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Breaking: Kucinich To Vote Yes — In a big get for House Dems, Dennis Kucinich just made it official: He's voting for the Senate bill, making him the first member to go on record fliping his vote from No to Yes. — “In the past week it's become clear that the vote on the final bill will be very close …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog, The Confluence, The Other McCain, Campaign For Liberty Blog and Open Left
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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.


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:
The Politico, CNN, Roll Call, Washington Post, ABCNEWS, The Swamp, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Los Angeles Times and Riehl World View

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 …
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5 more Dems will vote against health care
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, RedState, Hotline On Call, Left Coast Rebel, Weekly Standard, The Moderate Voice, QandO, The Reaction, Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, Scared Monkeys, The Corner on National …, The Hill, The TrogloPundit, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Hot Air, Another Black Conservative, TPMDC, Riehl World View and AmSpecBlog

GOP senator predicts legal challenges to ‘deem and pass’
Discussion:
Balkinization

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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Health care reform protesters mock man carrying sign saying he has Parkinson's disease. — Activists staged “competing rallies” outside of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy's (D-OH) district office yesterday, in a noisy, often confrontational attempt to influence the undecided congresswoman's vote.
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Shocking Dispatch Video: Tea Partiers Mock And Scorn Apparent Parkinson's Victim

Supporters, opponents of health-care bill square off outside Kilroy's office

Schumer, Graham Push Bill to Pressure China on Yuan — Senators Charles Schumer, Lindsey Graham and Sherrod Brown revived U.S. legislation that would increase pressure on China to raise the value of its currency. — The draft bill, similar to a measure considered in 2007 …
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Obama likes Kansas to win March Madness — President Barack Obama is predicting the University of Kansas Jayhawks defeat the University of Kentucky Wildcats for college basketball's championship. — According to presidential brackets released to ESPN, the president picked Kentucky and Kansas …
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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.

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.
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Polling Medicare — Ezra Klein writes:
Discussion:
The Plum Line


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.

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, Commentary, ATTACKERMAN, Taylor Marsh, The Washington Independent, Mondoweiss and Ben Smith'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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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

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:
The Politico, Time, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News, The Caucus, Swampland, The Page, USA Today, Associated Press and The Reaction


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 …

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 …

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.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Swamp, Washington Monthly, Associated Press, Michelle Malkin and MyDD

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:
msnbc.com, Think Progress, Ross Douthat, The Corner on National …, Washington Monthly, The Monkey Cage, The Daily Caller, Wonk Room, Capital Gains and Games blogs, The Politico, The New Republic, Swampland, Ezra Klein, The Mahablog, The Reaction, The Hill, Texas Freedom Network, MyDD, Talking Points Memo and AMERICAblog News

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,” …

Combat dogs take to the skies for secret missions in Afghanistan — Two members of the Austrian special forces join Nato's Operation Cold Response, one of Europe's biggest military exercises, in Narvik, Norway. — Dropping from 10,000ft, they glide in order to land unnoticed.