Top Items:
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Ben Nelson: Dems may have to abandon comprehensive health bill, go step-by-step — Democrats may have to abandon their effort for comprehensive healthcare legislation in favor of a piecemeal approach, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Friday. — Nelson, a centrist Democrat whose vote is critical …
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The New Republic
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Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Greenwald, Weiner Talk Health Care on Morning Joe: No Reason Not to Vote on Public Option — I still don't think the Senate/White House bill is going anywhere, either with or without a public option, for reasons I've outlined before — though some seem to be hell-bent on forcing House Democrats to throw themselves on its funeral pyre.
Discussion:
Economix
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Top Dem chairman signals House will act first on healthcare — The House could act first to pass a healthcare bill within the next month, a top House chairman signaled Thursday. — Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and a close ally …
The Politico:
Dems call for Rangel's gavel — After months of holding ranks, Democrats are finally turning on House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) in the wake of an ethics committee finding that he violated House rules by accepting a Caribbean junket. — Early Friday, Rep. Paul Hodes …
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Associated Press, ABCNEWS, CNN, TPMMuckraker, The Corner on National …, TPMDC and USA Today
Jared Allen / The Hill:Pelosi sticks with Rangel, notes ethics committee ‘did not take action’
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The Politico, The Hill, American Conservative …, Big Government, Breitbart.tv, Atlas Shrugs, The Page, The Lonely Conservative and Commentary
Political Punch:Is There a Plan C?: …
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CNN, The Politico, Hot Air, Hit & Run, Commentary, Pundit & Pundette and The Corner on National …
Ezra Klein:
Judd Gregg: 'If you've got 51 votes, you win' — “The point is this,” Sen. Judd Gregg says in this 2005 defense of the Republicans' use of the budget reconciliation process. “If you've got 51 votes, you win.” — The idea “that it is outside the rules to proceed within the rules,” Gregg laughs, “is a very unique view on the rules.”
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Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
McCain Warns Dems on Health Care — Former GOP Presidential Candidate Says Democrats Need to Start Over on Health Care — President Obama's health care summit was a good opportunity for Americans to consider the contentious issue, but passing a Senate bill with 51 votes …
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AMERICAblog News, Hot Air, The Foundry, The Impolitic, George's Bottom Line and The Note
New York Times:After the Summit — The main lesson to draw from Thursday's …
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Firedoglake, Don Surber, DailyHowler.com, Washington Post, The Atlantic Online, USA Today, PostPartisan, The Politico and Prairie Weather
Lynn Sweet / Chicago Sun Times:
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to step down — WASHINGTON—White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers told me Friday she will step down next month, after presiding over 330 events in the White House in 14 months. — Rogers is departing after achieving a major goal …
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The Politico:
Desiree Rogers will resign — White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers will leave her post next month, according to a White House source, months after she drew criticism for a major security breach at a state dinner in November. — The leading candidate to replace Rogers is Julianna Smoot …
Mike Stark / StarkReports.com:
Bipartisanship is dead — At yesterday's health care discussion, Louise Slaughter told a moving story. — An elderly woman needed dentures but couldn't afford them. Her sister had dentures. When she passed, the surviving sister “inherited” the dentures and used them as her own.
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Walid Zafar / Media Matters Action Network:Rep. Trent Franks: Blacks Better Off Under Slavery
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Matthew Yglesias
The Politico:
Bunning holds floor: ‘Tough s—t’ — Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber - but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.”
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Reuters:
Jim Bunning Repeatedly Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension, Tells Dem ‘Tough S**t’ — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month.
Kenneth Lovett / NY Daily News:
Gov. David Paterson pulls plug on election bid, but will not resign: insider — Embattled Gov. Paterson has pulled the plug on his election bid, a source close to the governor said Friday. — Paterson will announce the decision later Friday. — Paterson has been under fire for having contacted …
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The Washington Independent, Gateway Pundit, Top of the Ticket, Another Black Conservative, Right Pundits, AOL News Collection, New York Magazine, FiveThirtyEight, Wonkette, Advocate, Clusterstock, Don Surber, Jules Crittenden, Ben Smith's Blog, Firedoglake, Gawker, TPM LiveWire, Michelle Malkin, PoliBlog and AMERICAblog News
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Professor Obama schools lawmakers on health-care reform — Republicans had been hesitant to accept President Obama's invitation to participate in Thursday's White House health-care summit. Their hesitance turned out to be justified. — An equal number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers …
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The Corner on National …, Boston Globe, About.com US Liberal Politics, NewsBusters.org and Roll Call
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Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:At summit, Republicans prove they aren't putting America's health first
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New York Times, The Washington Independent, Los Angeles Times, Blue Virginia, The Moderate Voice and Ezra Klein
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Bush endorses Cheney role — For the first time, former President George W. Bush has said publicly that he approves of former Vice President Dick Cheney's high-profile role in defending the past administration's national security policies. — “I'm glad Cheney is out there,” …
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The Atlantic Online:
Thoughts on the Health Care Summit — So, the health care summit. What do we think? — Well, like the rest of the press, I think it was a phenomenal waste of time, if you thought we were maybe going to make some kind of policy progress. What did we learn from the summit?
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JustOneMinute
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Heather / Crooks and Liars:
Pawlenty: Let ER's turn away patients to cut costs — I missed this the other night but Phoenix Woman over at FDL didn't. Isn't this special? Governor Gutshot to Impoverished ER Patients: Get the Hell out!: … From The Hill — Pawlenty: Let ER's turn away patients to cut costs:
Discussion:
Firedoglake
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Patents The News Feed (Updated) — On Tuesday, Facebook was awarded a major patent for “Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network”. This is a huge deal for a number of reasons, most significantly that it grants Facebook the opportunity to pursue …
Brooks Jackson / FactCheck.org:
Health Care Summit Squabbles — Summary — We tuned in to watch the president's health care summit at Blair House today — all six-plus hours of it. And we weren't surprised to hear some factual missteps in the discussion: — Sen. Lamar Alexander said premiums will go up for …
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