Read Stuff, You Should

My version of the tab dump, beginning as usual with something that you really should not read.  In this case: I'll recommend to stay away from Sara Mosle's post today about Nancy Pelosi.  Apparently, she's the first "trailblazing...feminist icon" who doesn't have "an incoherent personal style or a messy/nonexistent love life or family life."  She seems to be referring to Hillary Clinton (and at that, see Matt Ylgesias)...I guess I don't know all that much about the "personal style" or "love life" of Barbara Jordan, or Pat Schroeder, or Liddy Dole, or Bella Abzug, or Diane Feinstein, or Barbara Boxer, or Shirley Chisholm, or Madeleine Albright, or (although she says these don't count) Sandra Day O'Connor, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or Sonia Sotomayor, but none of them seemed to violate Mosle's qualification of being "comfortable and confident in her own skin."  Nor did Gerry Ferraro or Sarah Palin, although I'll admit that I'm not a big fan of either...maybe that's who she was talking about when she talked about "messy...family life," as if that's rare among men in politics.  Ach, I've talked about it too much already...but I do want to say that while Nancy Pelosi is a first-rate Speaker, the rest of that is useless.

On, finally, to the good stuff.


1. Health care.  I can't remember if I linked to this one already, but either way Andrew Sprung loves him some Pelosi.  So does Yglesias.  Kevin Drum looks to the future (it's the best post-passage post I've seen so far).  Alex Massie appreciates what he sees.  Greg Marx on choices for reporters. 

2. Yglesias puts the final stake through the heart of the Ponnuru/Lawry exceptionalism idea.

3. Ezra Klein looks at the long-term deficit from a different angle.

4. Ross Douthat is, in my view, a dull columnist but an excellent blogger; a good part of that is he's honest, as this example shows.

5. Not so honest?  Marc Thiessen, as Jane Mayer explains.

6. TNC on Andrew Sullivan -- I recommend the full lecture, by the way; it's top-notch.

7. Brendan Nyhan: Obama, Reagan, midterms.

8. And to wind it up...Steven Rubio looks at a magazine because it's there (if you click, read to the last line); Andrew Gelman does cutting-edge research; and a totally off topic recommendation.