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Assailant Was a Coakley Staffer on Loan from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee? — Or just a really good lookalike? — A tipster tells me that the man who was pushing me outside of a Capitol Hill fundraiser Tuesday night for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley is Michael Meehan.
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Video: Someone With the Coakley Campaign Pushes Me into a Metal Railing — Coakley won't say if she thinks there are terrorists in Afghanistan. — Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley attended a fundraiser at the Capitol Hill restaurant Sonoma tonight.
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DSCC: Shoved reporter tape a GOP ‘dirty trick’ — A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is describing the video above, which shows a Weekly Standard reporter getting pushed around by a DSCC consultant, Michael Meehan, as a “dirty trick” by “Washington Republicans.”

Coakley cites GOP ‘stalkers’ in D.C. dust-up — Bay State Attorney General Martha Coakley blamed GOP “stalkers” today for triggering tensions outside a Washington, D.C., fund-raiser last night where a Weekly Standard reporter said he was roughed up by a Coakley campaign volunteer..

This Photo May Change The Election — A hot story today is how a reporter for The Weekly Standard was shoved to the ground by a Martha Coakley campaign worker when the reporter tried to ask Coakley why she was attending a fundraiser with lobbyists. — But another part of the story …


In Massachusetts, Republican Brown steps up campaign for Kennedy's Senate seat — Fueled by the energy of conservative activists, a solid debate performance and a 24-hour, $1.3 million Internet fundraising haul, Massachusetts state Sen. Scott Brown (R) has thrown a major scare …
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The Note, Real Clear Politics, Boston Globe, NO QUARTER, PostPartisan, Hotline On Call, The Caucus, The Fix, NewsBusters.org and The Politico

Video: Coakley associate shoves Weekly Standard reporter; Update: Photo of assailant — What is it about my friend John McCormack and campaign panic? He's actually one of the nicest, mild-mannered people you'd ever want to meet, and yet for the second time in three months, John finds himself at the center of controversy.


Reporter roughed up outside Coakley fund-raiser
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Commentary


PM: Hundreds of thousands dead in Haiti quake — Watch live reports from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Anderson Cooper is on scene for firsthand accounts of the horror and devastation from the earthquake. — Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — “Port-au-Prince is flattened” after a 7.-magnitude earthquake struck …
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Senate Hopeful in New State Airs Evolving Views — In his first extensive interview since he began weighing a run for United States Senate from New York, Harold E. Ford Jr. distanced himself from his previous opposition to same-sex marriage, his description of himself as “pro-life” …
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Harold Ford's gilded New York — Harold Ford arrived in New York through one of its finer entry points: Sag Harbor, an exclusive section of pricey East Hampton, where in 2003 his father and predecessor in Congress bought a spacious house for $1.8 million. — The Sag Harbor spot …
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The Page

Interview With Harold Ford Jr. — Following are edited excerpts from Monday's interview with Harold E. Ford Jr., conducted by Michael Barbaro, a political reporter for The New York Times, at New York University's campus in Manhattan: — Q. Why are you thinking about jumping into this race?
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Ezra Klein, Gawker, The Daily Politics, The Hill, TPM LiveWire, The Fix, Towleroad News #gay and Swampland

MA-Sen: No longer stealth — As E. J. Dionne notes, this past week, things have gotten tougher for Scott Brown: … Brown has been caught in a vice. His support from teabaggers was critical to becoming competitive — his moneybomb on Monday was the first real moneybomb conservative activists …
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In Massachusetts, Scott Brown was better off on his own — Here's the paradox of the Massachusetts Senate race that everyone is now watching: Republican Scott Brown was doing an excellent job without the national attention. The fact that the race has been nationalized may be the best thing …


Support Grows for U.S. Health Exchange — WASHINGTON — The White House wants to include a national health-insurance exchange in the health bill, which would give House Democrats one of their top remaining demands, according to an official involved in the discussions.
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Ezra Klein, Washington Post, Associated Press, Crooks and Liars, The Hill and Think Progress
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VIDEO- Pat Robertson: Haiti disaster due to Haiti's “pact at the Devil.” — Relevant segment starts at about 6:00: — “When these disasters strike, we are there to help the people.” — Of course you are, Pat... after you come out with outlandishly despicable statements about why Haiti …
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Democrat wins Va. Senate race — Defying recent voting trends that saw several Northern Virginia Republicans win big in November, Del. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax) narrowly won a special election Tuesday night to represent a broad swath of southwestern Fairfax County in the Virginia Senate.
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Obama Approval on Terrorism Up to 49% — Ratings on economy, healthcare sink to new lows — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' views of Barack Obama's handling of terrorism remain closely divided, but mark a slight improvement from before the Christmas Day bombing attempt, with more Americans …
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The Plum Line, Politics Daily, Political Punch, Pajamas Media, Scared Monkeys, The Strata-Sphere and TigerHawk
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How the White House Used Gruber's Work to Create Appearance of Broad Consensus — Up until this point, most of the attention regarding the failure to disclose the connection between Jonathan Gruber and the White House has fallen on Gruber himself. Far more troubling, however …
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Capital Gains and Games blogs

Obama's Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Implicit Taxes, Higher Premiums … House and Senate Democrats have produced health care legislation whose mandates, subsidies, tax penalties, and health insurance regulations would penalize work and reward Americans who refuse to purchase health insurance.

When Jon Stewart Fails. — There is an unexpected silence in the liberal blogosphere after last night's highly anticipated Daily Show episode, in which Jon Stewart hosted John Yoo, the author of many of the Bush administration's torture memos and one of the people most responsible for giving legal sanction to the practice of torture.

Unions Tentatively Strike A Deal Regarding Excise Tax — by Anna Edney, with Billy House contributing — THIS CONTENT IS FOR SUBSCRIBERS OF CONGRESSDAILY ONLY.

Prop 8 trial -day 3 - You all have ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and it even got awards - gay discrimination is over — (Marriage Equality USA's Davina Kotulski is blogging for The Bilerico Project and other outlets on a blogger passed shared with Michael Petrelis. She sent this via email this morning.
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Firedoglake

CPAC keeps GOProud, loses other sponsor — Liberty University Law School has withdrawn as a co-sponsor of next month's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington because a Republican homosexual activist group is being allowed to co-sponsor the event. (See earlier article)


It's hometown vs. old hand in spat in Franken's office — The resignation of an aide from Minnesota highlighted the new senator's reliance on Washington veterans, and the delicate balance politicians must strike. — WASHINGTON - In mid-November, four months into his new job as a U.S. senator …
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The Hill