memeorandum: The Filibuster's Demise Is Great News for Judicial Confirmation Hearings (Andrew Cohen/The Atlantic Online)

9:00 PM ET, November 22, 2013

Top Items:

The Democrats' naked power grab — “Congress is broken,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday before holding a party-line vote that disposed of rules that have guided and protected the chamber since 1789. — If Congress wasn't broken before, it certainly is now.

Mother Jones:

3 Charts Explain Why Democrats Went Nuclear on the Filibuster — No one has completely clean hands when it comes to filibusters in the Senate. Democrats have used them and Republicans have used them. But hoo boy, Republicans sure have used them more. That's why Democrats went nuclear on Thursday.

Discussion: Liberaland

Leigh Ann Caldwell / CNN:

And credit for the nuclear option goes to... Washington (CNN) — What was known as the nuclear option yesterday is known as the Reid Rule today. Time will only tell if the Reid Rule is productive or destructive. But we'll leave that to the historians. — As for how it became the Reid rule …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

John Fund / National Review:

Reid's Law — It may sound like congressional “inside baseball,” but yesterday's decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to limit the power of the minority to block nominees for Executive Branch and most judicial vacancies is momentous. Ezra Klein, a liberal Washington Post columnist …

New York Times:
Democracy Returns to the Senate

John Podhoretz / New York Post:
The hatchetmen win: Harry Reid's muscle move

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, National Review, Gawker and Booman Tribune

John Dickerson / Slate:
The Old Senate Was Already Dead

Discussion: Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, The Week, The Plum Line, American Prospect and The Dish

Manu Raju / Politico:
Harry Reid's gambit

Discussion: Reuters, Talking Points Memo, Slate, National Review, Rush Limbaugh and First Read

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

‘FLASH PRESIDENT DEAD’: How News Of The JFK Assassination Broke In Real Time — To watch the coverage of the Kennedy assassination 50 years later is to see just how raw and unformed so many parts of the news media that we now take for granted were, and to marvel at the ways in which our technology …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly and Poynter

Merriman Smith / UPI:
Eyewitness account of John F. Kennedy assassination

Discussion: The Dish

Adam Clymer / New York Times:
‘Kennedy Has Been Shot’: Memories From Nov. 22, 1963

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Los Angeles Times and Towleroad News #gay

Reuters:
On 50th anniversary of JFK death, Dallas holds first memorial

Discussion: his vorpal sword, The Gateway Pundit, Patterico's Pontifications, Shakesville and The Week

Z. Byron Wolf / CNN:

Extended: Obamacare enrollment deadline for January 1 coverage — (CNN) - The Obama administration announced Friday that the Department of Health and Human Services will extend a key Obamacare deadline by one week. — Americans can now sign up through December 23 in order to have health coverage start …

Discussion: Reuters and Liberaland

CNN:
2015 Obamacare signup delayed

Discussion: Post Politics, PostPartisan and The Heritage Foundation

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:

EXCLUSIVE — MCCONNELL: TEA PARTY ‘BULLIES’ WHO NEED PUNCH IN NOSE — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on a conference call organized by Karl Rove's Crossroads organization for large donors and their advisers on Oct. 30 that the Tea Party movement, in his view, is a …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Liberaland, Riehl World News, Weasel Zippers and Rush Limbaugh

Aaron Rupar / The Blotter:

Stewart Mills, GOP congressional candidate, hits a beer bong [PHOTOS] — In June, we broke the news that Stewart Mills is a Packers fan. That being the case, perhaps nobody should be surprised to learn that dude knows how to party. — Photos obtained by City Pages show Mills …

Discussion: Politico and Talking Points Memo

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Katie Couric Negotiating ABC News Exit (Exclusive) — UPDATED: Couric is set to exit her role as ABC News special correspondent early as she nears a deal for an interview show on Yahoo. — Less than three years after joining ABC in a lucrative and wide-ranging deal that included …

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, Mediaite, Business Insider, The Verge and TVNewser, more at Mediagazer »

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Rush Limbaugh uses rape analogy on filibuster — Rush Limbaugh on Friday used a rape analogy as he told listeners about the Senate's historic filibuster rule change, touching off an immediate and intense backlash to comments that were called “offensive” and “despicable.”

Discussion: CNN, New York Magazine, Hullabaloo and The Daily Caller

petitions.whitehouse.gov:

Instruct the FCC and FAA that cell phone use is not appropriate on flights — The FCC announced today that it is seeking clearance to allow passenger use of cell phones during flights. On the tail of a wonderful move allowing electronics throughout the use of the flight, the FCC seeks to go TOO FAR in this instance.

Discussion: Politico and PostPartisan

Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
FCC sees backlash after proposing to allow in-flight cellphone calls on planes

Discussion: Hot Air, PostPartisan, The Week, New Day, New York Times, NBCNews, Wall Street Journal and Politico

Zachary Roth / msnbc.com:

Georgia GOP dusts off Jim Crow tactic: Changing election date — For years, Augusta, Georgia, has held its local elections in November, when turnout is high. But last year, state Republicans changed the election date to July, when far fewer blacks make it to the polls.

Discussion: NewsBusters and Weasel Zippers

Scott Walker / Wall Street Journal:

How to Win the Obama-Walker Voters — If conservative principles are the problem, then why are so many Republicans in office who campaigned on them? — In the wake of the 2012 elections, Republicans are being warned once again that they need to compromise their principles to win at the ballot box.

Discussion: Associated Press, Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Althouse, Right Turn, New York Times and First Read

Charles Babington / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Wisconsin's Gov. Walker hopes to split Chris Christie, tea partyers, in GOP presidential hunt

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Lauren McGaughy / New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Mary Landrieu approval ratings drop, Bobby Jindal's rise in latest polling data — U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's approval rating dropped and Gov. Bobby Jindal's rose over the last six months, according to polling data released Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 from Southern Media & Opinion Research.

Discussion: National Review and Mock Paper Scissors

Emily Schultheis / Politico:
Bill Cassidy staffer tweets Mary Landrieu-Mussolini picture

Discussion: FIRST DRAFT, Talking Points Memo and PoliticusUSA

kff.org:

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: November 2013 — The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds the public's views souring on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in November, with about half having an unfavorable view of the law and a third having a favorable view, a gap that was seen only once before …

Discussion: Post Politics, Firedoglake, Politico, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, National Review and The Plum Line

Dana Davidsen / CNN:

Democrats call Issa's Obamacare road show a ‘destructive’ political act — (CNN) - The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday accused the panel's chairman of engaging in a “destructive political exercise” by launching a series of hearings on the road meant …

Discussion: Politico

Russell Simmons / Global Grind:
All The Fake Democrats, Please Take A Seat! by Russell Simmons

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Conservatives4Palin, Liberaland and Twitchy

Timothy Egan / New York Times:

The South's New Lost Cause — Before he was immortalized for saving the union, freeing the slaves and giving the best political speech in American history, Abraham Lincoln was just an unpopular new president handed a colossal crisis. Elected with 39.7 percent of the vote, Lincoln told a big lie in his inaugural address of 1861.

Discussion: TruthRevolt.org and Washington Monthly

Rich Lord / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Catholic dioceses of Pittsburgh, Erie win injunction against Affordable Care Act — The right of church-related organizations to keep a clear conscience trumps the federal government's desire to improve access to contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Thursday in a preliminary decision …

Discussion: Hot Air, National Review and ProfessorBainbridge.com