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:
Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, TPM LiveWire, CentristNet, SpeakEasy, 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.
Discussion:
TPMDC, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Matthew Yglesias, The Hill, Swampland and Mother Jones
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 …
David Brooks / New York Times:
Into the Mire — Barack Obama came to Washington with the nation's hope for change riding on his shoulders. He promised to reform the health care system. He hired many of the country's top experts who had written brilliantly about how to do reform. — He immediately moved away from some of their ideas.
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:
Hot Air, Dennis the Peasant, Bloomberg, Pundit & Pundette, NO QUARTER, Commentary, The Hill, Washington Post and msnbc.com
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:
The Corner on National …, USA Today, Boston Globe, New York Times, CBS News, Bloomberg, The Note, Another Black Conservative, The Hill, The Plum Line, The Lonely Conservative, Gateway Pundit, Wonk Room, NOW! Blog, New York Magazine, Michelle Malkin, Outside The Beltway, The Hill, Sister Toldjah, Swampland, Washington Monthly, Riehl World View, NewsBusters.org, The Swamp, The Page, GINA COBB, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Jules Crittenden, The Daily Caller, CentristNet, snooperreport.com, Stop The ACLU, Fausta's Blog and Commentary
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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.
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 …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, The New Republic, Behind the Numbers, Daily Kos, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Planet Washington and Politics Daily
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.
Rachel Slajda / TPMDC:Boehner: Obama's Health Care Proposal Is Too Short
Discussion:
Think Progress, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Open Congress, Firedoglake and Washington Monthly
Mike Allen / The Politico: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 …
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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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 …
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.
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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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:
Marbury, HillBuzz, The Swamp, American Power, The Page, The Washington Independent and Commentary
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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.
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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Molly Hooper / The Hill:
Boehner: GOP will ‘crash’ WH ‘infomercial’ on healthcare reform — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his colleagues on Tuesday that Republicans plan to attend the president's high-profile healthcare summit this week in order to “crash the party.”
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Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:Cantor: WH Health Care Bill a ‘Non-Starter’
Discussion:
The Other McCain, The Save Jersey Blog, The Hill, MinnPost, Gateway Pundit, Say Anything, Jules Crittenden and Wake up America
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
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.
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, The Corner on National …, Hit & Run and Think Progress
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.
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.
Matea Gold / Company Town:
ABC News prepares major restructuring; as many as 300 jobs 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.
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.
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.
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 …
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