Top Items:
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:
Ballot Box, ABCNEWS, Weasel Zippers and NationalJournal.com
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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, Betsy's Page, Don Surber, The Caucus, BizzyBlog, The Atlantic Online, neo-neocon and Hot Air
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:
Firedoglake, TPMDC and Daily Kos
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.
Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
On Budget Dispute, Obama Casts Himself as Mediator in Chief
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Hill and TPMDC
Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:
Coburn Says Republicans ‘Probably Should’ Make Budget Deal With Democrats
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine
Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:
GRAPHIC: Democrats Have Met Republicans More Than Halfway On Spending Cuts
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Bloomberg and Washington Monthly
New York Times:
Shutdown Near, No Sign of Compromise
Discussion:
About.com US Liberal Politics, Guardian, Christianity Today, Wonkette, The Caucus, The Politico and Daily Kos
Eli Lehrer / FrumForum:
Lobbyists Drive the Shutdown
Discussion:
New York Magazine and The New Republic
Jay Newton-Small / Swampland:
Is This Really All About Abortion?
Discussion:
The Hill, The Daily Dish, National Review, The Atlantic Online, Mother Jones and CNN
John Stanton / Roll Call:
Spending Bill Negotiations Continue Into Night
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Washington Post, The Hill and msnbc.com
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
No Accord in Budget Talks as Policy Fights Hamper Deal
Discussion:
The Politico, RHRealityCheck.org, The Daily Beast, The Hill, Pajamas Media, The Democratic Daily, MyDD, Firedoglake, TPMDC, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos and Swampland
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:
The Hill, Hot Air, Associated Press, New York Magazine, The Blaze, Taylor Marsh and The Politico
Travis Waldron / ThinkProgress:
Defending Riders, Sen. Kyl Falsely Claims 90 Percent Of Planned Parenthood's Services Are For Abortion
Discussion:
CBS News, Guardian, Washington Monthly, The Nation, The Raw Story, Wonk Room and ECHIDNE of the snakes
Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:
Three Anti-Abortion Republicans Tell House GOP To Drop Planned Parenthood Rider To Avoid Shutdown
Discussion:
Political Correction RSS, TPMDC, Outside the Beltway, PERRspectives, The Raw Story, Guardian, Daily Kos and The Daily Dish
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
GOP senator: Republicans should move on from defunding Planned Parenthood
Meredith Shiner / The Politico:
Primer on Title X: the fund behind the Planned Parenthood rider
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and New Deal 2.0
James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
The Brave and Serious Mr. Ryan — I mentioned earlier that if asked to choose an adjective to describe the budget plan presented by Rep. Paul Ryan, I would suggest “partisan” or “gimmicky,” as opposed to “serious” or “brave.” Most budget proposals are both partisan and gimmicky, so this is no particular knock against Rep. Ryan.
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Daily Dish, MyDD, Balloon Juice, The Huffington Post and DailyHowler.com
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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.
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.
Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
The Democrats have a plan for controlling health-care costs. Paul Ryan doesn't.
Discussion:
Time, Mother Jones, The Incidental Economist, The Atlantic Online, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly and Paul Krugman
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, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Shakesville, No More Mister Nice Blog and Moe Lane
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Dan / Pruning Shears:
Microsoft Access imports and Kathy Nickolaus
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, TPMDC, Wonkette and Slate
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Wisconsin Republican County Clerk Claims She Misplaced 7,500 Votes For Justice Prosser, Her Former Boss
Discussion:
host.madison.com, The Huffington Post and Guardian
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 …
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Josiah Ryan / The Hill:
Schumer likens conservatives to a flea — Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) compared House conservatives to a flea Friday as rhetoric in the spending fight intensified. — Schumer, who has been criticizing Republicans all day, said in a floor speech Friday that conservatives were the flea controlling the dog …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Eric Scheiner / CNSNews:
Schumer: Senate Will ‘Never, Never, Never’ Defund Planned Parenthood
Discussion:
The Politico, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media and Maggie's Farm
Joe Kovacs / WorldNetDaily:
Rush Limbaugh slammed for ‘avoiding’ eligibility — ‘Not 1 high Republican or you has ever really tried to nail’ Obama — Radio giant Rush Limbaugh came under fire today from a caller to his top-rated program accusing the host of avoiding the issue of Barack Obama's eligibility to be president.
Discussion:
Vox Popoli
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
Rep. Michele Bachmann / Rep_Michele_Bachmann's blog:
Not a Big Enough Fight — Since Republicans took the House majority in January I have been calling for our leadership to fight. We must answer the bell that was rung last November when the American people called us to fight for deep cuts in spending, for the full repeal of ObamaCare …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and American Power
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:
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