Top Items:
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Robert Gibbs: Public Option Via Reconciliation Can't Pass Congress — Hmm. At the press briefing just now, Robert Gibbs made the White House's most expansive comments yet about the push for a reconciliation vote on the public option — and, to put it mildly, supporters won't find them encouraging.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Liberal Values, Democratic Strategist, TPM LiveWire, Ezra Klein, CentristNet, Washington Monthly, SpeakEasy, Riehl World View, TPMDC, The Page and Daily Kos
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Ezra Klein:
Jay Rockefeller's inconvenient honesty on the public option — Sen. Jay Rockefeller did something very strange last night: He was honest. He said, publicly, that he does not support adding the public option to the reconciliation bill. And he's going to pay for it today.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Stupak: ‘Unacceptable’ — This statement from Bart Stupak is conciliatory in tone, but not in substance, and it isn't going to make things easy in the House: — I was pleased to see that President Obama's health care proposal did not include several of the sweetheart deals provided to select states in the Senate bill.
Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:
Will the Republicans Post Their Health Plan... and When? — The President believes strongly that Thursday's bipartisan meeting on health insurance reform will be most productive if both sides come to the table with a unified plan to start discussion - and if the public has the opportunity …
Discussion:
TPMDC, The Corner on National …, ABCNEWS, USA Today, Boston Globe, Think Progress, New York Times, The Save Jersey Blog, Gateway Pundit, Bloomberg, Another Black Conservative, CBS News, Open Congress, NOW! Blog, Michelle Malkin, Firedoglake, Left Coast Rebel, The Hill, Newsweek Blogs, The Lonely Conservative, The Hill, The Plum Line, The Note, Political Punch, New York Magazine, Wonk Room, Wake up America, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Outside The Beltway, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Sister Toldjah, Swampland, Riehl World View, NewsBusters.org, GINA COBB and The Swamp
Erica Werner / Associated Press:
Hoyer: Comprehensive health bill may be no go — WASHINGTON - Democratic congressional leaders confronted the reality Tuesday that they may not be able to pass the comprehensive health care overhaul sought by President Barack Obama. Republican leaders prepared to do everything in their power to make sure they can't.
Discussion:
About.com US Liberal Politics, Bloomberg, NO QUARTER, Hot Air, Commentary, Dennis the Peasant, Pundit & Pundette and The Hill
Ezra Klein:
A failure of White House leadership — One other point on the public option: This has been a complete and utter failure of White House leadership. They need to give this effort their support, or they need to kill it by publicly stating their opposition. But they can't simply wait …
kff.org:Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — February 2010
Discussion:
The New Republic, Ezra Klein, Daily Kos, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Planet Washington, Behind the Numbers and Politics Daily
The Huffington Post:Gibbs: The Public Plan Doesn't Have The Votes
Discussion:
The Politico, Open Left, Firedoglake, TPMDC, AMERICAblog News, Politics Daily, Hullabaloo, Raw Story, Taylor Marsh and TalkLeft
Mike Allen / The Politico:GOP plans dozens or hundreds of health-care amendments …
Discussion:
Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, CNN, msnbc.com, CBS News, Hot Air and Washington Monthly
Harry Joe / Margin of Error:Republican Blizzard on the Generic Ballot
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Monkey Cage, The New Republic, Matthew Yglesias, Democracy in America and Wake up America
Scott Whitlock / NewsBusters.org:
MSNBC Regular Donny Deutsch Slams Marco Rubio With Racially Charged Attack: He's a ‘Coconut’ — MSNBC and CNBC contributor — and professed Charlie Crist admirer — Donny Deutsch used racially charged language on Monday night, smearing Republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio as a “coconut.”
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Michelle Malkin:
The old “coconut” smear: Another white liberal bigmouth with race issues — A few readers asked me why I hadn't commented on MSNBC's latest attack on the Tea Party as RAAAAACIST. Been there, done that. Over and over and over again. (The Dallas Tea Party posted an excellent rejoinder video here.)
Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Harry Reid Says GOP Should “Stop Crying” About Reconciliation — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans “should stop crying” about the possible use of the parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill.
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J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:
Senate sitting on 290 bills already passed by House; tension mounts — Exasperated House Democratic leaders have compiled a list showing that they have passed 290 bills that have stalled in the Senate. — The list is the latest sign that Democrats in the lower chamber are frustrated with their Senate counterparts.
Matt Pressman / Vanity Fair:
Hate Sells: Why Liberal Magazines Are Suffering Under Obama — The George W. Bush years were good for more than just oilfield-services companies and waterboard manufacturers. They were also a boon for liberal political magazines, whose circulation soared on the wings of the Bush hatred that swept much of the country.
Frank Bruni / New York Times:
Where Scott Brown Is Coming From — In just 48 hours, Scott Brown would be sworn in as the newest member of the United States Senate, stepping into the shoes (and office suite) of Edward M. Kennedy and the world of woe on Capitol Hill. But as he zipped down a Massachusetts highway …
Discussion:
The Swamp, Marbury, HillBuzz, Michelle Malkin, The Page, The Washington Independent, Commentary and American Power
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Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output — Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, certain recipients of funds appropriated in ARRA (most grant and loan recipients …
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Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
French Ad Shocks, but Will It Stop Young Smokers? — PARIS — A new French anti-smoking ad aimed at the young that plays off a pornographic stereotype has gotten more attention than even its creators intended, with critics suggesting that it offends common decency and creates a false analogy between oral sex and smoking.
Charles Babington / Associated Press:
Dems, GOP: Summit Will Not Break Logjam on Health — Lawmakers say summit will not break health care impasse, brace for showdown later — Here's one point on which Democrats and Republicans agree on health care: President Barack Obama's much-touted televised summit has virtually no chance …
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Matea Gold / Company Town:
ABC News prepares major restructuring; between 300 and 400 staffers could be cut [updated] — ABC News is poised to make a major round of cuts that will reduce the size of the news division by as much as 20% and radically reorder the network's traditional approach to news gathering.
Discussion:
Media Decoder, Vanity Fair, Mediaite, The Impolitic, New York Magazine and Silicon Alley Insider
Josh / Right Wing Watch:
Video of Bob Marshall Proves He Said What He Meant, Meant What He Said — Watch Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall claim at an anti-Planned Parenthood press conference that disabled children are God's punishment for abortion: — After his remarks set off a national controversy …
Michael Barbaro / City Room:
Ford Polls New Yorkers on Himself and Gillibrand — Former Representative Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee has dug into his own pocket to pay for a detailed poll, conducted over the last few days, intended to test the viability of a Senate run in New York, according to people briefed on the matter.
Tara Brautigam / Canadian Press:
‘My heart, my choice,’ Williams says, defending decision for U.S. heart surgery — An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.
Binyamin Appelbaum / Washington Post:
Bank lending plummets in 2009 — Lending by the banking industry fell by $587 billion, or 7.5 percent, in 2009, the largest annual decline since the 1940s, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Tuesday. — FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said that some small banks have dialed back on lending …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Business Channel, Calculated Risk, The Baseline Scenario and Politics Daily
RushLimbaugh.com:
What I Would've Said at CPAC — BEGIN TRANSCRIPT — RUSH: No, Snerdley. Look, I'm going to get to it. I got an e-mail just in time ago, “Would you stop being mean to Snerdley?” Hey, e-mailer! Snerdley should stop interrupting me. He's not the host. I am.
Discussion:
Washington Times, Vox Popoli, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run, The Corner on National … and Think Progress
The Conference Board:
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® Declines Sharply — The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had increased in January, declined sharply in February. The Index now stands at 46.0 (1985=100), down from 56.5 in January. The Present Situation Index decreased to 19.4 from 25.2.
Discussion:
Financial Times, Associated Press, Clusterstock, The Atlantic Business Channel and FT Alphaville
Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Jimmy Carter Objects To Article Comparing His Foreign Policy To Obama's — In last month's issue of Foreign Policy magazine, leading analyst and Iraq War supporter Walter Russell Mead opined that President Obama's foreign policy agenda was turning into a duplicate of Jimmy Carter's.
Discussion:
Foreign Policy, TigerHawk, democracyarsenal.org, The Jawa Report and Walter Russell Mead's Blog
Micheline Maynard / New York Times:
Toyota Insists Electronics Are Not to Blame in Safety Issue — WASHINGTON — A top Toyota executive will tell a House committee on Tuesday that the automaker took “too long to come to grips with a rare but serious set of safety issues.” — The executive, James E. Lentz III …
Benjamin Todd Jealous / CNN:
NAACP president: Van Jones a misunderstood treasure — Editor's note: Benjamin Todd Jealous is president and CEO of the NAACP. The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts and literature, as well as individuals or groups …
Chris Stirewalt / Washington Examiner:
Mitch Daniels: CPAC was “a lot of rowdyism” — At this morning's Christian Science Monitor breakfast with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, the governor was careful to retain his status as an unwilling presidential candidate and steered clear of any hypotheticals about his political future.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Bruce Carroll / Big Journalism:
The HomoCon Tipping Point: Why CPAC Was a Milestone Weekend for Gays — **Post UPDATED at bottom. — In the weeks leading up to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, there was a sidebar skirmish involving two of the CPAC sponsors.
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