Top Items:
New York Times:
Delaying Vote, Debt Panel Splits on Taxes and Spending — WASHINGTON — The chairmen of President Obama's debt-reduction commission have been unable to win support from any of the panel's elected officials for their proposed spending cuts and tax increases, underscoring the reluctance …
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ALL 42 SENATE REPUBLICANS ANNOUNCE HOSTAGE PLAN.... The AP had an item late last night, noting that Senate Republicans were circulating a letter, “quietly collecting signatures” on a plan to “block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending.”
Discussion:
Republican.Senate.Gov, Taylor Marsh, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Impolitic, Sister Toldjah and Balloon Juice
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Fiscal Commission Final Report — Get your fresh catfood! — FDL has obtained a copy of the Catfood Commission final report in advance of its official 9:30 release. — It can be downloaded here: PDF — Their reigning spirit of self-importance comes through on the very first page: “The Moment of Truth.”
Discussion:
Paul Krugman, Crooks and Liars, Wake up America, Salon and Lawyers, Guns & Money
John Stanton / Roll Call:
House May Block Food Safety Bill Over Senate Error — A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate's lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
DADT No More? Republicans Threaten To Block All Dem Initiatives — Just hours after Democrats and Republicans agreed to bargain on tax cuts, and fewer hours still after Defense Secretary Robert Gates implored Congress to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell this year, word leaked that Republicans …
Discussion:
Salon, Guardian, Ezra Klein, Swampland, TPMMuckraker, Zandar Versus The Stupid, MyDD, Talking Points Memo, Wonkette and Joe. My. God.
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Commission's final deficit report preserves controversial spending cuts; panel to vote Friday on whether to endorse plan — The leaders of President Obama's fiscal commission released a final report Wednesday that is full of political dynamite, including sharp cuts in military spending …
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
In Tax Cuts, the Options Run Short — Democrats have left themselves in a tough spot on the Bush tax cuts. After delaying the issue until after the election and then being trounced in that election, they find themselves with little leverage. — If they cannot come up with a plan …
Discussion:
Gallup, Fox News, The Hill, The Politico, Gawker, Washington Post, Wake up America, The Caucus, Politics Daily, Connecting.the.Dots, Prairie Weather, Unfogged, The Hill and TalkLeft
David Espo / Associated Press:
Senate GOP letter calls for blocking most bills — WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress, officials said Tuesday …
Jake Sherman / The Politico:
House Democrats set Thursday tax vote
Discussion:
CNN, The Huffington Post and Swampland
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Kyl: Tax deal needs to get done by Monday to pass START in lame-duck
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, TPMDC, Wonk Room, Daily Kos, FrumForum and National Review
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
GOP readies rarely-used procedural attack on EPA aggression
Discussion:
The Politico and Sister Toldjah
Chris Good / The Atlantic Online:
All About the Tax Cuts — Nothing will happen in Congress …
Discussion:
Colorlines, Washington Post, RedState, Hotline On Call and Prairie Weather
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
Why The GOP Is Like Bear Bryant
Discussion:
TalkLeft and The Caucus
Jennifer Steinhauer / The Caucus:
Senate Republicans: No Legislation Until After Tax Cut Extension
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Mediaite, Colorado Independent and Gawker
Alan Silverleib / CNN:
Senate GOPers: Take up tax cuts first
Discussion:
Economist's View, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Questions and Observations, Weasel Zippers and EconoSpeak
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics — (updated below - Update II) — Time's Joe Klein writes this about the WikiLeaks disclosures: … Do you have that principle down? If “a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail” because of the WikiLeaks disclosure — even a …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Swampland, The Caucus and zunguzungu
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Ross Douthat:
The Ambitions of Julian Assange — Will Wilkinson makes the case for Julian Assange: … If it's the best we can hope for, then we're in even more trouble than I thought. The problem of the permanent state is a real one, but occasional mass data dumps like the one WikiLeaks just provided …
Discussion:
Marginal Revolution, Time, Samizdata.net, EconLog, Swampland, War in Context, National Review and The Moderate Voice, more at Mediagazer »
Guardian:
Call for WikiLeaks culprit to be executed
Discussion:
Reuters, LOON, Outside the Beltway, TPMMuckraker, The Nation, The Huffington Post, Wake up America, News: News blog and Telegraph
Greg Hengler / Townhall.com:
Gibbs: We're Not Scared Of Wikileaks — It's Only One Guy With One Website
Discussion:
Hot Air and Breitbart.tv
The Huffington Post:
Ted Strickland: Democrats Suffering From ‘Intellectual Elitism’ — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — Fresh off a narrow loss in his gubernatorial re-election campaign, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday offered some somber and sober-minded criticism for his own party and president.
Discussion:
Guardian, The Plum Line, Raw Story, Verum Serum, The New Republic, ABCNEWS and CNN
Tara Palmeri / New York Post:
Co-host spittin' mad over Spitzer — Tweet — Eliot Spitzer's TV sidekick is so fed up with playing second fiddle to the hooker-loving ex-gov that she's threatening to walk, sources told The Post yesterday. — Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker actually stormed off the set of the …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
RNC official admits to a “cashflow challenge” — In a memo sent to vendors Tuesday, the Republican National Committee's chief administrative officer acknowledged that the committee is facing a “cashflow challenge” and that many of those who provided political services to it during the 2010 election …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, CNN, Mediaite and Gawker
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Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Cheney to co-host fundraiser for Cino in RNC race
Discussion:
The Hill, The Politico, The Daily Caller, FrumForum, Ben Smith's Blog and TPMDC
Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Dawson Not Inclined To Make RNC Repeat Bid
Discussion:
CNN and Ben Smith's Blog
Myglesias / Yglesias:
Bowles-Simpson vs Current Law — Surely the strangest thing about the Bowles-Simpson debt reduction plan is that, relative to current law, it . . . increases the public debt load over the next ten years: — Obviously starting around 2020 or so Bowles-Simpson starts doing better than current law …
Discussion:
FT Alphaville, The Daily Dish and Grasping Reality …
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Robin Bravender / The Politico:
In Memoriam: House climate committee — The House Democrats' prized global warming committee died quietly on Wednesday. — It was four years old. — Created in 2007 by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to draw attention to the causes and effects of climate change …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Post, Wonkette, Watts Up With That? and Hit & Run
Ed Rollins / CNN:
Palin, I knew Reagan. You're no Reagan. — Editor's note: Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, is senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University. He is a principal with the Dilenschneider Group, a global public relations firm.
Discussion:
Hot Air
Yves Smith / naked capitalism:
Matt Stoller: End This Fed — By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Alan Grayson. His Twitter feed is @matthewstoller … Something new is happening around the contours of monetary policy. It's becoming part of our popular political landscape.
Discussion:
New Deal 2.0, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal and Suburban Guerrilla
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Jake Wagman / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Steelman makes it official: Running for Senate in '12 — ST. LOUIS — Forget the speculation — Sarah Steelman is running for Senate. — The former Missouri State Treasurer becomes the first Republican to announce a challenge to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2012.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Politico, TPMDC and Hotline On Call
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Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Right Under Bush vs The Left Under Obama — Ross sharpens his point: … On the last point, I don't believe drone attacks are morally more troubling than torture (if Ross reads his catechism, he'll come to the same conclusion) - and dismayed that Ross would use the Orwellian term …
Discussion:
Comments from Left Field and Ross Douthat
Jon Bershad / Mediaite:
Pentagon Spokesman: We Could Have Shut Down WikiLeaks, But We Decided Not To — Throughout all the fallout of WikiLeaks' latest release, many have been asking why the government didn't stop the organization before the cables were released (For instance, Glenn Beck compared it to the ease with which they shut down other illegal sites).
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Taylor Marsh and Weasel Zippers
Jim Myers / Tulsa World:
Inhofe refuses to participate in ‘holiday’ parade — WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Tuesday that he won't participate in Tulsa's Holiday Parade of Lights until organizers put “Christ” back in the event's title. — “Last year, the forces of political correctness removed the word 'Christmas …
Discussion:
Right Wing Watch, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Monthly, Don Surber, ThinkProgress, Gawker, TPMDC and Weasel Zippers
Rasmussen Reports:
Partisan Trends — Partisan Trends: Republicans 36.0%, Democrats 34.7%, First GOP Lead Ever — In November, 36.0% of American Adults identified themselves as Republicans; 34.7% considered themselves Democrats, and 29.3% were not affiliated with either major party.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Commentary and Pajamas Media
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