memeorandum: 'Meet the Press' transcript for Dec. 9, 2007 (MSNBC)

2:00 AM ET, December 10, 2007

Top Items:

Republican Candidates Firm on Immigration — In front of what will probably be their most pro-immigration audience, Republican candidates toned down their rhetoric but told Spanish-language television viewers in a debate on Sunday that they would take strong measures to close off the country's borders to illegal immigration.

Discussion: The Politico and The American Street

Hugh Hewitt / TownHall Blog:

The Transcript of the GOP's Univsion Debate — MODERATOR: Good evening and welcome to the presidential forum. — (inaudible) in Spanish at the University of Miami. — Tonight is the Republicans' night. For the first time, seven of — the Republican candidates are going to participate tonight in a

Discussion: Riehl World View

Chuck Todd / MSNBC:

DEM RACE TIGHTER THAN EVER; HUCKABEE SURGE CONTINUES — From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro — If the first round of MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon presidential state — polls are any indication, we're in for a wild ride these next six weeks.

Discussion: Newsweek, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, Liberal Values, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Obama HQ, Open Left, PoliGazette, TPM Election Central, Pollster.com, Taegan Goddard's … and Rasmussen Reports

Eriposte / The Left Coaster:
Barack Obama's War On Of Triangulation

Discussion: TalkLeft

Washington Wire: Huckabee Steps Up TV Ads

Steven Thomma / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Huckabee surges to big GOP lead; Dems in dogfight

Discussion: MyDD, The Atlantic Online, Prairie Weather, skippy the bush kangaroo and The Mahablog

The Politico:

Obama-Oprah show plays early states — COLUMBIA. S.C. and MANCHESTER, N.H. - In a giant Sunday afternoon rally suffused with Christian - and at times messianic - rhetoric, Barack Obama made his largest-scale pitch to black and white Democrats of South Carolina, the third and most devout presidential primary state.

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, The Caucus and TalkLeft

Michelle Obama / Newsweek:

Star Power — Barack Obama couldn't have hoped for a better endorser than Oprah. Problem was, she outshone the candidate. — Forty years ago, when Andrea Perry was a cheerleader at St. Bonaventure, administrators at the upstate New York school barred her from traveling to Columbia, S.C., with the basketball team.

Discussion: The New Republic and Hotline On Call

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
Oprah in Des Moines

Discussion: The Huffington Post and TalkLeft

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Oprah Winfrey Hits Campaign Trail for Obama

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, The Swamp, Ben Smith's Blogs, NY Daily News, BAGnewsNotes, QandO and PrezVid

Michael / Discourse.net:

Senators and Representatives Could Have Spoken Out On Waterboarding: the Constitution Protects Their Right to Speak Out Without Fear of Legal Consequences — A number of the best internet commentators are discussing today's news that a few of the leading Congressional Democrats may have been …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The RBC, The Atlantic Online, Washington Post, PoliPundit.com and Emptywheel

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Democratic complicity in Bush's torture regimen

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:
Congress Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002

Discussion: Big Brass Blog, A Tiny Revolution, The Impolitic, Liberal Values, Once Upon a Time and The Sideshow

John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:
Did Bush approve CIA leak to embarrass Pelosi?

Discussion: Stop The ACLU, Right Wing Nut House, Redstate, RIGHTWINGSPARKLE, DownWithTyranny!, Liberty Street, Democrats.com, Atlantic Free Press, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, Wake up America and PoliGazette

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Pelosi Briefed On Waterboarding In 2002, No Objections

Discussion: The New Republic, The Strata-Sphere, Balkinization, About.com US Politics, NewsBusters.org, The Atlantic Online, Right Voices, Hot Air, Sister Toldjah and Too Sense

MSNBC:

'Meet the Press' transcript for Dec. 9, 2007 — Mayor Rudy Giuliani, R-N.Y. — MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Our Meet the Candidates 2008 series continues, an exclusive interview with Republican Rudy Giuliani. He has served as associate attorney general in Washington …

Discussion: The New Republic, Los Angeles Times, The Anonymous Liberal, Hotline On Call, The Swamp, Brendan Nyhan and The Huffington Post

Byron York / The Corner:

There Are Flops, And Then There Is "Redacted" — Brian De Palma's "Redacted," the Iraqi war movie that won the best director prize at the Venice Film Festival but has been dismissed as loathsome and awful in other circles, has been in theaters - okay, 15 theaters - nationwide for three weeks now.

Discussion: Chuck Adkins, TBogg, Punditry, VodkaPundit and QandO

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:

Meet The Press: Mistresses Should Get Secret Service Protection Too! — Somehow, I don't think Judith Nathan Giuliani should feel too comforted by that... Download (491) | Play (637) Download (377) | Play (379) (h/t Dan) — Continuing his surprisingly confrontational interview with Rudy Giuliani …

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal and driftglass

Marissamuller / CNN Political Ticker:
Giuliani: Nathan did not want police protection

Discussion: Say Anything

Robert Maranto / Washington Post:

As a Republican, I'm on the Fringe — Are university faculties biased toward the left? And is this diminishing universities' role in American public life? Conservatives have been saying so since William F. Buckley Jr. wrote "God and Man at Yale" — in 1951.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money, PoliGazette, Blue Crab Boulevard and The American Mind

Michelle Malkin:

Sunday horror: Church shootings in Colorado; gunman killed by armed female church security staffer — By now, you've read about the two tragic church shootings incidents in Colorado earlier today. What you may not have heard about is how the gunman at the second church was reportedly stopped:

Discussion: The Sundries Shack and Patterico's Pontifications

Erik Eckholm / New York Times:

Many Seeking Disability From Social Security Face Big Delays — RALEIGH, N.C. — Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

Discussion: Amygdala and Outside The Beltway

Julia / Firedoglake:

ABC's "Man in the Middle" isn't. — After a whirlwind highly-qualified-contrition* tour of the media, the man who credits himself with convincing Karl Rove to move all the way to the right because the center no longer exists has landed at ABC News. Predictably, he's going to be providing us with his bipartisan view from the center.

Discussion: The Sideshow, Making Light and Suburban Guerrilla

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Canadian Judge Finds U.S. Lacking as a Haven for Refugees — Late last month, a federal judge in Canada ruled that the United States had violated international conventions on torture and the rights of refugees. — The decision has caused quite a stir in Canada.

Roni Sofer / Ynetnews:

Shas minister: Americans' attitude to report reminiscent of Auschwitz — Yitzhak Cohen says during cabinet meeting 'US intelligence report was ordered by someone who wants dialogue with Tehran. Minister Eli Yishai: 'We must not play dumb in the face of the report's findings'

Discussion: Liberty Street and The Moderate Voice