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4:25 PM ET, February 4, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Rasmussen Reports:
Support for Stimulus Package Falls to 37%  —  Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has fallen again this week.  For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.  —  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Senate Lacks Votes to Pass Stimulus  —  Democrats Trying to Trim $900 Billion Plan to Gain GOP Support  —  Senate Democratic leaders conceded yesterday that they do not have the votes to pass the stimulus bill as currently written and said that to gain bipartisan support …
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
DENIAL AS POLITICAL STRATEGY  —  Behind all the back and forth over the Stimulus Bill is a simple fact: the debate in Washington is rapidly moving away from any recognition that the US economy — and the global economy, for that matter — is in free-fall.  The range of outcomes stretches …
Discussion: Washington Monthly
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Time to Steer ‘Forceful Course’ for Stimulus  —  The most serious charge against the stimulus package is that it does not pack enough punch.  Two different camps have been making this argument over the last few weeks.  Publicly, the Obama administration hasn't really answered either one.
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:   A STRUGGLING STIMULUS.... President Obama probably thought this would be easier.
Rasmussen Reports:
50% Say Stimulus Plan Likely to Make Things Worse
The Politico:
Cheney warns of new attacks  —  Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration's policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.
RELATED:
Spencer Ackerman / ATTACKERMAN:
Someone Is Lying  —  Barely two weeks out of office and Dick Cheney …
The Politico:   Cheney not fretting about GOP's future
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
THANKS A LOT, DUDE  —  I think it's understandable, though unfortunate in terms of the future of the country and the interests of justice, that Sen. Gregg (R-NH) made it a condition of his accepting the Commerce appointment that he'd be replaced by a Republican.
RELATED:
Brian Beutler / Matthew Yglesias:
Department of WTF?  —  What was I saying yesterday about pro quo? … Things would be different if he had, for instance, resigned in anticipation of his confirmation.  But a cloture vote only succeeds if at least three-fifths of all duly elected and serving members of the Senate vote ‘yes’.
Discussion: D-Day and Paul Krugman
Elana Schor / TPMDC:
Gregg Recuses Himself From Voting on Stimulus
Tony Mauro / The BLT:
Florida Student Asks Scalia a Question — and Gets Scolded  —  Where others fear to tread, a 20-year-old college student from Tequesta, Fla.,boldly stepped forward Tuesday to ask Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a question he did not like during a public appearance in West Palm Beach.
RELATED:
George Bennett / Palm Beach Post:
Scalia on 2000: ‘Get over it’  —  WEST PALM BEACH — Eight years after he and four of his U.S. Supreme Court colleagues effectively decided the 2000 presidential election, Justice Antonin Scalia visited this hotbed of recount passion Tuesday and was asked to reflect on the momentous Bush vs. Gore decision.
Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:
The Impending Obama Meltdown  —  Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the U.S. media to have deified rather than questioned Obama, especially given that they tore apart Bush, ridiculed Palin, and caricatured Hillary.  And now we can see the results of their two years of advocacy rather than scrutiny.
Discussion: Weekly Standard and Townhall.com
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Well, That Certainly Didn't Take Long  —  On 9/11, President Bush learned of disaster while reading “The Pet Goat” to grade-school kids.  On Tuesday, President Obama escaped from disaster by reading “The Moon Over Star” to grade-school kids.  —  “We were just tired of being in the White House …
Barbara Slavin / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Obama backs out on Iraq appointment  —  The Obama administration asked retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni to be U.S. ambassador to Iraq but abruptly withdrew the appointment without explanation, Gen. Zinni said Tuesday.  —  Gen. Zinni, a former commander of Central Command …
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Palin takes on Ashley Judd's ‘extreme fringe group’  —  (CNN) - Alaska governor Sarah Palin's support for aerial wolf-hunting has sparked a heated cross-country war of words between the governor and an environmental ad campaign fronted by the actress Ashley Judd, with Palin calling …
Discussion: The Politico and Ben Smith's Blogs
Jim Tankersley / Los Angeles Times:
California farms, vineyards in peril from warming, U.S. energy secretary warns  —  'We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California,' Steven Chu says.  He sees education as a means to combat threat.  —  Reporting from Washington — California's farms and vineyards …
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Death Of A Blogger  —  A prolific blogger is dead.He wroter diaries on the progressive blog, The Daily Kos.  Here's the beginning of the post written by a friend in his spot on the site, under his byline: … Go to the link to read it.  Yes, he left a political message …
Discussion: Daily Kos
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Kristol: New Poll Shows Stimulus Support Sags  —  THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that later this morning Rasmussen Reports will release new survey data showing that a plurality of Americans now oppose the stimulus package (37-43%); two weeks ago, support for the legislation stood at 45-34%.
Discussion: Commentary
RELATED:
Kate Galbraith / New York Times:
Dark Days for Green Energy  —  Wind and solar power have been growing at a blistering pace in recent years, and that growth seemed likely to accelerate under the green-minded Obama administration.  But because of the credit crisis and the broader economic downturn, the opposite is happening …
Discussion: JustOneMinute
RELATED:
Craig Crawford / Craig Crawford's Trail Mix:
Why Not Gingrich for HHS?  —  Quick, name three past secretaries of HHS.  Okay, two?  One?  Don't even know what HHS stands for?  Don't worry, most Americans probably would fail this little quiz.  If you passed, take your honors as a super geek.  —  In normal times, the head of the Department …
Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
CNBC's Clueless Mark Haines Calls Me “Clueless” on Morning Joe: I Respond  —  I was on Morning Joe this morning, talking about the bailout.  —  Right after my segment, CNBCs Mark Haines came on and, armed with lots of hostility and no facts, started taking shots at me, calling me “clueless” …
Discussion: Firedoglake
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Obama To Circumvent Media By Selling Stim Package Directly To Public Via Video  —  Here it is: President Obama's first major effort to use his massive campaign email list and communications apparatus to get around the filter of the big news orgs in order to personally sell his agenda directly to the American people.
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
WHAT CHANGE LOOKS LIKE.  —  My reporting has been similar to that of Jon Cohn.  Everyone I've spoken to in the administration has expressed total shock over Daschle's withdrawal.  As recently as last night, they were counting votes and felt certain the nomination was on track for a bumpy but comfortable confirmation.
Discussion: Matthew Yglesias
NRDC:
Bold Action by Department of Interior Halts Leasing of Utah Wilderness  —  Robert Redford and Environmental Groups Support Critical Step in Land Protection  —  More than 100,000 acres of Utah wilderness will be protected from oil and gas drilling after the Department of Interior announced today …
Discussion: The Huffington Post and Daily Kos
Nicole Winfield / Associated Press:
Vatican: Holocaust denier must recant positions  —  VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Wednesday demanded that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church.  It also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known …
The Politico:
The Karl Rove of the Commode?  —  Call it a pipe dream come true: When members of the Conservative Working Group held their weekly strategy meeting on the Hill on Tuesday morning, they were joined by none other than Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, who had come to offer his thoughts on the economic recovery bill.
Discussion: Firedoglake and Riehl World View
New York Times:
In Attack on Kennedy, Echo of a Spitzer Tactic  —  ALBANY — An administration leaks damaging information about a political figure.  The leak is denounced by the governor, who says that he had nothing to do with it.  —  This is what happened during the tenure of Gov. Eliot Spitzer …
The Hill:
SCHIP: A Good Program Marred By Bad Policy (Rep. Frank Lucas)  —  Today, the House of Representatives passed the Senate-amended reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, by a vote of 290-135.  This is a federally funded program that is supposed to provide health care …
Discussion: New York Times
Bill Allison / Real Time Investigations …:
Ethics Panel to Clear Rangel?  —  House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel predicted, on C-SPAN's Newsmakers program that aired Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009, that his multitude of ethics woes would soon disappear.  “I think that next Tuesday you will see a break in this and as soon …
Discussion: QandO
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Obama could break 5-day rule  —  Obama appears poised to break his campaign pledge to give the public five days to review a bill before he signs it.  —  Obama scheduled a bill signing for 4:35 p.m. Wednesday, even though the House has yet to vote on the legislation expanding a children's health insurance program.
Discussion: The Swamp
United States Senator Tom Coburn:
Coburn Fights Generational Theft Act, AKA Senate Stimulus Bill  —  Modifies bailout to states, eliminates Hollywood bailout, other non-stimulus items  —  (WASHINGTON, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today began offering amendments to the deeply-flawed Senate stimulus bill …
Discussion: Michelle Malkin
Robert Cox / New Rochelle's Talk of the Sound:
A Barack Too Far?  New Rochelle Public Schools Assign Seven Year Olds to Obama Campaign  —  Students at an elementary school in New Rochelle, NY, a largely Democratic suburb of New York City with a City Council and School Board dominated by Democrats, were recently assigned an in-class assignment …
Discussion: Moonbattery
 
 
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 More Items: 
Ed Hornick / CNN:
Nation's mayors press Congress to act quickly
Discussion: Reason
Hartford Courant:
Blumenthal Won't Run For Governor
Discussion: Salon
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
Stumbling on Their Sense of Entitlement
Hope Yen / Associated Press:
Shinseki: More VA claims processors on the way
Norman Geras / normblog:
One-Eyed in Gaza  —  This is a post about war crimes in Gaza …
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Didn't Gregg play the Blago game of getting something in return …
 Earlier Items: 
Chris / TVNewser:
Obama to Wallace: “I Think It's Fair to Say That I Don't Always …
Discussion: Gateway Pundit
Communications / OpenSecrets.org:
TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
White House Cheat Sheet: Polling the Stimulus
Associated Press:
Obama warns of catastrophe if stimulus delayed
Discussion: Reuters
Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Phelps Takes a Hit
Discussion: Reason, NewsBusters.org and Swampland