memeorandum: REID EYES MAJORITY RULE FOR HEALTH CARE.... There's been plenty … (Steve Benen/Washington Monthly)

10:35 AM ET, February 21, 2010

Top Items:

Sarah Palin coming to Illinois; Valerie Jarrett on Sarah Palin — Will Sarah Palin play in Peoria? Except for a brief stop in Chicago to tape an Oprah Winfrey show last November, Palin's first public appearance in Illinois will be April 17 in Washington, a town of about 14,000 near Peoria.

Discussion: Riehl World View

The Politico:

Boos as Paul wins CPAC straw poll — Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas Republican who ran a quixotic bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, was the top vote-getter in the Conservative Political Action Conference's straw poll, capturing the support of 31 percent of those who participated in the contest.

Discussion: The Confluence, Wake up America, The Reaction, Newshoggers.com and New York Times

Fox News:

Ron Paul Wins Presidential Straw Poll at CPAC — Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas known for his libertarian views, ran for president in 2008 but was never a serious contender for the GOP nomination.

Discussion: The Raw Story, Another Black Conservative, Scared Monkeys, Power Line, Outside The Beltway, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit and AmSpecBlog

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Ron Paul wins CPAC straw poll

Discussion: Say Anything and The Page

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:
Obama Scornfest: Conservatives Gun for Prez

Discussion: Washington Post, ABCNEWS and Ben Smith's Blog

Peter Hamby / CNN:
Ron Paul takes CPAC presidential straw poll

Discussion: Vox Popoli, The Caucus and The Note

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

REID EYES MAJORITY RULE FOR HEALTH CARE.... There's been plenty of Democratic skittishness on using the reconciliation process to complete work on health care reform. That's substantively foolish — reconciliation exists for exactly these kinds of circumstances — but there's been Democratic reluctance …

Discussion: The New Republic and The Hill

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Reid: Dems will use 50-vote tactic to finish healthcare in 60 days — Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months by using a majority-vote maneuver in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. — Reid said that congressional Democrats …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Jules Crittenden, The Hill, Commentary, The Politico, Donklephant, AmSpecBlog, Weekly Standard, Scared Monkeys, Say Anything, The Moderate Voice, Pundit & Pundette, Liberal Values, Townhall.com, RedState and Hot Air

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

McConnell: ‘Not clear’ if GOP can block partisan tactic on healthcare — It's “not clear” whether enough Democrats will defect on a majority-vote procedure on health legislation to stop it, the Senate's top Republican said Sunday. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) …

New York Times: Up Next! On Live TV! A Battle Over ... Health Care?

Evan Bayh / New York Times:

Why I'm Leaving the Senate — BASEBALL may be our national pastime, but the age-old tradition of taking a swing at Congress is a sport with even deeper historical roots in the American experience. Since the founding of our country, citizens from Ben Franklin to David Letterman have made fun of their elected officials.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Hill, Mediaite, James Fallows, TBogg and Gawker

Peter S. Goodman / New York Times:

Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs — BUENA PARK, Calif. — Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Liberty Street

Larry O'Connor / Big Journalism:

Breitbart Takes Down Blumenthal at CPAC — A funny thing happened on the last day of CPAC. Max Blumenthal, recently corrected and embarrassed “journalist” from Salon.com paraded through the convention with a camera crew. Like last year, he was looking for a confrontation of some kind.

Discussion: Hot Air, theblogprof, Another Black Conservative and NewsReal Blog

David Weigel / The Washington Independent:

Andrew Breitbart Meets Daryle Jenkins of the One People's Project — Max Blumenthal's appearance at CPAC ended, apparently, with a confrontation between him and Andrew Breitbart. The subject of the argument: the Salon.com story that I've written about here in which Blumenthal claimed …

Discussion: Big Journalism, Confederate Yankee, American Power, The Lonely Conservative and Michael Calderone's Blog

Ronen Bergman / Wall Street Journal:

Israel and the Dubai Murder Mystery — The circumstantial evidence all points to the Mossad, and the result is a diplomatic nightmare for the Jewish state. — Israelis woke up Wednesday morning to pictures of 11 individuals plastered on the front page of every newspaper.

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Eunomia, Pajamas Media, Haaretz and Commentary

Sarah Kliff / Newsweek:

The Polling Contradiction — In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the majority of Americans are opposed to President Obama's health-care reform plan—until they learn the details. Plus, a look at very unhappy mood of the electorate.

Discussion: DISSENTING JUSTICE, The Moderate Voice, AMERICAblog News, Liberal Values and Newsweek Blogs

Bruce Bartlett / Capital Gains and Games blogs:

Another Dumb Right-Wing Idea: Default on the Debt — Over the years I have heard a number of conservatives suggest that defaulting on the national debt wouldn't be such a bad thing. Today Prof. Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee Law School (better known as “Instapundit") suggests the idea once again.

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community, Paul Krugman, Lawyers, Guns and Money, INSTAPUTZ, Matthew Yglesias and Economist's View