Top Items:
Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
Gibbs to Leave as White House Press Secretary — Updated Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he will step down and become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign.
Discussion:
USA Today, Political Punch, Mediaite, Pam's House Blend, The Hill, The Politico, The Note, Economix, TPMDC, Washington Post, The Impolitic, Proof Positive, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, Sister Toldjah, Swampland, AOL News, CANNONFIRE, Daily Kos, Ballot Box, Wonkette, RedState, The Fix, Emptywheel, AmSpecBlog, The Daily Caller, BLACKFIVE, Weasel Zippers, Fox Nation, Raw Story, Hotline On Call, New York Magazine, Atlas Shrugs, Weigel, Gawker and Towleroad News #gay, more at Mediagazer »
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Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
Gibbs: Senator Obama Only Voted Against Raising Debt Ceiling in 2006 Because He Knew It Would Pass Anyway — On Sunday, President Obama's top economic adviser, Council of Economic Advisers chair Austan Goolsbee, cautioned members of Congress not to “play chicken” by voting against raising …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, CNSNews, Power Line and Hot Air
Zaid Jilani / ThinkProgress:
GOP Rep. Mulvaney, Against Raising Debt Ceiling, Admits He Doesn't …
GOP Rep. Mulvaney, Against Raising Debt Ceiling, Admits He Doesn't …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Balloon Juice and George's Bottom Line
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Howard Dean endorses Daley for chief of staff, rips White House
Howard Dean endorses Daley for chief of staff, rips White House
Discussion:
The Politico, CNN, The Nation, Weasel Zippers and TPMDC
James Hamilton / Econbrowser:
Debt ceiling politics
Debt ceiling politics
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Commentary, Clusterstock and The Daily Dish
Juli Weiner / Vanity Fair:
Republicans to Spend $1.1 Million Reciting Constitution on House Floor — As we reported this morning, House Republicans will kick-start the 112th Congress tomorrow with a spirited recitation of the Constitution, a document whose recent relevance is due largely to the ideological and sartorial interests of the Tea Party.
Discussion:
Raw Story and AMERICAblog News
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Lee Fang / ThinkProgress:
Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Entertains Newly Elected Republicans …
Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Entertains Newly Elected Republicans …
Discussion:
The Reid Report
Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
Wily old Dems take on whippersnapper Republicans
Wily old Dems take on whippersnapper Republicans
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Sean Higgins / Investor's Business Daily:
Hoyer: Tea Party People Come From Unhappy Families — On the eve of his demotion by voters from House Majority Leader to House Minority Whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Hoyer offered this insight into the psychology of the Tea Party movement: … So, there you have it.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Gates of Vienna, Fox Nation, Weasel Zippers, Right Pundits, Doug Ross and National Review
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Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:
Howard Dean on Tea Party: ‘Last Gasp of the 55-Year-Old Generation’ — Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning, former Vermont governor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Dr. Howard Dean shared his thoughts on the Tea Party.
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Fausta's Blog, Fox Nation and Nice Deb
John R. Parkinson / ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: President Michele Bachmann? — Sources: Tea Party Favorite Is Mulling a Presidential Bid in 2012 — Forget the fervent chatter speculating that Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann is considering launching a campaign to challenge Sen. Amy Klobuchar for the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, TPMDC, The Politico, Ballot Box, Hot Air, New York Magazine, SpyTalk, Left Coast Rebel, No More Mister Nice Blog, Salon, Derek Wallbank, AOL News, Conservatives4Palin, Comments from Left Field, The Plum Line, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkette, CNN, Towleroad News #gay, The Note, Washington Monthly, neo-neocon, Joe. My. God., ThinkProgress, National Review, Indecision Forever, Outside the Beltway and GOP 12
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Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Bachmann considering White House bid, aides say
Bachmann considering White House bid, aides say
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, PostPartisan and Right Pundits
Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:
Michele Bachmann for President?
Michele Bachmann for President?
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Robert Pear / New York Times:
U.S. Alters Rule on Paying for End-of-Life Planning — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law, administration officials said Tuesday.
Discussion:
Jeff Mapes on Politics, National Review, Washington Post, Don Surber, Conservatives4Palin, Right Turn, Hot Air, Firedoglake, Politics Daily, The Plum Line, Weasel Zippers, JustOneMinute, Pirate's Cove, Outside the Beltway, Connecting.the.Dots, The Incidental Economist, Shakesville, Hullabaloo, Ezra Klein, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, AMERICAblog News, Da Techguy's Blog, The BLT and The Politico
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Ezra Klein:
A very smart speech by Speaker Boehner — If you spent the afternoon watching C-SPAN, as I did, you heard applause. A lot of it. Over and over again. And when John Boehner took the podium to be sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives, it swelled back up, and stayed there.
Discussion:
PostPartisan, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and Prairie Weather
Ezra Klein:
Repealing health-care reform would cost hundreds of billions of dollars — and Eric Cantor knows it — House Republicans are in a pickle: One of their new rules says that new legislation must be paid for. But the health-care bill reduces the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years.
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
New team, same rules
New team, same rules
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Caucus, The Hill and PostPartisan
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Here it is: The filibuster reform package! — Here's a copy of the filibuster reform resolution that Senate Democrats will introduce later today, sent over by an aide to Tom Udall, one of the key Senators driving this campaign. — While the broad outlines of the proposal were already public …
Discussion:
TPMDC, National Review, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Crooks and Liars, Big Think, A plain blog about politics, RedState and The Foundry
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Ben Nelson on filibuster: ‘The last thing we need to do is start changing rules’
Ben Nelson on filibuster: ‘The last thing we need to do is start changing rules’
Discussion:
Omaha World-Herald, Washington Monthly, The Note, Firedoglake and Grist
Henri Paget / ninemsn:
KFC employee screams insults at customer — A worker at a KFC restaurant in Sydney has been suspended after he was filmed screaming vicious insults and threatening to attack a customer. — The violent outburst happened at a Halal-friendly KFC in Punchbowl on December 26 …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Andrew Bolt, American Power and Tim Blair
The Politico:
19 Democrats vote against Nancy Pelosi — Nearly 20 Democrats abandoned their party's pick for speaker of the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a sign of their concerns about supporting the unpopular former speaker and of the difficulty she will have in marshaling her forces …
Discussion:
The Caucus, The Note, Big Government, Wake up America, CNN, The Impolitic, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Balloon Juice and protein wisdom
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CNN:
Retracted autism study an ‘elaborate fraud,’ British journal finds — Editor's note: Watch Anderson Cooper's interview with the author of the discredited study, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, on “AC360°” at 10 p.m. ET tonight. — (CNN) — A now-retracted British study that linked autism …
Philly.com:
Man found in landfill tied to arson attempt — Source: John P. Wheeler 3d planted incendiary devices at a neighbor's home in Del. days before his disappearance. — Police in Delaware have discovered evidence that a former Pentagon aide may have been involved in an attempted arson days before his murder …
Discussion:
delawareonline, The Politico, Gawker, Mediaite, TPMMuckraker, Raw Story and Talking Points Memo
Tim Kane / The Atlantic Online:
Why Our Best Officers Are Leaving — Why are so many of the most talented officers now abandoning military life for the private sector? An exclusive survey of West Point graduates shows that it's not just money. Increasingly, the military is creating a command structure that rewards conformism and ignores merit.
Christian Science Monitor:
Could you pass a US citizenship test? — In order to become a US citizen, immigrants must pass the Naturalization Test. American citizenship bestows the right to vote, improves the likelihood of family members living in other countries to come and live in the US, gives eligibility for federal jobs …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Post-Midterm Approval Ratings Don't Predict Re-Election Chances — Barack Obama got some good news to start his new year: his Gallup approval rating ticked up to 50 percent yesterday, against 42 percent disapproval. That's the first time it has been at the 50 percent threshold since early June.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The Daily Dish, Prairie Weather, The Fix and Gallup
Naomi Wolf / Guardian:
Julian Assange's sex-crime accusers deserve to be named — The shielding of sex-crime accusers is a Victorian relic. Women are moral adults and should be treated as such — As Swedish prosecutors' sex-crime allegations against Julian Assange play out, one aspect of the case merits serious scrutiny.
Discussion:
Samizdata.net, Shakesville and Harry's Place
Simmi Aujla / The Politico:
Steve King unveils birthright bill — Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) isn't wasting any time with his immigration agenda, dropping a bill on the first day of Congress that goes after birthright citizenship. — King's measure would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the country.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Obama to address U.S. Chamber — President Obama will speak next month in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a spokeswoman for the organization confirmed Wednesday. — Obama will speak to the business group at a Feb. 7 meeting in a high-profile example of outreach from the administration to the business community.
Discussion:
CNN
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Elizabeth Williamson / Washington Wire:
Obama to Visit Chamber on Feb. 7
Obama to Visit Chamber on Feb. 7
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Caucus and TPMDC
Aftenposten:
S E C R E T TEL AVIV 002447 — NEA/IPA INR/TNC TREASURY FOR GLASER, D. — E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/28/2018 TAGS: PREL, KPAL, KTFN, EFIN, IS SUBJECT: CASHLESS IN GAZA? — REF: A. 10/22/08 AGOR-BURNETT HOLMSTROM ET. AL. E-MAIL B. TEL AVIV 2144 C. TEL AVIV 2291 D. TEL AVIV 1742 E. TEL …
Discussion:
The Lede, msnbc.com, Informed Comment, Obsidian Wings and Open Left