Allahpundit: There’s no trendline in the AP’s story so let’s see if we can make our own. Two weeks ago, Gallup found a 39/52 split opposed to reconciliation; on the same day, Fox News found just 34 percent wanted Obama to pass the bill without GOP support versus 59 percent who thought he should start over if no compromise was possible. Since then, The One’s mumbled about the Olympic spirit, declared — for maybe the fifth time since last year — that the time for talk was over, and hit the road to demand an “up or down” vote on a bill that the public hates because he owes that to the public. (HotAir.com)

Allahpundit:

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama’s State of the Union address was “very troubling” and the annual speech has “degenerated to a political pep rally.”…

Responding to a University of Alabama law student’s question, Roberts said anyone was free to criticize the court, and some have an obligation to do so because of their positions.

“So I have no problems with that,” he said. “On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum.

“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.” (HotAir.com)

The nation’s leading radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday that he would leave the United States for medical care if President Barack Obama’s healthcare plan is passed and implemented – a comment that was erroneously reported as meaning he’d permanently move to the Central American nation of Costa Rica. (NewsMax.com)

Allahpundit: I think the short version is that the Massa that showed up at Glenn Beck’s desk is definitely not the Massa that was on the other end of Beck’s telephone yesterday. Something that began to be clear to Beck around the 20 minute mark, after Massa refused to get into specific about the corruption of the Dems generally, and Rahm Emanuel specifically. At about the 25 minute mark Glenn Beck starts getting mad. If you ever wondered what Glenn Beck looks like when he realized he’s been had that’s a good place to start. (HotAir.com)

Allahpundit: From the opening of today’s show, a teaser of tomorrow’s blockbuster. I tipped my cap to him earlier for his political savvy in using Massa as a symbol for Democratic ruthlessness, but he sure does seem eager to believe this guy’s account of what he did wrong and how the leadership has supposedly mishandled it. Which, as the boss emeritus takes great pains to demonstrate, is an exceedingly bad idea: (HotAir.com)

FOXNews.com

Five Wisconsin residents, including two who worked for community organizing group ACORN, were charged Monday with election fraud relating to the 2008 presidential election.

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced felony charges against Maria Miles, Kevin Clancy, Michael Henderson, Herbert Gunka and Suzanne Gunka.

Obama boasted Monday that Democrats’ health care proposals would cut deficits by $1 trillion “over the next decade,” a flub that inflated the actual estimate by $868 billion. President Obama, making his final push for health care reform, pitched his proposal Monday to a crowd in Pennsylvania with a deficit-reduction figure that the White House later admitted missed the mark. (FNC)

Washington is abuzz these days with talk of “reconciliation” a word in our usual lexicon that suggests bringing people together. In this case, however, it is a larceny of language. It is divisive and not conciliatory and it is, understandably, creating anguish and outrage among those who understand the subterfuge at play here. Political mischief is about to run amok as this corruption of Senate rules becomes the strategic center piece President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress will utilize to ram their health care bill into law. (BigGovernment.com)

Wordsmith: Republicans are often associated with greed and selfishness (because we all know there is no such thing as Democrat fat-cats and learjet liberals; and that Democrats always contribute more to charities). But liberals are rightfully identified with the entitlement-mentality. Education is a right. Same-sex marriage is a right. Healthcare is a right. Riiiiight…. (FloppingAces.net)

No, we haven’t performed a miracle and resurrected Ronald Reagan to provide his take on the current health care debate. Listen to the audio in this story. (BigGovernment.com)

Ed Morrissey:

If Barack Obama hoped to put Republicans on the defensive by holding a health-care summit today, a new Gallup poll shows that he may have miscalculated badly. Instead of holding Republicans responsible for not agreeing with Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, survey responders say that Democrats had better convince Republicans to move — or be prepared to start over from scratch. A majority outright oppose any attempt to push ObamaCare through Congress using reconciliation as well:

Americans are skeptical that lawmakers will agree on a new healthcare bill at Thursday’s bipartisan healthcare summit in Washington, D.C. If an agreement is not reached, Americans by a 49% to 42% margin oppose rather than favor Congress passing a healthcare bill similar to the one proposed by President Obama and Democrats in the House and Senate. By a larger 52% to 39% margin, Americans also oppose the Democrats in the Senate using a reconciliation procedure to avoid a possible Republican filibuster and pass a bill by a simple majority vote. … (HotAir)

Photo (c) CBS News

Kyle-Anne Shiver:

Imagine, if you will, that you are living in a changed America, or in President Obama’s words, an America that begged “re-making.” In this now-changed America, hope is in big government and her closest ally, big science.

Now imagine that you and your spouse give birth to a child in this brave, new America, in a hospital linked by law to the federal citizens database. Immediately upon your child’s birth, a hospital clerk assigns your newborn with a “Unique Health Identifier” (UHI), a specially coded number, which is then put into a national electronic database, along with your newborn’s fingerprints and any other identifiers the bureaucrats in D.C. have demanded. (BigGovernment.com)

Archy Cary: MSM televised news outlets are fond of tagging conservatives as racists. But they only need to look at their news anchors, past and present, to see their own bias. For example, recall the three network news anchors that traveled to Baghdad with candidate Barack Obama? (BigJournalism.com)

Mike’s America: During the health care summit setup Obama arrogantly put down Sen. John McCain with his remark that “we’re not campaigning anymore, the election is over.” It was an attempt to paint all GOP criticism of Obama Care as nothing more than political talking points. Never mind that one Dem after another was in full campaign mode when they trotted out heart wrenching stories of people denied medical care. If a story about a woman who had to use her dead sister’s dentures [video] isn’t campaign posturing I don’t know what is.

But the GOP did have one card up it’s collective sleeve to which Obama had no answer: The factual integrity and sheer scope of knowledge demonstrated at the summit setup by Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin. Rep. Ryan just turned 40 but is already serving his 6th term in Congress. Compared to some of the old gray heads in the room for the health setup he’s a bright, fresh face and no pushover for Obama. (FloppingAces.net) VIDEO

Posted by Curt: Andy McCarthy on the left’s gamble with reconciliation, and his take is not really surprising. The far left has always had the goal of remaking this country into some kind of Communist “paradise,” and reconciliation is the only way of taking that first big step. They see the handwriting on the wall. They see they will be losing power in November. But they also understand that once a behometh like ObamaCare is put in place its going to be very hard to take it back: (FloppingAces.net)

Ed Morrissey: No wonder the Times was so pessimistic about reconciliation. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who runs the committee that would have to run a reconciliation push, says that the budgetary process can’t be used for ObamaCare. It would only address the actual budgetary issues, which leaves a lot off the table. The Budget Committee chair told CBS’ Face the Nation audience that reconciliation wasn’t designed for this purpose, nor is it appropriate for such sweeping legislation: (HotAir.com) VIDEO

Allahpundit: Dynamite grandstanding from a guy who’s practiced in the art. In his rush to holler at the wingnut hordes, though, he actually misses an opportunity. Instead of challenging Williams on some of the kookier things he’s said, which would have illustrated the point about occasionally blurry lines between the fringe and mainstream, Ratigan’s content to shout his way to morally righteous nirvana. Not sure why; the position of shrieking liberal on MSNBC has already been filled nicely, thank you. (HotAir.com)

Allahpundit: “I don’t know if we should be insulted or humored at the President’s feeble attempts to incorporate Republican ideas into his latest health care proposal. Snookie, from the Jersey Shore, has more substance than President Obama’s offer.

“Instead of listening to the American people, the President has once again demonstrated his arrogance and ignorance about what the nation expects from its leaders. This is “The Situation,” Mr. President: the American people do not want unconstitutional mandates and job-killing tax increases. They are concerned with the costs of premiums, the quality of their health care and ensuring their children and grandchildren are not left with the bill. If you want to govern with the consent of the governed, you need to scrap this government take-over plan and embrace more of our commonsense solutions that protect the vital patient/doctor relationship and decrease the costs of premiums without adding to the national debt.” (HotAir.com)

Allahpundit: I’ll take this as an omen for the ObamaCare vote, but what kind of omen is it? Proof that some Dems, a.k.a. Rangel, are willing to commit kamikaze for the greater good? Or proof that that the caucus is no longer listening to Madam Speaker? After being admonished by an ethics panel for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., will give his chairmanship of the powerful HouseWays and Means committee, NBC News has learned. (HotAir.com)

Bobby Schilling: On Monday, Politico reported that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was in negotiations with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on a plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and transfer the terrorist detainees to a prison in Thomson, Illinois. With all due respect to the Senator, there are some particular details about Illinois facility he should know. (BigGovernment.com)

Christopher Horner: A FOIA reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to help cover up two economic studies pointing to the failure of European wind energy programs. Via the FOIA request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has learned that the Department of Energy — specifically the office headed by Al Gore’s company’s former CEO, Cathy Zoi — turned to George Soros’ Center for American Progress and other wind industry lobbyists to help push Obama’s wind energy proposals.

Jim Hoft: Do Republicans Not Get It? Did they not pay attention to the thousands of tea parties this past year? Did they not see the hundreds of thousands of tea party protesters across the nation? Did they miss the million protesters who marched down the streets of Washington DC on September 12th? (BigGovernment.com)

Danny Tarkanian: The Constitution and the Second Amendment are in the spotlight this week on two fronts. First is that oral arguments are being held in the McDonald v Chicago case to possibly apply the holding in Heller to the states. (BigGovernment.com)

Aaron Klein: John Holdren, President Obama’s “science czar,” served on the board of editors of a magazine whose personnel were accused of providing vital nuclear information that helped the Soviet Union build an atom bomb.

The magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, has a long history of employing socialist and communist sympathizers, including during the time of Holdren’s employment in 1984, reports the New Zeal blog. (WorldNetDaily)

Jeffrey Jena: I grew up in Kentucky where every boy who ever played baseball knew the name of Jim Bunning. He is the Hall of Fame pitcher who threw a perfect game for the Cincinnati Reds and knew how to play hardball long before the tingly-legged Chris Matthews co-opted the name for his decidedly softball show.

If you are anywhere near being a fiscal conservative you have to absolutely love what Senator Jim Bunning did this week. This week Senator Bunning showed Senator Harry Reid, and a few Senate Republicans how to throw one high and tight. His one man play at fiscal responsibility has the Washington “in” crowd crying foul and showing their hypocrisy. (BigGovernment.com)

***SEE THE TABLE OF PHONE NUMBERS OF SWING VOTE CONGRESSMAN BELOW IN CENTER COLUMN. PLEASE CALL THEM TO STOP OBAMACARE!!! THANK YOU***

House Republicans are predicting that Pelosi will bring health care to a vote in a few days. This is our LAST CHANCE to stop it.

We need funds desperately and immediately to run ads through the districts of swing Democratic congressmen. As soon as you donate, money will go directly on the air where it will do the most good.

Already, our ads are having an effect and have induced several congressmen who previously voted yes to announce that they are undecided. It is vital that we keep pouring on the pressure. (DickMorris.com)

Caroline Shively: As the House Democratic leadership tries to keep its focus on passing a health care bill, a pair of unrelated ethics probes are pulling energy and media coverage in a different direction. It’s also reminding people of this statement that Nancy Pelosi made in 2007 near the beginning of her reign as House Speaker: “We’ll keep our promise to drain the swamp that is Washington, DC to let sunshine disinfect the Congress.” (Liveshots-FNC)

Fox News’ Major Garrett contributed to this report:
After a year of several blown self-imposed deadlines, unexpected setbacks and incremental victories, the president is taking his final stand to get a health care bill passed — a push likely to last for the next few weeks. When President Obama first began his push for health care reform a year ago, he was full of optimism and brimming with bipartisan brio. Now, after a year of several blown self-imposed deadlines, unexpected setbacks and incremental victories, the president is taking his final stand to get a health care bill passed — a push likely to last for the next few weeks. (AP)

Posted by: Donald Bly — As of late, especially with the question of the constitutionality of government mandated health care that we should look at how the SCOTUS makes its decisions. Constitutional law scholarship is divided into two camps.

First, there are the originalists and textualists that believe the text of the Constitution, as it was originally understood, is controlling in most constitutional cases.

Second, there are the followers of Supreme Court precedent, who follow the doctrine over the document and believe in a fairly robust theory of stare decisis in constitutional. (FloppingAces.net)

Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report: The EPA, which is threatening to regulate carbon emissions if Congress won’t, is facing legal heat from states that say new regulations will kill jobs at the worst possible time. The bitterly contested fight in Washington over global warming and pollution is also taking hold at the state level.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which is threatening to regulate carbon emissions if Congress won’t, is facing legal heat from states that say new regulations will kill jobs at the worst possible time. (AP)

Kerry J. Byrne: One way that leftists have managed to keep alive their dead, defeated, bankrupting theories on issues like so-called health care is by perverting the definition of very basic terms. The word “right” is one of the most glaring examples of a definition that’s been distorted by the intellectual house-of-horrors mirror that is leftist theory. In the leftist sense of the word, though, a “right” is something very different. In fact, it’s not a “right” at all: it’s a handout provided to you by government, often at exorbitant costs to society. (BigGovernment.com)

SusanAnne Hiller: In an interesting turn of events this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced by her caucus to pry Rep. Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) Ways and Means gavel out of his hands and throw Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) under the bus. Then, she cut Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) loose late Friday afternoon, pressuring Massa to step down just days after allegations surfaced against the one-term Congressman. Rep. Massa will resign his House seat effective Monday, March 9 at 5pm. (BigGovernment.com)

Mytheos Holt: As anyone who has any recollection of the aftermath of the 2008 election cycle knows, the GOP is hopelessly behind on the internet, cannot possibly marshal any web resources on its behalf because it’s stuck in the 19th century politically and will be eclipsed by the forces of Web 2.0 as surely as Democrats were eclipsed by talk radio.

Or at least, that’s what the Mainstream Media force-fed to people after the 2008 election cycle. Naturally, like most Mainstream Media memes, it was an abject lie, but still, somehow the fear worked its way around establishment GOP circles to the point that a veritable avalanche of hysteria crashed down on party activists. “Why, if the internet swings to the Left,” many supposedly “concerned conservative” commentators opined, “then surely our restrictive, overly ideological makeup will make it impossible for us to attract anyone!” (BigGovernment.com)

Doug Giles: A Christian pundit, Dawn Eden, thinks my daughter Hannah Giles and her partner James O’Keefe should not have used Saul Alinsky’s deceptive tactics against ACORN because Saul was “evil,” his methods sneaky, and he dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer.

In addition, Eden took a swipe at Lila Rose, Planned Parenthood’s main pain in the butt, for being deceptive in her undercover vids which exposed Planned Parenthood’s illegal activity. Oh, and I almost forgot: Dawn also busted on Hannah for being un-Christlike for wearing a miniskirt and dressing like a hooker. Sounds a little catty to me—and a wee bit like Dana Carvey’s Church Lady—but I digress. (BigGovernment.com)

Ed Morrissey: Well, maybe. NBC News apparently had this breaking on Twitter, but thus far none of the American wire services have picked it up as yet. Pakistan’s Dawn reports that their intel services, working with the CIA, seized an American-born Taliban commander. But is it the American traitor that we’ve come to know as Fat Bastard, Adam Gadahn? (HotAir NBC CBS)

Kyle Olson: Militant socialists were out in full force Thursday, March 4th, for a “Day of Action to Defend Public Education.” The nationwide event was organized by fringe, left-wing groups like Michigan’s “By Any Means Necessary,” Ohio-organized “Community Organizing Center for Mother Earth,” Los Angeles-based “County Peace and Freedom Party,” the “League for the Revolutionary Party” of New York, and North Carolina’s “Destroy Industry.”

In Detroit, a chap representing the Che Guevara-loving, Mumia Abu-Jamal-supporting “FIST Youth” educated a crowd of about two dozen about the virtues of socialism. He also lectured on the Soviet Union, its roots and the glory days when the “people’s council” made all of the important decisions. (BigGovernment.com)