CQ Politics' Web Picks

New York Times: Resistance to Kennedy Grows Among Democrats

Resistance is emerging among Democratic officials against Caroline Kennedy as she pursues Hillary Rodham Clinton's seat in the United States Senate, with Gov. David A. Paterson bristling over suggestions that her selection is inevitable, according to his advisers, and other leading Democrats concerned that she is too beholden to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Slate: Cheney Fought the Law. Cheney Won.

In an ever-escalating game of chicken between the executive branch and the rest of the world, Vice President Dick Cheney wants you to understand that he has done nothing wrong over the past eight years. The vice president's greatest rhetorical sleight of hand may be that he has completely inverted settled and open legal questions. As he snarks his way through his final exit interviews, he takes the position that the thorniest legal questions are the easy ones and the settled ones are still open.

Daily Beast: How My Party Found God

Former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry observes that liberals have practiced secular politics since the 1960s, but with the ascent of Barack Obama, the left discovered it can actually keep the faith.

Washington Post: As Duties Weigh Obama Down, His Faith in Fitness Only

Being elected president forces a man to take inventory of his life, so Barack Obama has trimmed his schedule to the bare essentials. But one habit endures: Obama has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row. He always has treated exercise less as recreation than requirement, but his devotion has intensified during the past few months.

Los Angeles Times: Planning for Obama's Inaugural Bash is No Party

Officials expect to meet their budget and underwrite a colossal celebration that they say will be open to more people than ever. With less than a month to go, organizers are adding elements to the master calendar. They've told some supporters that they might not get all the goodies they'd expected in exchange for big donations. And they've scrambled to think up new ways to deal with the insatiable appetite of wealthy supporters not just to attend, but also to buy themselves VIP status.

Politico: Jindal in 2012?

Even as he basks in the media glow from his maiden foray to Iowa last month, Jindal is far from a sure thing in 2012. "He doesn't want to run against Obama unless Obama is an unmitigated disaster," observed John Maginnis, a longtime watcher of Louisiana politics and publisher of the LaPolitics Weekly. "In 2016, it will be an open seat with no vice president running."

Wall Street Journal: Blunt Talk by Health-Care Leader

Rep. Pete Stark, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's health panel, will be an important player as Washington tackles health care next year. But his blunt criticism of opponents and his positions to the left of many other Democrats promise to make the process bumpier. His longtime vision for revamping health care remains somewhat to the left of President-elect Barack Obama, but in the new Congress, Rep. Stark said, he will wait for Mr. Obama to spell out his priorities, so lawmakers can get to work and "accomplish his goals."