Morning Examiner: Late start not a problem

Debates are also behind Bachmann’s collapse. Her over the top Gardisal attack on Perry backfired when she echoed liberal trial lawyer claims that vaccines cause mental development problems. And lets not forget former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. He also got into the race plenty early, but when he failed, during a debate, to say to Romney’s face what he said in previous interviews, his campaign quickly faded away too.

As long as Christie, or whoever the current anti-Romney flavor of the week is, has good debating skills, a late start won’t hurt them.

Around the Bigs

The New York Times, Supreme Court Is Asked to Rule on Health Care: The Obama Justice Department and the National Federation of Independents Businesses, both asked the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to President Obama’s signature domestic achievement. If the Court agrees to hear the case, almost everyone thinks it will, arguments will be held in the spring and a decision would come out in June.

Bloomberg, Solyndra’s $733 Million Plant Had Whistling Robots, Spa Showers: The now bankrupt Solyndra’s $733 million factory, built with $535 million taxpayer dollars from Obama’s Energy Department, “had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms.”

The Hill, Energy Department approves $1 billion in solar energy loan guarantees: Undeterred by the failure of Solyndra, Obama’s Energy Department gave more than $1 billion in taxpayer money to two more solar companies this week. One $737 million loan is expected to create 600 temporary jobs and 45 permanent jobs.

The New York Times, A Pipeline Divides Along Old Lines, Jobs Versus the Environment: State Department public hearings on the Keystone XL pipeline held in Montana, Nebraska Oklahoma, and Texas over the past weeks have pitted environmental activists against Americans who want jobs working on the massive infrastructure project.

The Wall Street Journal, Key Win for Alabama Immigrant Law: A U.S. District in the Northern District of Alabama upheld key elements of Alabama’s new immigration law, including provision requiring police in Alabama “to make a reasonable attempt” to determine the immigration status of any individual they stop if there is “reasonable suspicion” the person is in the country illegally.

The Wall Street Journal, Mortgage Aid Effort Falls Short of Its Goal: The Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program, created by the Dodd-Frank bill, is set to pay out less than half the $1 billion that Congress allotted for the program. The program was designed to help 30,000 families stay in their home, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates it will fail to help half that many.

The Los Angeles Times, ATF Fast and Furious guns turned up in El Paso A stash of guns in El Paso, Texas, awaiting shipment to Mexico is the first batch of ATF Fast and Furious guns to turn up in the U.S. outside of the Phoenix area.

The Washington Post, Hispanic kids the largest group of children living in poverty: According to a new Pew Hispanic Center report, Hispanics now make up the largest group of children living in poverty. More than six million Hispanic children are poor, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children and 4.4 million black children.

McClatchy, Tea party groups share views but don’t work together: University of Texas at Austin government professor Bruce Buchanan tells McClatchy about the Tea Party, “They are the most powerful emotional force in American politics, but they’re disorganized and have no long-term strategy.”

Campaign 2012
Florida: Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, R, said Wednesday that the state commission authorized to set Florida’s presidential primary date will choose Tuesday, January 31st. Such an announcement would allow the four states designated by Republican National Committee rules to be first (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina), to move their current February dates into January.

Perry: Texas Gov. Rick Perry apologized Wednesday for for saying, at last week’s GOP debate, that anyone who opposed giving tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants “did not have a heart.” “I was probably a bit over-passionate by using that word and it was inappropriate,” Perry told Newsmax.

Righty Playbook

The Corner‘s Andrew Stiles notes that even the economists who support Obama’s latest stimulus jobs plan admit that it will cost $1.6 million per job.

RedState‘s Moe Lane flags a FactCheck.org report finding that Obama’s latest tax hike pitch, that a teacher making $50,000 a year pays higher tax rates than he does, just isn’t true.

The Heritage Foundation‘s Nick Loris explains why the EPA’s attempt to regulate carbon through the Clean Air Act is “comically wrong.”

Lefty Playbook

Grist‘s Dave Roberts tells liberals not to worry about Solyndra because he has seen two polls which indicate “knowledge of the faux-scandal is mostly confined to news junkies, and public support for clean energy broadly, and solar power specifically, remains deep and strong.”

Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald explains why even the liberal media have been so dismissive of the Occupy Wall Street protests: “A siginificant aspect of this progressive disdain is grounded in the belief that the only valid form of political activism is support for Democratic Party candidates, and a corresponding desire to undermine anything that distracts from that goal.”

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities‘ Paul Van de Water lists five reasons why the Super Congress must raise taxes.

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