Top Items:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Crack Pipe — I'm watching a lot of neoconservative policy activists and a lot of people in the press telling me that it's a very up in the air thing whether Chuck Hagel gets confirmed as Secretary of Defense. These folks should stop smoking crack. Because crack isn't good for you.
Discussion:
Guardian, Taegan Goddard's … and Balloon Juice
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Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn:
Topsy-turvy Hagel politics — President Obama wants to get credit for bipartisanship, so he picks a Republican defense secretary who will garner few if any Republican votes. He walks away from a politically loyal African American woman for secretary of state (whose nomination would open …
Discussion:
Power Line, Politico, Forbes, Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and NationalJournal.com
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Why Hagel Matters — According to various reports …
Why Hagel Matters — According to various reports …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Hullabaloo, Mother Jones and Mondoweiss
Elliott Abrams / Weekly Standard:
Mr. Hagel and the Jews — During the hearings on Chuck Hagel's …
Mr. Hagel and the Jews — During the hearings on Chuck Hagel's …
Discussion:
Power Line
Rick Jacobs / The Huffington Post:
Why Chuck Hagel Should Be Secretary of Defense
Why Chuck Hagel Should Be Secretary of Defense
Discussion:
CNN, Mother Jones, ABCNEWS, ABCNEWS, Omaha World-Herald and Washington Monthly
Fred Kaplan / Slate:
The Real Reason Republicans Hate Hagel
The Real Reason Republicans Hate Hagel
Discussion:
The Week, Via Meadia and Politico
Politico:
Chuck Hagel takes fire from Capitol Hill
Chuck Hagel takes fire from Capitol Hill
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, The Page, Right Turn, ABCNEWS, Daniel W. Drezner, Algemeiner.com, msnbc.com and The Hill
Stephen Moore / Wall Street Journal:
The Education of John Boehner — Leverage for the next clash: GOP willingness to let the spending sequester take effect. — What stunned House Speaker John Boehner more than anything else during his prolonged closed-door budget negotiations with Barack Obama was this revelation …
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Democrats look for up to $1 trillion in new tax revenues this year — Democrats say they want to raise as much as $1 trillion in new revenues through tax reform later this year to balance Republican demands to slash mandatory spending. — Democratic leaders have had little time to craft …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Weasel Zippers, The Plum Line, New York Times, Vodkapundit, The Gateway Pundit and The Reaction
Jonathan Strong / Roll Call:
Boehner Coup Attempt Larger Than First Thought
Boehner Coup Attempt Larger Than First Thought
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes'
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
John Brennan tapped to lead CIA — President Barack Obama will announce Monday that he's nominating the White House's point person on counterterrorism, John Brennan, to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, White House officials told POLITICO.
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, Business Insider and CNN
RELATED:
Scott Shane / New York Times:
Counterterror Adviser to be Named Chief of C.I.A.
Counterterror Adviser to be Named Chief of C.I.A.
Discussion:
Guardian, emptywheel, Taylor Marsh and Outside the Beltway
CBS News:
Obama to tap John Brennan to head CIA: sources
Obama to tap John Brennan to head CIA: sources
Discussion:
Politics, Power …, Wired, CBS DC, Hot Air and CBS New York
Elisabeth Arriero / The Charlotte Observer:
Man ID'd as Rand Paul's son arrested at airport — A teenager identified in several media outlets as the son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and the grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul was arrested Saturday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Discussion:
Gawker, Politico, ABCNEWS, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette
RELATED:
Herb Keinon / Jerusalem Post:
Rand Paul in Israel: US foreign aid can't be one-way
Rand Paul in Israel: US foreign aid can't be one-way
Discussion:
The Hill and The Daily Caller
Josh Haskell / ABCNEWS:
Senator Rand Paul's Son Arrested at Charlotte Airport
Senator Rand Paul's Son Arrested at Charlotte Airport
Discussion:
Post Politics, Business Insider and Joe. My. God.
Paul Krugman:
Be Ready To Mint That Coin — Should President Obama be willing to print a $1 trillion platinum coin if Republicans try to force America into default? Yes, absolutely. He will, after all, be faced with a choice between two alternatives: one that's silly but benign, the other that's equally silly but both vile and disastrous.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Capital New York and Business Insider
Paul Krugman:
The Outside Man — Yes, I've heard about the notion that I should be nominated as Treasury Secretary. I'm flattered, but it really is a bad idea. — Part of the reason is that I am indeed the World's Worst Administrator — and that does matter. Someone else can do the paperwork …
Discussion:
Politico, Ballot Box, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Economist's View
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Big Fail — It's that time again: the annual meeting of the American Economic Association and affiliates, a sort of medieval fair that serves as a marketplace for bodies (newly minted Ph.D.'s in search of jobs), books and ideas. And this year, as in past meetings …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, CANNONFIRE and Prairie Weather
Alex Pareene / Salon:
The conservative movement is still an elaborate moneymaking venture — The story of FreedomWorks' big Glenn Beck payout encapsulates the right-wing media — The conservative media movement exists primarily as a moneymaking venture. As Rick Perlstein explained in the Baffler …
Discussion:
Firedoglake and The Immoral Minority
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
CASTING VOTES — Here's a safe prediction for 2013: few people will pine for the Presidential campaign of 2012. Even Barack Obama's most ardent supporters acknowledge that his victory provided little of the euphoria of four years ago. Not many Republicans have longed to hear …
Jenna Portnoy / New Jersey Online:
Christie looks ahead to big victory in 2013, reflects on how Sandy changed him — Governor Chris Christie during a one-on-one interview with The Star-Ledger in his inner office at the Statehouse. (Photo by Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger) — TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie doesn't want to settle …
Discussion:
The Hill, CNN, Business Insider and Blue Jersey
Christine Haughney / New York Times:
After Pinpointing Gun Owners, Paper Is a Target — WHITE PLAINS — Local newspapers across the country look for stories that will bring them national attention, but The Journal News, a daily nestled in a wooded office park in a suburb north of New York, may have gotten more than it bargained for.
Discussion:
Right Wing News and Capital New York, more at Mediagazer »
Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:
Tea Party Senator: 'I Don't Think What Washington Needs Is More Compromise' — For the last two years, Republicans in Congress have achieved new levels of obstructionism never before seen in Washington, passing fewer bills than any other session of Congress since such information began being recorded in the 1940s.
Discussion:
Mother Jones