Top Items:
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Hobble Independent Ethics Office — House Republicans, defying their top leaders, voted Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.
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John Bresnahan / Politico:
House Republicans gut their own oversight — In one of their first moves of the new Congress, House Republicans have voted to gut their own independent ethics watchdog — a huge blow to cheerleaders of congressional oversight and one that dismantles major reforms adopted after the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Discussion:
RedState, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Associated Press, Raw Story, The Guardian, ThinkProgress, The Root, ABC News, Vox and Daily Kos
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
House Republicans Vote to Rein In Serious Investigation of Republicans — When Republicans control Congress and a Democrat is president, it's all investigation all the time. It doesn't matter if any of the stuff they're investigating is genuinely scandalous or not. They just keep at it, month after endless month.
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Mediaite and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Bloomberg:
House GOP Votes to Strip Ethics Office of Independent Status — Surprise move by Republicans comes day before new Congress — Pelosi says vote contradicts Trump's ‘drain the swamp’ pledge — House Republicans abruptly voted Monday night to effectively weaken the independent Office …
Discussion:
Politico, Shareblue, The Daily Caller, Shakesville and Hot Air
Louis Nelson / Politico:
Conway: GOP has ‘mandate’ to gut congressional ethics office
Conway: GOP has ‘mandate’ to gut congressional ethics office
Discussion:
Mediaite
CNN:
House GOP guts ethics panel
House GOP guts ethics panel
Discussion:
New York Times, Raw Story, Politicus USA and Balloon Juice
Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
House Republicans vote to rein in independent ethics office
House Republicans vote to rein in independent ethics office
Discussion:
NPR, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, The Week and The Democratic Daily
TODAY.com:
Kellyanne Conway on Congressional ethics panel and agenda, Trump's info on Russia — Kellyanne Conway, one of President-elect Donald Trump's top advisors, weighs in on the new ethics panel, Russia's hacking of the election and repealing Obamacare. She says that though there are some aspects …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Politico, The Week, Politicus USA and Washington Times
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Rachana Pradhan / Politico:
Dems, GOP get ready for showdown on Obamacare
Richard Cowan / Reuters:
New Republican-led U.S. Congress lays groundwork for Trump era
New Republican-led U.S. Congress lays groundwork for Trump era
Discussion:
The Geller Report
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Republicans Stonewalled Obama. Now the Ball Is in Their Court.
Republicans Stonewalled Obama. Now the Ball Is in Their Court.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Week and No More Mister Nice Blog
Melanie Zanona / The Hill:
Pelosi: Ball in GOP court on ObamaCare replacement
Pelosi: Ball in GOP court on ObamaCare replacement
Discussion:
TheBlaze and LifeNews.com
Benjamin Siegel / ABC News:
Congress Prepares to Battle Over Obamacare
Congress Prepares to Battle Over Obamacare
Discussion:
Political Wire, TheBlaze and Associated Press
Jennifer Calfas / The Hill:
WikiLeaks founder: Obama admin trying to ‘delegitimize’ Trump — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says there's an “obvious” reason the Obama administration has focused on Russia's alleged role in Democratic hacks leading up to Donald Trump — 's electoral win.
Discussion:
EndingFed News Network, TheBlaze, The Geller Report and We Are Change
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Ian Schwartz / RealClearPolitics:
Assange To Hannity: Source For WikiLeaks Was Not Russian Government
Assange To Hannity: Source For WikiLeaks Was Not Russian Government
Discussion:
BizPac Review, Scared Monkeys and The Last Tradition
Alex Stedman / Variety:
Fox News' Sean Hannity Lands Interview With WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange
Fox News' Sean Hannity Lands Interview With WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Gateway Pundit
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Inside Trump's strategy to remodel the Supreme Court — Donald Trump has narrowed his short list for his first Supreme Court pick down to roughly a half-dozen finalists but the president-elect and his top advisers are already thinking about a second selection, as they seek to quickly remodel …
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Snapchat Presidency of Donald Trump — Normal leaders come up with policy proposals in a certain conventional way. They gather their advisers around them and they debate alternatives — with briefing papers, intelligence briefings and implementation strategies. — Donald Trump doesn't do that.
Discussion:
Althouse and John Hawkins' Right Wing News
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Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Schumer regime promises a sharp break from Reid — It's been hard to tell lately that Harry Reid and Joe Manchin even belong to the same party. When Reid attacked Donald Trump after the election, Manchin called his own party leader an “absolute embarrassment”; Reid fired back that Manchin was just …
Timothy W. Martin / Wall Street Journal:
The Champions of the 401(k) Lament the Revolution They Started — The dominant vehicle for retirement savings has fallen short of its early backers' rosy expectations; longer life spans, high fees and stock-market declines — Herbert Whitehouse was one of the first in the U.S. to suggest workers use a 401(k).
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight
Deborah Cole / Yahoo:
Hitler's ‘Mein Kampf’ becomes German bestseller — Berlin (AFP) - The first reprint of Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” in Germany since World War II has proved a surprise bestseller, heading for its sixth print run, its publisher said Tuesday. — The Institute of Contemporary History of Munich …
Discussion:
Althouse
CNN:
Adviser contradicts Trump: Russians hacked the US — Washington (CNN)A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he thinks the Russians were involved in election-related hacking of the US — a very different view than that held by the incoming administration.
Discussion:
Post On Politics, twitchy.com, Mediaite, The Week and alan.com
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Mike Wehner / BGR:
CNN uses screenshot from ‘Fallout 4’ to show how Russians hack things
CNN uses screenshot from ‘Fallout 4’ to show how Russians hack things
Discussion:
Infowars, We Are Change and Raw Story
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
New date for Trump's press conference: January 11 — Press secretary Josh Earnest's advice for his successor Sean Spicer — Presidents-elect normally answer questions at a press conference a few days after the election. But Donald Trump has gone almost two months without holding one.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »
New York Times:
To Stop Trump, Democrats Can Learn From the Tea Party — Today is the first day of the 115th United States Congress. In less than three weeks, this Congress will join with President-elect Donald J. Trump to claim a mandate they do not have for policies that most Americans do not support.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Andrew Prokop / Vox:
The 2018 midterms are nearly two years away. Start paying attention now. — When 2009 began, the Republican Party looked like a smoking pile of rubble. The GOP had lost the presidency, and much of their outgoing president's legacy seemed set to be reversed. They had fallen into the minority in both houses of Congress.
Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:
The media's hypocrisy and hyperventilating in the age of Trump — Facts are stubborn things. Unfortunately in the age of Twitter journalism, too many reporters find such details to be both onerous and optional. — This past week, I met twice with President-elect Donald Trump attempting to secure an interview for inauguration week.
Discussion:
Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
Jennifer Calfas / The Hill:
Ex-CIA agent on Spicer: ‘What the hell is that dude talking about?’ — A former CIA operative on Tuesday slammed incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer for saying there is “zero evidence” of Russian interference in last year's election. — “What the hell is that dude talking about?”
Discussion:
RedState
Houman Salem / Los Angeles Times:
Op-Ed Leaving for Las Vegas: California's minimum wage law leaves businesses no choice — The “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign on July 14, 2009. (Sarah Gerke / Sarah Gerke) — Houman Salem — California's minimum wage jumped to $10.50 an hour at the start of the new year.