Roll Call is reporting that President-elect Barack Obama has offered Tom Daschle the job as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Daschle has accepted.
Meanwhile, the Hill has this really exceptional story about the conservative blogosphere:
Conservative groups are not celebrating the election of Barack Obama, with perhaps one exception: right-wing bloggers, who see a ripe opportunity to catch up with the left.
A Washington in the hands of Democrats offers online pundits on the right a fresh political target and a chance to vent against their ideological opponents. The reverse scenario allowed their liberal counterparts to blossom during the blogosphere’s infancy, when the GOP controlled the Congress and the Bush administration held power between 2003 and 2006.
But the aptly named “rightosphere,” much like its liberal counterpart, “the netroots,” doesn’t simply want to criticize the other team. It sees this as its time to reshape the Republican Party.
“The rightosphere will be much better when the right has something to oppose,” said Jon Henke, who writes at The Next Right.
Obama and Democrats will eventually provide conservatives with a “unifying grievance” that they can seize on. On the Democratic agenda could be universal healthcare proposals that would expand government programs, union-backed card-check legislation that would allow workers to bypass secret-ballot elections when unionizing, and calls to reverse momentum to expand offshore drilling, Henke said.
Being in the opposition is also a natural posture for conservatives, who want smaller government but have seen GOP lawmakers in the last few years create more federal programs, expand the deficit and spend greater sums of taxpayer dollars.
“It’s hard to be anti-state when you are state,” Henke said.
Read the rest of the story here.
Personal note: Not accepting advertising revenues from Exxon Mobil; the advertisement just kinda invaded my website when I cut and paste an excerpt of the above article.
Update: the advertisment has morphed into other things, which is fine. More than happy– indeed glad– to give an add to the Hill. Hope it doesn’t change back to an Exxon Mobil add again. I will keep having to update this post again… and again…
here. Also Slate, Daily Beast, and Daily Caller.
Reuters stories by Murray Waas:
Murray Waas, “Obama, Politicians Decline to Return Campaign Contributions,” Reuters, Feb. 13, 2012.
Murray Waas, “How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay,” Reuters, Jan. 26, 2012.
Nick Carey and Murray Waas, “Virginia Veteran Report Shows High Depression Rate,” Reuters, Sept. 27, 2010.
Murray Waas (with editing by Jim Impoco), “Wellpoint Routinely Treats Breast Cancer Patients,” Reuters, April 24, 2010.
Murray Waas (with Lewis Krauskof), “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,”Reuters, March 17, 2010.
Murray Waas, “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,” Reuters, March 17, 2010.
Murray Waas(with editing by Jim Tobin), “Obama, Politicians Decline to Return Campaign Contributions,” Reuters, Feb. 13, 2012.
Murray Waas, “How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay,” Reuters, Jan. 26, 2012.
Nick Carey and Murray Waas, “Virginia Veteran Report Shows High Depression Rate,” Reuters, Sept. 27, 2010.
Murray Waas (with editing by Jim Impoco), “Wellpoint Routinely Treats Breast Cancer Patients,” Reuters, April 24, 2010.
Murray Waas (with Lewis Krauskof), “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,”Reuters, March 17, 2010.
Murray Waas, “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,” Reuters, March 17, 2010.
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