Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
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.
Discussion:
TPMCafe, Matthew Yglesias, The Gaggle, Achenblog, Raw Story, Think Progress, Congress Matters, Jezebel, BuzzFlash.org, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAblog News, DailyHowler.com, Wonk Room, Democratic Strategist, Prairie Weather, Weekly Standard, Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, Hit & Run, MyDD, The Huffington Post, Ezra Klein and The Note
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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.
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 …
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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 …
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 …
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 …
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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.
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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 …
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.
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell not backing down as round-the-clock votes loom
McConnell not backing down as round-the-clock votes loom
Discussion:
The Note
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).
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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 …
Amy Gardner / Virginia Politics Blog:
Webb under fire on health care — U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) is getting banged up by Republicans over what they expect is his impending vote for a Senate version of health reform. — Webb hasn't even voted yet, but already he's being accused of flip-flopping in a video and in media interviews by state and national Republicans.
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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.
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.
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Jed Lewison / Daily Kos:
Ben Nelson: Bill covers too many uninsured people, must be scaled back — Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) gave one hell of an interview yesterday to Lincoln, Nebraska's KLIN-AM radio, expanding his ‘cloture ransom’ to include more than just massive new restrictions on abortion.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, RedState, The Political Carnival and TPM LiveWire
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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.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Ben Bernanke and the Pringles Problem — Health care aside, I really think we need more focus on the fact that the nation's top economic policymaker recently said something extremely problematic that doesn't at all appear to have been a “gaffe” or a mistake.
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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 …
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
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