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, Riehl World View, Commentary, Betsy's Page, Reaganite Republican, Neptunus Lex, American Power, Moonbattery, Doug Ross and The Fix
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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 …
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Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Open thread: Hot Air acquisition — Many Hot Air readers have begun responding to the following Mediaite story: … I'm going to open a thread on this in order to keep the rest of our comment threads on topic. Neither Allahpundit nor I will have any official comment on this until tomorrow …
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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, John Stossel, TalkLeft, DISSENTING JUSTICE, TPMDC, PointOfLaw Forum and Sunlight Foundation
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The Mount Vernon Statement:
Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century — We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence …
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:
Ben Smith's Blog, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Ezra Klein, Firedoglake, Think Progress, Matthew Yglesias, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, AmSpecBlog, Guardian, New West Notes, Open Congress, The Big Picture, Bloomberg, MyDD, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Swampland, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, BuzzFlash.org, Daily Kos, Political Punch, AMERICAblog News and The Caucus
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
IT IS ‘BROKEN,’ BUT WHO BROKE IT?.... Again, this is the right sentiment, but it's incomplete. … Right. The system in Washington is “broken.” Every effort does require an inexplicable “supermajority.” The entire policymaking process is “dysfunctional.”
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Scott Conroy / CBS News:
Palin: Tea Partiers “Have to Pick a Party” — In Arkansas, Former Alaska Governor Heaps Praise on Movement, But Says U.S. Has A Two-Party System — (CBS) In front of a crowd of Republican Party activists and the tea-party movement's rank and file here on Tuesday night …
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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.
Discussion:
Breaking News …, Scared Monkeys, Lawyers, Guns and Money, JammieWearingFool, PoliBlog and POWIP
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.
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds 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 …
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:
Townhall.com, QandO, Michelle Malkin, Wake up America, Hot Air and The Corner on National …
Sam Dillon / New York Times:
Plan Would Let Students Start College After 10th Grade — Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.
Discussion:
www.thetakeaway.org
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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 …
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.
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:
Megan McArdle:
Did the Stimulus Save Us? — I'm watching Obama claim that it is “largely thanks to the Recovery Act” that the recession didn't become a depression. I supported the stimulus, and still do. But this claim is ludicrous. — There's really very little question that the main mistake …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Dodd: Changing filibuster rules would be ‘foolish’ — Diluting the Senate's filibuster rules would be “foolish,” Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) suggested Wednesday. — Dodd, who has served in the Senate since 1981 and is the sixth most senior Democrat in the chamber, rejected some colleagues' efforts …
Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
Global Weirding Is Here — Of the festivals of nonsense that periodically overtake American politics, surely the silliest is the argument that because Washington is having a particularly snowy winter it proves that climate change is a hoax and, therefore, we need not bother with all this girly-man stuff …
Tami Luhby / CNNMoney.com:
Stimulus: One year later — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the stimulus bill, and from here on out the pace of spending should pick up, according to administration officials. — The federal government expects to distribute $32 billion …
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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.
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Nowhere Man — The vain search for Harold Ford's principles. — “Southern voters are interested in solutions,” said Harold Ford Jr. in 2003. “They can spot a fake.” Perhaps this explains Ford's subsequent decision to decamp from the South in search of a more gullible electorate.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Democrats mark the anniversary of the stimulus with GOP ‘hypocrites’ video — Democrats wished Republicans a “happy anniversary” of sorts with a Web video marking the stimulus act's first year in law. — In their latest salvo against Republicans who voted against the $787 billion American Recovery …
Steven E. Levingston / Short Stack:
The secret behind the hot sales of “The Road to Serfdom” by free-market economist F. A. Hayek — Friedrich Hayek, Nobel-prize winning economist and well-known proponent of free markets, is having a big month. He was last seen rap-debating with John Maynard Keynes in the viral video above …
Discussion:
Cato @ Liberty