Top Items:
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
An ugly finale for health-care reform — Going into Monday morning's crucial Senate vote on health-care legislation, Republican chances for defeating the bill had come down to a last, macabre hope. They needed one Democratic senator to die — or at least become incapacitated.
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
A Dangerous Dysfunction — Unless some legislator pulls off a last-minute double-cross, health care reform will pass the Senate this week. Count me among those who consider this an awesome achievement. It's a seriously flawed bill, we'll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it's nonetheless a huge step forward.
New York Times:
Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes — WASHINGTON — After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Senate Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation's health care system.
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Deep in Health Bill, Very Specific Beneficiaries — WASHINGTON — Buried in the deal-clinching health care package that Senate Democrats unveiled over the weekend is an inconspicuous proposal expanding Medicare to cover certain victims of “environmental health hazards.”
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
CBO pegs Nelson's Nebraska Medicaid deal cost at $100 million — Nebraska will receive $100 million in assistance for its state Medicaid program under provisions negotiated by Sen. Ben Nelson (D) in the Senate's healthcare reform bill. — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) …
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Bipartisan Tragedy — I quoted David Gergen earlier saying that public opinion may cause the final bill to ultimately fail, which I agree may be remotely possible. But that's the last rational thing he said all night. At the moment of the passage of the cloture vote in the Senate, he blurted this out:
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
Michelle Malkin:
Cash for Cloture: Demcare bribe list, Pt. II — A month ago, I compiled Part I of the Demcare bribe list as Harry Reid rushed before Thanksgiving to secure his first cloture vote on the government health care takeover. (Quick re-cap: $300 million Louisiana Purchase for Landrieu …
New York Times:Senate Debate on Health Care Exacerbates Partisanship
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, The Note, Ezra Klein, NewsBusters.org, Time, Boston Globe, Commentary, The Caucus and current.com
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:A SKEWED PERSPECTIVE.... As part of last night's coverage …
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The Plum Line
Martina Stewart / CNN:CNN Exclusive: Nelson answers his critics on health care reform
Discussion:
Raw Story
Ezra Klein:
The amazing disappearing bill — There's a lot of talk over whether the health-care bill should begin before 2014, and whether the long delay will give the GOP sufficient time to foment a backlash. On the one hand, the bill should certainly begin before 2014.
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TalkLeft
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Kpicket / The washington times Blogs:
Sen. Whitehouse: foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups — ****Updated with video link and more transcript — Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today took shots at those who are not supporting the health care legislation.
CNN:
CNN Poll: 6 point jump in support for health care bill — Washington (CNN) - Support for the health care reform bill that Democrats are pushing through the Senate has risen six points since early December, according to a new national poll, and although a majority of Americans still oppose its passage …
Martina Stewart / CNN:
Obama gets an ‘A’ for effort from Schwarzenegger — Washington (CNN) - Not every Republican is a critic of President Obama. At least one thinks the president is doing a fine job - at least when it comes to the effort involved in being the country's chief executive.
Drew Westen / The Huffington Post:
Leadership, Obama Style, and the Looming Losses in 2010: Pretty Speeches, Compromised Values, and the Quest for the Lowest Common Denominator — As the president's job performance numbers and ratings on his handling of virtually every domestic issue have fallen below 50 percent …
Howard Fineman / Newsweek:
Tim Pawlenty Gets No Respect — He doesn't have Sarah Palin's pizzazz or Mitt Romney's money. But the governor of Minnesota may be a shrewd Republican bet in 2012. — Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty — From the magazine issue dated Jan 4, 2010 — In the run-up to the 2008 Republican convention …
Rasmussen Reports:
Election 2010: North Dakota Senate — 2010 North Dakota Senate: Hoeven 58%, Dorgan 36% — Incumbent Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan may have a serious problem on his hands if Republicans recruit Governor John Hoeven to run for the U.S. Senate in North Dakota next year.
Ezra Klein:
Remembering Obama's campaign health-care plan — “Though the American left and right don't agree on much,” wrote Frank Rich over the weekend, “they are both now coalescing around the suspicion that Obama's brilliant presidential campaign was as hollow as Tiger's public image.” — It's hard to imagine why.
Paul Krugman:
The WYSIWYG president — There's a lot of dismay/rage on the left over Obama, a number of cries that he isn't the man progressives thought they were voting for. — But that says more about the complainers than it does about Obama himself. If you actually paid attention to the substance …
Washington Post:
Fed's approach to regulation left banks exposed to crisis — Foreclosures already pocked Chicago's poorer neighborhoods but the downtown still was booming as the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago convened its annual conference in May 2007. — The keynote speaker, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke …
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