memeorandum: Giuliani gets praise from Norquist (CNN Political Ticker)

3:30 AM ET, December 4, 2007

Top Items:

U.S. Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

WHY WAS THE NIE RELEASED?....A couple of random thoughts on the newly released NIE concluding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003: — This NIE was apparently finished a year ago, and its basic parameters were almost certainly common knowledge in the White House well before that.

Discussion: TIME: Swampland, Think Progress, USA Today, Crooks and Liars, TPMmuckraker, Taylor Marsh, All Spin Zone, Right Wing Nut House, Middle Earth Journal and Macsmind

Thomas Joscelyn / Weekly Standard:

Five Questions Concerning the Latest NIE — The story dominating the news cycle right now is the public release of "Key Judgments" from an NIE on Iran's nuclear program. In particular, the first sentence of the NIE is drawing the press's intention: "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003 …

Discussion: Reuters, Power Line, michellemalkin.com and ThreatsWatch

Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:

Revisionism and The Iranian Non-Bomb — The latest news from Iran about the supposed abandonment in 2003 of the effort to produce a Bomb — if even remotely accurate — presents somewhat of a dilemma for liberal Democrats. — Are they now to suggest that Republicans have been warmongering …

Discussion: The Newshoggers

Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:

An Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran — Rarely, if ever, has a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly, and so surprisingly altered a foreign policy debate here. — An administration that had cited Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons as the rationale …

Discussion: Needlenose

Washington Post:

U.S. Finds That Iran Halted Nuclear Arms Bid in 2003 — A major U.S. intelligence review has concluded that Iran stopped work on a suspected nuclear weapons program more than four years ago, a stark reversal of previous intelligence assessments that Iran was actively moving toward a bomb.

Discussion: Wolf Howling, AMERICAN FUTURE and Daniel W. Drezner

Marc Santora / New York Times:
Candidates Hold to Their Stances on Iran

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003

Discussion: ParaPundit, Booman Tribune and Washington Post

New York Times:
White House Reaction to Iran Report

Discussion: The American Street, The Raw Story, Salon and Danger Room

Horses Mouth:
AP Headline Writers Make Iran NIE Say The Opposite of What It Says

Discussion: Fox News, Crooks and Liars and TPMmuckraker

Financial Times:
Beijing backs new sanctions against Iran

Discussion: TigerHawk and FP Passport

CNN:
U.S. report: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003

Discussion: Harry's Place, Why Now?, Boots and Sabers and Reason

USA Today:

USA TODAY/Gallup Poll: Significant drops in support for Clinton & Giuliani — "National support for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani significantly eroded over the past month," USA TODAY Washington bureau chief Susan Page writes. — Meanwhile, Republican Mike …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Boston Globe, TPM Election Central, The Politico, The Democratic Daily and TBogg

See http://www.iastate.edu …:

Clinton, Romney top choices among likely Iowa caucus goers in new ISU poll — AMES, Iowa — With exactly one month to go until the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, a new Iowa State University Poll of 1,416 registered Iowa voters finds Hillary Clinton leading among likely Democratic caucus attendees …

Discussion: HillaryClinton.com, MyDD, Pollster.com, Pew Research Center, Los Angeles Times and The Page

CNN Political Ticker:
Giuliani gets praise from Norquist

Discussion: TownHall Blog

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
With One Month to Go, the Battle Lines Are Drawn

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and The New Republic

The Smoking Gun:

Senate Aide In Kiddie Sex Bust — FBI: Staffer for Sen. Maria Cantwell sought tryst with boy — A U.S. Senate aide was arrested Friday after allegedly arranging a lunchtime sexual encounter with a teenage boy, according to federal court records. James McHaney, 28, was nabbed by FBI agents …

Discussion: Redstate, Associated Press, Wizbang, JammieWearingFool, Chuck Adkins, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Sundries Shack and UrbanGrounds

Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog:

Why is HRC stooping So Low? — I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the stridency and inaccuracy of charges in Iowa — especially coming from my old friend. While I'm as hard-boiled as they come about what's said in campaigns, I just don't think Dems should stoop to this.

Discussion: Chuck Adkins, HillaryClinton.com, Liberal Values, Sister Toldjah, Connecting.the.Dots, The Carpetbagger Report, Neptunus Lex, JustOneMinute, Spin Cycle, Hot Air, Open Left and Patterico's Pontifications

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Vulnerable Democrats See Fates Tied to Clinton — MANHATTAN, Kan. — Nancy Boyda, a Democrat who ran for Congress in this district last year, owed her upset victory partly to the popularity of the Democratic woman at the top of the ticket: Kathleen Sebelius, who won the governor's seat.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Riehl World View and Oliver Willis

Satyam / Think Progress:

Prominent Stem Cell Researcher Praised By Bush Rips White House's Stem Cell Policies — Last month, University of Wisconsin professor James Thomson — the first scientist to successfully isolate embryonic stem cells — and his colleagues published a paper in Science Magazine stating …

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics

Washington Post:
Standing in the Way of Stem Cell Research

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Corner

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:

Beware The Mormon Captivity Cont'd — Well, waiting for specific examples of what, exactly, a Mormon president might do that warrants explicitly voting against a Mormon is a bit like waiting for Godot. Most of the responses I've received flatly admit that there is no problem with Mitt's conservatism, it's the Mormonism.

Discussion: Liberal Values

Michael Levenson / Boston Globe: Pressed, Romney to speak on his Mormonism

Martin Kady II / The Politico:

Reid pushes back on Iraq optimism — Democrats are increasingly bailing on their previously held view that the troop surge in Iraq has been a "failure," but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't ready to jump on the bandwagon with other Democrats who say the surge has worked.

Discussion: The Hill, Power Line, Redstate, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, Free Frank Warner and Right Voices

Chicago Tribune:

The latest turnabout — The decision to reduce the charges against Bell was the latest turnabout for Walters, who had vowed to aggressively prosecute the six black youths for their alleged roles in assaulting Justin Barker at Jena High School on Dec. 4, 2006, and kicking him while he lay unconscious.

Discussion: TalkLeft

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

When Did Scott Ott Become Hillary Clinton's Campaign Manager? — All right, I know a great satire site when I read it. Scott Ott must have contracted with the Hillary Clinton campaign for this argument, right? Only a true satirist or a complete idiot would go after a campaign opponent for his academic record — in kindergarten!