LA Times | Crucial vote to advance Senate healthcare bill seems assured

The last of three Democrats whose support was needed to allow debate on the bill after Thanksgiving says she’ll vote to move the measure along, but all warn they still have doubts.

Big Government | Joe Lieberman will pay

Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion | Absolute control by the fed. Yes, it really is that bad

The Hill | 60 was always the key

Hot Air | Reid should be careful citing Orwell

Michelle Malkin | Proves you can buy your way to 60

The Moderate Voice | Hope Reid did his home work

American Thinker | Bruce Walker

The pattern over the last several years has been clear in the old major democracies of Europe and North America: the left simply ceases to appeal to voters anymore. The right — whatever that is supposed to be these days — resembles the Republican Party in America. It has yet to clearly carve out what it is for, and it instead represents an anti-left vote.

CQ Politics | Emily Cadei

Democrat El Tinklenberg withdrew from Minnesota’s 6th District race Tuesday, an abrupt reversal after weeks of tough talk about how he was the best candidate to take on Republican incumbent Michele Bachmann among a crowded field of Democrats.

Tinklenberg, who lost to Bachmann by just 3 percentage points in 2008, issued a statement saying, “While the image of the next campaign against Michele Bachmann is certainly energizing, the path to that campaign is becoming increasingly improbable.”

State Democrats weren’t commenting Tuesday, but it’s likely Tinklenberg got the hint that he was not their first choice for the nomination this time around, given state Sen. Tarryl Clark’s entry into the race last week. Still, Tinklenberg gave no inkling that he was willing to step aside as buzz about Clark’s run built in July, declaring defiantly in the local press that he was prepared to run in a competitive primary and believed he was the “only one” who could beat the colorful and controversial Bachmann.

Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner | Josh Geldrich

On Saturday, Governor Ed Rendell said that he stands firmly behind his commitment to increase the state income tax and vowed to push hard to ensure that more spending on public education becomes a reality.

The Tribune review also quotes the Governor as saying that there’s a “strong” chance he will sign a much debated stopgap/barebones budget for Pennsylvania this coming Tuesday so that state employees are paid and also to use as leverage to strong-arm Republican lawmakers to settle on an agreement on a complete 2009-2010 budget and spending outline.

Howey Politics Indiana | BRIAN A. HOWEY

When it comes to looking at the “invincibility” element in U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh’s 2010 re-election campaign, it is worth a journey back through Howey Politics Indiana archives.

In the July 10, 2003, edition of Howey Politics, Johnson County Council President Brent Waltz was preparing his challenge to Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst. “At first glance it would be easy to dismiss Waltz as a freshman county official who, as one long-time Republican strategist put it, is about to ‘commit political suicide.’ But an unprecedented political crisis is unfolding and the talkative, energetic Waltz is positioning himself in what gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels might call the ultimate ‘china breaker.’ It is Waltz who has produced a stunning political indictment on the status quo ….”

George Washington University | No Author Listed

The latest edition of The George Washington University Battleground Poll finds a majority of voters (51%) believing that the country is on the wrong track. Their top areas of concern are the economy and jobs, health care costs, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the federal budget deficit.

Looking ahead to the 2010 Congressional Elections, the Democratic Party enjoys a three point advantage (43%-40%) on the Congressional generic ballot. However, voters are closely divided on their preference for a divided government (41%) or for a unified government (39%). In addition, a majority (57%) of voters disapprove of the job performance of Congress.

In contrast, President Obama has a job approval rating of 53%, a personal approval rating of 72%, and a 61% favorable rating on name identification.

National Review Online | Larry Kudlow

Are Republicans too pessimistic about the economy? I put this question to Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) this week, and it would be hard to describe his response as optimistic. The senator trash-talked Vice President Joe Biden’s recent defense of the stimulus in the New York Times, and he warned that any economic rebound will be short-lived because of the runaway spending-and-borrowing plans of the Obama administration.

Truth be told, respected economists like Donald Marron, Keith Hennessey, Bruce Bartlett, and Kevin Hassett have all carefully chronicled the fact that the Obama stimulus package does not feature any real fiscal multipliers. They say the bulk of the package consists of transfer payments to individuals and states, along with tax credits that will produce no real incentive effects to spur economic growth.

Wall Street Journal | Jake Sherman

WASHINGTON — A House panel approved a big Pentagon spending bill this week that included nearly 150 items tucked in by lawmakers on behalf of companies and other entities whose employees donated to their campaigns.

The Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama swept into power on a promise to reform the process of lawmakers trying to dictate in detail how funds are spent, known as “earmarks.” When Mr. Obama signed a spending bill for the current fiscal year in March, he said the earmark-laden legislation should be an “end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability.”

Voice of America | VOA News

A key U.S. Democratic senator says his party cannot pass a health care reform bill in the Senate without support from minority Republicans.

Senate budget committee chairman Kent Conrad said Sunday on U.S. television network ABC Democrats do not have the votes to pass a bill despite holding a 60-seat majority in the 100-member assembly.

• Democrats: GOP votes needed to pass health bill | Tom LoBianco

CQ Politics | Greg Giroux

Sens. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., will easily win new terms in 2010 in part because of their huge campaign treasuries.

Schumer has $14.9 million in his campaign committee and Shelby has $14.8 million, according to a CQ Politics analysis of recently filed Senate campaign finance reports that cover activity through the end of June.

Schumer represents some wealthy New York donors and shattered fundraising records as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2006 and 2008 campaign cycles. Shelby is a former chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and is presently its top-ranking Republican.