memeorandum: Paterson Weighs Race as Top Aide Quits in Protest (New York Times)

9:25 AM ET, February 26, 2010

Top Items:

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

David Gergen on the summit: Republicans had their best day in years — Via Hengler, a succinct statement of Jay Nordlinger's point and of what I suspect will be the media consensus tomorrow. Not the only kind words he had for the GOP either: … I don't think they seriously expected …

Discussion: Commentary, CBS News, PostPartisan, The Other McCain, The Corner on National …, NO QUARTER and Instapundit

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Obama To GOP: It's Over — Obama listened politely for six hours, with occasional flashes of temper, but in the end, the message was clear: It's over. We're moving forward without Republicans. — Whether Obama and Dems will succeed in passing reform on their own is anything but assured, to put it mildly.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Roll Call, Dennis the Peasant, QandO, Washington Post, TPMDC and Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Winners and losers from the health care summit — After spending our day watching the high-stakes or, at the very least, high-profile health care summit at Blair House, we came up with a list of our winners and losers from the proceedings. — Those who we think soared and bored are below.

Discussion: Another Black Conservative, The Confluence, No Sheeples Here, The Moderate Voice, Left Coast Rebel, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, And So it Goes in Shreveport and The Swamp

The Politico:

Bunning holds floor: ‘Tough s—t’ — Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber - but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and RedState

John Dickerson / Slate:

Obama and Republicans seemed reasonable. That's bad news for Democrats. … - The Fantastically Freaky Art of George Condo- I Paid $75 for a Home Energy Assessment That Will Save Me $900 a Year- Can Animals Develop a Taste for Human Blood? - Help!

Discussion: New York Times, Outside The Beltway, Taegan Goddard's …, Althouse, The Plum Line and NOW! Blog

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Sanders: Senate has the votes to pass public option via reconciliation

Discussion: The Politico, The Reaction, Open Left and Weasel Zippers

Washington Post:
At health-care summit, Obama tells Republicans he's eager to move ahead

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Politico, Ezra Klein, New York Times, Commentary, USA Today, Washington Times, New Deal 2.0, Wall Street Journal, PostPartisan, The New Republic, Betsy's Page, White House.gov Blog Feed, Swampland, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Guardian, AOL News Collection and CentristNet

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
No clear winner in seven-hour gabfest

Discussion: The Fix, CentristNet and Ben Smith's Blog

Yuval Levin / The Corner on National Review Online:
The Summit So Far — By: Yuval Levin

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, FrumForum, RedState, Hot Air, Pundit & Pundette, The Other McCain, Moonbattery, Commentary, delawareonline and The Politico

Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:

A Productive Day & Another Step Towards Putting Americans in Charge of Their Health Care — Ed. Note: Watch video of the meeting in our section on the President's proposal. — Today's bipartisan health care meeting offered something you rarely see in Washington: an open, honest, productive discussion between the political parties.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The New Republic and The Note

David Neiwert / Crooks and Liars:
Michael Steele says Obama should have held a summit a year ago.

Discussion: DISSENTING JUSTICE, Mediaite, Think Progress and Hullabaloo

Washington Wire:
The Best Tweets from the Health-Care Summit: Part I

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh and The Fix

CBS News:
Americans Running Out of Patience on Health Care, Polls Show

Discussion: Fox News, The Strata-Sphere and CentristNet

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Afflicting the Afflicted — If we're lucky, Thursday's summit will turn out to have been the last act in the great health reform debate, the prologue to passage of an imperfect but nonetheless history-making bill. If so, the debate will have ended as it began: with Democrats offering moderate plans …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Time, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Prairie Weather and The Moderate Voice

Associated Press:
FACT CHECK: Dueling polls and dubious stats

Discussion: The Page, Ezra Klein and Washington Wire

The Note:
Health Care Summit Fact Check: Will Premiums Go Up?

Discussion: CNN, The Mahablog and JammieWearingFool

Mike Allen / The Politico:

One last health-reform sprint: House, Senate race to an Easter deadline for ‘the big bill’ — Mitch ‘The Knife’ Daniels eyes '12 prez run — N.Y. tabs say Paterson must go — BREAKING — George W. Bush, whose book will be out Nov. 8, at this morning's closed-door Bush-Cheney alumni reunion breakfast …

Kevin Bohn / CNN:
Bush, Cheney meet for first time since 2009 inauguration

Discussion: Washington Wire

The Note:
Bush and Cheney Reunite, First Since Leaving Office

Discussion: Top of the Ticket and The Lonely Conservative

The Politico:

Committee scolds defiant Rangel — The House ethics committee put another dent in the armor of embattled Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel Thursday, admonishing him for violating House gift rules by accepting corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean through an organization called the Carib News.

Discussion: The Note, Hot Air, Another Black Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, Michelle Malkin, DISSENTING JUSTICE and JammieWearingFool

New York Times:
Panel Admonishes Rangel for Taking Trips as Gifts

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Commentary, Politics Daily, New York Magazine, The Page and Gateway Pundit

Susan Crabtree / The Hill:
Panel finds Rangel broke ethics rules

Discussion: Think Progress, The Politico, Washington Post, Associated Press and MyDD

Susan Crabtree / The Hill:

Intel bill pulled over controversial added interrogation provision — A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening. — House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision …

Discussion: Political Wrinkles

Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:
While You Are Distracted by the Summit, Obama Democrats Are Targeting …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Politico, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Michelle Malkin, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Power Line, ATTACKERMAN, YID With LID, The Jawa Report and The Lonely Conservative

Adam Serwer / American Prospect:
Sylvestre Reyes Inserts Anti-Torture Provision Into Intelligence Funding Bill.

Discussion: alicublog, Washington Examiner, The Atlantic Politics Channel and The Washington Independent

New York Times:

Paterson Weighs Race as Top Aide Quits in Protest — ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson's administration on Thursday faced new revelations about its intervention in a domestic violence episode involving a top aide and growing dismay among fellow Democrats about the governor's political future.

Discussion: NY Daily News, Mediaite, RHRealityCheck.org, New York Magazine and Clusterstock

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
Paterson Gets Some Sobering Advice on His Political Future

Discussion: AMERICAblog News

Matthew Continetti / Weekly Standard:

The Main Event: Ryan v. Obama — On deficits and spending. — Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, just launched a full-bore assault on the faulty assumptions behind the claim that the Obama health care plan will reduce the deficit. Obama didn't even bother questioning Ryan's presentation.

Discussion: Swampland, The Daily Dish, The Lonely Conservative and Hot Air

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Ryan: “We don't think all the answers lie in Washington”

Discussion: Republican.Senate.Gov, Pajamas Media, The Lonely Conservative, NewsBusters.org, Pundit & Pundette, The Politico and RedState

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Plan to Seek Use of U.S. Contracts as a Wage Lever — The Obama administration is planning to use the government's enormous buying power to prod private companies to improve wages and benefits for millions of workers, according to White House officials and several interest groups briefed on the plan.

Discussion: EconLog, Economist's View and Dennis the Peasant

Josh Gerstein / The Politico:

Al-Arian roils Calif. Senate race — A bespectacled former college professor who has pleaded guilty to aiding the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad helped tip the balance in a 2004 Senate contest in Florida. Now, six years later, Sami Al-Arian could be on the verge of doing it again, this time in California.

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Commentary, AmSpecBlog and The Washington Independent

Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times:
GOP Senate race grows heated over Israel

Discussion: Hotline On Call, Maggie's Farm and Israel Matzav

Brian Maloney / The Radio Equalizer:

MSNBC Talker: Let's Rip Out Cheney's Heart — SAY HI TO MIKE — With Deranged Cheney Rant, Ed Moves Into Malloy Territory — *** CAUGHT-ON-TAPE EXCLUSIVE *** — *** NEWSBUSTERS REACTS *** — With his cable talk show preempted for Olympics coverage this week …

Discussion: The Politico, Weasel Zippers, Gateway Pundit and NewsBusters.org

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:

Defeated congresswoman's car still in House parking lot — more than 3 years later — even though she's a registered lobbyist — Former Rep. Melissa Hart may have hit the road and gone back home to Pittsburgh in 2006 when she lost her bid for re-election, but it appears that a car …

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog and Taegan Goddard's …

Dawn Kopecki / Bloomberg:

Obama May Prohibit Home-Loan Foreclosures Without HAMP Review — Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government's Home Affordable Modification Program.

Discussion: Raw Story, Calculated Risk, The Market Ticker and EconomicPolicyJournal.com

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:

BIDEN: IT'S EASY BEING VP — There have been some tense moments during today's health care summit at the Blair House, but not for Vice President Joe Biden, it seems. — Just moments before the afternoon session got underway, C-SPAN's cameras picked up audio of Biden chatting casually with participants.

Discussion: Hot Air