memeorandum: The Health Care Ruling Doesn't Worry Me (Jonathan Chait/The New Republic)

12:05 PM ET, December 14, 2010

Top Items:

Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:

Richard Holbrooke dies: Veteran U.S. diplomat brokered Dayton peace accords — Longtime U.S. diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke, whose relentless prodding and deft maneuvering yielded the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia - a success he hoped to repeat as President Obama's chief envoy …

Mike Allen / The Politico:

STEELE STUNS, RUNS: ‘The job is fun’ — ROMNEY SPLITS WITH HOUSE GOP, BLASTS TAX DEAL — Michael Moore offers servers to WikiLeaks — Remembering Richard Holbrooke — Grace Gallo b'day — Good Tuesday morning. EXCLUSIVE: This morning, Rep. Eric Cantor will announce the senior staff …

Discussion: Ezra Klein

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Strong American Voice in Diplomacy and Crisis — Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2009 and a diplomatic troubleshooter who worked for every Democratic president since the late 1960s and oversaw the negotiations that ended …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, Tablet Magazine, National Review, Wonk Room, The Atlantic Online, Ben Smith's Blog, Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Clusterstock, The Politico, Online NewsHour, SWJ Blog, The Caucus and Balloon Juice

ABCNEWS:

Family members said his last words before he headed into surgery were: “You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan,” according to the Washington Post. — President Obama was at a dinner in the East Room of the White House when the news came, said a senior administration official.

Discussion: US Department of State, Shakesville, The Impolitic, Pat Dollard and AmSpecBlog

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Holbrooke's death leaves major void in Obama's Afghan strategy

Discussion: Hot Air and Booman Tribune

Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
Richard Holbrooke Has Died

Discussion: Mother Jones, Weasel Zippers and Firedoglake

The Politico: Richard Holbrooke's ‘towering’ ambition and achievement

Matthew Weaver / Guardian:

Julian Assange granted bail with conditions — • Assange granted bail to cheers from supporters — • Assange criticises Visa, MasterCard and Paypal from cell — • Police worked case against Madeleine McCann's parents — • Full coverage of the WikiLeaks cables

Michael Moore / Open Mike:

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange — Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Discussion: Salon, Guardian, Threat Level, National Review, The Jawa Report, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool, Raw Story and Pat Dollard

Mike In / Michael Moore:

WITNESS STATEMENT OF MICHAEL MOORE — WITNESS STATEMENT — (CJ Act 1967, s.9 MC Act 1980, ss.5A(3)(a) and 5B; — Criminal Procedure Rules 2010, Rule 27) — This statement (consisting of 2 pages each signed by me) is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that …

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:

British Court Frees Founder of WikiLeaks on Bail — LONDON — After a week in detention facing possible extradition, Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks antisecrecy group, was released on $310,000 bail by a court on Tuesday as he challenges a Swedish prosecutor's demand for his extradition …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Lede, Yahoo! News, Guardian, FrumForum, Salon and National Review

Washington Post:

Health reform will survive its legal fight — In March, New Hampshire preschool teacher Gail O'Brien, who was unable to obtain health insurance through her employer, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma. Her subsequent applications for health insurance were rejected because of her condition.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Hot Air, National Review, The Democratic Daily, Scared Monkeys, PostPartisan, Right Wing Watch, Right Turn, The Page and Blogcritics

Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:

The Significant Error in Judge Hudson's Opinion — I've had a chance to read Judge Hudson's opinion, and it seems to me it has a fairly obvious and quite significant error. Judge Hudson assumes that the power granted to Congress by the Necessary and Proper Clause — “To make all Laws …

Discussion: TPMDC, Washington Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Balkinization, New York Times, TalkLeft, Daily Kos, Ezra Klein, NewsBusters.org blogs, Political Correction RSS, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Law Blog, Liberty Pundits Blog, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, Althouse and The Foundry

Hillary Chabot / Boston Herald:
Court battle casts pall over Mitt Romney run

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and GOP 12

New York Times:
A Noxious Commandment — Randy Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse …

Discussion: Right Turn, The Volokh Conspiracy, Guardian, Politics Daily, SCOTUSblog and Washington Post

Kevin Sack / New York Times:
Years of Wrangling Lie Ahead for Health Care Law

Discussion: Washington Post, The Volokh Conspiracy, Law Blog, Pirate's Cove, Associated Press, PostPartisan, Wonk Room, Maggie's Farm, Wall Street Journal, The Numbers, Rasmussen Reports and Bloomberg

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
The Health Care Ruling Doesn't Worry Me

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air, New York Times, National Review, The Daily Beast, Power Line, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and The Moderate Voice

Rachel Slajda / TPM LiveWire:
Judge Who Ruled Health Care Reform Unconstitutional Owns Piece …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, TPMMuckraker, Right Wing Watch, Prairie Weather, Jack & Jill Politics, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly and TPMDC

Nick Baumann / Mother Jones:
The Radicalism of Judge Hudson's Health Care Law Decision

Discussion: Concurring Opinions, Hit & Run, The Plum Line, NationalJournal.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly, The Reaction and The Smoking Gun

Matt Bai / New York Times:

As Electoral Ground Shifts, Bloomberg Could Skip the Party — On Sunday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg flatly ruled out an independent run for president in 2012. On Monday, he appeared at the national unveiling in New York of No Labels, a group that aspires to build a grass-roots movement …

Discussion: Salon, A plain blog about politics, Althouse, The Confluence and The Monkey Cage

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

New nonpartisan “No Labels” group has its own “anthem” by Akon for some reason — No joke. That's what they're calling it — the “No Labels Anthem,” presumably to be played whenever Mike Bloomberg walks into a room or “Morning Joe” goes to commercial or, I guess, as mood-setting music …

Discussion: The Other McCain, Washington Times and Weasel Zippers

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
‘No Labels’ rally: Bipartisan with Democratic tinge

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog

Ben Smith / The Politico:
‘No Labels’ short on Republicans

Discussion: Weigel, Wonkette, RedState and Salon

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
No Labels: No Specifics, No Coherence, No Point.

Discussion: Salon, Associated Press, Washington Post, Nice Deb and The Sundries Shack

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:

No Labels and Other Ripped Off Designs — Brooklyn-based artist Thomas Porostocky's friends and fans have been tipping off NY media that his art has been used without permission by the bi-partisan political group No Labels. — Porostocky designed star-spangled giraffes …

Discussion: City Room, The Daily Caller, The Enterprise Blog and Raw Story

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Designer: No Labels lifted penguins of bipartisanship

Discussion: RedState

Andy Newman / City Room:
In ‘a New Way of Looking,’ Something Familiar

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Verum Serum, CBS New York, Yglesias, Mother Jones, USA Today, Ben Smith's Blog, Gawker and The Agonist

John Del Signore / Gothamist:
Did No Labels Rip Off Design From More Party Animals?

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Ben Smith's Blog, TPMDC, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

James C. McKinley Jr / New York Times:

Atheist Ads on Buses Rattle Fort Worth — FORT WORTH — Stand on a corner in this city and you might get a case of theological whiplash. — A public bus rolls by with an atheist message on its side: “Millions of people are good without God.” Seconds later, a van follows bearing a riposte: “I still love you.

Discussion: Vox Popoli, Balloon Juice, Joe. My. God. and American Power

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Huge Senate majority votes to advance $858B tax package — President Obama's $858 billion tax package won a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate Monday evening, setting it up for a contentious debate in the House. — In a 83-15 vote, the Senate quashed a filibuster by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Va.).

Discussion: The Politico, The Reaction, The Other McCain, The Sundries Shack, New York Times, The Nation, The Plum Line, Shakesville, Reuters, The Democratic Daily, Michelle Malkin, The Note, FrumForum and Hot Air

Jonathan Allen / The Politico:
House Dems tinkering with estate tax

Discussion: ThinkProgress and New York Times

Washington Post:
Tax-cut package clears procedural hurdle in Senate

Discussion: The Caucus, Blue Virginia, Outside the Beltway and Hot Air

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Steele stuns by running for reelection — Despite facing intense criticism from within his own party, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Monday night he would mount a campaign for another two-year term atop the GOP. — Steele, breaking a monthlong silence about his intentions …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Right Turn, Online NewsHour and The American Independent

The Note:
The Note: Michael Steele's In, But Can He Win?

Discussion: Real Clear Politics and CNN

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

The Nixon tapes remind us what a vile creature Henry Kissinger is. — Over the last few weeks, this modest little column of mine has been acquiring an almost eerie prescience and potency. I called for the death sentence on Tariq Aziz to be commuted, and it was only a matter of days …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Sky Dancing, Pajamas Media and Tablet Magazine

Ben Pershing / Washington Post:

Will a GOP-led House un-'green' the Capitol? — Just outside the doors of Congress, the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree glows with strands of energy-efficient LED lights. Inside the Capitol, thousands of compact fluorescent light bulbs illuminate the final days of the session.

Discussion: Politics Daily and Outside the Beltway