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Governor confirms U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss' retirement — Gov. Nathan Deal said that U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss called him this morning to inform him that he would not run for a third term in 2014. — “I told him to make sure he served out his full term because I didn't want to appoint someone …


Haley Barbour: ‘Stupid’ comments hurt GOP — Former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour said on Friday that “stupid” and “offensive” comments made by one candidate can have a negative affect on others in the same political party. — “The comments they made were stupid comments …
Discussion:
CNN
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Full text: Bobby Jindal's dynamite speech to the Republican National Committee in Charlotte … Below is the text of Gov. Bobby Jindal's full speech to the Republican National Committee in Charlotte, N.C. delivered Thursday night. — Thank you all for having me here tonight.
Discussion:
Hot Air and Washington Monthly

Bobby Jindal: GOP a ‘populist party’
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, CNN and Business Insider


Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick: Solving the Immigration Puzzle — Some want illegals to return to their native countries and ‘wait in line’ like everyone else. There is no line. — The nation's capital is awash with ideas about how to fix America's immigration policy.
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Jeb Bush: Piecemeal immigration reform is ‘shortsighted and self-defeating’ — The former Florida governor said conservatives must drop their resistance to a comprehensive reform of immigration laws. — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says efforts to tackle immigration reform on a piecemeal basis are …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Obama, Clinton to appear in joint ‘60 Minutes’ interview — The president and Clinton, who is expected to leave the State Department within days, will tape the interview Friday at the White House with “60 Minutes” anchor Steve Kroft. It will be the president's first dual interview with anyone other than First Lady Michelle Obama.
Discussion:
Shakesville
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Jiltin' Joe? Obama does ‘60 minutes’ with Hillary — At the end of a week filled with talk about Joe Biden's presidential prospects, Barack Obama will sit down for a television interview with ... Hillary Clinton. — The joint interview Friday afternoon is set to air Sunday on CBS's “60 Minutes.”
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and Reuters


Three Winners And Three Losers In Today's Filibuster Deal … The Huffington Post reports that Senate Leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reached a deal today to support minor — and in some cases, temporary — changes to the Senate Rules, rather than push through …
Discussion:
Heritage Action for America and Prairie Weather
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Filibuster Reform Ends With A Whimper: How It Fell Apart
Discussion:
Politico, msnbc.com, Truthdig, Main Street and The Daily Dish

Senate approves modest filibuster changes
Discussion:
Washington Post and New York Times

Harry Reid: “I'm not personally, at this stage, ready to get rid of the 60-vote threshold”
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, American Prospect, Daily Kos, The Week, Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Sky Dancing, Mediaite, driftglass, Post Politics, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Slate, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, National Review, david-frum, The BRAD BLOG, Hot Air, The Fix, Prairie Weather, The Atlantic Online, The National Memo, The Impolitic, Taylor Marsh, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Maddow Blog, The PJ Tatler, Politico, Weekly Standard, Outside the Beltway, The Moderate Voice, LifeNews.com, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mother Jones and New York Times


Is Hillary seeing double? Daily News analysis points out the Secretary of State may suffer from vision impairments following a concussion and blood clot near her brain — A close inspection of Hillary Clinton's glasses worn during her Wednesday testimony on Benghazi shows an adhesive Fresnel prism …
Discussion:
Pat Dollard and New York Magazine
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New York Post Goes After Hillary Clinton With Blatantly Sexist Cover
Discussion:
Mediaite, Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo, The Reaction, The Maddow Blog and Shakesville

My God, Could This Be True? — Much like with Mitt Romney, it seems that Benjamin Netanyahu had no idea of the electoral drubbing headed his way, despite the fact that independent pollsters very much did see it coming. Yes, you guessed it: Netanyahu's pollsters were apparently skewing his poll data.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice


Feinstein: Reinstate assault weapons ban — Proposal stricter than original, faces opposition — Sen. Dianne Feinstein rolled out sweeping legislation that would ban more than 150 types of military-style semiautomatic rifles on Thursday, kicking off the congressional debate …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, nation.foxnews.com, Weasel Zippers and Pat Dollard
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Sen. Feinstein introduces sweeping ban on military-style assault weapons
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times, USA Today, The Week, The Moderate Voice, The National Memo, ACS Blog, The Gateway Pundit and Nice Deb


Britain heading for triple-dip recession as GDP shrinks 0.3% in fourth quarter — UK economy not expected to regain peak level for another two years - marking slowest recovery in a century — Britain could be on course for its third recession in four years after the economy shrank 0.3% in the last three months of 2012.
Discussion:
The Maddow Blog and Pat Dollard
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Allen West Slams Women In Combat ‘Social Experiment,’ Suggests They Should Also Join NHL And NBA — Former Republican Congressman and Army veteran Allen West made his views about the recent decision to allow women to serve in combat roles known this morning on Twitter and Facebook.
Discussion:
nation.foxnews.com, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Raw Story
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Allen West rips call for women in combat
Discussion:
UrbanGrounds, Reuters, Mediaite, Hullabaloo, The Maddow Blog, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller and Politico

Women In Combat: 5 Key Questions
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, AMERICAblog, Taylor Marsh, Hit & Run, Guardian and FRC

Republicans in Virginia, other states seeking electoral college changes — Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats.
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Maddow Blog, First Read, Washington Examiner and ThinkProgress
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Grand Theft Election
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Sabato's Crystal Ball, msnbc.com, Business Insider and Associated Press

Deficit Hawks Down — President Obama's second Inaugural Address offered a lot for progressives to like. There was the spirited defense of gay rights; there was the equally spirited defense of the role of government, and, in particular, of the safety net provided by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather


Obama Brings Pollster Into White House — A staff reshuffle as the campaign comes in from the cold. — Source: whitehouse.gov — President Barack Obama is bringing his campaign pollster into White House, according to an official, part of a broader migration of political staff into government …


Exiting Timothy Geithner talks fiscal future — Republicans have effectively ceded the debt ceiling as a political weapon, opening what could be a more productive and less economically dangerous period of fiscal debate, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an exit interview with POLITICO.
Discussion:
Political Capital

Senators not in ‘millionaires’ club' would be hurt by lost paychecks — The Senate is often called the “millionaires' club,” but some of its members would feel the pain if a blown budget deadline costs them their paychecks. — Provisions in the “No Budget, No Pay” debt ceiling bill …


Rahm Emanuel presses banks on guns — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, moving to take a lead role in the gun control debate, is turning up the pressure on banks that do business with firearms manufacturers. — Emanuel is sending letters to two major financial institutions, TD Bank and Bank of America …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers

A nation of takers — Nicholas Eberstadt is the author of A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic. The book, it should be noted, includes dissenting essays by Yuval Levin and William Galston. — President Obama seems to have been responding to Eberstadt in a key passage …
Discussion:
The Heritage Foundation


CONGRESS: Baca to challenge Negrete McLeod in 2014 — Longtime Inland Congressman Joe Baca, who lost his seat last November, plans to challenge the woman who took it in 2014. — “If you get knocked down, you've got to stand up,” he said Thursday, Jan. 24.
Discussion:
Ballot Box and Roll Call


Russian police break up “kiss-in” over anti-gay law — MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police broke up a “kiss-in” protest by gay activists who scuffled with Russian Orthodox Christians outside parliament on Friday before it considered a law banning the promotion of homosexuality among minors.
Discussion:
Towleroad News #gay