CQ Politics' Web Picks

Salon: Top Doc Gupta

At the end of a long day seeing patients, when we should have been exhaused, one of my colleagues and I, both of us Indian, couldn't stop talking about the news that Sanjay Gupta appears to be President-Elect Obama's choice to be Surgeon General. Does being a high profile physician-journalist qualify you to be Surgeon General? Maybe. But Gupta has at least some political and policy experience--he served in the Clinton adminstration as a White House Fellow, working under Hillary during his tenure there.

C-Net: Obama's Choice is Recording Industry Darling

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama won applause from legal adversaries of the recording industry. Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, the doyen of the "free culture" movement, endorsed the Illinois senator, as did Google CEO Eric Schmidt and even the Pirate Party. That was then. As president-elect, one of Obama's first tech-related decisions has been to select the Recording Industry Association of America's favorite lawyer to be the third in command at the Justice Department. And Obama's pick as deputy attorney general, the second most senior position, is the lawyer who oversaw the defense of the Copyright Term Extension Act--the same law that Lessig and his allies unsuccessfully sued to overturn.

Washington Post: An Amazing Event Not to Be Here For

Amid dire predictions of vast crowds in the District and the less-than-enjoyable happenings that could go with such a throng, some area residents have decided they would rather be elsewhere Jan. 20. Perhaps Florida. Or New York. Or . . . "anywhere but here," as a Fairfax county woman put it.

Mother Jones: Bush Goes Out on a Green Note

Coral reefs worldwide are in peril. Marine species, protected by ineffective regulations, are being fished to extinction. Ocean pollution has our seas nearing cataclysm. Fortunately, there's one group that's doing something about it. The Bush Administration.

Washington Times: Donor in Richardson Probe Also Gave to Obama

The political donor at the center of a corruption investigation that scuttled Bill Richardson's Cabinet nomination gave $28,500 to President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in September, one month after the existence of the investigation was already public, records show.

National Review: Invest in Abortion

On the way out the door, President Bush has delivered a bailout of the domestic automotive industry, which under its current business practices could not possibly survive in a free market. President Obama, on the other hand, may see as his first task a bailout of the abortion industry.

Politico: Biden's Asia Trip Raises Concerns

Joe Biden has always had a flair for doing things differently - but his upcoming trip to South Asia may set a new standard. The vice president-elect will be traveling to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. But he won't really be traveling as the vice president-elect - he'll be traveling as the chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Only he'll be resigning from the Senate in a few weeks. Even though he was sworn in Tuesday for his seventh term. Got that?

Wall Street Journal: Republicans See Template for Rebound in Fortuno

Republicans' focus on recovering after sharp blows in the past two elections has put a spotlight on an unlikely star: Puerto Rico's new governor, Luis Fortuno.

Wilmington News Journal: No, Joe, You Can't Go to the Show

Employees at the Regal Brandywine Cinemas say the vice president-elect and his wife, Jill, tried to attend the 7:45 showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the theater on Concord Pike but left after they were told the movie was sold out.