Top Items:
The Politico:
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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Manu Raju / The Politico:
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
Wall Street Journal:
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
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:
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
Ray Sanchez / ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: Speaker Nancy Pelosi Says She Has ‘No Regrets’ — Pelosi Tells Diane Sawyer She Hasn't Thought About Her Future Yet — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she has “no regrets” one day after a Republican landslide stripped her of the power that defined her historic tenure as the first female Speaker of the House.
Discussion:
Yglesias, Online NewsHour, The Foundry, TPMDC, The Sundries Shack, Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys, The Politico, Politics Daily, IMAO, Weasel Zippers and The Note
The Politico:
John Boehner's boys: the new power club
John Boehner's boys: the new power club
Discussion:
New York Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Guardian and Outside the Beltway
Russell Berman / The Hill:
Golf and banter won't suffice for Boehner, Obama relationship
Golf and banter won't suffice for Boehner, Obama relationship
Discussion:
The Note, Time and First Draft
First Read / msnbc.com:
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 …
Discussion:
The Sundries Shack, Questions and Observations, Marginal Revolution, Left Coast Rebel, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway, The Mahablog, The Confluence, The Hill, TPMDC, Mediaite, NO QUARTER, The Maddow Blog, PERRspectives, TalkLeft, The Daily Beast, The Caucus, Wall Street Journal, CNN and New York Times
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Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:
The Tea Party Takes On Washington
James Delingpole / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:
Tea Party: now for the Presidency
Tea Party: now for the Presidency
Discussion:
CBS News and Samizdata.net
New York Times:
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:
Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones and Prairie Weather
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James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
Donk Depression
Donk Depression
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, IMAO, Guardian and National Review
Ben S. Bernanke / Washington Post:
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 …
Discussion:
Daniel W. Drezner, Macro and Other Market Musings, naked capitalism, The Big Picture, Guardian and Eschaton
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Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Both Hands:
The Mountain Labored, and Gave Birth to a Mouse
The Mountain Labored, and Gave Birth to a Mouse
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, MarketWatch, Crooked Timber and Paul Krugman
J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:
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
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Sarah Palin takes victory lap — Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin is out with a new video Thursday touting the victories of her chosen candidates - brushing aside the many that fell to defeat on Tuesday. — “Across the country, everyday Americans are standing up and they're speaking out …
Discussion:
CNN, New York Magazine and The Awl
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Corky Siemaszko / NY Daily News:
‘Sorry, mom!’ …
‘Sorry, mom!’ …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Mediaite, Raw Story and PopEater
BradNoley / CBS News:
Palin Emerges with Even More Clout
Palin Emerges with Even More Clout
Discussion:
JOSHUAPUNDIT, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, Don Surber, The Caucus, Pajamas Media, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Beltway Confidential and GOP 12
Shira Toeplitz / The Politico:
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.
Discussion:
CNN
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CNN:
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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Erin McPike / Real Clear Politics:
FOX News Debuts 12 in '12 Series; Romney Declines Interview
FOX News Debuts 12 in '12 Series; Romney Declines Interview
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story, Conservatives4Palin.com and WANE-TV
A. G. Sulzberger / New York Times:
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, GayPatriot and Election Law
The Politico:
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.
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Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Reid is ‘begging’ for Republican input; criticizes GOP and the media
Reid is ‘begging’ for Republican input; criticizes GOP and the media
Discussion:
The Politico, Raw Story and The Hill
R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:
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 and TPMMuckraker
George F. Will / Washington Post:
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
Alex Pareene / Salon:
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 and The Mahablog
Victor Davis Hanson / National Review:
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
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Democrats find common ground: It's the White House's fault — The bodies aren't even cold yet in the House, but the Democratic Party has already opened up a bitter debate over who's to blame. — The party's bloodied moderates Wednesday released two years of pent-up anger at a party leadership …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Hot Air, Pirate's Cove, The Bilerico Project, RedState, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, Gawker, The Maddow Blog, Salon and NewsReal Blog
Mark Hemingway / Beltway Confidential:
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