Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Another Liberal Crackup — The real reason Evan Bayh wants out of Washington. — The political retirement of Evan Bayh, at age 54, is being portrayed by various sages as a result of too much partisanship, or the Senate's dysfunction, or even the systemic breakdown of American governance.
Discussion:
Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, Neptunus Lex, Betsy's Page, Doug Ross, American Power, The Fix and Moonbattery
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John Fund / Wall Street Journal:
Why Bayh Is Quitting the Senate — ‘I do have a sense of deja vu,’ the senator says, 'and the movie doesn't have a happy ending.' — Before Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh suddenly announced he will not seek re-election in November he had issued several warnings to fellow Democrats.
Sean J. Miller / The Hill:
Republicans furious about timing of Bayh's retirement announcement — Republicans are livid about the timing of Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-Ind.) retirement announcement. — They have at least four candidates in the upcoming primary while the Indiana Democratic Party will get to decide its nominee.
Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Poll: Large majority opposes Supreme Court's decision on campaign financing — Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success — Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. — Let's say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let's also imagine it was large enough …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, The Big Picture, Swampland, Talking Points Memo, Think Progress, Daily Kos and AMERICAblog News
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Elisa Martinuzzi / Bloomberg:
Goldman Sachs, Greece Didn't Disclose Swap, Investors ‘Fooled’ — Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managed $15 billion of bond sales for Greece after arranging a currency swap that allowed the government to hide the extent of its deficit. — No mention was made of the swap …
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection — 52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll. — 44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority …
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Boston Globe:
Amy Bishop was charged with assault in 2002 IHOP dispute — In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.
New York Times:
Paterson Aide's Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny — David W. Johnson has worked for Gov. David A. Paterson for much of his adult life. He began as a young, ambitious intern from Harlem when Mr. Paterson was a state legislator. He rose to be Mr. Paterson's driver, serving as a kind of protector and scheduler.
Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:
Even Before Filming, Kennedy Series Stirs Anger — A new mini-series about John F. Kennedy's presidency that is being prepared by the History channel does not yet have a cast or a premiere date. Not a frame of footage has been shot. It does, however, have prominent critics who want it brought to a halt.
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Huffington Post, Connecting.the.Dots, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hullabaloo and Suburban Guerrilla
CBS News:
Biden: Washington is “Broken” — Posted by Sean Alfano Vice President Joe Biden doesn't seem to miss his days as a senator. — In an interview with CBS “Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith, Biden was blunt about the nation's political system. “Washington, right now, is broken.”
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Tea partiers get audience with RNC chairman but not a shared public stage — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele treated tea party leaders like an ugly date Tuesday afternoon: They were good enough to take upstairs, but not good enough to be seen with in public.
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John Koblin / New York Observer:
The Accidental Plagiarist — Five days ago, Robert Thomson, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, wrote a letter to The Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, about “apparent plagiarism” on The Times' DealBook blog, in a post by Zachery Kouwe, a 31-year-old business reporter.
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Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis — WASHINGTON — Senator Evan Bayh's comments this week about a dysfunctional Congress reflected a complaint being directed at Washington with increasing frequency, and there is broad agreement among critics about Exhibit A …
The Politico:
Dems' blues: States reverting to red — The electoral map candidate Barack Obama remade in 2008 appears to be retreating into its familiar patterns. — Obama broke the decisive role Ohio and Florida seemed to play in presidential elections, by moving from trench warfare engagement …
Discussion:
Moe Lane
Eric Turkewitz / New York Personal Injury Law Blog:
Scalia: “There Is No Right to Secede” — The right of a state to secede from the nation is way outside my personal injury wheelhouse. But it has become a source of conversation on professorial and political blogs, and the concept has generated interest from the Tea Party movement.
Stephen Power / Wall Street Journal:
Budget Wielded to Cut Greenhouse Gases — WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama's 2011 budget calls for an array of regulations, subsidies and taxes aimed at cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, even as a sweeping climate bill sits on ice in the Senate. — Mr. Obama's budget calls …
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Colby Hall / Mediaite:
Exclusive: Hot Air Acquired By Salem Communications — CPAC hasn't even officially started and already its making news. Mediaite has learned that leading center-right web site Hot Air has been acquired by Salem Communications for an undisclosed sum. Sources close to the deal claim that Michelle Malkin …
Amie Parnes / The Politico:
BROWNS PROPOSE GAME WITH OBAMA — Hoops for Haiti, featuring President Barack Obama and Ayla Brown? Maybe. AP photo composite by POLITICO — Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his daughter, Ayla, say they're serious about their proposal to play hoops with President Barack Obama at the White House.
Walter Alarkon / The Hill:
Pay-go gets passed, then it gets bypassed — The ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda. — Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
Elizabeth Benjamin / The Daily Politics:
Koch ‘Not Really’ For Paterson — It was, at best, a sympathy endorsement of an embattled fellow Democrat by an eminence grise, but former Mayor Ed Koch nevertheless wants to set the record straight. — No. He has not endorsed Gov. David Paterson.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Tom Weir / USA Today:
Olympics call in new Zamboni to reshape speedskating oval — RICHMOND, B.C. — Some of the tensest moments at speedskating Tuesday came when there were no competitors on the ice. — That's because it was time to clean the ice and, after events of the two previous days …
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:
2009- Global Warming Causes Foggy Days in San Francisco... 2010- Global Warming Causes Fog-less Days in San Francisco — You just can't make this stuff up. — Global warming blamed on foggier days in San Francisco: — SFGate reported this seven months ago:
Larry Kudlow / Washington Examiner:
Lawrence Kudlow: The Washington, D.C., disconnect — Washington's disconnect from the rest of the country has never been greater. Why can't the political class in the District of Columbia produce a fiscal product that voters, taxpayers and investors are willing to consume?
Bob Cusack / The Hill:
Speaker Pelosi bets the House on success of $787 billion stimulus — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has issued 260 statements on the stimulus package over the past year in an effort to win a debate that could be the key to retaining the Democrats' majority in the House.
Discussion:
The Hill
Fox News:
Obama's Islamic Envoy Quoted Defending Man Charged With Aiding Terrorists — President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group