Top Items:
Jake Sherman / The Politico:
Darrell Issa reveals list of investigations — Rep. Darrell Issa is aiming to launch investigations on everything from WikiLeaks to Fannie Mae to corruption in Afghanistan in the first few months of what promises to be a high-profile chairmanship of the top oversight committee in Congress.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Comments from Left Field, Left Coast Rebel, Confederate Yankee, DownWithTyranny!, Mediaite, iOwnTheWorld.com, Crooks and Liars, msnbc.com, Hot Air, The Note, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Pundit, CNN, theblogprof, The Moderate Voice, Cubachi, skippy the bush kangaroo, Ben Smith's Blog and The Hill
RELATED:
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
DeMint wants ‘big showdown’ with Dems over debt ceiling — Republicans should prepare for a “showdown” with President Obama and congressional Democrats over raising the debt ceiling, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said Monday. — DeMint, a de-facto leader of Senate conservatives and many Tea Party senators …
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Lindsey Graham Joins the Loonies — The U.S. appears to be the only country in the developed world that forbids its government from accumulating debt without authorizing legislation. And that's led to some scary moments, including one that the economist Henry Aaron shared with me recently.
Michelle Malkin:
Snort: Now the Dems are worried about wasteful “witch hunts” — After decades of indulgent public floggings and ideological fishing expeditions led by chief congressional inquisitor Henry Waxman (see here here here here for starters), Democrats are suddenly worried about abuse of investigative powers.
Discussion:
Right Turn, Wake up America, HillBuzz.org, Pundit & Pundette, The Hill, Patterico's Pontifications and Ace of Spades HQ
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Cummings wants agreement between Issa and White House — The Democrat set to face off against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on the House Oversight panel suggested brokering an agreement between Issa and the Obama administration on the public release of sensitive information to congressional investigators.
Discussion:
The Politico
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Issa says Obama administration is ‘one of most corrupt’
Issa says Obama administration is ‘one of most corrupt’
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Gawker, Washington Monthly, American Perspective, The Impolitic, The Politico, Questions and Observations, Daily Kos, Scared Monkeys, The BLT, American Power, Suburban Guerrilla, Weasel Zippers, Maggie's Notebook, Booman Tribune, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Stop The ACLU
Jason Mattera / Human Events:
DeMint Demands Showdown On Increasing Debt Ceiling
DeMint Demands Showdown On Increasing Debt Ceiling
Discussion:
TPMDC, GOP 12, National Review, The Hill and CBS News
The Politico:
Majority of RNC against Michael Steele — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele faces an all-but-impossible path to reelection this month, as a majority of the RNC's 168 members indicate that they will not support the controversial chairman for another term.
Discussion:
RedState, The Daily Caller, Ben Smith's Blog, The Washington Independent, YID With LID, CNN, Weekly Standard, Right Turn, The Page, Hot Air, National Review, ThinkProgress, Politics Daily, Mediaite, Hotline On Call, Riehl World View, Outside the Beltway, AmSpecBlog, The Moderate Voice and TPMDC
RELATED:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
2 days until the 112th Congress: Sheriff Issa's top six targets …
2 days until the 112th Congress: Sheriff Issa's top six targets …
Discussion:
neo-neocon, TPMDC, TPMMuckraker, The Political Carnival, RedState and National Review
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Michael Steele: ‘I revived the RNC’
Michael Steele: ‘I revived the RNC’
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Weasel Zippers
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Austerity is first order for Boehner's installation as House speaker — Nancy Pelosi brought camera crews and dignitaries into her childhood Baltimore neighborhood where a street was being renamed in her honor, while John Boehner is bringing his 11 siblings from working-class Ohio to Washington for a private reunion.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Hill, National Review, USA Today, Hotline On Call, Taylor Marsh, The Other McCain, TPMDC and The Page
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David Cole / New York Times:
Chewing Gum for Terrorists — DID former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Ridge, a former homeland security secretary, and Frances Townsend, a former national security adviser, all commit a federal crime last month in Paris when they spoke in support …
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Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Unborn Paradox — The American entertainment industry has never been comfortable with the act of abortion. Film or television characters might consider the procedure, but even on the most libertine programs (a “Mad Men,” a “Sex and the City"), they're more likely to have a change of heart than actually go through with it.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, pandagon.net, Feministe, AmSpecBlog, The Anchoress, Shakesville, Brilliant at Breakfast and Sadly, No!
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
He Entered Congress Swinging, and Exits That Way — ORLANDO, Fla. — He has zero faith in the incoming speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, whom he calls a “tool of special interest.” — He derides the Tea Party's successes as “bought and paid for by the enormously rich and the selfish.”
Discussion:
Ballot Box, JustOneMinute, The Political Carnival, iOwnTheWorld.com and Weasel Zippers
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Deep Hole Economics — If there's one piece of economic wisdom I hope people will grasp this year, it's this: Even though we may finally have stopped digging, we're still near the bottom of a very deep hole. — Why do I need to point this out? Because I've noticed many people overreacting to recent good economic news.
Discussion:
ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Prairie Weather, The Glittering Eye and Corrente
Christian Science Monitor:
European nations begin seizing private pensions — Hungary, Poland, and three other nations take over citizens' pension money to make up government budget shortfalls. — People's retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don't want to reduce spending or make privatizations.
Discussion:
theblogprof, Say Anything, protein wisdom and Betsy's Page
presstv.ir:
Mossad behind Egypt church blast — The explosion at a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, which left 21 people killed and another 80 Muslims and Christians wounded, raises one question: Who was behind the blast? — Although, at first glance, the finger is pointed at extremist Wahabi …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Outside the Beltway, Israel Matzav, YID With LID, Hot Air, Jihad Watch, CNN, Elder of Ziyon and Vancouver Sun
RELATED:
James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
John P Wheeler III — I was stunned to learn tonight that my long-time friend Jack Wheeler has been murdered in Delaware. He was last seen getting off an Amtrak train from Washington at the Wilmington, DE, station this past Tuesday night; then, as a gruesome and cryptic local story recounts …
Discussion:
Fox News and The Gateway Pundit
RELATED:
Vanity Fair:
The Febraury 2011 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll — Americans are numerically at a loss after a trillion. To balance the budget, most of them would choose to tax the rich. And as far as memories go, they'd prefer to keep them. (All of them.) — Numbers games this month: What comes after a trillion?
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Hill, Wonkette, The New Republic, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and JammieWearingFool
Javier Manjarres / The Shark Tank:
Is Charlie Crist a potential VP Pick...for Obama? — In spite of assertions made to the contrary by Vice President Joe Biden, speculation continues to swirl around the possibility that President Obama will replace Biden on the 2012 Presidential ticket for someone with less of a propensity …
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys, Outside the Beltway, Babalú Blog and National Review
NY Daily News:
Garbage pile saves Vangelis (Angelo) Kapatos, 26, who tried to commit suicide in midtown — A suicidal man plummeted nine stories and survived in midtown Sunday when he landed on a mountain of trash that had piled up since last week's blizzard, officials said.
Discussion:
New York Times, Gothamist and AOL News
Evan Halper / PolitiCal:
Schwarzenegger commutes prison sentence of Fabian Nuñez's son [Updated] — In his final night before leaving office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted the prison sentence of the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez who had pleaded guilty to taking part in the slaying of a college student.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Moonbattery and TalkLeft
Jed Babbin / American Spectator:
Let's Ban Ivy League ROTC — Like the poor, those who hate the military will always be with us. In days of the Vietnam War, a lot of them chose to protest rather than learn, forcing the closure of classes so that they could use their colleges as stages to protest the war and the draft that threatened their comfortable existence.
Discussion:
Cold Fury
ABCNEWS:
Female Navy Flier: Videos Taken Out of Context — Raunchy Videos Made Aboard the USS Enterprise Could Cost Commander His Job — A series of raunchy videos created and distributed aboard an aircraft carrier have been taken out of context, a former female Navy pilot said today.
Discussion:
AOL News, TPMMuckraker and msnbc.com
Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:
Facing Threat From WikiLeaks, Bank Plays Defense — By the time the conference call ended, it was nearly midnight at Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., but the bank's counterespionage work was only just beginning. — A day earlier, on Nov. 29, the director of WikiLeaks …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, videocafe.crooksandliars.com, Raw Story and The Nation
New York Times:
Reform and the Filibuster — The new Senate will face one of its most momentous decisions in its opening hours on Wednesday: a vote on whether to change its rules to prohibit the widespread abuse of the filibuster. Americans are fed up with Washington gridlock. The Senate should seize the opportunity.
Jason Millman / The Hill:
Poll: Nearly half of voters don't believe key healthcare promise by Obama — Nearly half of voters with health insurance do not believe President Obama's promise that they will be able to keep it under the new healthcare reform law, according to a poll released Monday.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Prairie Weather
Maureen Hayden / Tribune-Star:
Gov's future a hot topic of conversation — INDIANAPOLIS — Over the course of a few short days last week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was described by national political writers as wonkish, boring and short. — He was also called an “economic conservative who can appeal to the middle ground” …
Discussion:
CNN, Ballot Box and GOP 12