nut House, Riehl World View, The Swamp, The Lonely Conservative, Wall Street Journal, Scared Monkeys, Whiskey Fire, Flopping Aces, The Hill, Wonkette and Pajamas Media

New York Times:
Urgency Grows as U.S. and China Try to End Stalemate

Discussion: Associated Press, The Caucus, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek Blogs, Climate Progress, CNN, Jules Crittenden, Guardian, Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, The Page, Washington Post, Copenhagen Insider, The BLT and Prairie Weather

Telegraph:
Copenhagen climate summit: Gordon Brown ‘has Plan B’ to beat US and China deadlock

Discussion: Environmental Capital

Political Punch:
Senior White House Official: The ‘Chinese Are Dug In’; 'We've Done …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, TPMDC, BBC, Pajamas Media and Associated Press

Washington Post:
New climate draft would forgo treaty in 2010

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Betsy's Page, The Page and Sister Toldjah

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Methodists work Nelson: ‘Set aside his personal agenda and think about the common good’ — Senator Ben Nelson's United Methodist Church sent out a sharply-worded email this afternoon to its members in Nebraska, urging them to push Nelson to vote for health care legislation …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:
Ben Nelson's Medicaid concerns questioned

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, Omaha World-Herald, TPMDC, Wonk Room and The Washington Independent

Jed Lewison / Daily Kos:
Ben Nelson: Bill covers too many uninsured people, must be scaled back

Discussion: Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Politics Daily, RedState, The Political Carnival and TPM LiveWire

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Abortion Holdout — Ben Nelson doesn't come in for as much scorn …

Discussion: pandagon.net

Michelle Malkin:

Coburn defends the Party of No; Durbin blasts “styptic-hearted Republicans;” Update: Video added — On the Senate floor a few minutes ago, GOP Sen. Tom Coburn gave a rousing defense of the “Party of No.” — “We're accused of being the party of no,” he said. But “no is a wonderful word.

Discussion: Townhall.com, Bob McCarty Writes, The Other McCain and GayPatriot

Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:

The Time for Political Games is Over — When President Obama first took on health insurance reform, he made it clear he hoped to reach out across the aisle to produce a bipartisan plan. He even kicked off the health reform effort by bringing a wide array of folks from across the political spectrum …

Discussion: Washington Wire, The Politico, Washington Post and Crooks and Liars

kff.org:
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — December 2009

Discussion: Politics Daily, Prescriptions and Pollster.com All Content

David Dayen / news.firedoglake.com:

Sen. Jeff Merkley: Bernanke Thinks “Everything's OK If Wall Street's OK,” Senate “Dysfunctional” — I had the chance to talk with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) this morning in a wide-ranging interview about Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve, financial reform and the utter dysfunction of the US Senate.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein, The Hill, Wonk Room and The Caucus

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Ben Bernanke and the Pringles Problem

Discussion: Marginal Revolution, J. Bradford DeLong's … and TheMoneyIllusion

Paul Krugman:
The curse of Montagu Norman

Discussion: TheMoneyIllusion and Eschaton

Patrick J. Michaels / Wall Street Journal:

How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus — The East Anglia emails are just the tip of the iceberg. I should know. — Printer — Friendly — Few people understand the real significance of Climategate, the now-famous hacking of emails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU).

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Neptunus Lex

Michael E. Mann / Washington Post:
E-mail furor doesn't alter evidence for climate change

Discussion: Cato @ Liberty, RedState, The Air Vent and Climate Progress

Walter Alarkon / The Hill:

Pelosi, Rahm do not scare Rep. DeFazio — Rep. Peter DeFazio's phone rang. On the other end was Rahm Emanuel. — The White House chief of staff last month expressed frustration with DeFazio's resignation calls for President Barack Obama's top two economic aides — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Firedoglake, The Lonely Conservative and JammieWearingFool

Washington Post:

Senate Democrats block GOP filibuster — Senate Republicans failed early Friday in their bid to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move designed to delay President Obama's health-care legislation. — On a 63 to 33 vote …

Discussion: The Hill, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, The Page and msnbc.com

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell not backing down as round-the-clock votes loom

Discussion: The Note and The Lonely Conservative

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:

Flashback: McCain Refused To Grant 30 Seconds Of Time During Iraq War Debate — Yesterday, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), acting on the orders of the Senate leadership, refused to grant Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) “an additional moment” to continue speaking on the Senate floor after his 10 minutes expired.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Outside The Beltway and TPM LiveWire

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Democratic congressman from North Carolina angers supporters by voting against health-care bill — KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — To voters in this hard-luck town where stable factory jobs and the health care that came with them have long since disappeared, change looked good a year ago.

Discussion: AMERICAblog News and Sweetness & Light

Tim Graham / NewsBusters.org:
WaPo Jabs at Betrayal of Southern Dem for Rejecting ‘Badly Needed’ Health Reform

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Hot Air and AmSpecBlog

Bloomberg:

Harvard Swaps Are So Toxic Even Summers Won't Explain — Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Anne Phillips Ogilby, a bond attorney at one of Boston's oldest law firms, on Oct. 31 last year relayed an urgent message from Harvard University, her client and alma mater, to the head of a Massachusetts state agency that sells bonds.

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Angry Bear, The Awl and Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Quinnipiac University:

Specter, Toomey Deadlocked In Pennsylvania Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Obama Gets Good Score On War, Bad Marks For Health Care — Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter and Republican challenger Pat Toomey are deadlocked 44 - 44 percent in Pennsylvania's marquee 2010 U.S. Senate race …

Discussion: The Fix, Politics Daily, Hot Air, Scorecard's Blog, Swing State Project, TPMDC, Politics Nation, Talking Points Memo, National Review Online and Real Clear Politics

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker — On a September afternoon, about 60 prominent Christians assembled in the library of the Metropolitan Club on the east side of Central Park. It was a gathering of unusual diversity and power. Many in attendance were conservative evangelicals …

Ezra Klein:

What Lieberman has wrought — Joe Lieberman's reckless decision to blow up last week's compromise has had exactly the impact many of us predicted. Much of the left has flipped into vicious, angry opposition to the bill. Is that because the Medicare buy-in, a good but limited policy, has disappeared from the bill?

Discussion: Raw Story