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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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
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, Taylor Marsh, The National Memo, Business Insider and Washington Free Beacon
Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog:
THE BREITBART/O'KEEFE-IZATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS, PART MCMLXXVII
THE BREITBART/O'KEEFE-IZATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS, PART MCMLXXVII
Nick Wing / The Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton, Ron Johnson Engage In Heated Exchange At Benghazi Hearing (VIDEO)
Hillary Clinton, Ron Johnson Engage In Heated Exchange At Benghazi Hearing (VIDEO)
Discussion:
Rush Limbaugh, Addicting Info, The Raw Story, National Review, CNN, Crooks and Liars and Washington Post
Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
Facing Congress, Clinton Defends Her Actions Before and After Libya Attack
Facing Congress, Clinton Defends Her Actions Before and After Libya Attack
Discussion:
Lawfare, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The BLT, Weekly Standard, The PJ Tatler, Talking Points Memo and Sky Dancing
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, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars
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.
Discussion:
Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Maddow Blog
Jamelle Bouie / American Prospect:
Virginia Republicans Move Forward with Mass Disenfranchisement
Virginia Republicans Move Forward with Mass Disenfranchisement
Discussion:
www2.wsls.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Michigan Radio and The Atlantic Online
Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Boehner: Obama out to ‘annihilate’ GOP — 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, it's pretty clear …
Discussion:
riponsociety.org, Prairie Weather, Truthdig, CNN, The Democratic Daily, Booman Tribune, Stinque and Balloon Juice
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Dustin Weaver / The Hill:
Boehner, Ryan gamble on pledge to balance the budget in 10 years — Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) pledge to back a Republican budget that balances within 10 years raises the political stakes for his party and sets up another major test of his leadership. — Democrats eyeing a takeover …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Los Angeles Times
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Boehner: Let's Destroy Math Instead of the Economy
Boehner: Let's Destroy Math Instead of the Economy
Discussion:
Salon, Daily Kos, msnbc.com, The Maddow Blog, Hullabaloo, Business Insider, Washington Wire, National Review 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.
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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:
USA Today, The Week, Right Turn, Wonkblog, American Prospect, Mediaite and Feministing
Jackie Kucinich / Associated Press:
Feinstein revives assault-weapons ban — Bill faces tough going in the Republican-controlled House. … WASHINGTON — California Democrat Dianne Feinstein will begin her fourth full term as a U.S. senator much as she started her Senate career: fighting for a ban on assault weapons.
Discussion:
The Hill, msnbc.com and Right Wing News
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Alexander Burns / Reuters:
Democrats launch plan to turn Texas blue — National Democrats are taking steps to create a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground, crafting a new initiative to identify and mobilize progressive voters in the rapidly-changing state …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and msnbc.com
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'
Mississippi Governor: 'There Is No One Who Doesn't Have Health Care In America'
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Jeffrey Young / The Huffington Post:
Mississippi's GOP Governor Says No American Lacks Health Care
Mississippi's GOP Governor Says No American Lacks Health Care
Discussion:
Kaiser Health News
fco.gov.uk:
Middle East and North Africa — Libya — Avoid all but essential travel to part(s) of country — Avoid all but essential travel to whole country … Travel advice for this country — We are aware of a specific, imminent threat to Westerners in Benghazi.
Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House Democrats propose opening gun makers to civil liability — House Democrats on Tuesday proposed legislation that would ease current law to allow people to file civil law suits against gun manufacturers and others in the industry when they act irresponsibly.
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Bipartisan Filibuster Deal Is Taking Shape in the Senate — WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic and Republican leaders are nearing an agreement on new limits to the filibuster, an effort to speed action in the often-clogged chamber by prohibiting senators from using a common tactic to slow the legislative process.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Booman Tribune
Reuters:
North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests — (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its “sworn enemy”.
Discussion:
BBC, Hot Air, Quartz, Macleans.ca, Business Insider and New York Times
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Democratic Senators Face Gun Owners Roused by Talk of New Laws — BECKLEY, W.Va. — Talk of stricter gun control has stirred up a lot of unease here, a place where hunters vie for top prize (a 26-inch LED television) in the Big Buck Photo Contest, and ads for a gun-simulator game ask, “Feel like shooting something today?”
Discussion:
Hot Air
Wall Street Journal:
TARP Czar to Take Shot in Politics — Neel Kashkari, who oversaw the U.S. Treasury's much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program during the financial crisis, said he is leaving Pacific Investment Management Co. to consider running for public office in Democrat-heavy California as a Republican.
Discussion:
Business Insider and DealBook