memeorandum: Harry Reid Hearts Rush Limbaugh (Little Green Footballs)

5:10 PM ET, October 19, 2007

Top Items:

I'm Told — Senator Reid just went to the Senate floor and asked people to bid on the Rush letter. — 40-some minutes to go.... UPDATE: Here's a raw transcript from the Senate:

Discussion: Hot Air, QandO, Macsmind, Wizbang, Suitably Flip, Neocon News, A Blog For All and Blue Crab Boulevard

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Harry Reid And The Letter Of Doom — Harry Reid tried his best to put the best possible spin on the Rush Limbaugh letter that just sold to a Republican philanthropist for $2.1 million dollars. Rush will put up a matching $2.1 million donation to a charity that assists the children of Marines …

Discussion: Liberty Pundit and Neocon News

Little Green Footballs:

Harry Reid Hearts Rush Limbaugh — As the bidding draws to a close on his ugly smear letter, Harry Reid is now taking credit for raising money for children of fallen soldiers. … Hypocrisy so extreme it warps time and space. — UPDATE at 10/19/07 10:15:05 am: — The winner of the auction was philanthropist Betty Casey.

Discussion: The Corner, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Don Surber, Bookworm Room, Gateway Pundit and Say Anything

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Reid praises Rush

Discussion: NewsBusters.org

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Dodd Goes to the Mat: Says He Will Filibuster FISA — He said he "might have to." And he will. — From the Dodd campaign: … Finally someone willing to filibuster and cut through the ocean of glue the Senate seems to be swimming in. — This is awesome. Go Dodd. — Update: Just added — YouTube above.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars, DownWithTyranny!, TIME: Swampland, The Impolitic and Mercury Rising

Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:

Can Chris Dodd Block a FISA Extension? — On Wednesday afternoon, the House was forced to indefinitely defer its consideration of the Democrats' bill to extend FISA. By Wednesday evening, leading Senate Republicans and Democrats had agreed to a compromise bill.

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Harry Reid works to ensure telecom amnesty, warrantless surveillance

Discussion: Firedoglake, TalkLeft, The Newshoggers, The Agonist, Booman Tribune and Prairie Weather

Martin Kady II / The Politico:

Martinez resigns as general chair of RNC — Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will resign as general chairman of the Republican Party today, saying he wants to spend more time on his work as Florida's GOP senator, Politico has learned. — Martinez, who took the job nine months ago as the public face …

Discussion: The Swamp and CNN Political Ticker

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:

Martinez quits as RNC general chairman — WASHINGTON - Mel Martinez, the public face of the Republican National Committee as its general chairman, announced Friday he was stepping down from his post after serving only 10 months. — "I believe that our future as a party and nation is bright …

Discussion: Salon, DownWithTyranny! and Mercury Rising

CNN Political Ticker:
Top GOP boss to quit

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report

Los Angeles Times:

An unlikely treasure-trove of donors for Clinton — The candidate's unparalleled fundraising success relies largely on the least-affluent residents of New York's Chinatown — some of whom can't be tracked down. — NEW YORK — Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls.

Brian Maloney / The Radio Equalizer:

Randi Rhodes Speaks About Non-Mugging, Raises New Questions — A DEEPER HOLE … Now that Air America Radio host Randi Rhodes has returned to the airwaves, at least one mystery has been solved: we know why her lawyer was in charge of making press statements.

Discussion: Liberty Pundit, TBogg, Neocon News, The Van Der Galiën Gazette and Chuck Adkins

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Talk Show Host Randi Rhodes Explains Her Injury On Her Show

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, The Mahablog, LTR, Moonbattery and News Hounds

BoreAmerica:
Randi Rhodes statement on "mugging"/falling down incident

Discussion: Macsmind, Wake up America, JammieWearingFool and Little Green Footballs

Fox News:

FOX To Air Controversial Documentary on Islam — A controversial film that PBS axed from its documentary series about the post-Sept. 11 world will be broadcast for the first time nationwide this week by the FOX News Channel. — The documentary, originally titled "Islam vs. Islamists," …

Discussion: Think Progress, Hot Air, TVNewser and Cliff Schecter

Michael Kinsley / Time:

Libertarians Rising — To oversimplify: Democrats are for Big Government; Republicans are against it. — To oversimplify somewhat less, Democrats aren't always for Big Government, and Republicans aren't always against it. Democrats treasure civil liberties, whereas Republicans …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Reason Magazine, Liberal Values, Washington Times and Punditry

Opinion Journal:

What Happened at Haditha — The massacre that wasn't, and its political exploitation. — The incident at Haditha—or the massacre, as it is often called—is due for a wholesale rethinking. The allegations are that in 2005 U.S. Marines went on a killing spree and deliberately executed 24 Iraqi civilians.

Discussion: Bookworm Room, Fausta's blog, QandO and Blue Crab Boulevard

Michael Lacey / Phoenix New Times:

Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution — Joe Arpaio, Andy Thomas and Dennis Wilenchik hit New Times with grand jury subpoenas — This newspaper and its editorial staff — both current and former — are the targets of unprecedented grand jury subpoenas dated August 24.

Discussion: New York Times, Gawker, On Deadline, Reason Magazine and LA Observed

Jeralyn / TalkLeft:
Grand Jury Investigation Seeking Phoenix Newspaper's Reader Data

Discussion: Feathered Bastard and Washington Monthly

David Brooks / New York Times:

From the Back of the Pack — Rindge, N.H. — The first thing you notice about Mike Huckabee is that he has a Mayberry name and a Jim Nabors face. But it's quickly clear that Huckabee is as good a campaigner as anybody running for president this year. And before too long it becomes easy …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Carpetbagger Report, MSNBC, Connecting.the.Dots, Brian Beutler, Prairie Weather, DesMoinesRegister.com Blogs, Lonewacko, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Associated Press

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Pelosi's Armenian Gambit — There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide. — (a) Did it happen? — (b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now? — (c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote …

Discussion: Power Line, The Atlantic Online, Central Sanity, The Jawa Report, Betsy's Page, Macsmind, Whiskey Fire, Jules Crittenden and Soccer Dad

Glenn Beck / CNN:

Bush Warns About Iran Threat; Airport Screeners Fail Tests at Alarming Rate; Rush Limbaugh Auctioning Off Reid Complaint Letter — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, President Bush warns the world about a nuclear Iran.

Discussion: My Two Sense and Firedoglake