Top Items:
Robert Costa / The Corner on National Review Online:
‘They Just Want This Over’ — By: Robert Costa — Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They're ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That's their strategy now.
RELATED:
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
An option still on table? — Senate Republicans caused a major stir Thursday when they told reporters that the parliamentarian had informed them that the Senate bill needed to be signed into law before lawmakers took up a sidecar bill to fix it. — And Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …, The Foundry, CNN, The Swamp, Riehl World View, Open Congress, QandO, Washington Monthly and The Plum Line
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
New Health Care Whip Count - 191 Yes, 202 No — Just a brief word on the church of the savvy smugly saying that whip counts efforts like this are misguided because of all the “wiggle room.” I'm building that into my analysis. I think I'm representing an accurate snapshot in time of where the House is at on this bill.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Stupak says his bloc of votes is cracking — Democratic leaders have been able to pick off members of the anti-abortion-rights bloc Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) claimed to have, the congressman said Friday. — In an interview with the conservative National Review Online …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The Democrats' scam becomes more transparent — A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what seemed to be a glaring (and quite typical) scam perpetrated by Congressional Democrats: all year long, they insisted that the White House and a majority of Democratic Senators vigorously supported a public option …
Discussion:
Open Left, FiveThirtyEight, Corrente, Outside The Beltway, Political Byline, TPMDC, The Huffington Post and The Huffington Post
RELATED:
The Huffington Post:
Nancy Pelosi Will Not Include Public Option In Final Bill — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday that she would not include a public option in a health care reconciliation package that the House will send to the Senate.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, The New Republic, Ezra Klein, Daily Kos, Wonkette and Joe. My. God.
Karen Tumulty / Swampland:
Health Care: Lock and Load
James C. McKinley Jr / New York Times:
Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards — AUSTIN, Tex. — After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the role …
Discussion:
At-Largely, Gawker, The Political Carnival, Indecision Forever, The Lede, The Impolitic and Hullabaloo
RELATED:
Think Progress:
Texas Board of Education cuts Thomas Jefferson out of its textbooks. — The Texas Board of Education has been meeting this week to revise its social studies curriculum. During the past three days, “the board's far-right faction wielded their power to shape lessons on the civil rights movement …
Howell Raines / Washington Post:
Why don't honest journalists take on Roger Ailes and Fox News? — One question has tugged at my professional conscience throughout the year-long congressional debate over health-care reform, and it has nothing to do with the public option, portability or medical malpractice.
RELATED:
Eric Boehlert / Media Matters for America:
Three cheers for Howell Raines (but he didn't go far enough)
Three cheers for Howell Raines (but he didn't go far enough)
Discussion:
Eschaton
David Brooks / New York Times:
Op-Ed Columnist: What Obama Stands For — Who is Barack Obama? — If you ask a conservative Republican, you are likely to hear that Obama is a skilled politician who campaigned as a centrist but is governing as a big-government liberal. He plays by ruthless, Chicago politics rules.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TPMCafe, Hit & Run, Commentary, Sister Toldjah, Daily Kos, The New Republic and The Moderate Voice
RELATED:
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Tea parties stir evangelicals' fears — The rise of a new conservative grass roots fueled by a secular revulsion at government spending is stirring fears among leaders of the old conservative grass roots, the evangelical Christian right. — A reeling economy and the massive bank bailout …
RELATED:
Jessica Ravitz / CNN:
Coffee Party brewing — Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — In one chair sits a rural retiree, his financial security shot in the slump, a humble Southerner who's never thought much about politics. In another seat is a born Northerner, an inner-city native, a relative of a civil rights giant.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
SEIU Warns Dems: If You Don't Back Reform, We Won't Back You — Hardball time. — In what seems intended as a shot across the bow of House Dems wavering on health reform, top officials with the labor powerhouse SEIU have bluntly told a Democratic member that they will pull their support for him …
Manu Raju / The Politico:
Reid's wife has neck surgery — Landra Gould Reid, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, had neck surgery Friday after she was seriously injured from a major car accident just outside Washington Thursday. Sources said the surgery appeared to be successful, and will likely be the only surgery she'll need.
Discussion:
Riehl World View
RELATED:
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Clinton warns Netanyahu to renew Middle East peace efforts — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday about the state of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, demanding that Israel take immediate steps to show it is interested …
Discussion:
Laura Rozen's Blog, Media Matters Action Network, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Taylor Marsh and Truthdig
RELATED:
New York Times:
Sex-Abuse Scandal in the German Church Touches Pope Benedict XVI's Archdiocese — BERLIN — A widening child sexual abuse inquiry in Europe has landed at the doorstep of Pope Benedict XVI, as a senior church official acknowledged Friday that a German archdiocese made “serious mistakes” …
The Huffington Post:
Fox News Plucks ‘Back Wax’ Ad From YouTube — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Fox News Channel has forced YouTube to take down a Democratic National Committee Web ad that mocks Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio for spending $130 on a haircut saying that the spot illegally uses network footage.
RELATED:
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
DNC writes Fox, asserting fair use
Wall Street Journal:
Colorado Mom Held in Terror Plot Case — A Second American Woman Is Arrested in Cartoonist Case — By VANESSA O'CONNELL in New York, STEPHANIE SIMON in Colorado and EVAN PEREZ in Washington — Last Easter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom with a $30,000-a-year job as a medical assistant …
Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:
Outraged by Glenn Beck's Salvo, Christians Fire Back — Last week, the conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck called on Christians to leave their churches if they hear preaching about social or economic justice, saying they were code words for Communism and Nazism.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Impolitic, Washington Monthly, Mediaite, The Raw Story, Newsweek Blogs, The Caucus, Think Progress, Politics Daily and CNET News
RELATED:
The Atlantic Online:
Birther Non-Denial Denials from Republican Senate Candidates — Et tu, Rob Portman? Ye of sensibility and rectitude? Ye of maturity and political resolve? Despite inquires from the Cincinnati Enquirer and Plain Dealer, Portman's campaign won't directly answer the question of whether …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
The Atlantic Online:
Petraeus to New Hampshire! Petraeus to New Hampshire? — News that Gen. David Petraeus is venturing out of his Centcom comfort zone late this month to the state of New Hampshire is catnip for a certain chunk of obsessives who believe that Petraeus wants to run for president (and be nominated as vice president) in 2012.
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Generational Differences on Abortion Narrow — Support for making abortion broadly illegal growing fastest among young adults — PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup analysis of U.S. public opinion trends on abortion shows that generational differences in support for broadly legal abortion have diminished over the past decade.
Washington Examiner:
Yeas & Nays reporter booted from Sean Penn event — A Yeas & Nays reporter was publicly berated and threatened to be escorted out by police on Thursday night when the reporter asked actor Sean Penn a controversial question about his humanitarian work in Haiti.