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Another Liberal Crackup — The real reason Evan Bayh wants out of Washington. — The political retirement of Evan Bayh, at age 54, is being portrayed by various sages as a result of too much partisanship, or the Senate's dysfunction, or even the systemic breakdown of American governance.
Discussion:
Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, Betsy's Page, The Fix, Doug Ross, American Power and Moonbattery
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Why Bayh Is Quitting the Senate — ‘I do have a sense of deja vu,’ the senator says, 'and the movie doesn't have a happy ending.' — Before Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh suddenly announced he will not seek re-election in November he had issued several warnings to fellow Democrats.


Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis — WASHINGTON — Senator Evan Bayh's comments this week about a dysfunctional Congress reflected a complaint being directed at Washington with increasing frequency, and there is broad agreement among critics about Exhibit A …

McCaskill: Bayh announcement wasn't a shock
Discussion:
The Hill


Steele appeases Tea Party activists in lengthy meeting — Michael Steele met privately with 50 Tea Party leaders in Washington on Tuesday. — Washington (CNN) - An uneasy truce may have been reached between the Tea Party movement and the Republican Party after Republican National Committee …
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Tea partiers get audience with RNC chairman but not a shared public stage

Republicans furious about timing of Bayh's retirement announcement
Discussion:
The Reaction, CBS News, AMERICAblog News, Hot Air, The Atlantic Politics Channel and The Huffington Post

52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection — 52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll. — 44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority …
Discussion:
Telegraph, The washington times Blogs, Macsmind, RedState, Another Black Conservative, Power Line and Weasel Zippers
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Paterson Aide's Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny — David W. Johnson has worked for Gov. David A. Paterson for much of his adult life. He began as a young, ambitious intern from Harlem when Mr. Paterson was a state legislator. He rose to be Mr. Paterson's driver, serving as a kind of protector and scheduler.
Discussion:
The Note, Hotline On Call, Latest Open Salon Blog, Mediaite, The Hill, Politics Daily, Clusterstock, Ben Smith's Blog, Althouse, Gawker and The Daily Politics


Even Before Filming, Kennedy Series Stirs Anger — A new mini-series about John F. Kennedy's presidency that is being prepared by the History channel does not yet have a cast or a premiere date. Not a frame of footage has been shot. It does, however, have prominent critics who want it brought to a halt.
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Huffington Post, Connecting.the.Dots, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hullabaloo and Suburban Guerrilla

Amy Bishop was charged with assault in 2002 IHOP dispute — In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.


Goldman Sachs, Greece Didn't Disclose Swap, Investors ‘Fooled’ — Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managed $15 billion of bond sales for Greece after arranging a currency swap that allowed the government to hide the extent of its deficit. — No mention was made of the swap …
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Poll: Large majority opposes Supreme Court's decision on campaign financing — Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.


Scalia: “There Is No Right to Secede” — The right of a state to secede from the nation is way outside my personal injury wheelhouse. But it has become a source of conversation on professorial and political blogs, and the concept has generated interest from the Tea Party movement.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice


Obama's Islamic Envoy Quoted Defending Man Charged With Aiding Terrorists — President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group
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Publication Denies Cover-Up on OIC Envoy, Implies Anti-Muslim Bias Lies Behind Story


Dems' blues: States reverting to red — The electoral map candidate Barack Obama remade in 2008 appears to be retreating into its familiar patterns. — Obama broke the decisive role Ohio and Florida seemed to play in presidential elections, by moving from trench warfare engagement …
Discussion:
Moe Lane


BROWNS PROPOSE GAME WITH OBAMA — Hoops for Haiti, featuring President Barack Obama and Ayla Brown? Maybe. AP photo composite by POLITICO — Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his daughter, Ayla, say they're serious about their proposal to play hoops with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Obama's disco-era jobs bill — WASHINGTON (Fortune) — The ghost of Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency is hovering over President Obama as the Democrats try to pass a jobs bill in time for this year's elections. So why is the centerpiece of the measure — a tax break for companies that make new hires …
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Exclusive: Hot Air Acquired By Salem Communications — CPAC hasn't even officially started and already its making news. Mediaite has learned that leading center-right web site Hot Air has been acquired by Salem Communications for an undisclosed sum. Sources close to the deal claim that Michelle Malkin …


Biden Fears Terror Hit by Individual — Veep Tells Harry Smith Administration Has Made Inroads against al Qaeda, but He's “Very Concerned” About Lone Attacker — (CBS) Vice President Joe Biden says the Obama administration has made “progress in dismantling the hierarchy of Al-Qaeda,” …

Lawrence Kudlow: The Washington, D.C., disconnect — Washington's disconnect from the rest of the country has never been greater. Why can't the political class in the District of Columbia produce a fiscal product that voters, taxpayers and investors are willing to consume?

Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success — Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. — Let's say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let's also imagine it was large enough …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Big Picture, Swampland and Talking Points Memo


Olympics call in new Zamboni to reshape speedskating oval — RICHMOND, B.C. — Some of the tensest moments at speedskating Tuesday came when there were no competitors on the ice. — That's because it was time to clean the ice and, after events of the two previous days …


Obama to create debt panel — President Obama will create a commission like the one that was killed in the Senate. AP — President Obama will sign an executive order for a deficit commission on Thursday and name Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson as co-chairs.
Discussion:
Politics Daily


Evan Bayh: An ordinary politician — My impression of Evan Bayh was that he was a major deficit hypocrite. Despite spending all his time talking about the need to reduce spending, he'd voted for all the major spending increases in recent years. When I looked into it, that wasn't true …

New Hints of Skulduggery in Hamas Killing — BEIRUT, Lebanon — The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller. At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision …


Exxon Hits Peak Oil... Reserves — Exxon Mobil (XOM) announced today that in 2009 the company's proven reserves increased by 133% of the amount of oil produced. — Exxon now has 23.3 billion oil-equivalent-barrels of reserves comprised of about half liquids and half gas.
Discussion:
TigerHawk

Speaker Pelosi bets the House on success of $787 billion stimulus — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has issued 260 statements on the stimulus package over the past year in an effort to win a debate that could be the key to retaining the Democrats' majority in the House.
Discussion:
The Hill


Elders of Wall St. Favor More Regulation — Put aside for a moment the populist pressure to regulate banking and trading. Ask the elder statesmen of these industries — giants like George Soros, Nicholas F. Brady, John S. Reed, William H. Donaldson and John C. Bogle — where they stand on regulation …


Keith Olbermann Defends MSNBC Against Charges Of Lack Of Diversity — Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night on his MSNBC show was about the undertones of racism within the Tea Party movement, and like he often does, he posted a portion on his Daily Kos blog.


U.S. Supports New Nuclear Reactors in Georgia — WASHINGTON — President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic audience of union officials in Lanham, Md., on Tuesday, underscored his embrace of nuclear power as a clean energy source, announcing that the Energy Department had approved financial help …
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