Top Items:
The Politico:
Pelosi's brutal reality check — Asked this weekend to grade her performance as speaker, Nancy Pelosi gave herself an “A for effort.” — But Pelosi knows that the real test is still to come. — Pelosi is inarguably one of the strongest speakers in modern history …
RELATED:
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Pelosi Says She'll Get Votes Needed for Health Bill — WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is confident she will be able to get the votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation in the House, even if it threatens the political careers of some members of her party.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Roll Call, Hotline On Call, The Lonely Conservative, The Foundry, The Hill, The Fix, Jules Crittenden, QandO, Washington Post, Scared Monkeys, Betsy's Page, JammieWearingFool, Connecting.the.Dots, Left Coast Rebel, MyDD, Associated Press, Another Black Conservative, ABCNews.com and The Atlantic Online
Peter Beinart / The Daily Beast:
The Photo That Could Doom the Democrats — Blogs and Stories — Nancy Pelosi is protecting Rep. Charles Rangel, who failed to pay taxes on his Caribbean villa, among other miscues. But the ethically challenged congressional baron is endangering the Democrats' control of Congress.
The Note:
Pelosi Catches a Break: House Magic Number Set to Drop to 216 — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: Democrats may or may not be advancing the ball on health care reform. But the goal line is set to move a little closer. — Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., announced today that he plans to resign his seat …
Aaron Gould Sheinin / Gold Dome Live:
Breaking: Deal says he'll resign from Congress — By Aaron Gould Sheinin/asheinin@ajc.com and Jim Tharpe/jtharpe@ajc.com — U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) said Monday morning he will resign from Congress to “devote my full energies to the campaign for governor.”
Alex Isenstadt / The Politico:
Halter declares against Lincoln — Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is moving ahead with a primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, he announced Monday. — “Washington is broken,” Halter said in a video on his campaign website. “Bailing out Wall Street with no strings attached …
RELATED:
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
FIRST THOUGHTS: DEMS PICK UP 2 VOTES? — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg — *** Dems pick up two votes? Are Democrats having their best health-care day in quite some time? Oddly enough, maybe. Today, it appears they've picked up two votes for THEIR effort to pass health-care.
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Online:
Not So Fast: Halter Primaries Lincoln
Not So Fast: Halter Primaries Lincoln
Discussion:
Glenn Thrush's Blog
New York Times:
Network News at a Crossroads — ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct. — “I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing,” said David Westin …
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, Mediaite, QandO, NewsBusters.org, Michael Calderone's Blog and New York Magazine
RELATED:
Adam Green / The Huffington Post:
Public Option Garners Avalanche of Support in Senate — In the wake of last week's “bipartisan summit” — which proved that no Republicans in Congress will vote for health care reform — an avalanche of Democratic senators are announcing today that they will vote YES for the public health insurance option …
RELATED:
Ewen MacAskill / Guardian:
Doctors tell Barack Obama to quit smoking — The american president has been trying to kick the habit for sometime, apart from the smoking he is in excellent health — Barack Obama is still struggling to kick smoking, according to his first medical examination since becoming president.
RELATED:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Financial Reform Endgame — So here's the situation. We've been through the second-worst financial crisis in the history of the world, and we've barely begun to recover: 29 million Americans either can't find jobs or can't find full-time work. Yet all momentum for serious banking reform has been lost.
New York Times:
White House Is Rethinking Nuclear Policy — WASHINGTON — As President Obama begins making final decisions on a broad new nuclear strategy for the United States, senior aides say he will permanently reduce America's arsenal by thousands of weapons. But the administration has rejected proposals …
Discussion:
Townhall.com, Raw Story, Neptunus Lex, The Washington Independent, Think Progress, Wonk Room, The Page and New York Magazine
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of Uighur Detainees — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would not decide a case involving seven Chinese Muslims detained for eight years at Guantanamo Bay that had been set for argument in April. — The seven, captured in Afghanistan in 2001 …
RELATED:
The Note:
Sen. Bunning Single-handedly Causes 2,000 Federal Worker Furloughs — ABC News' Lisa Stark reports: Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., didn't just stop extensions of unemployment and health insurance benefits with his “hold' on these funding measures last week, he also stopped an extension of the Highway Trust Fund for 30 days.
RELATED:
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Buffett would scrap health bill — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett advised President Barack Obama on Monday to scrap the health care bill and start over. — In an interview with CNBC, Buffett said the current bill does not focus on controlling costs, which he sees as the central problem …
Ezra Klein:
A reconciliation primer — It is amazing how few reporters understand what the budget reconciliation process is: Either how it works, or what it's traditionally been used for, or what Democrats are proposing to use it for. That confusion creates comical exchanges like this one …
Angela Sachitano / WPTV:
Ex-Congressman opens consignment shop … WEST PALM BEACH, FL— It's been more than three years since he was forced to resign from the U.S. Congress but Mark Foley is still meeting and greeting people. — Instead of looking for votes, he's looking for customers.
Discussion:
TPM LiveWire
Tom-Jan Meeus / NRC Handelsblad:
Tea Party prominent: Palin not presidential — Former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo was the opening speaker at the recent Tea Party conference with Sarah Palin. In an interview with NRC Handelsblad, he spoke his mind about Palin. “I really don't have this feeling about her as being presidential.”
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Hill, Raw Story, Ben Smith's Blog, The Corner on National … and The Washington Independent
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
WHEN THE GOP GIVES DEMS ADVICE.... One of the more commonly heard Republican talking points lately has been advice to the Democratic majority: if health care reform passes, and the majority delivers a historic victory, it will be awful news for Democratic candidates.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
IPCC “science” on hurricanes no longer settled, either — In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, anthropogenic global warming (AGW) activists insisted that the stronger storm systems resulted from the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, making hurricanes increasingly more severe.
Discussion:
Times of London, NO QUARTER, NewsBusters.org, YID With LID, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Weasel Zippers and EU Referendum
Victor Zapanta / Think Progress:
Graham says GOP should stop demonizing climate change: You're risking 'your party's future with younger people.' — Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to discuss clean energy legislation. During the interview, Graham warned his party …
David Corn / Politics Daily:
Are Democratic Presidents Smarter Than Republican Presidents? — Watching President Barack Obama at the White House health care summit last week, it was hard not to have an obvious thought: Could George W. Bush have done this? It is tough to imagine Bush leading a seven-hour gabfest …
The Smoking Gun:
The Strange World Of Dr. Anthrax — Ivins was bondage- and sorority-obsessed cross-dressing Yankee hater — After the Department of Justice last month formally closed its probe of the 2001 anthrax attacks, the FBI released the first batch of documents detailing the years-long investigation …