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:
Bloomberg, Ezra Klein, Lynn Sweet, ATTACKERMAN, Politics Daily, Gawker, Michael Calderone's Blog, The Politico and msnbc.com
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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:
CNN, Firedoglake, TPMMuckraker, RedState, Mediaite, The Confluence, American Power, YID With LID, Taylor Marsh, NO QUARTER, QandO, Open Left, The Rachel Maddow Show, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Left Coast Rebel, Swampland, Sister Toldjah, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gawker, Daily Kos, AmSpecBlog and neo-neocon
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.
Tim Grieve / The Politico:
Massa: Dems ousted me for ‘no’ vote — He says leaders “got rid of” him to pass health reform.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, cityhallnews.com, theblogprof, Confederate Yankee and Joe. My. God.
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 …
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Eric Massa to Rip Democrats on Glenn Beck's Fox News Show — Rep. Eric Massa's (D-N.Y.) scorching attack on Democrats — while a lot of attention is going to a silly story about Rahm Emanuel, he accuses his party of trying to “shove the [health care] bill down our throats” …
Jason Markusoff / Inside Alberta Politics:
Sarah Palin heads north. Er, south. Er, to Calgary. - UPDATED — 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 …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Conservatives4Palin.com, Hot Air, Washington Monthly and No More Mister Nice Blog
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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 …
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Palin: Growing Up, I ‘Hustled Over the Border’ For Health Care
Palin: Growing Up, I ‘Hustled Over the Border’ For Health Care
Garance Franke-Ruta / Washington Post:
Palin says her family went to Canada for health care when she was young
Palin says her family went to Canada for health care when she was young
Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
Cheneyites Lose Stimson, Rivkin, Casey in al-Qaeda Shark-Jump — David Rivkin and Lee Casey are an op-ed-writing team of former GOP legal officials who defend practically every terrorism-related policy pushed by the Bush administration. Here they are saying that warrantless surveillance “has always been on firm legal ground.”
Discussion:
Democracy in America
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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 …
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Humble Libertarian, A plain blog about politics, JustOneMinute, Sadly, No!, QandO, Jules Crittenden and Hot Air
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Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Washington Bulls**t Watch — No one does it better than Mark Halperin. Every single thing he cites in his latest brain-dead critique is, I believe, tangibly false, and the moronic attempt to grab some pageviews by a counter-intuitive and utterly dumb analogy - Obama is like Bush, guys!
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CONCERN TROLLING GONE AWRY (AGAIN).... You know who's really looking out for congressional Democrats' electoral fortunes? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). While you and I might think, “Wait, isn't that the guy trying to destroy Democrats as part of his drive for power?” …
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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:
The Moderate Voice, New York Times, Don Surber, Mediaite, WalletPop Blog, The Washington Independent and PopEater
Left Coast Rebel:
Updated: Dan Rather Said that Obama 'couldn't sell watermelons'? UPDATED, Video with Audio UPDATED Again: Transcript, Dan Rather/Watermelon Statement — Rush Limbaugh just mentioned that he has audio of Dan Rather saying that Obama 'couldn't sell watermelons' or some such thing.
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Obama To Dems: Reform Will Kick In This Year. This Year. This Year. — One striking thing about the speech Obama just gave at the big health care rally in Pennsylvania is how many times he stressed that if reform passes, voters will begin enjoying the benefits this year.
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Wendell Goler / Row 2, Seat 4:
Obama's “Closing Argument” on Health Care Reform
Obama's “Closing Argument” on Health Care Reform
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Health Care Reform And Our Myopic Polity — One day, I hope, we will look back at the health care debate as a low point in our national political psyche. The Obama administration and its allies in Congress are on the cusp of bringing some measure of reason to the health care system …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
House liberals want to tie on Senate health bill to vote on fixes — House liberals want to tie a series of fixes to the Senate healthcare bill to a vote for the actual bill, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) suggested Monday. — Weiner, an informal leader of a bloc of House Democrats …