Top Items:
McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:
Ron Johnson: Hillary Clinton Planned To Get Emotional To Evade Questions — “I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card,” the senator tells BuzzFeed. — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pounds …
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Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog:
THE BREITBART/O'KEEFE-IZATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS, PART MCMLXXVII — I haven't been able to watch the Benghazi hearings, but I've checked my Twitter feed, and the lefties who've been watching are 100% convinced that Hillary Clinton has been wiping the floor with the Republicans who are trying to take her down.
Brent Budowsky / Pundits Blog:
Hillary Clinton 69, Rand Paul 10 — I was not planning on writing any more pundit blogs this week, but I do have a brief comment about Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) outburst at the Benghazi hearing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. — Paul suggesting he would have fired Clinton …
Discussion:
Politico and Weasel Zippers
Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Ron Johnson: Hillary Clinton evaded with ‘theatrics’ — Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday knocked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for dodging his questions with “theatrics” during their tense exchange at today's Benghazi hearing. — “I wasn't trying to get under her skin …
Nick Wing / The Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton, Ron Johnson Engage In Heated Exchange At Benghazi Hearing (VIDEO) — FOLLOW: — WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got testy on Capitol Hill Wednesday in response to a query from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who called into question her department's accounting of the Sept. 11 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Raw Story, National Review, Addicting Info and Crooks and Liars
Hayes Brown / ThinkProgress:
GOP Senator Pushes Gun-Running Conspiracy Theory During Benghazi Hearing — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) used today's hearing on the Benghazi attack to confront Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about a conspiracy theory involving moving guns from Libya to Syrian rebels.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, New York Times and The National Memo
Luke Johnson / The Huffington Post:
Rand Paul To Hillary Clinton: ‘I Would Have Relieved You Of Your Post’
Rand Paul To Hillary Clinton: ‘I Would Have Relieved You Of Your Post’
Discussion:
Washington Post, Daily Kos, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Crooks and Liars
Talking Points Memo:
Hillary Clinton Erupts At GOP Senator Over Benghazi Attack
Hillary Clinton Erupts At GOP Senator Over Benghazi Attack
Discussion:
TheBlaze.com, The Maddow Blog, National Review and Fox News Insider
CNN:
CNN's GUT CHECK for January 23, 2013
CNN's GUT CHECK for January 23, 2013
Discussion:
Rush Limbaugh, Algemeiner.com, Right Turn, BuzzFeed and Gawker
Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Boehner: Obama's goal is to ‘annihilate’ the Republican Party — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he believes the primary goal of President Obama's second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.” — “Given what we heard yesterday about the president's vision for his second term …
Discussion:
CNN, The Democratic Daily, Booman Tribune, Stinque and Balloon Juice
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Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Boehner: Let's Destroy Math Instead of the Economy
Boehner: Let's Destroy Math Instead of the Economy
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, msnbc.com, The Maddow Blog, Business Insider, National Review, The Hill, Washington Wire, Politico and The Hill
New York Times:
Pentagon Is Set to Lift Combat Ban for Women — WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military's official ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said Wednesday.
Discussion:
Addicting Info, The Agonist and LewRockwell.com Blog
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Ernesto Londoño / Washington Post:
Pentagon to remove ban on women in combat
Pentagon to remove ban on women in combat
Discussion:
FP Passport, Wonkblog, Right Turn, American Prospect, The Moderate Voice and American Forces Press Service
Luis Martinez / ABCNEWS:
Pentagon to Allow Women in Combat
Pentagon to Allow Women in Combat
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Dish
David Weigel / Slate:
Virginia State Senate Moves Ahead on Electoral College-Rigging Bill — Congressional clerks open certificate envelopes from different states during a joint session of the 113th Congress to count the Electoral College votes January 4, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
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Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
UPDATED: Virginia Republican State Senator Declines To Back GOP Electoral College Rigging Scheme … In a subcommittee vote Wednesday, Virginia State Sen. and former Republican National Committee Chief Counsel Jill Holtzman Vogel (R) abstained on a key vote on a bill to rig the state's electoral college vote.
Jamelle Bouie / American Prospect:
Virginia Republicans Move Forward with Mass Disenfranchisement
Virginia Republicans Move Forward with Mass Disenfranchisement
Discussion:
www2.wsls.com, Michigan Radio and The Atlantic Online
Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
Everything You Think You Know About Health Care Spending Is Wrong — This is the chart that I think ought to dominate the conversation about public-sector health care spending in the United States, and yet it is curiously ignored. The data show government health care spending per capita in the United States and Canada.
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Tara Culp-Ressler / ThinkProgress:
Mississippi Governor: 'There Is No One Who Doesn't Have Health Care In America' — In an interview with Kaiser Health News on Wednesday, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) explained he remains a staunch opponent of Obamacare because health care reform is unnecessary.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
House votes to suspend debt limit — A measure to suspend the nation's legal limit on borrowing for nearly four months cleared a key vote in the House Wednesday, as Republicans broadly endorsed a new tactic that would temporarily remove the threat of a potentially calamitous government default …
Discussion:
Slate, The Plum Line, PostPartisan, Washington Monthly, The Week, Real-Time News from Huntsville and LewRockwell.com Blog
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Alex Pareene / Salon:
The brilliantly stupid new plan to raise the debt ceiling without raising it
The brilliantly stupid new plan to raise the debt ceiling without raising it
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Slate and Wonkblog
Mary Elizabeth Williams / Salon:
So what if abortion ends life? — I believe that life starts at conception. And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice — Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.” Life!
Discussion:
Opinionator, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, LifeNews.com, Liberal Values, National Review, Twitchy and Care2 Causes
Sam Hananel / Associated Press:
UNIONS SUFFER SHARP DECLINE IN MEMBERSHIP … WASHINGTON (AP) — Union membership plummeted last year to the lowest level since the 1930s as cash-strapped state and local governments shed workers and unions had difficulty organizing new members in the private sector despite signs of an improving economy.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Power Line and Vodkapundit
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John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
2/23/2013 Will Be A Day of Resistance — “The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.” — Thomas Jefferson Yes, Barack Obama did beat Mitt Romney in 2012. But, he was reelected as President- not king.
Discussion:
“The Lid”, American Power, Moonbattery and Vox Popoli
Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:
Report: Ohio Secretary Of State's Restrictive Voting Hours Hurt Urban Voters — Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) became one of the most notorious election officials in the country after his many attempts to restrict voting and discard ballots. Husted banned evening and weekend voting hours …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Sen. Durbin: Democrats lack votes to pass talking filibuster reform — Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a leading liberal, said Wednesday Democrats do not have enough votes to implement the talking-filibuster reform. — He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) …
Discussion:
Politico, Wonkblog, CNN, Slate, The Political Carnival, Daily Kos and LifeNews.com
Jgalloway / Political Insider:
Your daily jolt: GPB producer resigns over hiring of Chip Rogers — News that former state Sen. Chip Rogers has been given an executive position at Georgia Public Broadcasting with a hefty starting salary of $150,000 has prompted the resignation of a longtime executive producer at the network.
Discussion:
The Raw Story, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, Mother Jones and The Hill