Top Items:
The Note:
Do Pelosi and the Democrats Have the Health Care Votes? Here's the Math — ABC's David Chalian reports: President Obama and Speaker Pelosi (with an apparent assist from Mrs. Kucinich) successfully convinced Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, to change his position and support …
Discussion:
CNN, ABCNEWS, Washington Post, The Politico, The Swamp, Political Punch, McClatchy Washington Bureau and Riehl World View
RELATED:
CNN:
5 more Dems will vote against health care — Washington (CNN) — Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Hotline On Call, Left Coast Rebel, The Reaction, Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, The Moderate Voice, QandO, Washington Post, Scared Monkeys, The Corner on National …, RedState, The Hill, The TrogloPundit, AmSpecBlog, Hot Air, Another Black Conservative, And So it Goes in Shreveport, TPMDC, Riehl World View and Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Fineman Reports Kucinich to Vote “Yes” — Dennis Kucinich has called a press conference for tomorrow. Howard Fineman is reporting that Kucinich will vote “yes” on health care. — Kucinich told Obama that he wants a full ERISA waver and a public option in exchange for his vote.
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar / Associated Press:
FACT CHECK: Premiums would rise under Obama plan — WASHINGTON - Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print. — Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say.
Discussion:
Townhall.com, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, Cato @ Liberty, Moonbattery and Telegraph
Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
House Majority Leader: 'We're Going to Have a Clean Up or Down Vote' — Steny Hoyer, Eric Cantor Spar Over Health Care Vote Count, Parliamentary Tactics — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today hinted that Democrats may use a controversial parliamentary procedure to pass the health care bill …
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Breaking: Kucinich To Vote Yes
Breaking: Kucinich To Vote Yes
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, The Other McCain, AmSpecBlog, Campaign For Liberty Blog, The Confluence and Open Left
Chris Frates / The Politico:
PhRMA plans $6 million pro-reform ad buy in 38 House districts …
PhRMA plans $6 million pro-reform ad buy in 38 House districts …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, OpenSecrets.org, Hotline On Call, Ruby Slippers, The Plum Line, TPMDC, The Washington Independent and Washington Post
The Politico:
Kucinich is a ‘yes’ on health care
Kucinich is a ‘yes’ on health care
Discussion:
The Note, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Swamp, Prescriptions and Another Black Conservative
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
Public split on support for health care bill
Public split on support for health care bill
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Daily Kos, Think Progress, NewsBusters.org, Roll Call, Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Taylor Marsh
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Jobs Bill Passes in Senate With 11 Votes From Republicans — WASHINGTON — The Senate approved and sent to President Obama on Wednesday what Congressional Democrats hope will be the first in a series of bills spurring employment by providing tax breaks and other hiring incentives to businesses.
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The New Republic:
The Crisis — Was Obama's confrontation with Israel premeditated? — JERUSALEM—Suddenly, my city feels again like a war zone. Since the suicide bombings ended in 2005, life in Jerusalem has been for the most part relatively calm. The worst disruptions have been the traffic jams resulting …
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Robert Kagan / Washington Post:
Allies everywhere feeling snubbed by President Obama — The contretemps between President Obama and Israel needs to be seen in a broader global context. The president who ran against “unilateralism” in the 2008 campaign has worse relations overall with American allies than George W. Bush did in his second term.
Discussion:
DISSENTING JUSTICE, Taylor Marsh, ATTACKERMAN, Commentary, The Washington Independent, Mondoweiss and Ben Smith's Blog
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Why's Obama going on Fox? — With Robert Gibbs appearing on “Fox News Sunday” and Timothy Geithner stopping by Fox Business yesterday, it's clear that top administration officials are willing to engage the much-criticized network a lot more these days. — Now tonight, President Obama sits …
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Norman J. Ornstein / The Enterprise Blog:
Hypocrisy: A Parliamentary Procedure — Any veteran observer of Congress is used to the rampant hypocrisy over the use of parliamentary procedures that shifts totally from one side to the other as a majority moves to minority status, and vice versa. But I can't recall a level …
Discussion:
Think Progress, msnbc.com, Ross Douthat, The Corner on National …, Washington Monthly, The Monkey Cage, Wonk Room, The Daily Caller, The Politico, The New Republic, Capital Gains and Games blogs, Ezra Klein, The Daily Dish, The Mahablog, The Reaction, The Hill, Texas Freedom Network, Swampland, MyDD, Talking Points Memo and AMERICAblog News
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Bibi's Tense Time-Out — So, Barack Obama can lose his temper without a teleprompter. And we have the supremely aggravating Bibi Netanyahu to thank for that. — On St. Patrick's Day, of all days, we wouldn't want to think that our president did not know how to pick his donnybrooks.
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Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Hawaii considers legislation to ignore birthers. — The birther conspiracy continues to live on, despite definitive proof showing that President Obama was indeed born in the United States. Hawaii's government agencies are becoming so frustrated with the delusional birthers that the state …
RELATED:
Mark Niesse / Associated Press:
Hawaii considering law to ignore Obama ‘birthers’
Hawaii considering law to ignore Obama ‘birthers’
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Ezra Klein:
Sometimes you have to burn a village to rule it — I'm going to pull a reverse-Brooks in this post, but break the rules and simply tell you what I'm doing at the beginning: On the deem and pass question, Democrats are wrong, but Republicans are wronger. — The problem with deem and pass isn't, well, deem and pass.
Discussion:
The New Republic
Jen DiMascio / The Politico:
ACLU sues gov't over drones — The American Civil Liberties Union sued the federal government Tuesday to learn the use of unmanned drones for targeted killings by the military and CIA. — “In particular, the lawsuit asks for information on when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized …
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Marjorie Margolies / Washington Post:
Democrats: Vote your conscience on health care — I feel your pain. Eighteen years ago, I was elected on the coattails of a popular young Democratic president who promised a post-partisan Washington. A year later, with partisan gridlock capturing the Capitol, there was a razor-thin vote …
New York Times:
McConnell Strategy Shuns Bipartisanship — WASHINGTON — Before the health care fight, before the economic stimulus package, before President Obama even took office, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, had a strategy for his party: use his extensive knowledge of Senate procedure …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Politico, Time, AMERICAblog News, Swampland, The Page, Associated Press and The Reaction
Patrick O'Connor / The Politico:
Oberstar will back final bill — Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar, an ardent backer of the House abortion restrictions, will vote for the final package after a further review of the Senate's language, giving top Democrats a critical endorsement as they lean on their rank-and-file to back the Senate bill.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Congressman Dennis Kucinich:
Kucinich Remarks as Prepared for Delivery — Each generation has had to take up the question of how to provide for the health of the people of our nation. And each generation has grappled with difficult questions of how to meet the needs of our people. I believe health care is a civil right.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Washington Post, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Indecision Forever and Riehl World View
Ezra Klein:
Was Medicare popular when it passed? — For some time, I've been trying to find good polling from the passage of Medicare. According to Greg Sargent, though, the Democrats beat me to it: … I wonder how many of the legislators who took the tough vote to move Medicare forward regret doing that today.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, TalkLeft, The Greenroom, The Plum Line, Riehl World View and Washington Monthly
Mar / Find Physician Jobs at the NEJM CareerCenter:
The Medicus Firm Physician Survey: Health Reforms Potential Impact on Physician Supply and Quality of Medical Care — Key Findings from The Medicus Firm Survey — Physician Support of Health Reform in General — 62.7% of physicians feel that health reform is needed but should be implemented …
Associated Press:
If bin Laden is found, he'll be killed, Holder says — Holder: If bin Laden found, he'll be killed — Osama bin Laden “will never appear in an American courtroom,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told House members at a hearing Tuesday. — “Let's deal with the reality here,” …
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
GOP senator predicts legal challenges to ‘deem and pass’ — The Senate's second-ranking Republican predicted legal challenges if Democrats use a controversial tactic to move healthcare reform. — Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday said litigation could result if Democrats draft …
Discussion:
Balkinization