For as much as they sing her praises, today’s Republicans would never tolerate Margaret Thatcher’s tax policies — or Ronald Reagan’s either for that matter.

The special election Tuesday to replace Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) in the CA-36 has turned into a much closer race than initially expected, with a real chance for a Republican pickup.

TPM Reader KH gets in on the Paul Ryan pinot noir action: Read More

Our pinot noir coverage is a bete noire for TPM Reader GT: Read More

White House meeting wraps up. No deal on raising the debt ceiling yet. Reports are another meeting will take place at the White House Monday.

The Sunday evening meeting between President Obama and congressional leadership on a debt deal is underway. For what it’s worth, this meeting was already scheduled when Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) declared Saturday evening that he was withdrawing from talks to achieve a grand bargain on debt reduction.

Tim Pawlenty trying to lower expectations in … Iowa.

So a congressman, a hedge fund manager and an economist walk into a bar …

Sounds like a good set-up for a joke, but that was the line-up last week at a Capitol Hill bistro. Not the kind of thing that would get much notice until the trio ordered a couple of $350 bottles of pinot noir.

As we reported Friday, the congressman was Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Now we’ve IDed the other two: a University of Chicago economist and the hedge fund manager who endowed the economist’s professorship. But it’s not just any hedge fund manager. Susan Crabtree reports.

Boehner pulls out of discussions of a potential $4 trillion debt deal over insistence on zero new taxes, says talks should focus on smaller deal.

The White House responds with new statement after the jump … Read More

Lawyers for MLK Day bombing suspect question (not altogether unreasonably I might add) whether the bomb he had was really a “weapon of mass destruction.”