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GOP senators fight over failure — Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party's failure to capture the Senate. — With tea party-backed candidates …
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Mitch McConnell doubles down vs. President Obama — An emboldened Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday will declare that President Barack Obama must be defeated in 2012 because Republicans “can't plan” on the White House to listen to voters and cooperate on some of his party's top political priorities.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, CNN, Outside the Beltway, SpeakEasy and TPMMuckraker


The Boehner Evolution — House Republicans and the challenge of divided government. — John Boehner is no Newt Gingrich, which suits the current public mood. Americans have had their fill of triumphalism and revolution in a House Speaker. But Barack Obama is also no Bill Clinton …
Discussion:
Betsy's Page and Booman Tribune

The First War of the Next Congress: The Debt Ceiling — The day after a historic Republican victory, President Obama and soon-to-be House Majority Leader John Boehner both expressed an interest in bipartisan solutions to America's economic woes. But in a conversation with Mike Franc …
Discussion:
TPMDC

Exclusive: Speaker Nancy Pelosi Says She Has ‘No Regrets’
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Yglesias, Online NewsHour, The Foundry, TPMDC, The Sundries Shack, Gateway Pundit, The Politico, Scared Monkeys, Politics Daily, IMAO, Weasel Zippers and The Note

Reid is ‘begging’ for Republican input; criticizes GOP and the media
Discussion:
The Politico, Raw Story and The Hill

Just 32% of Tea Party candidates win — A Don't Tred On Me flag flies above protesters at a rally in April in Macon, MO. — From NBC's Alexandra Moe — For all the talk of the Tea Party's strength - and there will certainly be a significant number of their candidates in Congress …
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The Sundries Shack, Questions and Observations, Marginal Revolution, Left Coast Rebel, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway, The Confluence, The Mahablog, The Hill, TPMDC, Mediaite, The Maddow Blog, NO QUARTER, TalkLeft, PERRspectives, The Daily Beast, The Caucus, Wall Street Journal, CNN and New York Times
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Tea Party: now for the Presidency
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CBS News and Samizdata.net

What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability — Two years have passed since the worst financial crisis since the 1930s dealt a body blow to the world economy. Working with policymakers at home and abroad, the Federal Reserve responded with strong …
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The Mountain Labored, and Gave Birth to a Mouse
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Outside the Beltway, Paul Krugman, MarketWatch, Crooked Timber and Economist's View

You think '10 was tough? Check out '12 — For the first time in two cycles, Democrats will have more seats up for grabs than the Republicans, and the party could see its shrunken majority erased altogether. — Several of the senators up for reelection came in on the 2006 Democratic wave …
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit


‘Sorry, mom!’ Bristol Palin didn't vote in election - but wants Sarah to run for president in 2012 — Bristol Palin remembered her dance moves well enough to survive another round on “Dancing With the Stars,” but she forgot to do her civic duty. — Sarah Palin's daughter admitted Wednesday she didn't vote in the midterm elections.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Mediaite, Raw Story and PopEater
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Sarah Palin takes victory lap
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CNN, New York Magazine and The Awl

Palin Emerges with Even More Clout
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JOSHUAPUNDIT, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Caucus, Don Surber, Pajamas Media, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Beltway Confidential and GOP 12


Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan — The PowerPoint slides presented to House Republicans in January 2009 seemed incongruously optimistic at a time when the very word “hope” belonged to the newly ascendant Democrats and their incoming president, Barack Obama.
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal and Prairie Weather

Pulling a Clinton? — John Harris, the noted Clinton biographer, considers the notion of a 1994 repeat: — [T[he widespread speculation that what Obama needs to do now is simply “pull a Clinton”—replicating Bill Clinton's comeback after being trounced by Newt Gingrich in 1994 …
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Democrats find common ground: It's the White House's fault
Discussion:
The New Republic, Hot Air, Pirate's Cove, The Bilerico Project, RedState, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, Gawker, The Maddow Blog, Salon and NewsReal Blog


Washington, Alaska races not over — One of the lingering, unresolved Senate races was taken off the board late Wednesday afternoon, when Sen. Michael Bennet was declared the winner in his agonizingly close Colorado matchup with tea party Republican Ken Buck.
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CNN
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In new memoir, Bush makes clear he approved use of waterboarding — Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Emptywheel, Raw Story and TPMMuckraker


John Boehner's boys: the new power club — John Boehner has no plans — or capacity — to rule the House like Nancy Pelosi did. It's neither his style to centralize power in the speaker's office like she did nor his strength to win his way though brute force or fear.
Discussion:
New York Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Guardian and Outside the Beltway
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Golf and banter won't suffice for Boehner, Obama relationship
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The Note, Time and First Draft


Poll: GOP candidates top Obama in hypothetical 2012 race — Washington (CNN) — His party got its clock cleaned in Tuesday's midterm elections, but President Barack Obama still remains competitive in some hypothetical 2012 presidential election matchups, especially against Sarah Palin, a new poll shows.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Mediaite and Latest Open Salon Blog
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FOX News Debuts 12 in '12 Series; Romney Declines Interview
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story, Conservatives4Palin.com and WANE-TV


Ouster of Iowa Judges Sends Signal to Bench — DES MOINES — An unprecedented vote to remove three Iowa Supreme Court justices who were part of the unanimous decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the state was celebrated by conservatives as a popular rebuke of judicial overreach …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Snitch, Law Blog, GayPatriot and Election Law

A recoil against liberalism — Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012. Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp …
Discussion:
Achenblog, The Glittering Eye, Daily Kos, Betsy's Page and No Left Turns


The sad tale of the Democrats who hated the unemployed — Last summer, we met the Democrats who hated the unemployed — the 16 House votes from the majority party against an emergency extension of unemployment benefits. They were: — John Adler, D-N.J. — Brian Baird, D-Wash.
Discussion:
Chicago Sun Times, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Hullabaloo and The Mahablog


34 warships sent from US for Obama visit — New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday. — Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines …
Discussion:
Telegraph, theblogprof, JammieWearingFool, Don Surber and Pundit & Pundette


Ann Marie Buerkle surges into lead over Dan Maffei in NY-25 congressional race — Syracuse, NY — Republican Ann Marie Buerkle surged ahead of U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei by 659 votes this afternoon in the 25th Congressional District race after Wayne County reported its unofficial results.
Discussion:
Ballot Box

Obama Doesn't Get It — President Obama came close, but he still just cannot admit that his radical policies and their effects on the economy are the cause of his devastating political rebuke. For most of his press conference, an oddly depressed Obama voted present, as he all but said that the problems …
Discussion:
Questions and Observations, Politics Daily, FOX News Radio, Viking Pundit and The New Republic


GOP senators fight over failure — DeMint's actions have enraged many Republican senators, aides and consultants, many of whom were exchanging cutting emails about him late Tuesday and early Wednesday as it became clear the party would fall short in the Senate.

You know who was a big loser in this election? George Soros. — While Democrats went out of their way to portray the Koch brothers as evil billionaires puppeteering this election, I'd venture they feel pretty good about the outcome. However, after last night I'd venture that that George Soros is one unhappy Hungarian.
Discussion:
Bloomberg


Whitman, Fiorina and McMahon: Spending big, failing bigger — LOS ANGELES - Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Linda McMahon had a lot in common. — All sharp, successful businesswomen who made millions as executives in the private sector, they identified 2010 as an apt historical moment …
Discussion:
American Power