Top Items:
Peter Baker / New York Times:
The Limits of Rahmism — AS A DOZEN or so top White House officials gathered in Rahm Emanuel's corner West Wing office one morning in early January, the president's political director, Patrick Gaspard, reported on the latest poll numbers in Massachusetts. With less than two weeks until …
Discussion:
ATTACKERMAN, The Politico, Gawker, msnbc.com, Michael Calderone's Blog and DISSENTING JUSTICE
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Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Massa Implicates Emanuel, Dem Leaders — Embattled Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) lashed out in an emotional radio appearance Sunday, accusing Dem leaders of what he suggested was an orchestrated campaign to force his resignation. — “There's a reason that this has all happened …
Discussion:
TPMMuckraker, RedState, The Confluence, American Power, NO QUARTER, Swampland, Left Coast Rebel, DISSENTING JUSTICE, YID With LID, QandO, Taylor Marsh, Open Left, Sister Toldjah, The Rachel Maddow Show, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gawker, AmSpecBlog, Daily Kos, neo-neocon, National Review Online, The Page and Moonbattery
Jennifer Yachnin / Roll Call:
Massa Hints He Could Rescind Resignation — Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) suggested on a New York radio station Sunday that he could rescind his resignation — scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. Monday — after asserting that an ethics investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed …
RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Massa: Rahm Emanuel “Would Sell His Own Mother” For Votes — “Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn, Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) said. ” He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.
Jennifer Yachnin / Roll Call:
Massa Details Ethics Case Against Him, Blames Democratic Leaders — Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) told a New York radio station Sunday that an ethics investigation into his behavior focused on sexually-charged comments he made to an aide at a New Year's Eve celebration, but claimed he was unaware …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Mediaite, NY Daily News, Gothamist, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Wire, Indecision Forever, MyDD, Hotline On Call and msnbc.com
Tim Grieve / The Politico:
Massa: Dems ousted me for ‘no’ vote — He says leaders “got rid of” him so that health care reform would pass.
Discussion:
CNN, RealClearPolitics Video Log, theblogprof, Confederate Yankee, Joe. My. God. and Riehl World View
drop.io:
PLEASE DON'T QUIT — We were promised HOPE AND CHANGE but what we got is more of the dirtiest — politics in history. Please don't let them get away with running you off. — Stay and do your part to save America from ruin. — Judy Niedzwiecke — 541-389-6012 — Total Agreeement
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Eric Massa to Rip Democrats on Glenn Beck's Fox News Show
Eric Massa to Rip Democrats on Glenn Beck's Fox News Show
Discussion:
Washington Post, Newsbroke, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, Open Left, Ben Smith's Blog, Raw Story, Wonkette and TPM LiveWire
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Massa Details Nature of Harassment Charge, Suggests Plot Against Him
Massa Details Nature of Harassment Charge, Suggests Plot Against Him
Discussion:
cityhallnews.com, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Dr. Melissa Clouthier and AMERICAblog News
Jason Markusoff / Inside Alberta Politics:
Sarah Palin heads north. Er, south. Er, to Calgary. — It was little surprise that Sarah Palin's first visit to our home and native land (of public health care and gay marriage) would be in Calgary. It also shouldn't be surprising that she was able to curry favour with the local crowd …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Palin, as a child, went to Canada for care [CORRECTED] — Sarah Palin told a Canadian audience Saturday that, as a child in Alaska, her family brought her across the border for medical care under the single-payer Canadian system. — “We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada …
Discussion:
The Mudflats, The Note, No More Mister Nice Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and BuzzFlash.org
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Palin: Growing Up, I ‘Hustled Over the Border’ For Health Care — Medicine Hat News reports on a speech Sarah Palin gave in Calgary (tickets as low as $150), where a folksy monologue took a shocking turn — an admission about how her family once received health care.
Denis / GayPolitics.com:
Conservative California state senator comes out — California State Sen. Roy Ashburn, a conservative Republican with a solidly anti-gay voting record, came out as gay today on a Bakersfield radio station talk show. Ashburn's sexual orientation had been the talk of Sacramento since …
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Mark Halperin / Time:
Obama-Bush Same Mistakes: President Repeats Stumbles — Who would have thought that one of Barack Obama's biggest missteps as President would be repeating some of the bad habits of George W. Bush? No single factor was more instrumental in Obama's 2008 victory than his pledge to completely reverse …
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Wendell Goler / Row 2, Seat 4:
Obama's “Closing Argument” on Health Care Reform — At Arcadia University, outside Philadelphia, President Obama launched what his aides call the “closing argument” in his push for health care reform. Two hours away from a Washington he says is “obsessed by the sport of politics,” …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
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Ben Smith / The Politico:
Republicans scold Liz Cheney — A group that includes leading conservative lawyers and policy experts, former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and several senior officials of the last Bush Administration, is denouncing as “shameful” Republican attacks on lawyers who came to the Obama Justice Department …
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Kerry Lauerman / Salon:
The story behind Oscar's “Kanye moment” — We talk to the two filmmakers whose personal fight became one of the ceremony's weirdest moments … People are already saying you “pulled a Kanye.” What happened? — BURKETT: What happened was the director and I had a bad difference …
Discussion:
Don Surber, Connecting.the.Dots, The Washington Independent, New York Magazine, New York Times, ArtsBeat and Gawker
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Obama warns staff: Ignore palace intrigue — The spate of news stories delving into West Wing palace intrigue has become so relentless that President Barack Obama warned his team against fueling the blaze. — “Don't get absorbed in the Washington finger-pointing and intrigue,” …
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Jackson Diehl / Washington Post:
Where are Obama's foreign confidants? — I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office. A lot of hemming and hawing ensued.
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE GOP STILL JUST DOESN'T LIKE THE UNEMPLOYED.... It's astounding, but in the midst of an unemployment crisis, prominent Republicans continue to castigate those struggling to find jobs. — Yesterday, for example, disgraced former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) argued that unemployment benefits …
Discussion:
CNN, Confederate Yankee, Rumproast, Media Matters for America, Corrente, Paul Krugman and pandagon.net
Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
Alabama Dem lawmaker will break from campaign trail to oppose health reform — Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who opposed the House version of the healthcare reform bill last year, will make sure to take a break from his campaign for governor to travel to Washington to vote against the final version of the bill.
Discussion:
National Review
Jonathan D. Salant / Bloomberg:
Business Lobbyists Push to Revive Estate Tax They Tried to Kill — Lobbyists for small businesses, construction companies, manufacturers and other trade groups are racing the clock to convince Congress to reinstate the federal estate tax they've fought for years to abolish.
Ezra Klein:
Health-care reform is progressive — Reading Chris Bowers's excellent list of the progressive priorities fulfilled or partially fulfilled by the health-care bill's sidecar amendments is a reminder of how peculiar the framing of this debate has been. There's no doubt that progressives …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, Open Left, The Corner on National …, Matthew Yglesias, Democratic Strategist and Dean's World
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Illinois Democrat Lipinski Will Switch from Yes to No if Health Bill Lacks Stupak Amendment — Add Congressman Dan Lipinski of Illinois to the coalition of pro-life Democrats standing firmly with Bart Stupak in the fight over taxpayer-funding of abortion in the health care bill.
Kbh / KeithHennessey.com:
Déjà vu all over again … A Republican on Capitol Hill points out that we're going through a health care press coverage time warp. In each of the following four headline pairs, one is from this morning. The other is from last year. See if you can guess which is which.
Discussion:
Townhall.com