Top Items:


Swindle of the year — Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he did. In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus package.
Discussion:
Washington Wire, theblogprof, AmSpecBlog, Outside the Beltway, protein wisdom, Clusterstock, Fausta's Blog, Commentary, Top of the Ticket, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Politico, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Riehl World View, The Page, The Daily Caller, Althouse, Liberty Pundits Blog and Wake up America
RELATED:

The Tax Compromise Must Now Die — House Democrats have rejected the Senate's negotiated tax compromise. In a rowdy meeting in which one Democratic Congressman said loudly “F— the President,” the House Democrats turned Nancy Reagan and just said no. — Barney Frank still thinks it would pass, most likely with House Republicans.


Chuck Schumer vs. President Obama — It wasn't on the White House's official schedule, but on Nov. 22 Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quietly slipped into the Oval Office on a self-appointed mission to steel Barack Obama for the tax cut fight. — Schumer, the newly anointed message guru …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times, Don Surber, Ben Smith's Blog, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, RedState and The Foundry

Obama's Very Good Week — Over the past week we've seen the big differences between cluster liberals and network liberals. Cluster liberals (like cluster conservatives) view politics as a battle between implacable opponents. As a result, they believe victory is achieved through maximum unity.
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Commentary, Hot Air, Eunomia, Open Left, Booman Tribune and Sister Toldjah

Bill Clinton Stumps for President Obama-GOP Tax Cut Deal
Discussion:
The Politico and The Note


The dirtiest word in politics: Has Barack Obama been caught triangulating?
Discussion:
The Hill, Left Coast Rebel, Hot Air, Salon, Politics Daily and Washington Wire

Senator Jim DeMint on why he opposes the tax compromise
Discussion:
The Sundries Shack, Liberty Pundits Blog and iOwnTheWorld.com

Bill Clinton, back in the White House briefing room
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway, BlogPost, Federal Eye, Gawker and HotAirPundit

How the White House will sell angry House Dems on tax cut deal
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TPMDC, Iowa Independent, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Reid Report

Will Obama really end tax cuts for rich in 2012?
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Daily Kos, Mother Jones and New York Times

‘Filibernie’: Sanders rips tax deal for more than eight hours — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is railing against President Obama's tax-cut package in a lengthy floor speech. — Sanders, one of the Senate's leading liberals, is protesting Obama's deal with Republicans …
Discussion:
The Politico, The Note, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, The Confluence and Sky Dancing
RELATED:


Bernie Sanders filibuster stalls Senate — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders launched a lonely but passionate seven-hour filibuster on the Senate floor Friday afternoon to protest a tax deal that liberals hate yet seems headed toward passage in the Senate. — An outspoken opponent …
Discussion:
The Fix, Hot Air, The Nation, NewsBusters.org, Newshoggers.com, The Note and National Review


Sanders' Long Senate Floor Speech Brings Attention to Details of Tax Cut Deal — Se. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (photo: origamidon) — Bernie Sanders has been speaking for almost four hours on the Senate floor, in what some are describing as a filibuster. — It's not a filibuster.
Discussion:
NPR, USA Today, Crooks and Liars, Colorlines and Sky Dancing


Sanders Launches Actual Filibuster Of Tax Cut Compromise
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Harry's Place

Sanders Rails Against Tax Bill — For Hours and Hours
Discussion:
Media Decoder

Assange Lawyers Prepare for U.S. Spying Indictment — Attorney Says American Indictment Related to Espionage Act Imminent for Wikileaks Founder — Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the man behind the publication of more than a 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables …
RELATED:

“A new WikiLeaks” revolts against Assange
Discussion:
The Firewall, PC Magazine, Mashable!, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Clusterstock, This Just In and Newshoggers.com, more at Techmeme »

The media's authoritarianism and WikiLeaks
Discussion:
Close Read, Cato @ Liberty, Gawker, Emptywheel, Open Left, Tablet Magazine, New York Times and South Capitol Street, more at Mediagazer »

Levi's Story — A study on “When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America” was published Monday by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish and Booman Tribune
RELATED:

Levi Johnston and the marriage decline — National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez has a long interview today on a new report headed, “The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America.” — The author, W. Bradford Wilcox, found a growing gap between the marriages of the affluent and well-educated …

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — Obama honors Nobel winner with statement about himself — There was an extraordinary scene at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo Friday morning. The prize went to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was barred by the Chinese government from attending the ceremony.
Discussion:
The Note, The White House, Hot Air, The Jawa Report, South Capitol Street, Shot in the Dark, Commentary and JammieWearingFool
RELATED:


The White House's case for the tax-cut deal in one graph — They're circulating this around the Hill: — It's also worth nothing that those numbers could end up looking a lot better — say, if the payroll-tax cut gets extended next year, which many think likely - or …
Discussion:
The Baseline Scenario, Rortybomb and Washington Monthly
RELATED:

QUOTE OF THE DAY.... I'm trying to decide which congressional observation …
Discussion:
Political Correction RSS, Wonk Room and Daily Kos

SOCIAL SECURITY'S HUMBLE ORIGINS.... When President Obama was doing his best to defend his tax deal with congressional Republicans to the left the other day, he emphasized to his allies that “in order to get stuff done, we're going to compromise.” — To bolster his case, the president noted …
Discussion:
Paul Krugman, Ezra Klein, Online NewsHour and Open Left
RELATED:

Wow I am disgusted by Peter Orszag's move to Citigroup — This morning's New York Times includes a nice column by Peter Orszag about disability. It begins with the words “I will begin a new job for Citigroup in January, so this is my last article.” Page 6 of the business section provides …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, AMERICAblog News, Sunlight Foundation and DealBook
RELATED:

Dismantling The safety Net, One Program At A Time
Discussion:
New York Times and Eschaton


Richard Wolffe mocks Palin and C.S. Lewis as just “a children's author” — I don't know if I should expect any better from ignoramuses from MSNBC, but this is supposedly a “respectable news organization” with shallow and arrogant individuals who only live to ridicule and belittle without thinking.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, The Other McCain, Dennis the Peasant, Liberty Pundits Blog and iOwnTheWorld.com

IKE'S SPEECH — Afew months ago, Grant Moos was closing his boathouse, near Hackensack, Minnesota, as he does every summer, tying up loose ends, sweeping up debris. This year, though, his sister Kathy insisted that it was finally time to do something about six cardboard boxes that for decades …


Introducing “The Cannabis Closet” — Longtime Dishheads will remember that rather extraordinary reader email thread that had to do with secret middle-class, mainstream marijuana use - for medical and non-medical reasons. The thread “The Cannabis Closet” began with one reader email in March 2009 …
Discussion:
Dennis the Peasant and South Capitol Street


The Strategic Mistake of a Decade. — Now that the Senate has killed DADT repeal, I wonder if anyone remembers this? … Democrats and moderate Republicans responded with a “Gang of 12” that would preserve the judicial filibuster while allowing some of Bush's nominees to go through.
Discussion:
Yglesias


From Audacity to Animosity — No president has alienated his base the way Obama has. — We have not in our lifetimes seen a president in this position. He spent his first year losing the center, which elected him, and his second losing his base, which is supposed to provide his troops.
Discussion:
Firedoglake
RELATED:


Gov.-elect Rick Scott hints at school vouchers for all at St. Petersburg rally — ST. PETERSBURG — Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott on Thursday blew the door wide open to the idea of a voucherlike program for all students, saying he's working with lawmakers to allow state education dollars …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
RELATED:

Public school advocates fear Scott's voucher-like proposal
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Jay Bookman

House and Senate budget chiefs: Prepare for cuts — Americans should prepare themselves for spending cuts by Congress next year, the chairmen of the House and Senate's budget committees said Friday. — Both Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee …
Discussion:
The Politico


DADT Repeal: Heads They Win; Tails We Lose — If it fails in the Senate - despite solid public support, endorsement from the Joint Chiefs, backing from the Defense Secretary, a big majority in the House and a 57 - 40 vote in the Senate - what does this say about gays having a fair chance in the legislative process?
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog

The Great College-Degree Scam — With the help of a small army of researchers and associates (most importantly, Chris Matgouranis, Jonathan Robe, and Chris Denhart) and starting with help from Douglas Himes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Center for College Affordability and Productivity …
Discussion:
Instapundit, Maggie's Farm, EconLog and Hit & Run