memeorandum: NRCC props up its pummeled Ohio candidate (Josh Kraushaar/The Politico)

10:05 AM ET, December 11, 2007

Top Items:

Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes Cleared by Lawyers — Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times, The Strata-Sphere, The Raw Story, Daily Kos, Salon, PrairiePundit, Greatscat!, Oliver Willis, Corrente, ScrappleFace, On Deadline, The Reaction, Prairie Weather and War and Piece

Washington Post:

Waterboarding Recounted — Ex-CIA Officer Says It 'Probably Saved Lives' but Is Torture — A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Carpetbagger Report and Prairie Weather

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:

This Will Ruin Ted Kennedy's Day — From The New York Times: … Me: Let's see. Ted Kennedy said the tapes were destroyed in response to the Democratic victory in 2006 in order to cover administration tracks in a Watergate-like cover-up. The tapes were actually destroyed in 2005 …

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
WHO KNEW?....A "former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Ron Claiborne / ABCNEWS:

Analysis: How McCain Could Still Win — Political Watchers Say John McCain May Be Down, but a Comeback Is Possible — A year ago, he was the odds-on favorite to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Today, he's considered a long shot. — His campaign has rebounded …

Discussion: The Hill

New York Times:
Poll Finds G.O.P. Field Isn't Touching Voters

Discussion: MSNBC, Outside The Beltway, TIME, Oliver Willis, Cliff Schecter, TalkLeft, TPM Election Central and Prairie Weather

David Brooks / New York Times:
The Postwar Election

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Leslie Wayne / New York Times:
In New Ad, Romney Attacks Huckabee on Immigration

Discussion: The Hill, MSNBC, Captain's Quarters, Heading Right, New York Sun, TIME, ImmigrationProf Blog and The Politico

Byron York / The Corner:
McCain Attacks Romney's Attack on Huckabee

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Atlantic Online, Redstate and Eunomia

Thomas Hendrick / TheDenverChannel.com:

Security Guard: 'God Guided Me And Protected Me' — Jeanne Assam Stopped Gunman At New Life Church — COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church …

Washington Post:
Gunman Planned to Kill More, Officials Say

Discussion: PoliPundit.com and Winds of Change.NET

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:

House Democrats Pull Budget Offer — The GOP Is Negotiating In Bad Faith, Obey Says — A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Strata-Sphere, Political Machine, Main and Central, Redstate, PrairiePundit and Cliff Schecter

The Politico:

Liberal views could haunt Obama — When Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was seeking state office a dozen years ago, he took unabashedly liberal positions: flatly opposed to capital punishment, in support of a federal single-payer health plan, against any restrictions on abortion …

Jennifer Parker / Political Punch: Dropping Oppo — Circulating among Iowa labor circles …

ABCNEWS:

Hayden to Testify About CIA Videotapes — CIA's Hayden Goes to Capitol Hill to Testify Tuesday About Interrogation Videotapes — CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden faces two days of testimony behind closed doors at the Senate and House intelligence committees to answer questions …

Discussion: Think Progress

ABCNEWS:
Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
TWO STORIES....After the United States captured al-Qaeda operative …

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings, Slate and Hullabaloo

Barry Hertz / network.nationalpost.com:

Teen girl in critical condition after alleged dispute over hijab — A 16-year-old girl is in critical condition after being choked by a man believed to be her father, apparently after a dispute with her family over her refusal to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

Discussion: PoliGazette

Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:

NRCC props up its pummeled Ohio candidate — Republicans are facing a surprisingly fierce fight in a Tuesday special election to hold on to a conservative northwestern Ohio seat that has been under the party's control for the past 70 years. — The GOP expects to win another special election set …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Real Clear Politics, Buckeye State Blog, Eunomia, TPM Election Central and Ohio Daily Blog

Wall Street Journal:

Group Says Iran Resumed Weapon Program — The Iranian opposition group that first exposed Iran's nuclear-fuel program said a U.S. intelligence analysis is correct that Tehran shut down its weaponization program in 2003, but claims that the program was relocated and restarted in 2004.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Israel Matzav and Jules Crittenden

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

Abolish the CIA — DESTROYING THE INTERROGATION TAPES AMOUNTS TO MUTINY AND TREASON. — It seems flabbergastingly improbable that President George W. Bush learned of the National Intelligence Estimate concerning Iranian nuclear ambitions only a few days before the rest of us did …

Discussion: The Corner, Eric Black Ink, UrbanGrounds, The Newshoggers, ArmsControlWonk and BizzyBlog

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama, Under the Clinton Microscope — DES MOINES - Presidential campaigns have unlimited appetites for information about their rivals. They track their whereabouts, they study their records and they obsessively follow nearly every movement. By this point in the race, though …

Discussion: Des Moines Register, Los Angeles Times and Wizbang

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

What's Working In Iraq — A reader writes:

Discussion: The Newshoggers and Unqualified Offerings

Sean Olender / San Francisco Chronicle:

MORTGAGE MELTDOWN — Interest rate 'freeze' - the real story is fraud — Bankers pay lip service to families while scurrying to avert suits, prison — New proposals to ease our great mortgage meltdown keep rolling in. First the Treasury Department urged the creation of a new fund …

Discussion: Angry Bear, Mish's Global Economic … and Seeing the Forest