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Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:
Report: Shelby Blocks All Obama Nominations In The Senate Over AL Earmarks — Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary “blanket hold” on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, according to multiple reports this evening. The hold means no nominations …
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Ezra Klein:
What is a ‘hold’? — The news of the day, as I mentioned earlier, is that Richard Shelby has decided to place a hold on everything that eats, breathes or moves unless Alabama gets a couple billion more in pork. Before we take a step further on this, it's worth noting that Shelby is doing exactly …
Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPM LiveWire:
Full Statement From Shelby's Office On The Blanket Hold — Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo sent TPM the following statement this morning on Shelby's decision to place holds on a number of Obama's nominees Thursday: — Sen. Shelby has placed holds on several pending nominees due …
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Senate Shark Jump Announced — You've seen the reports that Sen. Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama has taken the perhaps unprecedented step of placing holds on ALL of President Obama's nominees until he gets the money for a couple of big earmarked pork barrel projects he feels entitled to back in his home state.
Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:
Another Day, Another Disappointing Political Ploy Obstructing Progress — Yesterday, just hours after the Senate voted 96-0 to confirm Martha Johnson as the Administrator of the GSA after a pointless 9-month delay, we learned that Sen. Richard Shelby from Alabama has placed a blanket hold on all nominees …
National Journal Online:Reid: Shelby Has Hold On All Nominees
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ABCNEWS:
‘Tea Party’ Fireworks: Speaker Rips McCain, Obama, ‘Cult of Multiculturalism’ — Ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo Suggests ‘Civics, Literacy Test’ Would Have Foiled Obama's Election; High-Priced National ‘Tea Party’ Convention Stirs Debate Among Factions — The opening-night speaker …
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Susan Davis / Washington Wire:
Tom Tancredo to Tea Partiers: ‘Thank God John McCain Lost’ — If Tea Party activists are unhappy with President Barack Obama, it would have been a lot worse under President John McCain, Tom Tancredo declared Thursday in opening remarks at the convention in Nashville, Tenn.
Bill Dedman / msnbc.com:
Palin e-mails reveal a powerful ‘first dude’ — Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails that the first gentleman, Todd Palin, exchanged with state officials draw a picture of his influence on policy in the Sarah Palin administration. Other e-mails are still being withheld by the state of Alaska.
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Ben Smith's Blog, The Hill, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Swampland, The Daily Dish, Taegan Goddard's … and Washington Post
The Politico:
Cornyn: No thanks to Obama Q & amp; A — Senate Republicans don't have much of an appetite to give President Barack Obama their version of question-and-answer time - not after seeing how Obama handled House Republicans last week. — “We're always happy to hear from the president …
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Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans — WASHINGTON — Four months ago, it appeared all but certain that the White House and Democrats in Congress would succeed in overhauling the student loan business and ending government subsidies to private lenders.
The Politico:Franken lays into Ax over health bill
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Andy Barr / The Politico:
Palin to Post: I'm not ripping Rush — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is criticizing a report on a Washington Post blog claiming that she is going after conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh. — On Thursday the Washington Post blog “The Plum Line” posted an item under the headline …
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The Hill:
Patrick Kennedy: Scott Brown's candidacy ‘a joke’ — Sen. Scott Brown's (R-Mass.) election has been shown to be “a joke,” the son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Thursday. — Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) castigated Brown for having pushed to be sworn in ahead of schedule …
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Fiscal Scare Tactics — These days it's hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on a news program without encountering stern warnings about the federal budget deficit. The deficit threatens economic recovery, we're told; it puts American economic stability at risk; it will undermine our influence in the world.
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Gerard Alexander / Washington Post:
Why are liberals so condescending? — Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct …
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Obama Suggests Possibility That Health Reform May Not Happen — Maybe I'm misreading this. But if you look at the transcript of Obama's remarks at a fundraiser last night, it seems like the President was at least raising the possibility that health reform may not happen.
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The Smoking Gun:
Harold Ford Superstar — U.S. Senate wannabe's tour rider anticipates swarms of adoring fans — Like Jay-Z and Lady Gaga, Harold Ford, Jr. has a tour rider. The former Tennessee congressman, who is now trying to carpetbag his way to a Senate seat in New York, banks about $20,000 …
Rachel Monahan / NY Daily News:
Queens girl Alexa Gonzalez hauled out of school in handcuffs after getting caught doodling on desk — A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense - doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Clarification — and Mea Culpa — on James O'Keefe and ‘Race and Conservatism’ — On Wednesday, I wrote a post reacting to Max Blumenthal's story “James O'Keefe's Race Problem” and was too quick with a description of the August 30, 2006 Robert Taft Club event on “race and conservatism.”
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Little Green Footballs, Big Journalism, Max Blumenthal, NewsBusters.org, Shot in the Dark and Hullabaloo
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
The great peasant revolt of 2010 — “Iam not an ideologue,” protested President Obama at a gathering with Republican House members last week. Perhaps, but he does have a tenacious commitment to a set of political convictions. — Compare his 2010 State of the Union to his first address to Congress a year earlier.
Laura Rozen / Laura Rozen's Blog:
Obama attends CIA Khost memorial — As Washington scurried to prepare for a couple feet of snow, Barack Obama made a morning visit to the CIA to attend a memorial for the seven CIA officers killed by a Jordanian double agent in Khost Afghanistan late last year, Salon's Mike Madden reported for the White House press pool:
Igor / Think Progress:
Ollie North On What Happens If Gays Are Allowed To Serve Openly In Military: ‘NAMBLA Members’ Are Next — Last night, Oliver North, the retired U.S. Marine Corps officer-turned-Fox News contributor, appeared on Hannity's America to condemn the administration's decision to overturn “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
Bridget Johnson / The Hill:
Weekend preview: Obama to address the Democrats while Palin rallies the right — The heavy snowstorm threatening to wallop Washington won't put a damper on politics this weekend. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) got out of town instead of addressing the Democratic National …
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