memeorandum: Those Who Avoided Risk Call Plan A Raw Deal (Renae Merle/Washington Post)

11:25 AM ET, December 7, 2007

Top Items:

Faith vs. the Faithless — Jon Meacham is the editor of Newsweek and the author of "American Gospel," which describes the history of religious liberty in the United States. Richard John Neuhaus is the editor in chief of First Things and the author of "The Naked Public Square," …

Discussion: The Corner, National Review, The New Republic, No More Mister Nice Blog, Redstate, MyDD, TPM Election Central and Middle Earth Journal

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Mormon in America — How Mitt Romney came to give The Speech—and how he did. — Did Mitt Romney have to give a speech on religion? Yes. When you're in a race so close you could lose due to one issue, your Mormonism, you must address the issue of your Mormonism.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, TownHall Blog, Sadly, No! and National Review

Washington Post:
No Freedom Without Religion?

Discussion: National Review and The Corner

E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Boldness, Watered Down — It's not easy being a politician …

Discussion: New York Times, Stumper, Vox Popoli, Real Clear Politics and Cheat Seeking Missiles

Shirley Ragsdale / Des Moines Register:
Activists, pastors in Iowa question impact of Romney speech

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Los Angeles Times and TPM Election Central

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Huckabee Plays the Religion Card

Discussion: Hot Air, Associated Press, Too Sense, Real Clear Politics and Betsy's Page

David Frum:
That Dog Won't Hunt — Sorry to dissent from my colleagues …

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Right Wing News, BizzyBlog, Real Clear Politics, The Atlantic Online, Salt Lake Tribune, The Sundries Shack, American Prospect, TBogg, Weekly Standard, TownHall Blog, Hot Air, Democratic Strategist and Grasping Reality …

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:

C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program …

Discussion: Think Progress, The Swamp, The Atlantic Online, Crooks and Liars, The Blotter, Guardian, The Carpetbagger Report, Salon, Wolf Howling, KnoxViews, War in Context, Prairie Weather, Too Sense and FishBowlDC

Michelle Malkin:

The CIA's destroyed interrogation videos, what the Dems knew, and when — It's the top news at Memeorandum this morning. The New York Times reported yesterday: … The newspaper expresses its explicit hope that its scoop on the tapes will "reignite the debate over the use …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Hot Air, Right Wing Nut House, Comments from Left Field, Sadly, No! and Emptywheel

Washington Post:
CIA Destroyed Videos Showing Interrogations

Discussion: TIME: Swampland and Macsmind

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
CIA Channels Rose Mary Woods

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Blotter, TPMmuckraker and Truthdig

Greg Miller / Los Angeles Times:
CIA says interrogation tapes were destroyed

Discussion: TPMmuckraker

Scott Shane / New York Times:
Lawmakers Back Limits on Interrogation Tactics

Discussion: Salon and Guardian

Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
Where's Rose Mary Woods When You Need Her?

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, The Opinionator, Associated Press, Outside The Beltway, Salon, The Heretik, New York Times, War and Piece, TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh, Lawyers, Guns and Money and The Democratic Daily

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
This Is A Banana Republic

Discussion: The Newshoggers, the talking dog, Angry Bear, Buck Naked Politics and ACSBlog

Washington Post:

Review of Iran Intelligence to Be Sought — As Conservatives Reject New NIE, Republican Senators to Urge Congressional Panel — Senate Republicans are planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran …

Discussion: Horses Mouth, The Strata-Sphere, ArmsControlWonk, Firedoglake, Sweetness & Light, The Heretik, Israel Matzav, Balloon Juice and RADAMISTO

Yaakov Katz / Jerusalem Post:

IDF to show US nuclear data on Iran — Disappointed after failing to make their case on Iran and influence the outcome of the United States's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released this week, Military Intelligence will present its hard core evidence on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program …

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Paul Richter / Los Angeles Times:
Doves find fault with Iran report too

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere and The Belmont Club

NY Daily News:

Judith Nathan got security earlier — Judith Nathan got taxpayer-funded chauffeur services from the NYPD earlier than previously disclosed - even before her affair with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was revealed, witnesses and sources tell the Daily News. — "It went on for months before the affair …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Caucus and Betsy's Page

Nicholas Wapshott / New York Sun:
Sliding Poll Numbers Force Giuliani To Retool His Campaign

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

Ayaan Hirsi Ali / New York Times:

Islam's Silent Moderates — The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2) — IN the last few weeks …

Discussion: PoliGazette and A Blog For All

The Washington Post / The Trail:

For Some, Negative Turn is a Turn-Off — DES MOINES — Once, Garry Thomas counted himself a Hillary Clinton supporter — even signing up to be one of her 25 co-chairs in Iowa alongside with former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. — But Thomas now says he felt obliged to switch sides in recent weeks.

Discussion: The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blogs and TIME: Swampland

Alan Fram / Associated Press:

Huckabee Second in National GOP Race — WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a poll showed Friday. — The upsurge by the former Arkansas governor …

Discussion: USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Pollster.com

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

ABC Nabs Latest Media Player From Bush Team, Matthew Dowd — Matthew Dowd started out as a Democratic operative, then helped engineer George W. Bush's winning White House campaigns before growing disenchanted and publicly breaking with the president. Now he's reinventing himself once again.

Discussion: Romenesko

David Lightman / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Candidate Ron Paul's devotees a mixed bag — WASHINGTON — If Ron Paul's supporters got together for a family portrait, it would be one of those pictures in which no one seems to resemble anyone else. — "You have old-school Republicans, the conservatives who backed Barry Goldwater (in 1964).

Discussion: The Swamp and Prairie Weather

Tom Tancredo / MiamiHerald.com:

Why I won't do Spanish debate — I declined the invitation to participate in the Spanish-language Republican presidential debate on Sunday because I do not want to endorse the further Balkanization of American political life. — The debate is being sponsored by Univisión …

Discussion: The Corner and UrbanGrounds

H.G. Reza / Los Angeles Times:

Pearl Harbor lives in the hearts of its vets — After 66 years, some survivors wonder if they are the last reminders of the attack that led the U.S. into war. — Their ranks thinned by age, Pearl Harbor veterans today are commemorating the 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack …

Discussion: TownHall Blog