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GOP to Michael Steele: Quiet About Rush Limbaugh or You're Fired — Apology to Rush Limbaugh aside, new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is coming under fire from his own GOP troops to shut up and focus on his job of organizing the party and raising money, not fighting with his own political kind.
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Why on Earth Are Democrats Legitimizing and Empowering Rush Limbaugh? — I don't buy into this ‘brilliant’ strategy of elevating Rush Limbaugh in the hopes that it will tarnish Republicans. — Focus relentlessly on the disastrous Bush presidency to tarnish Republicans, yes.
Discussion:
Think Progress, D-Day, Hold Fast, FiveThirtyEight.com, The Impolitic, No More Mister Nice Blog, Liberty Street, Open Left and Booman Tribune

Limbaugh Attacks Stephanopoulos, Says ABC Falsely Reported That Eric Cantor Disagreed With “Fail” Remark — Okay, the Limbaugh wars have just taken yet another weird new turn — Rush is claiming that a high profile GOP leader who appeared to disagree with his professed hope that President Obama …

LIMBAUGH AT CPAC — President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican party. Here's Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation yesterday: “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party.”

WHO'S THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S REAL LEADER?
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Swamp, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, American Power and MoJo Blog Posts


Ugly and Incendiary — Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh began …

“We're Sorry” — Obama voters express their regrets — The drones Obama voters have begun sending me photos expressing their sorrow in voting for the Won. — I'll post them all when I have a chance. — Update: Michelle Malkin suggested that David Brooks might want to join the apologetic crew.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
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A Moderate Manifesto — You wouldn't know it some days, but there are moderates in this country — moderate conservatives, moderate liberals, just plain moderates. We sympathize with a lot of the things that President Obama is trying to do. We like his investments in education and energy innovation.


Our Interrelated Crises — David Brooks seems to think that …
Discussion:
American Prospect

David Brooks surprised to find Obama is, in fact, a statist liberal
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice


Wealthy Idiots Meet Idiot Reporter — I've seen a lot of dumb news reports in my life, but I'm not sure anything can quite match this one from ABC News. The premise of the report is this: Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000, so the reporter has gone …
Discussion:
Donklephant, Cafe Talk Aggregator, Washington Monthly, ABCNEWS, New York Magazine and MoJo Blog Posts
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Does ABC News understand how income tax works? — ABC News reports on “upper-income taxpayers” who are trying to reduce their income so they avoid proposed tax increases on those earning more than $250,000. — According to ABC, one attorney “plans to cut back on her business …

Bullish Obama Suggests Nation Should Buy! Buy! — President Obama told Americans to take a look at investing in the stock market this afternoon, a remarkable utterance for an American president, especially as the Dow Jones Industrial Average proceeds on its course Southward.
Discussion:
Commentary, Corrente, Ben Smith's Blogs, Clusterstock, Fausta's Blog, Gawker, RedState, WillCollier.com, Riehl World View, The Campaign Spot and Gothamist
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The Obama Economy — As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame. — As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic.
Discussion:
Think Progress, FOX Forum, Maggie's Farm, Say Anything, Wonk Room, Babalú Blog, Townhall.com, Commentary and FiveThirtyEight.com

SNEAK PEEK AT THE NBC/WSJ POLL — From NBC's Mark Murray — Here's one set of numbers we're releasing before the entire NBC/WSJ poll comes out at 6:30 pm ET: By a 48-20 percent margin, Americans believe the Democratic Party would do a better job of getting the U.S. out of recession than the Republican Party.
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Emblems to Stamp Projects Funded by the Stimulus Package — ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: — Put a stamp on it — that's what the White House says. — President Obama announced today that his administration will begin stamping an emblem on projects funded by the economic stimulus package …

Extraordinary Measures — A new memo shows just how far the Bush administration considered going in fighting the war on terror. — In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Harper's, Brilliant at Breakfast, MoJo Blog Posts, The Reaction, The Anonymous Liberal and Balkinization
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MTSU POLL: One In Six Tennesseans Admit To Telling Racist Jokes About The President — The newest poll on state and national issues in Tennessee is out from our friends over at Middle Tennessee State University complete with charts and graphs. Some of the more interesting findings below.
Discussion:
Think Progress
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Dems yank DC vote bill in House — It looks like voters in the District of Columbia will have to wait another week - and possibly a lot longer - to claim official representation in the House. — Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday night that the bill would not come …
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White House Knocks Jim Cramer For Calling Obama Budget “Greatest Wealth Destruction By a President” — NBC's Tom Costello, on duty at the White House today, asked press secretary Robert Gibbs about some comments made by his CNBC colleague Jim Cramer. On the Today show this morning …
Discussion:
The Politico, Gateway Pundit, American Power, NewsBusters.org, Hot Air, Clusterstock, Don Surber and JammieWearingFool

Zombie financial ideas — Calculated Risk looks at the latest plan floated by the Treasury — to make low-interest, non-recourse loans to private investors who buy bad assets — and immediately gets it: this is a plan to drive up the prices of toxic assets by creating a lot of moral hazard.

Smear Itself — The paranoia of Stephen Walt rears its ugly head once again. — Ever since he co-authored the wildly hyperbolic tome The Israel Lobby, Stephen Walt has been on his best behavior. He has authored a lot of staid hard-realist commentary about foreign policy and kept his fulminations about …
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Initial Reaction to Obama Budget Tilts Positive — About a third of Americans have yet to form an opinion — USA - Congress - Government and Politics - Spending - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' first reactions to President Barack Obama's …


Afghan tech boom: Mullah embraces iPhone — KABUL (AP) — Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef is a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan. He spent almost four years in Guantanamo. He wears a black turban, has a thick beard — and is never without his Apple iPhone.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard


Coleman camp asks that election result be ‘set aside’ — Request was made as Franken's lawyers prepare to make their case. — For more than a month, Norm Coleman stressed flaws in Minnesota's election system. — And on Monday, Coleman lawyer Jim Langdon wrote the three-judge panel …


You're in the high rent district — Approximately 2% of the American households make more than $250,000 a year and (you may find this hard to believe) a very high percentage of these high-earning go-getting producers spend their days commenting over at Michelle Malkin's place …

Cafferty: My crush on Michelle Obama — Editor's note: Jack Cafferty is the author of a new book, “Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream,” to be published in March. He provides commentary on CNN's “The Situation Room” daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org

New York Legislature to Vote on Overhauling Draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws — The New York State Assembly is set to vote today on legislation that would allow judges to send drug offenders to substance abuse treatment instead of prison. The legislation would also allow thousands …