Top Items:
Ezra Klein:
Winning ugly, but winning — On Dec. 24, in an early morning vote, the United States Senate passed health-care reform. It was the first time the body had been in session on Christmas Eve since 1963. That's fitting, as it's arguably the most important piece of legislation the body has passed since 1963.
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Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
And the Rest Is Just Noise — Why the health care bill is the greatest social achievement of our time. — American liberals have a habit of withdrawing into cynicism and ennui at the most inopportune moments. The 2000 presidential election, and subsequent recount, was one such moment.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, James Fallows, Hullabaloo, The Huffington Post and pandagon.net
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul Bill — WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to reinvent the nation's health care system, passing a bill to guarantee access to health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and to rein in health costs as proposed by President Obama.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Health Care Woo — The health care bill passed! As you know, my view is this: For all its flaws, if signed into law this bill would be the greatest progressive social policy achievement in over forty years. It's fine not to be satisfied with this legislation, but it's perverse not to be happy about it.
Jeffrey Young / The Hill:Senate passes historic healthcare reform legislation in 60-39 vote
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Another Black Conservative, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, The Nation and The Reaction
Alan J. Kuperman / New York Times:
There's Only One Way to Stop Iran — PRESIDENT OBAMA should not lament but sigh in relief that Iran has rejected his nuclear deal, which was ill conceived from the start. Under the deal, which was formally offered through the United Nations, Iran was to surrender some 2,600 pounds …
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M. Duss / Wonk Room:
Another Bad Argument For Iran Strike: ‘The Worst Might Not Happen!’ — Today, Iran's leading daily newspaper featured an op-ed by a conservative Iranian university professor insisting that there is only one way to deter the American war on Iran that all serious Iranian analysts believe is coming …
Discussion:
democracyarsenal.org
J.W. Elphinstone / Associated Press:
Fannie and Freddie CEOs to get up to $6M in pay — NEW YORK (AP) - The two chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could get paid as much as $6 million for 2009, despite the companies' dismal performances this year which cost taxpayers more than $100 billion.
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Reuters:
Yemen says Fort Hood-linked imam may be dead — SANAA (Reuters) - The leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a Muslim preacher linked by U.S. intelligence to deaths at a U.S. army base are believed to have died in a Yemen air strike, a security official said on Thursday.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Taylor Marsh, The Lede, American Power, Outside The Beltway, Political Byline, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin and Jihad Watch
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Sudarsan Raghavan / Washington Post:Yemeni air strike kills 30, targets home of cleric linked to Ft. Hood attack
Discussion:
Hot Air, New York Times, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Weekly Standard, The Long War Journal, Raw Story, Politics Daily, Political Punch, BBC, The Majlis and Truthdig
Cenk Uygur / The Huffington Post:
How Progressives Can Move Obama to the Left — There are many debates among progressives now on the true nature of Barack Obama. Did he mean anything he said on the campaign trail? Is he really a progressive? Did he ever mean to challenge the status quo or was he using the word “change” as a campaign gimmick?
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New York Times:
Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won — In late October 2007, as the financial markets were starting to come unglued, a Goldman Sachs trader, Jonathan M. Egol, received very good news. At 37, he was named a managing director at the firm. — Mr. Egol, a Princeton graduate …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, Felix Salmon, EconLog, naked capitalism, Beat the Press, Prairie Weather and Economix
Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:
Reality Check: For Opponents, It Was Never About the Bill — Today's Republican talking point of the day is that the historic health reform bill passed today represents the first major piece of social legislation to be passed without a single vote from across the aisle. — Well that may be true.
Discussion:
TPM LiveWire
Christopher Knight / Culture Monster:
A Warhol Christmas at the White House — When it comes to art, the right-wing anti-Obama crowd hasn't had a very good year. Repeated efforts to gin up outrage in a manufactured culture war have either fallen flat or proved downright embarrassing. (You can see some of them here, here and here.)
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Big Government, Big Hollywood, Politics Daily, ChattahBox News Blog and Atlas Shrugs
Jay Solomon / Wall Street Journal:
Kerry Floats Plan to Visit Tehran — White House Wouldn't Oppose Trip, First by Top U.S. Official in 30 Years, to Chagrin of Iran's Opposition — WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry has suggested becoming the first high-level U.S. emissary to make a public visit to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution …
Discussion:
PERRspectives, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, The Washington Note, RedState, Commentary, Jules Crittenden and Think Progress
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William M. Daley / Washington Post:
Keep the Big Tent big — The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate …
Discussion:
Mouth of the Potomac, Big Government, Shot in the Dark, Commentary, The Strata-Sphere, Riehl World View and Lynn Sweet
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Report: Ohio could lose two seats in Congress — Ohio could lose two seats in Congress as a result of waning population growth according to Census numbers. — The figures, which were released on Wednesday, show that the Buckeye State's population grew by only 14,573 people over the past decade, or one-tenth of one percent.
Discussion:
Associated Press
Amy Sullivan / Time:
No Churchgoing Christmas for the First Family — The Senate vote on final passage of health reform almost scuttled their plans, but it looks like the First Family will still make it to Hawaii for Christmas. They've had a whirlwind holiday season so far, starting with the lighting …
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