memeorandum: Now and Forever (Bob Herbert/New York Times)

6:40 AM ET, December 4, 2007

Top Items:

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

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.

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, ThreatsWatch and michellemalkin.com

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:

U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.

Discussion: USA Today, The Corner, Washington Post and ParaPundit

Marc Santora / New York Times:

Candidates Hold to Their Stances on Iran — The campaigns of the leading Democratic candidates seized Monday on an intelligence report showing that Iran had halted its development of nuclear weapons, saying the findings justified their more cautious approach to Tehran.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

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: Washington Times, Counterterrorism Blog, Foreign Policy Watch, democracyarsenal.org, Wolf Howling, The Washington Note, TPMmuckraker, AMERICAN FUTURE, The Heretik, American Footprints, Washington Monthly and Daniel W. Drezner

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, Liberty Street, RADAMISTO, Instapundit.com, Captain's Quarters, Hot Air and The New Republic

Norman Podhoretz / Commentary:
Dark Suspicions about the NIE

Discussion: Booman Tribune, RealClearPolitics, The Sundries Shack, Balloon Juice, INSTAPUTZ, RADAMISTO and Riehl World View

Think Progress:
Hadley: Bush Learned Of NIE's Findings 'In The Last Few Months …

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast, DownWithTyranny!, BAGnewsNotes, The Huffington Post, democracyarsenal.org, Connecting.the.Dots, New York Sun, Seeing the Forest and Rook's Rant

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

Discussion: Harry's Place, Atlantic Free Press, Boots and Sabers and Reason

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

Discussion: Fox News, New York Times and Crooks and Liars

New York Times:
White House Reaction to Iran Report

Discussion: The American Street, The Corner, Wake up America, The Strata-Sphere, Salon, The Raw Story, Danger Room, Donklephant, At-Largely, War in Context and QandO

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: The Democratic Daily, TBogg, TPM Election Central, Taegan Goddard's …, Stop The ACLU, The Politico, Blue Crab Boulevard and Pollster.com

See http://www.iastate.edu …:
Clinton, Romney top choices among likely Iowa caucus goers in new ISU poll

Discussion: MyDD, Pollster.com, HillaryClinton.com, Los Angeles Times and MoJoBlog

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

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, Oliver Willis and Gateway Pundit

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

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, Patterico's Pontifications and Gateway Pundit

Michael Levenson / Boston Globe:

Pressed, Romney to speak on his Mormonism — Will 'share views on religious liberty' as a Baptist rival leaps ahead in Iowa — Mitt Romney met members of the Iowa Christian Alliance at a house party Friday in Dubuque. (Rick Gershon/Getty Images) — After months of debate within …

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
Beware The Mormon Captivity Cont'd

Discussion: Liberal Values

Associated Press:

Congress takes-on credit card firms — Critics say some companies boost rates even when customers pay on time — WASHINGTON - Some members of Congress are denouncing credit card industry practices that include raising interest rates for customers whose credit ratings decline, even if they make their card payments on time.

Discussion: AMERICAblog

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!

Discussion: Associated Press, Opinion Journal, The Anchoress, alicublog, Los Angeles Times, small dead animals, The Sundries Shack, Donklephant and Right Voices

Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:

Paulson Sees Limited Aid in Rate Plan — The Bush administration's effort to help borrowers in danger of defaulting on their subprime mortgages could help only a small number of those who took out such loans, industry analysts said Monday. — Though administration officials have yet …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times