Top Items:
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:
USA Today, CBS News, Boston Globe, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Hill, The Plum Line, Wonk Room, Another Black Conservative, Washington Monthly, The Hill, New York Magazine, The Lonely Conservative, Outside The Beltway, Gateway Pundit, Sister Toldjah, NOW! Blog, Swampland, NewsBusters.org, The Daily Caller, Jules Crittenden, The Page, CentristNet, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Riehl World View, snooperreport.com, Stop The ACLU, Commentary, Political Punch and AMERICAblog News
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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.
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:
Ezra Klein, Washington Monthly, CentristNet, TPM LiveWire, SpeakEasy, The Page and Daily Kos
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 …
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.
Wall Street Journal:
ObamaCare at Ramming Speed — The White House shows it has no interest in compromise. — A mere three days before President Obama's supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House yesterday released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support.
kff.org:
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — February 2010 — The February Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds the public still split on health care reform legislation, with 43 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed. However, the poll also finds that majorities of Americans of all political leanings …
The Huffington Post:
Gibbs: The Public Plan Doesn't Have The Votes — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The White House made it official on Tuesday: the president doesn't think the votes are there to get a public option passed through reconciliation and consequently won't make a push to include or pass the provision.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TPMDC, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Open Left, TalkLeft, AMERICAblog News and Taylor Marsh
Rachel Slajda / TPMDC:
Boehner: Obama's Health Care Proposal Is Too Short
Boehner: Obama's Health Care Proposal Is Too Short
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Think Progress, Open Congress, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake and Shakesville
Mike Allen / The Politico:
GOP plans dozens or hundreds of health-care amendments …
GOP plans dozens or hundreds of health-care amendments …
Discussion:
Christian Science Monitor, CNN, msnbc.com, Washington Post, Hot Air, CBS News, The Note and Taegan Goddard's …
Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
Cantor: WH Health Care Bill a ‘Non-Starter’
Cantor: WH Health Care Bill a ‘Non-Starter’
Discussion:
The Hill, The Save Jersey Blog, MinnPost, Gateway Pundit, Say Anything, Jules Crittenden and The Other McCain
Harry Joe / Margin of Error:
Republican Blizzard on the Generic Ballot
Republican Blizzard on the Generic Ballot
Discussion:
The Monkey Cage, The New Republic, Matthew Yglesias, Democracy in America, Wake up America and The Daily Dish
Daniel Foster / The Corner on National Review Online:
The Democrats' Orwellian Talking Point — By: Daniel Foster
The Democrats' Orwellian Talking Point — By: Daniel Foster
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The Note, Commentary, Wake up America, The Swamp, GINA COBB and Fausta's Blog
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.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Reid: GOP should ‘stop crying’ about majority-vote move on healthcare — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Republicans to “stop crying” about the potential use of a legislative tactic to finish healthcare legislation with a majority vote. — Reid lashed out at the minority Republicans …
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 …
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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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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.
Discussion:
The Daily Politics, Taegan Goddard's …, Ben Smith's Blog, The Page and The Corner on National …
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:
The Atlantic Business Channel, Financial Times, Clusterstock, Associated Press, Reuters and FT Alphaville
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.
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
Richard Teitelbaum / Bloomberg:
Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs — Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — When a congressional panel convened a hearing on the government rescue of American International Group Inc. in January, the public scolding of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner got the most attention.
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Apple Bans Some Apps for Sex-Tinged Content — Apple has started banning many applications for its iPhone that feature sexually suggestive material, including photos of women in bikinis and lingerie, a move that came as an abrupt surprise to developers who had been profiting from such programs.
CNN:
Traficant will launch independent congressional bid — (CNN) - Former Democratic Rep. James Traficant, who in September was released from a federal prison after serving seven years on a bribery and racketeering conviction, told CNN Tuesday he will launch an independent bid to return to Congress.
Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:
Steele's spending spree angers donors — Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers - expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny …
Discussion:
CNN, Power Line, Vanity Fair, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Caucus, Washington Monthly, Ben Smith's Blog and The Daily Caller
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.
New York Times:
A Big Mistake — Megan McArdle blogs at Asymmetrical Information on The Atlantic magazine Web site. — If the Democrats use budget reconciliation to bypass the Republicans, they will be making a big mistake. — Reconciliation is not meant to handle these sorts of problems …
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.
Matthew Jaffe / Political Punch:
CBO Says Stimulus Added Up to 2.1 Million Jobs in Fourth Quarter of 2009 — ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: — The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus bill created up to 2.1 million jobs during the final three months of last year, according to a new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
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.