memeorandum: Is Richard Cohen a Racist? (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)

12:55 PM ET, November 13, 2013

Top Items:

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Two Dems join ‘keep your plan’ bill — A House bill that would allow insurance companies the option of offering old healthcare plans is gaining dozens of co-sponsors ahead of a vote this week. — Sixty-eight House members signed on to the bill Tuesday alone, giving the measure sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Politico

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Obama is boxed in by Bill Clinton — President Obama scrambled to find a coherent response Tuesday after former President Clinton jammed the administration by saying it should keep its promise that people could keep their health insurance plans if they liked them.

Discussion: Instapundit and Politico

Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Obama's Image as “Strong and Decisive Leader” Takes a Hit

Discussion: The Fix, Politico, Post Politics and PostPartisan

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
A reversal of fortune for Democrats after Obamacare

Discussion: Hit & Run, Taylor Marsh, Washington Free Beacon, National Review and AEIdeas

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Merkley, Feinstein Back Landrieu's Bill To Unwind Obamacare Market Reforms

Discussion: Business Insider, The Daily Caller and Betsy's Page

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
Feinstein becomes 5th Dem on bill fixing ObamaCare

Discussion: Wonkblog, The Hugh Hewitt Show and Ozymandias

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Obama's critic-in-chief strikes again

Discussion: The Jawa Report, CNN, Wonkblog, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, Mediaite, BizzyBlog, The Plum Line, The Moderate Voice and Rush Limbaugh

Phillip M. Bailey / WFPL:
Mitch McConnell Wants Kentucky Senate Race to Focus on Obamacare Woes

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and Politico

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
NC Senate race tightens up

Discussion: Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

Amy Goldstein / Washington Post:

Troubled HealthCare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November — Software problems with the federal online health insurance marketplace, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised …

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

It's Good That You Can't Keep Your Insurance Plan — Obama was wrong to mislead people but right to scrap dysfunctional insurance products. — “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” That was the promise Barack Obama made to insured Americans when stumping for his signature health insurance overhaul back in 2009 and 2010.

Discussion: Ross Douthat, First Read, The New Republic, The Week, Roll Call, The World's Greatest …, VodkaPundit, Business Insider and The Dish

Brett Norman / Politico: Issa panel turns to Obamacare tech

Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:

Exclusive: Obamacare's Mystery Woman Says She Fell Victim to Cyberbullies … The smiling woman who was once the face of the Affordable Care Act's website has come out of the shadows to stand up to the “cyberbullying” she says she suffered after the law's flawed kickoff.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Gawker, The Daily Caller, The PJ Tatler, The Raw Story, WGBH News, Business Insider, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Talking Points Memo, National Review, ABC News and Yahoo! News

Jim McElhatton / Washington Times:
WebMD's healthy deal with Obamacare: Kind words for law, millions from feds

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and The PJ Tatler

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Healthcare website photo: She smiled and now she speaks out

Discussion: Liberaland, The Daily Caller and National Review

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Controversy over Richard Cohen's comments on the de Blasio family — Richard Cohen has a knack for making venom-spewing enemies out of people who should be his allies. — Like on Tuesday, when The Washington Post columnist wrote about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's chances …

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, Esquire, NewsBusters, ThinkProgress, Salon, PostPartisan, Poynter, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, Little Green Footballs, The Atlantic Online, Slate, Hullabaloo and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Is Richard Cohen a Racist? — When I first saw the latest Richard Cohen brouhaha sparked by this column, I thought he suffered from Chronic Racial Grandpa-ism (CRG), a late in life on-set condition with which many of us are probably familiar. The person in question probably has little …

Discussion: Liberaland, AMERICAblog News, addictinginfo.org, The Huffington Post, Liberal Values, The Other McCain and Weasel Zippers

Alan Taylor / The Atlantic Online:
Richard Cohen in Context

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, Chicks on the Right, Slate, Althouse, The Moderate Voice, Wonkblog, The Daily Beast, Lawyers, Guns & Money and A plain blog about politics

Washington Post:

Democrat Mark Herring gets a leg up in Va. attorney general's race in late ballot count — State Sen. Mark R. Herring padded his still-narrow lead over state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain on Tuesday night in the race for Virginia attorney general, giving the Democrat an apparent 163-vote advantage …

Discussion: Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Booman Tribune and Election Law Blog

TIME:
With 106 Vote Attorney General Victory, Virginia Democrats Sweep State

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway and Washington Post

Elizabeth Titus / Politico:
Virginia AG race: Democrat widens lead

Discussion: CNN and The BRAD BLOG

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Reid lacks the votes to go nuclear (VIDEO) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is short of the 50 votes he would need to advance President Obama's stalled judicial nominees via the “nuclear option,” according to sources who have advocated for filibuster reform.

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Talking Points Memo

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Republicans Again Reject Obama Pick for Judiciary

Discussion: Master Feed and Washington Post

Niels Lesniewski / The World's Greatest …:
Democrats Closer to Deploying ‘Nuclear Option’ on Judges

Discussion: A plain blog about politics

Jose DelReal / Politico:

Charles Krauthammer: Death of ‘liberalism’ — Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer sees “the collapse of American liberalism” in sight, in no small part because of the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act. — “We have not just Obamacare unraveling, not just the Obama administration unraveling …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and p m carpenter's commentary

James Carville / TheHill:

Not so fast, my friend — In my column two weeks ago, I bet that Terry McAuliffe would have a decisive win in Virginia but that it wouldn't be enough for the Washington media elite. — Look, I'm not one of those people who always has to be right — when I'm wrong, I fess up.

Ben White / Politico:

The Jeb Bush boomlet — Blankfein on Christie — Yellen hearing prep — THE JEB BUSH BOOMLET — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gets all the love as the current GOP front-runner for 2016 (to the extent there can even be a front runner three years out.) But there is growing chatter in elite …

Dallas News:

One fired, three suspended after undercover health care video — By: myfoxdfw.com Staff - email — The Urban League of Greater Dallas fired one person and suspended three others after a video from a conservative activist reportedly showed the workers encouraging health care applicants to lie.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, National Review, Twitchy, UrbanGrounds, James O'Keefe's Project … and “The Lid”

Al Kamen / In the Loop:

Tina Turner formally ‘relinquishes’ U.S. citizenship — This item just in via an “activity” report from the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, headlined “Soul Legend Relinquishes U.S. Citizenship.” — “Long-time Swiss resident Tina Turner” was in the embassy Oct. 24 to sign her …

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Liberaland and ImmigrationProf Blog

ThinkProgress:

India's Top Police Official: 'If You Can't Prevent Rape, You Enjoy It' — India erupted in outrage Tuesday after the nation's top police official casually commented, “'If you can't prevent rape, you enjoy it.” — Ranjit Sinha, chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation …

Discussion: Guardian, Liberaland, India & World and Shakesville