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One Internal Poll: Dead Even. The Other Internal Poll: Brown by 11. — By: Jim Geraghty — A weird evening. Within five minutes, two sources call, each one hearing through the grapevine the internals of one of the two major campaigns in Massachusetts.
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Scott Brown is a more liberal Republican than Dede Scozzafava — A special Senate election is being held next Tuesday in Massachusetts to finish Edward Kennedy's term. The candidates are Martha Coakley (D), and State Senator Scott P. Brown (R). — The election is particularly noteworthy for a number of reasons.

A Trade Center image in DSCC spot — A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee uses an unlikely symbol of Wall Street greed: the World Trade Center. — The image in the attack on Scott Brown for his alleged closeness to Wall Street pictures the Trade Center and the destroyed Marriott Hotel on its western side.
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The Hiller Instinct: Suffolk University Poll — Scott Brown is riding a wave. It could break before it hits shore, or, it could crash through the Democratic seawall of state politics and send him all the way to the U.S. Senate. — Our exclusive 7NEWS/Suffolk University Poll shows Brown, with 50%, in front of Coakley with 46%.


In MA-Sen Race That's All About Health Care, Is GOPer Brown Providing Coverage to Staff? — The campaign staffers helping Scott Brown for U.S. Senate are being paid as independent contractors rather than as employees and are responsible for paying their own taxes and, presumably, health care coverage.
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The Political Carnival

Miracle in Massachusetts — Byron York is reporting that the bottom …
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Coakley Internal: Brown +3
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What To Do If Coakley Loses
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Vic Snyder retiring — Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) announced tonight that he will be retiring at the end of his term, citing the difficult political environment that he would have faced to win an eighth term in the House. — “2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide …
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Senate Can Pass Health With 51 Votes, Van Hollen Says — Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Even if Democrats lose the special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator Tuesday, Congress may still pass health-care overhaul through a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.
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Payments to states emerges as major obstacle to health reform — Some House Democrats believe their states would get shortchanged in the overhaul of the nation's healthcare system and the funding issue is fast becoming a major hurdle to getting a bill signed into law.
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Bill Buckner Curse Haunts Health Care? — ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: As Democrats rush to get a deal on health care, they are doing so with a an eye on the Massachusetts Senate race. — If Democratic nominee Martha Coakley loses, Democrats in Washington want to be in a position …
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Coakley dismisses Schilling: ‘Another Yankee fan’ — In the intensifying Democratic precriminations game over who to blame if Coakley loses, here's one for the blame Coakley camp: On another talk radio show, “Nightside With Dan Rea,” Coakley jabs Rudy Giuliani as a Yankee fan …


Obama confidant's spine-chilling proposal — Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama's closest confidants. Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, Sunstein is currently Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things …


Steve King: Undocumented Haitians Should Be Deported, Haiti In ‘Great Need Of Relief Workers’ — Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti this week, many activists and politicians have heightened the cry for granting undocumented Haitians in the U.S. Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
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PhRMA Now Voting No? — The late afternoon news that PhRMA, the drug manufacturers lobby, will pull its support from Health Care Reform if it doesn't get further patent protections on its drugs is quite a commentary on the state of business in Washington today.

Obama goes after Wall Street over bailout in his weekly address — President Barack Obama vowed to recoup billions of dollars in bailout money paid out to prevent a major crisis among large financial firms in his radio address Saturday, declaring, “We're not going to let Wall Street take the money and run.”

Plan B? — If Scott Brown wins on Tuesday, you can bet he'll arrive in DC the next morning waiting to be sworn in. And there's just not much precedent for any real delay of swearing in the winner of a special election, as long as the election result is not in dispute.

Beck: Obama is ‘dividing the nation’ by reacting ‘so rapidly to Haiti.’ — Right wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh has received considerable criticism for politicizing the earthquake in Haiti this week with a series of inflammatory remarks attacking President Obama.