Top Items:


Democrat wins Va. House seat in recount by single vote, creating 50-50 tie in legislature — NEWPORT NEWS — A Republican seat flipped Democratic in a wild recount Tuesday - with the Democrat winning by a single vote - creating a rare 50-50 tie between the parties in the House of Delegates …
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, USA Today, ThinkProgress, Vox, Weekly Standard, Axios, New York Magazine, Lawyers, Guns & Money and IJR


Public opposition to tax bill grows as vote approaches — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Trump's 35% approval is a new low in CNN polling, below previous first-year presidents at this point — WASHINGTON (CNN)With the House of Representatives set to vote on the Republican tax reform bill Tuesday …
Discussion:
Politico, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Hullabaloo, The Nation, Washington Post, Paste, New Republic, Business Insider, The Guardian, AOL, CNBC, Mother Jones, IJR, Daily Kos, The Week, Political Wire and Monmouth University
RELATED:


Poll: Public sours on GOP tax plan as Democrats regain lead on economy — WASHINGTON — The tax plan that Republicans are soon expected to pass has grown more unpopular in the last two months, with nearly two-thirds of Americans believing it's designed mostly to help corporations and the wealthy …
Discussion:
Political Wire, CNBC, Business Insider, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway, The Week and New York Magazine


Americans think Trump's tax plan is a giveaway to the rich. These new graphs show they're right. — THE MORNING PLUM: — With House Republicans widely expected to pass the final version of the Trump/GOP tax plan today, a new CNN poll shows that opposition has only grown.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, NBC News, Daily Kos, Hit & Run, Business Insider, Mediaite, taxpolicycenter.org, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, Mother Jones, AOL and Vox

Poll: Trump's approval rating hits historic low of 35 percent
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Outside the Beltway and Politicus USA


House will have to vote for tax-cut bill again — House Republicans will need to pass their tax plan for a second time after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that provisions in the bill violated the rules governing the legislation. — “Members are advised that we expect Senate Democrats …
Discussion:
Axios and Political Wire
RELATED:

Parliamentarian Determines Three Provisions in Republican Tax Bill Are Impermissible
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Democrats.com

House must revote on approved final GOP tax bill, fearing Byrd Rule objections
Discussion:
Clayton Cramer, IJR and CNN

Procedural Snag Delays GOP Tax Victory
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, KQED News and CRFB Papers and Blog Posts


Collins decries coverage of her tax bill support as ‘unbelievably sexist’ — The Maine Republican decried the media coverage as premature and unfair. — Sen. Susan Collins on Tuesday blasted coverage of her support for the GOP tax bill as “extremely discouraging” and “unbelievably sexist.”
Discussion:
Political Wire, Vox and Mediaite


Democrats unlikely to force DACA vote this week, probably averting shutdown — Democrats are backing away from a pledge to force a vote this month over the fate of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, angering activists but likely averting the threat …
Discussion:
RedState, Axios and Political Wire


‘Silicon Valley’ Star T.J. Miller Accused of Sexually Assaulting and Punching a Woman … Warning: This story includes graphic content. — An alleged victim of former Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller is coming forward with accusations that Miller hit and sexually assaulted her while in college.
Discussion:
The Verge, Deadline, Business Insider, Paste, The Gateway Pundit, Mashable, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, IndieWire, The Week and twitchy.com


The real reason Trump allies are attacking Mueller — President Donald Trump insists he's not going to fire Robert Mueller, but that's not stopping Republicans and others close to the president from orchestrating a relentless stream of attacks on the credibility and integrity of the special counsel and his team of Russia investigators.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Raw Story
RELATED:


The FBI Routinely Abuses Its Powers but the Trump Investigation Has Been By the Book
Discussion:
The Daily Beast

LEGAL ANALYSIS: Why Mueller's Seizure of Transition Emails Likely Violated the Law
Discussion:
RedState, Gizmodo, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, Power Line, The Week, National Review, Lawfare and Fox News Insider


Conservatism Can't Survive Donald Trump Intact — On Monday morning the conservative-media world woke up to a savagely personal attack in National Review on the Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. The outburst might seem a textbook case of the narcissism of petty differences within the conservative world.
Discussion:
twitchy.com, National Review, Mediaite, The American Conservative and Power Line
RELATED:


Amtrak train was speeding significantly before crash — Amtrak train derails, dangles onto highway — DuPont, Washington (CNN)Careening around a curve at almost three times the speed limit, an Amtrak train derailed and hurled passenger cars off an overpass — and onto rush hour traffic below.
Discussion:
CityLab, Q13 FOX News, The Seattle Times, IJR, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, NPR, The Daily Beast, ABC News, The Atlantic, RedState and The Guardian
RELATED:

Amtrak derailment: Train was traveling at 80 mph in 30-mph zone
Discussion:
Axios, Politico, Washington State Department …, NBC News, bizpacreview.com, New York Times, RedState, The Daily Beast, Shakesville, Politicus USA, ABC News, CBS News, Media Matters for America, CNN, CityLab, CNBC, Washington Free Beacon, Fox News Insider, Q13 FOX News, NPR, CBS Miami, Associated Press and Fox News


Jim Clapper Just Nuked the Trump Presidency — Spy bosses are by nature the most tight-lipped of people. Those who head our intelligence agencies got there in no small part by knowing precisely what to say to whom, when. In recent decades, as the heads of Western intelligence have emerged …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Booman Tribune, CANNONFIRE and Washington Monthly


Who are we as a country? Time to decide: Sally Yates — Stand up and speak out on America's core founding values. We are not living in ordinary times, and it's not enough to admire them from afar. — Over the course of our nation's history, we have faced inflection points …
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Philly.com, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and twitchy.com


EPA chief sweeps office for bugs, installs high-tech locks — WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security.
RELATED:


Hillary Clinton Favorable Rating at New Low — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hillary Clinton's image has declined since June and is now the worst Gallup has measured for her to date. Her favorable rating has fallen five percentage points since June to a new low of 36%, while her unfavorable rating has hit a new high of 61%.


Republicans fight Democrats — and themselves — as shutdown looms — Even as Republicans are poised to pass a $1.5 trillion tax-cut bill, a brewing fight over federal funding may lead to a government shutdown at week's end. — Speaker Paul Ryan plans to pass a continuing resolution later …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
RELATED:


Leahy regrets calling for Franken to resign — Minnesota Gov. Dayton names Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to fill Franken seat until November election. Smith will run in that election to complete Franken's term through 2020. (Dec. 13) AP — CONNECT — Sen. Patrick Leahy now says he was too hasty …
Discussion:
Political Wire and Axios


Fox contributor floats conspiracy theory that the FBI might have planned to assassinate Donald Trump — HARRIS FAULKNER (CO-HOST): Senate Judiciary Committee chair [Sen.] Chuck Grassley [(R-IA)] reportedly says he wants the FBI to replace Andrew McCabe. All right, so we got to get to the bottom …


The G.O.P. Tax Bill Is Unworkable — With the House of Representatives set to pass the final version of the Republican tax bill on Tuesday, and a vote in the Senate expected later in the week, here is a prediction: no matter which party controls Congress after next year's midterms …
Discussion:
New York Times, SSRN, NBC News and Hullabaloo


Trump administration asks Supreme Court to prevent detainee from having abortion — The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and stop one of two undocumented immigrants in federal custody from having an abortion. — A federal district court judge issued …
Discussion:
Politico, The Daily Caller, IJR and Washington Post

The Workers Paradise — I am not appalled that the Republican tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent. Some of my liberal friends treat this as a moral horror and trot out all sorts of awful distributional tables to prove it. But the fact is that Barack Obama repeatedly proposed cutting …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute


Exclusive First Look: Hulu's ‘Looming Tower’ charts fateful path to 9/11 — Here's a look at Hulu's upcoming title ‘The Looming Tower.’ — Viewers should be fully aware of where The Looming Tower leads — the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — but Hulu's 10-episode miniseries explains the heroic …
Discussion:
Paste


Secretary of State launches investigation into voter fraud concerns in Senate special election — Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is investigating a concern over potential voter fraud in last Tuesday's special Senate election. — It all stems from a brief interview FOX10 News …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and Law & Crime