Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Who Really Wants a Shutdown? — President Obama does, but the GOP's strategy is a lot less clear. — For people who keep saying they don't want a government shutdown, Washington's warring parties are sure acting like they can't wait for it to happen. Since the policy stakes …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, The Caucus, Betsy's Page, Don Surber, BizzyBlog, The Atlantic Online, neo-neocon and Hot Air
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Biden gets fed up during spending talks — Vice President Joe Biden got visibly upset during late night White House talks on avoiding a government shutdown. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Friday morning that Biden doesn't get upset very often …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Weasel Zippers and NationalJournal.com
The Politico:
White House hopes last-minute heroics keep government running — Republicans have hit President Barack Obama for being out of touch, disengaged and unwilling to lead on the budget negotiations — and Democrats aren't wild about his taste for last-minute heroics either.
Darren Goode / The Politico:
EPA riders axed, lawmakers say — An evolving deal to avoid a government shutdown would include a study of the economic effect of environmental regulations rather than Republican riders to block EPA rules on climate change and mountaintop mining, senior Senate Democrats and a key House Republican say.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:
Coburn Says Republicans ‘Probably Should’ Make Budget Deal With Democrats — Senator Tom Coburn said House Republicans should drop most provisions governing such policy issues as abortion in budget talks and “probably should” accept spending cuts close to what Democrats are offering to avert a government shutdown.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine
Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
On Budget Dispute, Obama Casts Himself as Mediator in Chief
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Virginian-Pilot, The Hill, The Hill, The Page and TPMDC
New York Times:
Shutdown Near, No Sign of Compromise
Discussion:
About.com US Liberal Politics, New York Magazine, Guardian, The Caucus, Christianity Today, Wonkette, The Politico and Daily Kos
Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:
GRAPHIC: Democrats Have Met Republicans More Than Halfway On Spending Cuts
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Bloomberg and Washington Monthly
Andy Sullivan / Reuters:
Reid says Republicans want shutdown to close clinics
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, RealClearPolitics Video Log and iOwnTheWorld.com
Jay Newton-Small / Swampland:
Is This Really All About Abortion?
Discussion:
The Hill, National Review, The Atlantic Online, Mother Jones and CNN
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Reid's Final Offer To GOP: Drop Planned Parenthood Rider Or Cause A Government Shutdown
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Off the Kuff, Washington Post, Wonk Room and Talking Points Memo
John Stanton / Roll Call:
Spending Bill Negotiations Continue Into Night
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and Washington Post
The Politico:
On the brink of a government shutdown: Talks stall as clock ticks
Discussion:
Pat Dollard
Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
What Planned Parenthood actually does — With Planned Parenthood being either the major obstacle to a budget deal or one of the major obstacles to a budget deal, it's worth taking a minute explaining what they do — and what they don't do. — As you can see in the chart atop this post …
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Major Garrett / NationalJournal.com:
Muted Abortion Response Speaks Volumes — The GOP reaction, or lack thereof, instead suggested a shrugging acceptance of one more round of talking points before the final brokering. — For Speaker John Boehner, seen here at a January mock swearing-in of the 112th Congress, the budget battle's bottom line is spending cuts.
Discussion:
CNSNews, The Hill, The Politico, Hot Air, Associated Press, New York Magazine and The Blaze
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
GOP senator: Republicans should move on from defunding Planned Parenthood — Republicans should “move on” from insisting on defunding Planned Parenthood in a 2011 spending bill, a Republican senator said Friday. — With less than 24 hours to go until a shutdown, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) …
Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:
Three Anti-Abortion Republicans Tell House GOP To Drop Planned Parenthood Rider To Avoid Shutdown — If Congress fails to reach a budget deal, the government will shut down at midnight tonight — an event that would hinder economic recovery and withhold payment to soldiers.
Discussion:
Political Correction RSS, TPMDC, Outside the Beltway, PERRspectives, The Raw Story, Daily Kos, The Reaction and NationalJournal.com
Travis Waldron / ThinkProgress:
Defending Riders, Sen. Kyl Falsely Claims 90 Percent Of Planned Parenthood's Services Are For Abortion
Discussion:
Guardian, Washington Monthly, CBS News, The Nation, The Raw Story, Wonk Room and ECHIDNE of the snakes
Meredith Shiner / The Politico:
Primer on Title X: the fund behind the Planned Parenthood rider
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Ryan Journey — For decades, academics and think tankers have been proposing plans to avert a fiscal catastrophe. The ensuing debates were always sedate, high-minded affairs. Now Republican political leaders have come up with a bold proposal of their own and the atmosphere is totally different.
Discussion:
The Incidental Economist, National Review, The New Republic, Mother Jones, Free exchange, Daily Kos and Marginal Revolution
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Ludicrous and Cruel — Many commentators swooned earlier this week after House Republicans, led by the Budget Committee chairman, Paul Ryan, unveiled their budget proposals. They lavished praise on Mr. Ryan, asserting that his plan set a new standard of fiscal seriousness.
James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
The Brave and Serious Mr. Ryan
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Daily Dish, Balloon Juice and DailyHowler.com
Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
The Democrats have a plan for controlling health-care costs. Paul Ryan doesn't.
Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:
Risky Business — History shows that trying to restructure …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Atlantic Online and Health Affairs Blog
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Vote-Counting Error In Wisconsin Points to Incompetence, Not Conspiracy — When Kathy Nickolaus, the county clerk in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, spoke to the press on Thursday after revealing that she had failed to count more than 14,000 ballots in the hotly contested state supreme court election …
Discussion:
American Spectator, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, American Thinker, No More Mister Nice Blog and Moe Lane
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Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Wisconsin Republican County Clerk Claims She Misplaced 7,500 Votes For Justice Prosser, Her Former Boss
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, host.madison.com and Guardian
Dan / Pruning Shears:
Microsoft Access imports and Kathy Nickolaus
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, blue cheddar and TPMDC
Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
Hah... MoveOn.org Fundraises Off of Kloppenburg's “Victory”
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, MoveOn.Org, Nice Deb, The Blaze and Big Government
Dan Joseph / CNSNews:
Rep. Louise Slaughter: GOP Freshmen Came to Washington ‘To Kill Women’ — (CNSNews.com) - Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress “to kill women.” She also likened Republican efforts …
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
Paying for What We Get — Andrew Sullivan writes today that healthcare costs are skyrocketing and there are basically two way to rein them in: … I think half of this is right, but the other half betrays a fundamental (though common) misconception about how politics actually works.
Discussion:
Yglesias and The Incidental Economist
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Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Rationing One Way Or Another
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, The Atlantic Online and The Politico
Patricia Sellers / Fortune:
Cathie Black vows to come back: “I'm a warrior” — Few career falls are as swift and spectacular as Cathie Black's. — It took just 95 days for the former boss of Hearst Magazines — and alum of the Fortune Most Powerful Women list — to get ousted as chancellor of New York City public schools.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Mediaite, Runnin' Scared and New York Magazine
The Star-Ledger Editorial Page:
Christie takes a cheap shot at Springsteen — He can't help himself, our governor. In less than a year and a half, he's demonized more people than the Salem witch trials — if they had been run by Judge Judy: Democrats. Teachers. Superintendents. Public workers. State Supreme Court justices.
Discussion:
Eschaton
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Optimism in the House — A House staffer emails: — Post Comment — Pages — Ben Smith passes along an anonymous email, from someone quoting hearsay. This is, sadly, the “journalism” we've come to expect from Ben. — Who cares! — Posted By: Who cares! April 08, 2011 at 02:38 PM
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