Carl Hulse has a New York Times report on the emergence of a bipartisan “Gang of 20,” Senate moderates led by Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Ben Nelson, while David Brooks casts a hopeful eye in his column on the Gang of 20 as a possible harbinger of a new way of doing political business on the Hill. Democratic Leadership Council President Bruce Reed sees the Gang of 20 as a “promising post-partisan caucus” in his Slate article today and sees Obama gathering strength as a result of the struggles of the last week.
The Southern Political Report‘s Tom Baxter takes a look at the schitzy way the stimulus debate is being addressed by the region’s Republican governors.
At The Blog for Our Future (CAF), Charles McMillion nukes “The ‘FDR Failed’ Myth” being bandied about by Republican spinmeisters to discredit arguments for government spending.
David Corn’s MoJo Blog makes the case that President “Obama needs to Get Outside the Beltway.”
Alan Abramowitz joins the fray over the political ramification of the economic meltdown for the November election at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, with a strong data-based argument that the meltdown was not the pivotal factor.
At Daily Kos Meteor Blades takes a sobering look at the new unemployment figures, while Angry Bear‘s Spencer has a post arguing that we are experiencing “the worst employment drop in the post WW II era.”
With FiveThirtyEight.com‘s Nate Silver on the case, we’ll have no more whining about Democratic party unity, at least with respect to the stimulus package.
And for your Friday amusement, Firedoglake‘s Christy Hardin Smith has collected a “boo yah sampling of smackdowns” from “across the internets.”