memeorandum: The Trials of Gavin Newsom (Maureen Dowd/New York Times)

1:30 PM ET, January 20, 2010

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 …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Firedoglake, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Rasmussen Reports, Left Coast Rebel, Michelle Malkin, Change of Subject, Wizbang, Erick's blog, Libertas et Memoria and Outside The Beltway

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: The Daily Beast and Commentary

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: Fox News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Think Progress, The Fix, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, naked capitalism, The Daily Dish and Guardian

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

The Note:

Bayh Warns “Catastrophe” If Dems Ignore Massachusetts Senate Race Lessons — ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: — Even before the votes are counted, Senator Evan Bayh is warning fellow Democrats that ignoring the lessons of the Massachusetts Senate race will “lead to even further catastrophe” for their party.

Discussion: New York Times, The Politico, The New Republic, Left in the West, Scared Monkeys, Open Left, Washington Monthly, The Atlantic Politics Channel, msnbc.com, TPMDC and The Strata-Sphere

The Politico:

Fallout: Dems rethinking health bill — Republican Scott Brown's upset win in Massachusetts Tuesday threatened to derail any hopes of passing a health reform bill this year, as the White House and Democratic leaders faced growing resistance from rank-and-file members to pressing ahead with a bill following the Bay State backlash.

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 Corner on National … and msnbc.com

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 …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Ben Smith's Blog, Harry's Place, The Corner on National … and Michelle Malkin

Rasmussen Reports:

First Look At Massachusetts Election Night Poll Data — Rasmussen Reports has conducted an Election Night survey of 1,000 voters in the Massachusetts special election for U.S. Senate. Data will be released on this page throughout the evening. — Polls closed in Massachusetts …

Discussion: New York Times, Left Coast Rebel, The Fix, Newsbroke, Boston Globe, James Pethokoukis, Swing State Project, MyDD, NewsBusters.org and The Politico

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: The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Think Progress, Washington Post, PostPartisan, Emptywheel, MarketWatch, Rasmussen Reports, Real Clear Politics, Cato @ Liberty, skippy the bush kangaroo and The Fix

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 …

Discussion: The Hill and Daily Kos

Christina Bellantoni / TPMDC:
Health Care Comes To Screeching Halt - Sen. Webb: No HCR Votes Until Brown Seated

Discussion: Boris Shor, PhD, Washington Monthly, QandO and Democracy in America

Associated Press:
GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset

The Politico:
Forces of change now target Obama

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and Taylor Marsh

Michael Cooper / New York Times:
G.O.P. Senate Victory Stuns Democrats

Discussion: The Swamp, The Monkey Cage, The Politico, TQIA, Ezra Klein, The Moderate Voice, Prescriptions, Gothamist, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Connecting.the.Dots, The Caucus, Streetsblog Capitol Hill, Washington Post, Daily Kos and The Washington Independent

Ezra Klein:
What Ted Kennedy would tell the Democrats

Discussion: The Politico, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Washington Monthly, The New Republic and Hit & Run

CNN:
Many House Dems reject Senate health bill

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and AmSpecBlog

Ben Frumin / TPM LiveWire:
Frank: I Hope Some GOP Senators Will Support Health Care Reform …

Discussion: New York Times, On Politics, American Prospect, The Huffington Post, The Media Consortium, Talking Points Memo and Obsidian Wings

Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
GOP win doesn't mean health reform is dead

Discussion: Tim Blair

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Scott Brown: Republican, ‘different kind’

Discussion: New York Times, The Politico and The Caucus

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog: On to Plan C — Sen. Jim Webb puts out a statement that puts …

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

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Ezra Klein and TPM LiveWire

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Determined or Delusional? House Leadership Sounds Optimistic on HCR

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Think Progress, Townhall.com, American Spectator, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine and Daily Kos

Associated Press:
Hoyer: White House likely to name deficit panel

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, New York Times, Blog entry, Ezra Klein, The Huffington Post, Economist's View, Newsweek Blogs, The Hill, Beat the Press, Washington Post, The Politico and Latest Open Salon Blog

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Why Coakley Losing Won't Matter That Much

Brian C. Mooney / Boston Globe:
Voter anger caught fire in final days

Discussion: USA Today

David Catanese / The Politico:
Exit poll: Health care mattered

Discussion: The Hill, NewsReal Blog, Wake up America and The Corner on National …

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

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Instapundit, Riehl World View and Sister Toldjah

The Politico:
Dazed Dems rethink entire strategy

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Verum Serum, BBC and Commentary

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Far left has taken over Democratic Party, Sen. Bayh says

Discussion: Hot Air

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 …

The Hill: Durbin: No attempt to push healthcare bill through before Brown certified

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Senate Leadership To House: Health Care's On You

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, AMERICAblog News and The Page

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: FP Passport, Ezra Klein, RedState, Indecision Forever and Gateway Pundit

Washington Post:
Embattled TSA nominee Southers withdraws

Discussion: Federal Eye, Politics Daily, Political Punch, Washington Monthly and Power Line

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 …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Swing State Project

Josh Kraushaar / The Politico: Is Pence inspired? — At least one Republican might …

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, The Atlantic Business Channel, Silicon Alley Insider, Newsbroke, TechCrunch, Gothamist and Felix Salmon

Peter Daou / The Huffington Post:

Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So — It took more than half a decade, countless American and Iraqi deaths in a war based on lies, a sinking economy and the drowning of an American city to finally kill Bush-Cheney-Rove's dream of a conservative realignment.

Discussion: Associated Press and The Progressive Puppy

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.

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Just Shut Up! — Message of the day to all Dems, Coakley, Rahm, Celinda Lake, national Dem committees, Axelrod, whoever, whatever: Shut the *$%& Up! I don't know how else to say it. I'm watching MSNBC and hearing all the key players dumping on each other. As I've said, the Coakley campaign seems to have been run just terribly.

Discussion: First Draft

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Palin to hit 2010 trail — Former Gov. Sarah Palin will announce today that she's hitting the campaign trail for Republicans — including her former running mate John McCain. — Palin, who did not campaign in last year's governor's races or in yesterday's Senate race in Massachusetts …

Peter Hamby / CNN:
Palin to campaign for McCain in March

Discussion: Riehl World View