memeorandum: Axelrod: Israel Settlement Approval an ‘Affront’; ‘Insult’ (Political Punch)

3:00 AM ET, March 15, 2010

Top Items:

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

House Democrats release bill for Budget markup Monday — House Democrats on Sunday night set into motion what they hope will be the final steps on healthcare reform. — The House Budget Committee on Sunday evening released text that will serve as the base legislation for the changes the House will seek to the Senate bill this week.

Discussion: Another Black Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, The Democratic Daily, RedState and Riehl World View

Michelle Malkin:

Big Government Burrito: A taste of the 2,309-pg Demcare/Student Loan Reconciliation Bill; Update: A tortilla shell fake-out — If the TARP bank bailout was a “crap sandwich,” the Democrats' Student Loan Nationalization plan wrapped inside the latest version of the health care takeover is a Big Government Burrito.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Daily Kos, Doug Ross and Maggie's Notebook

Paul Ryan / Washington Post:

Rep. Paul Ryan on what real health reform should look like — Today, the House Budget Committee is to mark up a “reconciliation” vehicle, initiating the greatest expansion in government and entitlement spending in a generation through a partisan process to push “health-care reform” across the finish line.

Discussion: AmSpecBlog and Riehl World View

Wall Street Journal:

Gitmo's Indefensible Lawyers — Legal counsel to some of the detainees went far beyond vigorous representation of their clients. Doesn't the public have a right to know? — On the evening of Jan. 26, 2006, military guards at Guantanamo Bay made an alarming discovery during a routine cell check.

Discussion: The Corner on National …

Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:

Re: The Gitmo Bar & Krauthammer — By: Andy McCarthy — Jonah, there will be more evidence, and it is shocking. — Until then, I think you are misstating my argument — as is the excellent Paul Mirengoff, who also has a very thoughtful post at Powerline.

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, Metablog and Power Line

Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:
Is the Gitmo Bar Pro-Islamist? — By: Andy McCarthy

Discussion: NewsReal Blog, Power Line and Wall Street Journal

Kathleen Hennessey / Los Angeles Times:

Justice's wife launches ‘tea party’ group — The nonprofit run by Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is likely to test notions of political impartiality for the court. — Reporting from Washington — As Virginia Thomas tells it in her soft-spoken …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, Taylor Marsh, iOwnTheWorld.com, New York Times, Another Black Conservative, The Impolitic, Gawker, Mediaite, The Corner on National …, Maggie's Notebook, AMERICAblog News, The Political Carnival and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

George Bennett / Palm Beach Post:
‘Coffee party’ debuts in West Palm Beach as ‘anti-tea party’

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Don Surber, Instapundit, QandO, The Other McCain, Gateway Pundit, American Power, Dean's World, The Impolitic, AmSpecBlog, The Daily Caller, CNN, The Huffington Post, Riehl World View and Ruby Slippers

Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:
The Legacy Media's War on Conservatives — By: Andy McCarthy

Discussion: his vorpal sword, Left Coast Rebel, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, AmSpecBlog and Pajamas Media

Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:

Rove Falsely Claims Bush Administration Never Said Iraqi Oil Revenue Would Help Pay For War — In his new book and in recent media appearances promoting it, former top Bush aide Karl Rove has been revising the history of the Iraq war, particularly regarding the issue of Saddam Hussien's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Hill and Raw Story

Peter Baker / New York Times:
As Health Vote Awaits, Future of a Presidency Waits, Too

Discussion: Doug Ross, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, Another Black Conservative, JammieWearingFool, Chicago Boyz and American Power

Frank Rich / New York Times:
The New Rove-Cheney Assault on Reality

Discussion: Hullabaloo

David Cole / Washington Post:

Thanks to Liz Cheney's ‘al-Qaeda Seven’ ad, Dick Cheney may finally go away — Liz Cheney is getting a bad rap. — It's true that the former vice president's daughter, perhaps hoping to supplant David Addington as “Cheney's Cheney,” evoked Sen. Joe McCarthy recently when she challenged …

Discussion: Power Line and ATTACKERMAN

Political Punch:

Axelrod: Israel Settlement Approval an ‘Affront’; ‘Insult’ — The President's top adviser David Axelrod told me that approval of new housing units by Israel in the Arab section of Jerusalem during Vice President Biden's trip there last week was an “affront” and an “insult”.

Discussion: New York Times, Israel Matzav, Ben Smith's Blog, FP Passport, Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, The Page and TBogg

Walter Alarkon / The Hill:

Gibbs: By next Sunday, healthcare reform will be the ‘law of the land’ — White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the healthcare bill will pass by next weekend. — “We'll have the votes when the House votes, I think, within the next week,” Gibbs said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Open Congress, Wizbang, The Plum Line, Michelle Malkin, Another Black Conservative, Wolf Files, JammieWearingFool, Riehl World View, Washington Monthly and Doug Ross

Bruce Drake / Politics Daily:
Democrats Still Short of Votes But Predict Health Bill Will Pass

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

David Riedel / CBS News:
Gibbs: By Next Week Health Bill Will Pass

Discussion: The New Republic and The Page

New York Times:

Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants — KABUL, Afghanistan — Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants …

Discussion: Laura Rozen's Blog

Eric Zimmermann / The Hill:

Confident Axelrod challenges GOP: ‘Make my day’ — One of the president's top advisers confidently predicted Sunday that Congress will pass healthcare reform and dared Republicans to advocate repealing it during the 2010 elections. — White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod said Democrats …

Discussion: CBS News and Wizbang

Bridget Johnson / The Hill:
Axelrod: Illlegal immigration won't be addressed in health bill

Discussion: Chicago Sun Times, The Swamp, Maggie's Notebook and CNN

Alex Seitz-Wald / Think Progress:

Graham: ‘No Way In The World’ Is Massachusetts' Health Care Plan Similar To The Democratic Proposal — Giving this week's GOP address, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) bashed Democratic efforts to reform health care as a “bitter, destructive, and endless drive to completely transform America's healthcare system.”

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Grasping Reality … and The Hill

Susie Madrak / Crooks and Liars:
David Axelrod: When You Go Into The Details, People Support The Healthcare Bill

Discussion: Riehl World View and American Power

Michael Pollak / New York Times:

Peter Graves, ‘Mission: Impossible’ Star, Dies at 83 — Peter Graves, the cool spymaster of television's “Mission: Impossible” and the dignified host of the “Biography” series, who successfully spoofed his own gravitas in the “Airplane!” movie farces, died on Sunday. He was 83.

Silla Brush / The Hill:

Senate Republicans urge more time on financial overhaul — Senate Banking Committee Republicans are unanimously pleading with panel Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) for more time to consider financial regulatory overhaul legislation. — All 10 Republicans on the panel argued in a letter …