So now there’s a big debate about whether the recent Supreme Court decision really opens the door for foreigners and foreign corporations to spend money to influence US elections:
The president, a former teacher of constitutional law, had asserted that the ruling, known informally as Citizens United, would open the floodgates to a torrent of new [...]
Now that the Supreme Court has certified the people-ness of corporations for election purposes, the progressive PR firm Murray Hill Inc. has taken the next logical step to underline the absurdity of that legal reasoning.
In the company’s own words:
Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited corporate [...]
Obama: Seat Scott Brown and Health Care Next Steps – ABC News (1/20/10):
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So how do you do it now? This strategy that a lot of people have talked about getting the House to pass the Senate bill. Speaker Pelosi yesterday seemed to say that this was kind of a non-starter.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: [...]
In a post about the spending freeze passages in Obama’s SOTU Paul Krugman compares Obama’s own words to those of House Minority Leader John Boehner and says:
But it’s a spectacular demonstration of Obama’s failure to change the narrative. Not only is he accepting the general Republican world view, he’s parroting their dumb attacks on his [...]
Not just Congressional Democrats looking for signs from their cryptic leader, but political junkies and anyone else interested in the healthcare debate was supposed to focus on the State of the Union speech to see what signal came down from on high:
Everyone in, near, or around the debate over the future of health care reform [...]
Here, in a nutshell, is why healthcare reform is in danger of being disconnected from life-support.
The president is utterly unwilling to provide leadership on the issue.
Congressional Democrats — both species, House and Senate — are utterly unable to realize that it is in their own re-election self-interest to get healthcare reform passed.
There is [...]
Greg Sargent thinks this is wonderfully reassuring news:
Okay, this could reassure some folks who are hoping Obama will make a strong stand on health care tonight.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told Capitol Hill staffers on a private briefing call that in his speech tonight, Obama will leave no doubt that his commitment to addressing [...]
PA-Sen edition:
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania finds Pat Toomey (R) leading Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) for the U.S. Senate by 14 points among likely voters, 45% to 31%.
So rather than waiting for Specter and Toomey to beat each other to a pulp during a Republican primary, political genius Barack Obama convinced Specter [...]
The TPMDC headline reads for Brian Beutler’s story reads: “House to Senate: We’re Ready On Health Care If You Are“.
There are two angles to Beutler’s story. One, when it comes to Plan B — which involves the House passing the Senate bill as is, followed by the Senate making key changes via the budget [...]
President Obama’s so-called three-year freeze on discretionary spending is going to elicit a huge collective groan from liberal bloggers, and much detailed analysis today.
So I’m going to restrict myself to one paragraph from the NYT story which may not receive much attention in the detailed analyses:
But one administration official said that limiting the [...]
