Top Items:
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Fox News: Ben Nelson Opposes Health Reform Because He ‘Understands The True Meaning Of Christmas’ — Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) is still refusing to support Senate health care reform legislation, with his main objection being that the bill doesn't restrict women's rights enough by severely limiting access to abortions.
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David M. Herszehorn / Prescriptions:
An Obama Team Vets Ben Nelson's Wish List — Top White House officials, including a deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, and a senior adviser, Pete Rouse, are at the Capitol now trying to win the support of Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, who may be the last big Democratic hold-out.
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys
Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:
Ben Nelson's Medicaid concerns questioned
Ben Nelson's Medicaid concerns questioned
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Wonk Room, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Power Line and The Washington Independent
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
End It Today, Ben
End It Today, Ben
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Reaction, The Atlantic Business Channel, The New Republic, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Atlantic Politics Channel, JustOneMinute, The Corner on National …, Prairie Weather, Commentary, Democratic Strategist, National Review, The Moderate Voice, Jules Crittenden and Pundit & Pundette
Jed Lewison / Daily Kos:
Ben Nelson: Bill covers too many uninsured people, must be scaled back
Ben Nelson: Bill covers too many uninsured people, must be scaled back
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, BuzzFlash.org, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, RedState, The Political Carnival and Politics Daily
Tony Romm / The Hill:
Nelson supports opt-in for ‘reformed health care system’
Nelson supports opt-in for ‘reformed health care system’
Discussion:
The Gaggle
Chris Frates / The Politico:
MoveOn opposes Senate bill — Progressive standard bearer MoveOn is opposing the Senate bill and asking its millions of members to sign a petition calling on liberal Sens. Bernie Sanders, Roland Burris, and Russ Feingold to block the bill's passage until it can be strengthened. — From the email:
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:
Rahm Emanuel: Don't Worry About the Left — Turn off MSNBC. Tune out Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann. The White House has its liberal wing in hand on health care, says White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. — “There are no liberals left to get” in the Senate, Emanuel said in an interview …
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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Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Flashback of the Day — When Sen. Al Franken objected to Sen. Joe Lieberman's request for additional time, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that in his 20-plus years in the Senate he had never heard a senator do that before. — However, a Political Wire reader sends this excerpt from the Congressional Record from October 10, 2002:
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
Mark Matthews / Orlando Sentinel:
Grayson wants to send critic to jail for five years — WASHINGTON — Not everyone thinks imitation is the best form of flattery. — In fact, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando took such offense at a parody website aimed at unseating him that the freshman Democrat has asked …
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Josh Kraushaar / Scorecard's Blog:
Grayson threatens to imprison critic — File this story under the pot calling the kettle black. — Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), prone for throwing his own political bombs at Republicans, has threatened a local critic with five years in jail for creating the website “mycongressmanisnuts.com,”
Guardian:
Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure — Deal thrashed out at talks condemned as climate change scepticism in action — The UN climate summit reached a weak outline of a global agreement last night in Copenhagen, falling far short of what Britain and many poor countries …
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Guardian:
Obama speech fuels frustration at Copenhagen
Obama speech fuels frustration at Copenhagen
Discussion:
Mother Jones, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Richard Black's Earth Watch, It's Getting Hot In Here, Don Surber, Open Left, The New Republic, The Washington Independent, American Power, The Huffington Post, Political Punch, Truthdig, Raw Story, Environmental Capital, MyDD, Newsweek Blogs, Little Green Footballs, protein wisdom, Hot Air, JustOneMinute, The Lonely Conservative, Saberpoint, The Politico and Scared Monkeys
Guardian:
Copenhagen summit ends with feeble climate deal — World leaders are still trying to thrash out a last minute compromise climate deal. These are the final day's main developments: — • In a disappointing speech Obama admitted that the talks are in the balance.
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CNN:
DC snowstorm chills Pelosi's global warming trip — Copenhagen (CNN) - In a strange twist, a Washington snowstorm is forcing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to make an early departure from a global warming summit here in Denmark. — Pelosi told CNN that military officials leading …
ABCNEWS:
Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists — Cruise Missiles Launched Thursday Hit Two Suspected al Qaeda Sites; Major Escalation of US Efforts Against Terrorists — On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Wheeling In The Cots: A Winter Snow Emergency—And An Absentee Lieberman—Is Complicating Democrats' Health Care Push — As if Democrats didn't have enough to worry about. Overnight and into tomorrow, Washington, D.C. is preparing for a major snow storm, complete with thunder and high winds.
Wall Street Journal:
The Adam Lambert Problem — “Wrong track” poll numbers aren't just about the economy. — Printer — Friendly — The news came in numbers and the numbers were fairly grim, all the grimmer for being unsurprising. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported this week that more than half …
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?
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.
Michael Calderone / The Politico:
Editor's politics raise Qs at WSJ — Not long ago, a British conservative columnist and Weekly Standard contributor who once wrote a column asking if America was ready for a “dangerous left-winger” like Barack Obama would have been an unlikely second-in-command at The Wall Street Journal.
Washington Post:
Most influential person of the decade — Which of these nominees had the greatest influence in shaping the past decade, either by changing how we live or by making the greatest impact on our culture? Cast your votes now and we'll reveal the winner on Monday, Dec. 21st. Want to nominate someone else?
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:
The Democratic Daily, Washington Post, Cato @ Liberty, Betsy's Page, RedState and Neptunus Lex
USA Today:
Mom's tweet as son was dying stirs debate — MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. — As Shellie Ross waited in a hospital for word on her son, Bryson, she posted this note to the social networking site Twitter.com: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.” — She found out 19 minutes later that Bryson was dead.
Sammy Benoit / YID With LID:
DISGUSTING!!!: Rock the Vote & Hollywood Make Ad Promoting Teens Withholding Sex as Way to Sell Obamacare — Rock the Vote says their mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country.
Michelle / Hot Air:
Hot Air TV: Jason Mattera takes on the AARP — In January, I dubbed the porkulus bill the “Generational Theft Act of 2009.” Generational theft has been the leitmotif of the Obama administration throughout the entire year. We rang in the new year with it and the White House and Democratic majority …