Top Items:
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Dickishness Of The GOP — What we've observed these past two years is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party's arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Doug Ross, Riehl World View, Connecting.the.Dots, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and Little Green Footballs
RELATED:
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.”
Ezra Klein:
Republicans give their definition of ‘bipartisanship’ — Here's the story of bipartisanship since the election. President Obama asked the House and Senate Republican leaders, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, to the White House on Nov. 18 to talk through a compromise on the Bush tax cuts and other pressing agenda items.
Discussion:
The Caucus, Moe Lane, The Impolitic and Facebook
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 …
Discussion:
The Note, CNN, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, msnbc.com, New York Times, Politics Daily, National Review, RedState, Scarecrow's myFDL diary, Indecision Forever, Washington Monthly, A plain blog about politics, Top of the Ticket, The Moderate Voice, Commentary, Daily Kos, Hot Air and Prairie Weather
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Kyl: Tax deal needs to get done by Monday to pass START in lame-duck — Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that President Obama must reach a deal on extending the Bush tax cuts by Monday if a nuclear arms treaty has a chance of passing the Senate by the end of the year.
Discussion:
TPMDC, Wonk Room, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and FrumForum
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 …
Jake Sherman / The Politico:
House Democrats set Thursday tax vote
House Democrats set Thursday tax vote
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, CNN and Swampland
Political Correction RSS:
Rep. Pence: The Best Thing For The Unemployed Is Tax Cuts For Millionaires
Rep. Pence: The Best Thing For The Unemployed Is Tax Cuts For Millionaires
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Washington Monthly and Capital Gains and Games blogs
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
GOP readies rarely-used procedural attack on EPA aggression
GOP readies rarely-used procedural attack on EPA aggression
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah and The Politico
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 …
RELATED:
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics
The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics
Discussion:
Guardian, Agence France Presse, Swampland, TPMDC, Left Coast Rebel and zunguzungu
Michel Rose / Reuters:
Wikileaks' Assange in UK, police know where: report
Wikileaks' Assange in UK, police know where: report
Discussion:
Hit & Run and The Jawa Report
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:
No More Mister Nice Blog, The League of Ordinary …, The New Republic, Guardian, Verum Serum, Raw Story, The Plum Line, ABCNEWS and CNN
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Pentagon: We could have shut down Wikileaks but chose not to — I hope he's telling the truth. Because if our cyberwar unit is so weak that they can't hit a few servers in Sweden, then I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords. The key question: Was this decision driven chiefly by military or political concerns?
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Gothamist, ABCNEWS and Right Wing News
RELATED:
Ewen MacAskill / Guardian:
WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US political pressure
WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US political pressure
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Spiegel Online, RedState, Washington Post, The Firewall, Mediaite and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Boehner to create women's restroom adjacent to House floor — Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) intends to commandeer a swanky office space adjacent to the House floor and build a women's restroom for female lawmakers. — For years, men have had the luxury of using facilities located adjacent …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Politico, CNN Political Ticker and American Power
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:
Mediaite, Hot Air, JustOneMinute and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
County Recorder in Massachusetts Goes After MERS — This is one of those mind-blowing days, one I don't feel like I have much of a grip on. But with all the despair with the federal government, the power structure that protects the banks at all costs, etc., it's worth looking at some potential good news for a change.
Discussion:
Zandar Versus The Stupid
RELATED:
John Carney / CNBC:
The MERS Wars Heat Up in Massachusetts
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:
For immediate release — The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday posted detailed information on its public website about more than 21,000 individual credit and other transactions conducted to stabilize markets during the recent financial crisis, restore the flow of credit to American families and businesses …
Discussion:
Fortune, FT Alphaville, Associated Press, DealBook, Open Congress and Calculated Risk
RELATED:
Yves Smith / naked capitalism:
Matt Stoller: End This Fed
Matt Stoller: End This Fed
Discussion:
New Deal 2.0, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Wall Street Journal, Suburban Guerrilla and Firedoglake
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:
Washington Post, Hot Air, Watts Up With That?, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkette and Hit & Run
RELATED:
Jim Snyder / Bloomberg:
Pelosi Climate Panel Dies in Republican Sweep of House
Pelosi Climate Panel Dies in Republican Sweep of House
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin and The Gateway Pundit
Juliet Eilperin / Post Carbon:
Obama administration reimposes offshore oil drilling ban — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, The Foundry, Weasel Zippers, Virginia Politics Blog, Pajamas Media and Moe Lane
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 …
Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Ensign says he no longer is target of Justice Department probe — Nevada's Republican Sen. John Ensign said he no longer is the target of an investigation by the Department of Justice related to an alleged coverup of an affair with the wife of a former top aide.
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, The Hill, TPMMuckraker and msnbc.com
RELATED:
Radley Balko / Hit & Run:
You Are No Longer Free To Move About the Country — Janet Napolitano said last month that we should expect to soon see tighter restrictions at bus, train, and marine transportation centers, too. Here's a report about TSA, Border Patrol, and local police setting up a checkpoint at a Greyhound station in Tampa.
Discussion:
Emptywheel
Townhall.com:
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann Hillary Is Up to Her Old Tricks — The Wikileaks documents show that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has, as Voltaire said about the Bourbon kings of France, learned nothing and forgotten nothing. — Her request that American diplomats at foreign postings …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, The Confluence and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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:
CNN, ThinkProgress, TPMDC, Mediaite and Gawker
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Diplomats Noted Canadian Mistrust Toward U.S. — WASHINGTON — In early 2008, American diplomats stationed in Ottawa turned on their television sets and were aghast: there was an “onslaught” of Canadian shows depicting “nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
Wall Street Journal:
Google Set to Launch E-Book Venture — Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold. — The long-delayed venture—Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, VentureBeat, Law Blog, TechCrunch, Media Decoder and Engadget, more at Mediagazer »
Scott Horton / Harper's:
The Madrid Cables — In Spain, the WikiLeaks disclosures have dominated the news for three days now. The reporting has been led by the level-headed El País, with its nationwide competitor, Público, lagging only a bit behind. Attention has focused on three separate matters …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Raw Story and Hullabaloo