The experts can debate what the Republican victory in the Florida House special election means. (Karl Rove is warning that it doesn’t mean that much, but is that simply Rovian reverse psychology?) But some liberals are hoping that if anyone takes it seriously, it’s a couple of senior liberals on the Supreme Court. That’s the thought Jonathan Bernstein offers up on Bloomberg View anyway. It was a hot topic that sort of died down when Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who turns 81 this week, made it clear at the beginning of the Supreme Court term that she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. But Bernstein argues that if Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, 75, care about their liberal legacy, they’ll retire in time for Barack Obama to appoint someone in their likeness because there’s no guarantee that Democrats are going to win in 2016.
Ana Marie Cox writes that Paul Ryan’s “Inner City” blues may not make him racist. But they sure makes him a classist. Via the Guardian.
The pathbreaking negotiations over 21st-century power-generation between Boulder and Xcel are getting thornier, via the Daily Camera: “Many City Council members expressed frustration in December that Xcel was not considering a more radical departure from its business practices, while Xcel officials said they have to think about programs that work for all their customers and that will be acceptable to the PUC.”
Peggy Noonan on the Ukraine crisis: Who are we? Who are they? The questions get harder in the 21st century. Via the Wall Street Journal.
The Bill Gates interview: He takes the optimistic hacker’s view. The world’s problems are there to debug. Via Rolling Stone.
Charlie Crist: From Republican to Independent to Democrat. Molly Ball wonders if this is what post-partisanship looks like. Via the Atlantic.
The idea to ban the word “bossy” is kind of, well, bossy, isn’t it? Via Margaret Talbot in the New Yorker.
