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Charlie Rangel walks out of ethics trial — Complaining bitterly that he was denied the right to have an attorney present, an emotional Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) walked out of his highly publicized public ethics trial Monday morning, an unexpected twist in the ethics inquiry has tarnished Rangel's four-decade congressional career.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Sweetness & Light, Wake up America, Indecision Forever, Runnin' Scared, Gawker and New York Post
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Susan Crabtree / The Hill:
A weary Rangel mounts defense in ethics trial — Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) plans to defend himself before a jury of his Congressional peers Monday without the assistance of an attorney in a fight for his personal reputation and possibly his career. — Few believe Rangel's job is on the line …
Discussion:
CNN, USA Today, Michelle Malkin, Taylor Marsh, Taegan Goddard's … and Runnin' Scared
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Live-Blogging the Rangel Hearing: Rangel Walks Out
Discussion:
Gothamist and The Maddow Blog
Colby Hall / Mediaite:
Rep. Charlie Rangel Refuses To Participate In His Own Ethics Hearing
Rep. Charlie Rangel Refuses To Participate In His Own Ethics Hearing
Discussion:
TPMMuckraker, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air and National Review
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The World as He Finds It — On Wednesday David Axelrod, President Obama's top political adviser, appeared to signal that the White House was ready to cave on tax cuts — to give in to Republican demands that tax cuts be extended for the wealthy as well as the middle class.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog and Wall Street Journal
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E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
A lame and spineless duck? — The lame-duck session of Congress that kicks off this week will test whether Democrats have spines made of Play-Doh and whether President Obama has decided to pretend that capitulation is conciliation. — Congress faces an enormous amount of unfinished business …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute and Mario Piperni dot Com
Niall Ferguson / Real Time Economics:
Open Letter to Ben Bernanke — The following is the text of an open letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signed by several economists, along with investors and political strategists, most of them close to Republicans: — We believe the Federal Reserve's large-scale asset purchase plan …
Discussion:
Yglesias, Felix Salmon, Paul Krugman and LewRockwell.com Blog
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Fresh Attack on Fed Move — GOP Economists, Lawmakers Call for Abandoning $600 Billion Bond Purchase — WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve's latest attempt to boost the U.S. economy is coming under fire from Republican economists and politicians, threatening to yank the central bank deeper into partisan politics.
Discussion:
Seattle Times, Economics Policies …, Commentary, Weekly Standard, James Pethokoukis, Mother Jones and New York Magazine
Liz Capo McCormick / Bloomberg:
Options Showing Quantitative Easing Working Before It Begins
Options Showing Quantitative Easing Working Before It Begins
Discussion:
Felix Salmon
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Vicious Infighting at NBC News — MSNBC's president vowed to fire Keith Olbermann after he threatened to take his case to other networks. Howard Kurtz on the civil war that has NBC brass—and his own staff—fuming. — Keith Olbermann was having dinner with his manager at an Upper East Side restaurant …
Manny Gamallo / Tulsa World:
Westboro protesters face jeers and slashed tires — Related Story: McAlester soldier mourned — McALESTER - Members of a Kansas church that protests at military funerals may have found themselves in the wrong town Saturday. — Shortly after finishing their protest at the funeral of Army …
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Patterico's Pontifications and Beltway Confidential
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Sen. Schumer wants a federal investigation and ban of reusable grocery bags — How many times have we heard from Al Gore, Hollyweird celebrities, and other environmentalists that the use of reusable bags are not only necessary for the environment, but is also useful for carrying those heavy items …
Discussion:
Beltway Confidential and Liberty Pundits Blog
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Medicare After Obama — Playing around with the NYT's deficit calculator I came up with a plan that involves raising the eligibility age for Medicare. — I'm a bleeding heart, at heart, and don't like the idea of any kind of cut on social welfare expenditures.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, TalkLeft and Balloon Juice
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Exclusive: Ensign Privately Lobbied Obama Admin For Nearly $1 Million …
Discussion:
The Reaction and Raw Story
James Surowiecki / New Yorker:
GREEDY GEEZERS? — As shellackings go, the 2010 election was as comprehensive as it gets.
GREEDY GEEZERS? — As shellackings go, the 2010 election was as comprehensive as it gets.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
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Safer Social Security — Social Security is not the key fiscal problem facing the nation. Payments to its beneficiaries amount to 5 percent of the economy now; by 2050, they're projected to rise to about 6 percent. Over the same period, federal health care costs will increase six times as much.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Yglesias, The Politico, The Confluence, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Daily Kos, National Review and The Huffington Post
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U.S. Plan Envisions Path to Ending Afghan Combat — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has developed a plan to begin transferring security duties in select areas of Afghanistan to that country's forces over the next 18 to 24 months, with an eye toward ending the American combat mission there by 2014, officials said Sunday.
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GOP is urged to avoid social issues — A gay conservative group and some Tea Party leaders are campaigning to keep social issues off the Republican agenda. — In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, RedState, Right Wing Watch, Outside the Beltway, ABCNEWS, Towleroad News #gay, Connecting.the.Dots, FrumForum, CNN and The Hill
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Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Tea Party irks new members with tactic to promote its event
Tea Party irks new members with tactic to promote its event
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Wonkette, The Politico and The Gateway Pundit
David Carr / New York Times:
Newsweek Weds Daily Beast? Good Luck With That — Putting together The Daily Beast and Newsweek makes little financial sense, includes not much in the way of editorial synergies — is it The News Beast or The Daily Week? — and marries two properties that have almost nothing in common …
Discussion:
The Awl and Big Government, more at Mediagazer »
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The GOP's Spending Tests — Republicans can demonstrate their fiscal sincerity by banning earmarks and appointing reformers to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. — Republicans return to Washington this week to organize themselves for the new Congress, and voters will be looking …
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, Bankrupting America and Commentary
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Coburn: Earmark ban opponents will get primary challengers
Coburn: Earmark ban opponents will get primary challengers
Discussion:
The Politico, Weekly Standard and Ben Smith's Blog
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Murkowski maintains election write-in lead — COUNTING: About 89 percent of ballots for senator unchallenged. — JUNEAU — Sen. Lisa Murkowski retained 89 percent of the undisputed write-in votes in Alaska's still-undecided Senate race, as the fifth day of the ballot hand count ended.
Discussion:
TBogg, TPMDC, Wonkette, The Maddow Blog, msnbc.com and Outside the Beltway
Amy Gardner / Washington Post:
Virginia Thomas stepping down as head of Liberty Central — Virginia Thomas, political activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has decided to relinquish control of Liberty Central, the conservative group she founded less than a year ago, so that the organization can escape the …
Discussion:
Politics Daily and The Caucus
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
MCCAIN MOVES THE GOAL POSTS.... A couple of months ago, when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) led the charge to kill “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” repeal, he specifically relied on a Pentagon survey on the issue. How, McCain said, could Congress possibly act before lawmakers know the results?
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Washington Post, The Plum Line, The Daily Dish, Althouse and The Maddow Blog
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
DeMint: Steele botched ground game, needs to be replaced — The lack of a well-organized voter mobilization effort by the Republican National Committee could have cost the GOP “a few Senate seats,” Sen. Jim DeMint suggested Sunday. — Partly as a result, the South Carolina Republican suggested …