Top Items:
Hans Nichols / Bloomberg:
Obama Said to Name Jack Lew to Replace Geithner at Treasury — Obama Said to Name Lew Tomorrow to Replace Geithner — President Barack Obama plans to name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew tomorrow as his choice for Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, a person familiar with the process said.
RELATED:
Politico:
Why President Obama is picking fights with Congress — Barack Obama is looking for a few good fights. — Obama, the same president who campaigned twice on breaking the cycle of conflict in Washington, sees the utility — even the necessity — of rattling Republican cages as he plunges …
Discussion:
NBC Politics and The Hill
Kevin Roose / Bloomberg:
Jack Lew's Terrible Signature May Grace Dollar Bills Now — Obama's America. — Jack Lew, President Obama's reported pick to replace outgoing Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, is known as a no-nonsense backroom negotiator with wonkish tendencies, who is admired on the left and grumbled about on the right.
Discussion:
Washington Wire, The Atlantic Online, Politico, Wonkblog, Mashable!, Mediaite and The Daily Caller
David A. Graham / The Atlantic Online:
Who Is Jack Lew, Obama's Nominee for Treasury Secretary? — The current White House chief of staff is a bookish, private man, but he's also an outspoken liberal with a mind for the intricacies of numbers and budgets. — Jim Young/Reuters — President Obama will nominate Jacob Lew …
Discussion:
The Fix, Post Politics, Economix and Business Insider
Manu Raju / Politico:
Senate vs. President Obama over Cabinet
Senate vs. President Obama over Cabinet
Discussion:
The Week, The National Memo, Business Insider and NationalJournal.com
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell to take lead in entitlement talks, with Boehner in back seat — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is poised to play a bigger role in negotiations to reform entitlement programs in the wake of the tax deal he helped forge last week. — Lawmakers see the passage of a bill …
Discussion:
CNN, Hot Air, The Plum Line, Angry Bear, Patterico's Pontifications and Booman Tribune
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Can Chris Christie rescue the GOP?
Can Chris Christie rescue the GOP?
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Business Insider, Ballot Box, Weekly Standard and Post Politics
Ginger Gibson / Politico:
McConnell takes a hit from the right
McConnell takes a hit from the right
Discussion:
Campaign for America's Future
Andy Kroll / Mother Jones:
Revealed: The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics — A month after President Obama won reelection, America's most powerful liberal groups met to plan their next moves. Here's what they talked about. — It was the kind of meeting that conspiratorial conservative bloggers dream about.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Agonist and Taegan Goddard's …
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
In U.S., Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation — In 2012, 47% identified or leaned Democratic, 42% Republican — PRINCETON, NJ — An average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Fix, The Daily Caller, Ballot Box, Politico, The Political Carnival, Hot Air, Post Politics and National Review
Paul Krugman:
Rage Against the Coin — (From Talking Points Memo). — Well, the trillion-dollar-coin thing — deal with the debt ceiling by exploiting a legal loophole to have the Treasury mint one or more large-denomination coins, deposit them at the Fed, and use the cash in the new account to pay bills — has really taken off.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Washington Monthly, Althouse, Business Insider, The Week, The Jawa Report, JustOneMinute, Balloon Juice, Eschaton and New York Magazine
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Ryan Cooper / Washington Monthly:
Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe on the Legality of #mintthecoin
Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe on the Legality of #mintthecoin
Discussion:
American Prospect, Paul Krugman, Business Insider, PostPartisan and The Atlantic Online
Megan McArdle / Asymmetrical Information:
Washington Goes Platinum
Washington Goes Platinum
Discussion:
Mother Jones, American Prospect, Washington Monthly and Hot Air
Josh Levs / CNN:
Biden: Obama exploring executive orders to combat gun violence — On Wednesday night, Piers Morgan goes one-on-one with firearms lobbyist Larry Pratt over guns in America. “Piers Morgan Tonight” airs nightly at 9 ET. — (CNN) — President Barack Obama is exploring executive orders …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Piers Morgan and This Just In
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Aaron Dykes / Infowars:
Piers Morgan and Guests Discuss Shooting Alex Jones
Piers Morgan and Guests Discuss Shooting Alex Jones
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog
Alexander Burns / Politico:
Hagel pick: Final snub of George W. Bush — The final insult to George W. Bush's foreign policy may have come in the form of a Republican ex-senator from Nebraska. — Chuck Hagel's nomination for secretary of defense has stirred opposition on both the left and the right …
Discussion:
CNN, The Moderate Voice and Taegan Goddard's …
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
More DC Play-Acting — Nominations lose steam or gain steam.
More DC Play-Acting — Nominations lose steam or gain steam.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Reuters and Israel Matzav
James Hohmann / Politico:
At 100, still little love for Nixon — Richard Nixon would have turned 100 Wednesday, but about the only people marking the occasion are historians, family members and loyalists from the disgraced 37th president's administration. — And even they're slowly dying off.
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Sarah Parnass / ABCNEWS:
Five Key Legacies of Former President Richard Nixon On His 100th Birthday
Five Key Legacies of Former President Richard Nixon On His 100th Birthday
Discussion:
Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', Taylor Marsh and Politico
Amy Odell / BuzzFeed:
DC Sex Workers Prepare for Huge Influx of Inauguration Partiers — If you require the services of a stripper or dominatrix over inauguration weekend, be prepared to pay extra. — Image by Shutterstock — When Steve Baker talks about the inauguration, he gets a little giddy.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
Justin Sink / The Hill:
Inaugural committee announces lunch menu, poet — President Obama's second inauguration will feature a poem from the youngest-ever inaugural poet and a lunch featuring lobster and bison, organizers announced Wednesday. — The president selected Richard Blanco, an openly gay Cuban American …
Discussion:
Politico
RELATED:
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Richard Blanco, 2013 Inaugural Poet
Richard Blanco, 2013 Inaugural Poet
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Advocate, Towleroad News #gay and Colorlines
The New / New York Times:
Transcript of Nate Silver's ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Reddit — Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight took questions Tuesday on the popular social news site Reddit's “Ask Me Anything” section. What follows is an edited transcript, with the questions and answers sorted into several subject areas.
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Why Republicans Won't Bargain With Obama Again — James Capretta, writing at National Review, lays out what looks like the emerging Republican strategy on the debt ceiling. Rather than take up President Obama's offer to cut Social Security and Medicare in return for higher revenue through tax reform …
Discussion:
Prairie Weather, p m carpenter's commentary and Wonkblog
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Chuck Hagel Expanded On ‘Aggressively Gay’ Slur In 1998 — Then-Sen. Chuck Hagel's remark to the Omaha World-Herald in 1998 that Clinton ambassadorial nominee James Hormel was “openly aggressively gay” was only a part of what Hagel told the paper about his opposition to Hormel's nomination.
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, The Daily Dish, The Plum Line, PostPartisan, Washington Examiner, Towleroad News #gay, The Reaction and Power Line
nbcnewyork.com:
Ferry Crashes in Lower Manhattan, Dozens Injured — A rush hour commuter ferry with more than 300 passengers aboard crashed Wednesday as it approached a Wall Street pier, injuring more than 50 people, police said. — Officials had initially said the injuries were minor …
Discussion:
U.S. News, Crooks and Liars, Gawker, PIX 11 and The Hinterland Gazette
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Why can't Republicans enforce law against Harry Reid? — WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 11: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) arrrives for a weekly policy luncheon with Democratic members of the U.S. Senate December 11, 2012 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Congress is still negotiating pending …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Betsy's Page, Weasel Zippers, Power Line and The Other McCain
Judy Kurtz / The Hill:
Scalpers hawking members' inaugural tickets online — Free presidential inauguration tickets given out by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and other lawmakers are being hawked online for thousands of dollars. — The scalping of the tickets technically is not illegal …
Discussion:
Political Watch, Texas on the Potomac and msnbc.com
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Images of NRA, Congressional Republicans on the decline — PPP's newest national poll finds that the NRA's image has declined over the last three weeks following Wayne LaPierre's controversial press conference the week before Christmas. — The NRA now has a negative favorability rating …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and msnbc.com