The Plum Line: January 23, 2011 - January 29, 2011
Open Thread
Only 21 months until election day....
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Greg Sargent
| January 29, 2011; 6:54 AM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup
* David Axelrod says Obama directly confronted Hosni Mubarak for years over the need for reforms in Egypt, in order to "get ahead of this." * But Center for American Progress fellow Brian Katulis says the violence shows that Obama's...
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Greg Sargent
| January 28, 2011; 6:22 PM ET |
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2012, Foreign policy and national security, Happy Hour Roundup, House GOPers, Tea Party
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David Brock's big-money outside group gains steam
It looks like David Brock is getting more serious about building a powerful apparatus on the left to go head-to-head with the flood of outside money conservative groups are planning to pump into the 2012 elections. I'm told that Brock...
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Greg Sargent
| January 28, 2011; 4:19 PM ET |
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2012, Political media
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White House hardens line on Egypt
The White House has been struggling to strike a balance between showing support for a key ally, Hosni Mubarak, while also showing support for freedom and democracy, but now the White House seems to be coming down harder in support...
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Greg Sargent
| January 28, 2011; 3:34 PM ET |
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Foreign policy and national security
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Biden renews vow to repeal tax cuts for rich
Joe Biden, in a new interview, vows that the Obama administration will make good on its promise to cut the budget, but crucially, he pairs it with a renewed push to end tax cuts for the rich: Vice President Joe...
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Greg Sargent
| January 28, 2011; 1:57 PM ET |
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Charles Krauthammer gets it
Charles Krauthammer is very angry at President Obama because he didn't use his State of the Union to repudiate his entire existence, and instead doubled down on his vision that government spending should play an important role in resuscitating our...
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Greg Sargent
| January 28, 2011; 12:52 PM ET |
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What the right won't tell you about the Black Panther case
Yesterday the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released the final version of its interim report on the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, complete with the dissents from the Democratic commissioners. Some on the right, such as Post blogger Jennifer...
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Adam Serwer
| January 28, 2011; 11:44 AM ET |
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The Morning Plum
* Dems planning major showdown over Social Security? It's great to see that Dem messaging chief Chuck Schumer and other Democrats think a showdown with the GOP over Social Security could be a major winner for them. But such well-laid...
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Greg Sargent
| January 28, 2011; 8:37 AM ET |
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2012, Morning Plum, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, Social Security, Tea Party, filibuster
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Stickin' to his guns: CBO chief Doug Elmendorf doubles down on his claim that health reform will reduce future deficits. * E.J. Dionne floats an interesting theory: Could divided government force Obama to make the progressive case more aggressively?...
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Greg Sargent
| January 27, 2011; 5:54 PM ET |
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2012, Happy Hour Roundup, Health reform, House GOPers, filibuster
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Did Reid and McConnell just doom future filibuster reform?
So Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have reached a deal under which both have vowed never to pass any rules reforms via the "Constitutional option," which only requires a simple majority vote. The idea is that if one side rams...
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Greg Sargent
| January 27, 2011; 3:03 PM ET |
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Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, filibuster
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Scaled-down filibuster reform looks like a done deal
A Senate aide emails an outline of the final deal on a scaled-down filibuster reform packaged reached between Dem and GOP leaders, and it will be voted on today: Under the terms of the agreement the senate will hold votes...
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Greg Sargent
| January 27, 2011; 1:03 PM ET |
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Obama didn't use phrase "American exceptionalism," so he must not believe in it
Ben Smith catches John Boehner on Parker-Spitzer last night, nodding along with Kathleen Parker, who laments that Obama didn't talk about "American exceptionalism" during his State of the Union: PARKER: You know one of the words that I listened out...
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Greg Sargent
| January 27, 2011; 11:47 AM ET |
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A difficult challenge in Yemen
Protests in the Middle East, inspired by Tunisia's popular uprising two weeks ago, pose a particularly difficult challenge to the administration. In his State of the Union speech, President Obama declared that "the United States of America stands with the...
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Adam Serwer
| January 27, 2011; 10:51 AM ET |
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Foreign policy and national security
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David Axelrod: "No grand repositioning"; Obama is a "progressive"
David Axelrod chatted with around a dozen bloggers at the White House late yesterday, and I got a chance to ask him to respond to all the claims -- coming from left-leaning, right-leaning and nonpartisan observers alike -- that Obama...
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Greg Sargent
| January 27, 2011; 9:11 AM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Ed Kilgore says Obama successfully redefined the debate over government on his own terms, and maneuvered the GOP into the role of offering no governing solutions on the economy. Also: Kilgore notes that Obama "refused to offer Republicans the...
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Greg Sargent
| January 26, 2011; 6:39 PM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup, House GOPers, Tea Party
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Will Tea Partyers buy the constitutional amendment con?
Bruce Bartlett has a great takedown today of H.J. Res. 1, the Balanced Budget Amendment, complete with even more links about what a foolish idea the amendment has always been -- even if you think the budget should be balanced...
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Jonathan Bernstein
| January 26, 2011; 4:00 PM ET |
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House GOPers, Tea Party, budget
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Ryan without a Roadmap
Yesterday I wrote that the Republican response to the State of the Union wouldn't change the fact that "talking about cutting spending will still be popular, while actually gutting the social safety net won't be." Rep. Paul Ryan's response seems...
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Adam Serwer
| January 26, 2011; 2:53 PM ET |
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Americans don't really want to cut government
Gallup finds more public support for cutting defense than for cutting Social Security, Medicare or education: More than six in 10 oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare and education. This mirrors a CNN poll from yesterday finding that an overwhelming...
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Greg Sargent
| January 26, 2011; 2:14 PM ET |
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2012, Social Security, deficit
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U.S. Chamber praises Obama's call for infrastructure spending
UPDATE, 2:34 p.m: A source tells me that Chamber president Tom Donohue and AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka are set to put out a joint statement in support of Obama's pitch for more infrastructure investment, which could draw a lot of...
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Greg Sargent
| January 26, 2011; 1:02 PM ET |
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GOPers softening tone in wake of SOTU?
Eric Cantor, on CBS News this morning, struck a distinctly cooperative tone in response to Obama's speech last night: "The president and I are going to disagree on some things. I think I want to cut spending more than he...
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Greg Sargent
| January 26, 2011; 11:37 AM ET |
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2010 elections, House GOPers, Senate Republicans, bipartisanship, deficit
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Obama seized control of debate over government
That, I think, is the primary takeaway from Obama's State of the Union speech: After an electoral loss that Republicans are casting as a mandate to severely downsize government, Obama's number one goal was to seize control of the debate...
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Greg Sargent
| January 26, 2011; 8:54 AM ET |
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Health reform, House GOPers, Morning Plum, Tea Party, deficit, economy
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State of the Union open thread
11:24 p.m.: First snap poll: CBS finds that 92 percent who watched the speech approved of Obama's proposals, and 81 percent approved specifically of his plans for the economy, though in fairness the audience tilted Democratic. 10:47 p.m.: Putting aside...
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 8:25 PM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup
UPDATE, 6:18 p.m.: The first batch of advance excerpts of Obama's speech suggest he'll frame needed government investment in our future (a.k.a. spending) as an imperative of national progress and pride, comparing such investment to that which ultimately allowed the...
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 6:11 PM ET |
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House GOPers, budget, deficit, economy
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Support for repeal is vastly overstated, part 973
You're probably sick of hearing me argue that simplistic polling exaggerates the support for repeal, while more detailed polling causes support for repeal to plummet, but this latest survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation is particularly interesting: When it comes...
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 3:44 PM ET |
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Health reform
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Dem, GOP leaders reach tentative deal to drop "Constitutional option"
Filibuster reform update. Multiple Senate aides on both sides say that Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer and Lamar Alexander have reached a tentative deal to push forward with a less ambitious filibuster reform package that doesn't rely on...
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 2:10 PM ET |
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Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, filibuster
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CNN justifies airing Bachmann speech: "Tea Party has become major force in American politics"
CNN, which is taking some criticism from both sides for agreeing to air Michele Bachmann's response to Obama's speech tonight, sends over a statement justifying the move: "The Tea Party has become a major force in American politics and within...
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 1:15 PM ET |
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House GOPers, Political media
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GOP aides irked with CNN for airing Bachmann speech
Here's an interesting twist on Michele Bachmann's plan to offer her own Tea Party-flavored response to Obama's State of the Union speech: It turns out GOP aides are annoyed with CNN for agreeing to air her speech in its entirety....
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 11:47 AM ET |
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The Republican SOTU reponse doesn't matter
Tonight Republicans have drafted Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) to offer the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union Address. As far as offering an ideological contrast to the president, Ryan is a strong choice -- there isn't an...
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Adam Serwer
| January 25, 2011; 10:42 AM ET |
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House GOPers, Political media
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The Morning Plum
* No Social Security cuts: No, Obama will not endorse any of his deficit commission's ideas about cutting Social Security in his speech tonight, and his call for deficit reduction will be made only in general terms. It's more grist...
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Greg Sargent
| January 25, 2011; 8:35 AM ET |
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House GOPers, Morning Plum, Senate Dems, Tea Party, deficit, filibuster
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Open Thread
Emergency trip to the dentist. I'll try to post again later, but if not, you'll have to suffer through happy hour without me. Either way I'll definitely be back first thing in the morning....
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Greg Sargent
| January 24, 2011; 3:20 PM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup, Miscellaneous
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GOP strategy: Force Dems to vote on `job killing' taxes in health reform
With Senate Dems threatening to force Republicans to vote on whether to repeal individual popular provisions in the health reform law, Senate GOPers are mulling a response: Aides say they may retaliate by demanding that Democrats vote on other tax-related...
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Greg Sargent
| January 24, 2011; 2:31 PM ET |
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Health reform, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Obama's speech may seek to redefine the "center"
There's been a ton of commentary to the effect that Obama's planned State of the Union address, which will stress the need for leaner and smarter government in order to foster "competitiveness," signals a move by Obama to the "center."...
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Greg Sargent
| January 24, 2011; 1:00 PM ET |
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Health reform, Social Security, deficit
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Remembering George Allen's 2006 campaign
George Allen, the former Republican senator from Virginia, was a potential Republican presidential candidate before losing his 2006 Senate race to Democrat Jim Webb by a thin margin of around 10,000 votes. With the news that Allen is set to...
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Adam Serwer
| January 24, 2011; 10:41 AM ET |
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2012, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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The Morning Plum
* Framing the big debate for 2012: Obama and Senate GOP leaders over the weekend framed the debate that will define the next two years in advance of the 2012 campaign. While Obama previewed that he will call in his...
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Greg Sargent
| January 24, 2011; 8:38 AM ET |
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2012, Health reform, Morning Plum, Political media, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Sunday Open Thread
Apparently it's now "centrist" to call for job creation and national renewal, as if these are things independents and middle-of-the-road voters want more than everyone else does....
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Greg Sargent
| January 23, 2011; 9:07 AM ET |
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