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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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.
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.
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.
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, Ross Douthat, The Corner on National … and msnbc.com
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.
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.
Discussion:
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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 …
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.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
And now, a cautionary note — In the wake of an unimaginable political victory in Massachusetts for Republicans, the celebratory mood is understandable. Scott Brown came out of nowhere in a period of three weeks to wrest the crown jewel of Democratic Senate seats from Harry Reid …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Rasmussen Reports:
First Look At Massachusetts Election Night Poll Data
First Look At Massachusetts Election Night Poll Data
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel, Boston Globe, Newsbroke, The Fix, James Pethokoukis and NewsBusters.org
Ezra Klein:
What Ted Kennedy would tell the Democrats
What Ted Kennedy would tell the Democrats
Discussion:
The Politico, Think Progress, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Riehl World View and Hit & Run
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, The Politico, Raw Story, Associated Press and No More Mister Nice Blog
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
Associated Press:
GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset
GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset
Discussion:
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Michael Cooper / New York Times:
G.O.P. Senate Victory Stuns Democrats
G.O.P. Senate Victory Stuns Democrats
Discussion:
Boston Globe, New York Times, The Monkey Cage, The Note, The Swamp, Prescriptions, TQIA, The Politico, The New Republic, theblogprof, Gothamist, Ezra Klein, The Moderate Voice, Streetsblog Capitol Hill, Connecting.the.Dots, The Caucus, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Daily Kos and The Washington Independent
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 …
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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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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, TechCrunch, The Atlantic Business Channel, Newsbroke, Silicon Alley Insider and Gothamist
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 …
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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
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.
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.