Top Items:
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 …
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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:
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, The Fix, Washington Post, naked capitalism and Brendan Nyhan
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.
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 Daily Dish, The Politico, The Hill, Ross Douthat, The Corner on National … and msnbc.com
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.
Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Frank: Health Care Compromise “Dead” — Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said any hope for a compromise between House and Senate health care reform legislation is dead following his state's election of a GOP senator last night. — “I think the measure that would have passed, that is …
Roy Edroso / Runnin' Scared:
Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate — The election of Republican Scott Brown to replace the deceased Ted Kennedy in the Senate from Massachusetts yesterday destroys the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority, widely presumed to be needed for passage of a health care bill …
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do — Via Talking Points Memo, Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt went on television this morning to suggest Democrats break up the health care bill into component parts and vote on them separately: — I think what we're going to have to do is do it on an incremental basis.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, Ezra Klein, TPM LiveWire and Ben Smith's Blog
The Politico:
Fallout: Dems rethinking health bill
Fallout: Dems rethinking health bill
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Newsweek Blogs, The Hill, Washington Post, The Swamp, Boston Herald, Gateway Pundit, Open Left, The Huffington Post, The New Republic, Los Angeles Times, Time, Left Coast Rebel, JustOneMinute, Bloomberg, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Virginia Politics Blog, Washington Times, Economist's View, Guardian, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Note, The Foundry, Scared Monkeys, Commentary, The Atlantic Politics Channel and Washington Wire
Ezra Klein:
What Ted Kennedy would tell the Democrats
What Ted Kennedy would tell the Democrats
Discussion:
The Politico, Think Progress, The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Riehl World View and Hit & Run
The Politico:
Forces of change now target Obama
Forces of change now target Obama
Discussion:
The Swamp, New York Times, PERRspectives, The Moderate Voice, The Caucus and The Washington Independent
Christina Bellantoni / TPMDC:
Health Care Comes To Screeching Halt - Sen. Webb: No HCR Votes Until Brown Seated
Health Care Comes To Screeching Halt - Sen. Webb: No HCR Votes Until Brown Seated
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Boris Shor, PhD, American Spectator, Washington Monthly, Gothamist, New York Times, Democracy in America and QandO
Associated Press:
GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset
GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Weekly Standard, Public Policy Polling, Boston Globe, ProfessorBainbridge.com, protein wisdom, Daily Pundit, New York Times, The Politico, Pajamas Media, Wizbang, Full Comment, Real Clear Politics, Achenblog, New York Magazine, No Sheeples Here, Fausta's Blog, American Thinker, Raw Story and Gateway Pundit
The Huffington Post:
White House Warns Against Dropping Health Care As Party Grows Skittish
White House Warns Against Dropping Health Care As Party Grows Skittish
Discussion:
Paul Krugman, New York Times, Raw Story, The Politico, Associated Press, TPM LiveWire and No More Mister Nice Blog
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.
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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 …
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.
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Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:
Read NYT execs' memo to staff about plans to charge for NYTimes.com
Read NYT execs' memo to staff about plans to charge for NYTimes.com
Discussion:
Felix Salmon
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:
Washington Post, FP Passport, RedState, Gateway Pundit, Infidel Bloggers Alliance and Indecision Forever
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Ezra Klein:
The difference between Democrats and Republicans — Imagine that after 9/11, a liberal Senate Democrat had quietly placed a hold on George W. Bush's nominee to lead the Transportation Security Agency. The problem in this case wasn't qualifications. The nominee was a former airport security chief …
Discussion:
Megan McArdle
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 …
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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.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Senate's Underpants Gnome Problem — If you think about legislation in a second-order sense, then I think it's clear that a “bill to increase the number of people who have jobs” would be a very good bill to pass, both substantively and politically. And Brian Beutler reports …
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Mark Knoller / CBS News:
Obama's First Year: By the Numbers — “Nothing special,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs when asked what President Obama is doing today to mark the end of his 1st year in office and the start of his 2nd. — To hear Gibbs tell it, no one at the White House is much interested in noting the one year milestone.
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Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Pence To Meet With NRSC — In the wake of winning MA, GOPers are looking to put 1 more state in play if they can convince House GOP Conference chair Mike Pence to run against Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN). — Pence and his aides will meet with top staffers at the NRSC tomorrow …
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Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:
Is Pence inspired? — At least one Republican might …
Is Pence inspired? — At least one Republican might …
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket
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.
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, Mudville Gazette, Indecision Forever, Sadly, No! and pandagon.net