memeorandum: Harry Reid: We'll wait on Scott Brown for health care vote (Erika Lovley/The Politico)

5:55 PM ET, January 20, 2010

Top Items:

Karen Travers / ABCNEWS:

Exclusive: Obama Admits Voter ‘Anger’ Key to GOP Victory in Massachusetts — Obama to Senate: Don't “Jam” Through Health Care Until Brown Seated — President Obama warned Democrats in Congress today not to “jam” a health care reform bill through now that they've lost their commanding majority …

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, The Daily Caller, Wizbang, The Politico, The Lonely Conservative, Blue Crab Boulevard, About.com US Liberal Politics, Another Black Conservative, Hot Air, Ben Smith's Blog, YID With LID, Raw Story, Daily Kos and TalkLeft

The Huffington Post:

A Path Forward: It's Time to Pass Health Insurance Reform — What's Your Reaction: … The question on everyone's mind today is what went wrong in Massachusetts? The tea leaf-reading and hand wringing will no doubt monopolize much of Washington's time over the coming days and weeks.

Discussion: The Hill, TPMDC, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The New Republic and TalkLeft

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

Dem Talking Points: We're Screwed! — New Senate Democratic talking points, distributed in response to last night's special election in Massachusetts show the party pre-emptively placing the blame for a lackluster agenda moving forward on Republicans, who Dems say they now need to pass legislation.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, QandO and Raw Story

Philip Klein / AmSpecBlog:

Barney Frank Deals Potential Death Blow to Obamacare — Rep. Barney Frank is not a wobbly moderate in a marginal district, but a liberal Democrat who has been supportive of the health care push. And that's why this statement below, which essentially rules out all of the options being discussed …

Manu Raju / The Politico:

Claire McCaskill: No forced Senate health care bill — Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has joined Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) in warning leaders not to try to push a revised health care reform bill through the Senate before newly elected Republican Scott Brown arrives.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Prescriptions, TPM LiveWire, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, TPMDC and Another Black Conservative

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

Dear Nervous & Frustrated House Democrat... Dear Nervous and Frustrated House Democrat, — It's up to you. — A few days ago, after a year of debate, you were on the verge of achieving a goal that's eluded progressives for nearly a century: Creating a national health insurance program.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Politico, The Hill, The Daily Dish, Ross Douthat, The Corner on National … and Open Left

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Union Big: Labor Won't Support House Passing Senate Bill — House to pass Senate health bill as is? Forget it, a top labor leader says. — AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel tells me in an interview that labor won't support any efforts by the House to pass the Senate health bill …

Discussion: Megan McArdle, TalkLeft, Ben Smith's Blog and Taylor Marsh

George Stephanopoulos / George's Bottom Line:

Obama: Seat Scott Brown and Health Care Next Steps — Here is a section from my exclusive interview today with President Obama: — GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So how do you do it now? This strategy that a lot of people have talked about getting the House to pass the Senate bill.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog, CANNONFIRE and The Page

Lanny J. Davis / Wall Street Journal:

Blame the Left for Massachusetts — Democrats should be willing to seek common-ground reforms. — Liberal Democrats might attempt to spin the shocking victory of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts by claiming that the loss was a result of a poor campaign by Martha Coakley. Would that it were so.

Discussion: Washington Post, skippy the bush kangaroo, TalkLeft, Top of the Ticket, Emptywheel, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, MarketWatch, Think Progress, PostPartisan, The Moderate Voice and Cato @ Liberty

Roy Edroso / Runnin' Scared:
Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate

Discussion: The Politico, The Swamp, The Corner on National …, CNN, The Note, Michelle Malkin, The Daily Dish, msnbc.com, Dean's World, Associated Press, Harry's Place and Glenn Thrush's Blog

Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Frank: Health Care Compromise “Dead”

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos, The Strata-Sphere, DownWithTyranny! and AMERICAblog News

Erika Lovley / The Politico:
Harry Reid: We'll wait on Scott Brown for health care vote

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Note and Townhall.com

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do — Via Talking Points Memo …

Discussion: TPMDC, Washington Monthly, TPM LiveWire, The Reaction and Talking Points Memo

The Note:
Feinstein: “slow down” …

Discussion: The Swamp, msnbc.com, The New Republic, The Washington Independent, Gothamist and Commentary

Ezra Klein:
The other health-care reform option

Discussion: MyDD, Reclusive Leftist and The Impolitic

Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit:
SO, BROWN WON. This is big news; while the White House is still …

Discussion: Don Surber, BBC, The Other McCain and Riehl World View

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Stupak: Senate bill wouldn't get 100 votes in the House

Discussion: The Politico

George Stephanopoulos / George's Bottom Line:
Obama: Massachusetts' Anger

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
Conrad opens door to reconciliation for healthcare

Discussion: Salon, Daily Kos, Open Left, Campaign Diaries and The Hill

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Stupak: House Dems said “No Way” to Passing the Senate Bill

Discussion: AmSpecBlog

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
And now, a cautionary note

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Ezra Klein:

Demoralized Democrats — Reader MK writes: … I'm hearing a lot of this. Last night, I was talking to a committed Democrat. A Massachusetts Democrat, in fact. And her despair was persuasive. “I didn't vote for a party that would abandon my agenda because it lost one seat in the Senate,” she said.

Discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Obsidian Wings

Bshor / Boris Shor, PhD:
Scott Brown is more liberal than Olympia Snowe, and now he's pivotal, too

Discussion: Boston Globe, The Daily Dish, The Monkey Cage, Hot Air, Pollster.com All Content, American Spectator, Washington Monthly and Townhall.com

John B. Judis / The New Republic:
Does He Feel Your Pain?

Discussion: The Politico, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Ben Smith's Blog, Democratic Strategist, Rasmussen Reports, Left Coast Rebel, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, NewsReal Blog, James Pethokoukis, American Thinker and The Monkey Cage

Karen Tumulty / Time:
Scott Brown: If Dems Push Senate Bill Through, 'They'll Pay for It Dearly'

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and The Page

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Let's Play the Blame Game! — When a Democrat loses a federal race in Massachusetts, the default assumption ought to be that several factors are to blame. — Clearly the national environment has gotten worse for the Democrats since Barack Obama's inauguration one year ago.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, The Fix, New York Times, Washington Post, Open Left, naked capitalism, Left in the West and Guardian

Opinionator:
What the Results in Massachusetts Mean

Discussion: Hot Air and Commentary

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Exit Survey Of Massachusetts Voters Confirms Lack Of Enthusiasm …

Discussion: Fox News and The Moderate Voice

Billy Byler / The Augusta Chronicle:

Basketball league for white Americans targets Augusta — A new professional basketball league boasting rosters made up exclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta, but the team isn't receiving a warm welcome. — The All-American Basketball Alliance announced …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
New basketball league open to whites only, to get away from the …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:

The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site — The New York Times announced Wednesday that it intended to charge frequent readers for access to its Web site, a step being debated across the industry that nearly every major newspaper has so far feared to take.

Discussion: Romenesko, Media Decoder, Felix Salmon, Newsbroke, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider, Mediaite, Gothamist and The Atlantic Business Channel

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

Glenn Beck Destroys Scott Brown: “This One Could End With A Dead Intern” — You won't see TV Glenn Beck touch the things that Radio Glenn Beck sometimes says, as he edges toward Howard Stern levels of comedy and tone. — Today he absolutely obliterated Scott Brown over the 'my daughters …

Discussion: American Conservative …, Michael Calderone's Blog, The Radio Equalizer, The Caucus, Ben Smith's Blog and Riehl World View

Julie Pace / Associated Press:

TSA Nominee Withdraws Amid ‘Political Agenda’ — Obama administration's TSA nominee withdraws amid ‘political agenda’ — The Obama administration's choice to lead the Transportation Security Administration withdrew his name Wednesday. — In a statement, Erroll Southers said he was pulling …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, FP Passport, RedState, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Infidel Bloggers Alliance and Indecision Forever

Ezra Klein:
The difference between Democrats and Republicans

Discussion: Federal Eye and Megan McArdle

Agence France Presse:

‘Illegal’ Saudi women's gym shut: media — RIYADH — Health authorities in Jeddah have shut down an “illegal” women's fitness centre attached to a hospital, closing one of the few venues where Saudi women are able to exercise, local media said on Wednesday.

Discussion: Liberty Street and POWIP

Mike Theodoulou / Daily Mail: Saudi girl, 13, sentenced to 90 lashes after she took a mobile phone to school

Art Beast / The Daily Beast:

He's Done Everything Wrong — Home - Cheat sheet - Buzz board - Big Fat Story - Blogs & stories - Videos - Galleries - Crossword — Blogs and Stories — Obama punted on the economy and reversed the fortunes of the Democrats in 365 days. — He's misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach.

Discussion: American Conservative …, Commentary, neo-neocon and The Daily Beast

Jon Walker / Firedoglake:

After Massachusetts, a Warning: If Dems Run on GOP Obstructionism, They Will Lose — Caution: falling poll numbers (photo: Quasimondo) — Let me put this as simply as possible. Democrats control everything in Washington right now. They control the White House. They have a huge margins in the House and in the Senate.

Discussion: First Draft, Washington Post, Indecision Forever, Mudville Gazette, pandagon.net and Suburban Guerrilla

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

The Trials of Gavin Newsom — Gavin Newsom still looks glossy, like someone who'd play J.F.K. in a Lifetime original movie. — But the 42-year-old mayor of San Francisco sees his once glowing political future in less glamorous terms. — “I mean, oh, God,” he said, sipping green tea in his elegant office.

Discussion: Raw Story