Top Items:
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
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, The Confluence, Indecision Forever, Sweetness & Light, Wake up America, Runnin' Scared, Gawker and New York Post
RELATED:
City Room:
Live-Blogging the Rangel Hearing: Rangel Walks Out
Live-Blogging the Rangel Hearing: Rangel Walks Out
Discussion:
Gothamist and The Maddow Blog
Susan Crabtree / The Hill:
A weary Rangel mounts defense in ethics trial
A weary Rangel mounts defense in ethics trial
Discussion:
USA Today, CNN, Michelle Malkin and Runnin' Scared
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
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, Commentary, Felix Salmon, Paul Krugman and LewRockwell.com Blog
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Wall Street Journal:
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.
Liz Capo McCormick / Bloomberg:
Options Showing Quantitative Easing Working Before It Begins
Options Showing Quantitative Easing Working Before It Begins
Discussion:
Felix Salmon
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, Weasel Zippers, Raw Story, Patterico's Pontifications and Beltway Confidential
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Peter Orszag / New York Times:
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:
Yglesias, The Confluence, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Politico, Daily Kos, National Review and The Huffington Post
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Digby / Hullabaloo:
DC wisdom — …
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Party of No — By offering up their joint recommendation …
The Party of No — By offering up their joint recommendation …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Moderate Voice, National Review and The Daily Dish
Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:
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 …
Myglesias / Yglesias:
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:
TalkLeft, The Atlantic Online, Outside the Beltway, Balloon Juice and Crooks and Liars
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Lee Fang / ThinkProgress:
Exclusive: Ensign Privately Lobbied Obama Admin For Nearly $1 Million …
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
Cubachi:
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
RELATED:
Fhardingj / CNN:
CNN Poll: Election not a mandate for GOP — Washington (CNN) - Americans approve of the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in the midterms, but only one in six say the election results were a mandate for the GOP, according to a new national poll.
Discussion:
Politics Daily and HotAirPundit
RELATED:
The Politico:
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:
CNN, Washington Monthly, The Hill, Right Wing Watch, RedState, Outside the Beltway, ABCNEWS, Towleroad News #gay, Connecting.the.Dots and FrumForum
RELATED:
Eliza Newlin Carney / NationalJournal.com:
House Ethics Tightrope
House Ethics Tightrope
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Associated Press and Suburban Guerrilla
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:
No More Mister Nice Blog, The Huffington Post and Wall Street Journal
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:
New York Magazine, The Awl and Big Government, more at Mediagazer »
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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:
New York Times, JustOneMinute, New Deal 2.0 and Mario Piperni dot Com
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:
TPMMuckraker, Politics Daily, Wonkette and The Caucus
Becky Bohrer / Associated Press:
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:
msnbc.com, TBogg, Wonkette, TPMDC, The Maddow Blog and Outside the Beltway
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
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Junior Democrats in Senate seek to change the way chamber does business — Senate Democrats are expected to elect the same party veterans as their leaders when they return to work this week, but a new class of junior lawmakers is exerting its influence by challenging the chamber's sacred traditions …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Taylor Marsh and The Page
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Top Republican: Hoyer is ‘the only one we really talk to’ — Outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is the GOP's primary source of contact within the Democratic leadership, a top Republican said Monday. — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Coburn: Earmark-Supporting Republicans Should Worry About Primary Challengers — Earmark debate pits Coburn against Inhofe. — The proposed earmark moratorium that the Republican Senate caucus will vote on tomorrow has pitted Oklahoma's two conservative senators against one another.
Discussion:
The Politico, The Hill and Ben Smith's Blog