memeorandum: Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: The Chief's All Done, Too (David Lat/Abovethelaw.com)

11:50 PM ET, December 13, 2007

Top Items:

Mevanh / The Page:

Bill Shaheen Resigns from Clinton Campaign — New Hampshire pol, husband of former Gov. Jeanne, quits national co-chair position over Wednesday's drug comment about Obama. — "I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down ...." Read his full statement.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, New York Daily News Blogs, JunkYardBlog, The Carpetbagger Report, Associated Press, The Daily Dish, The Moderate Voice, Blue Crab Boulevard, Roger L. Simon, Washington Post, Slog, TIME: Swampland, Riehl World View, Oliver Willis, Connecting.the.Dots and Hot Air

John Distaso / New Hampshire Union Leader:

Bill Shaheen quits Clinton campaign — Bill Shaheen has resigned as a co-chair of Hillary Clinton's national campaign, UnionLeader.com has learned. — Shaheen last night apologized for telling a reporter that if Barack Obama becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, Republicans will use his admitted past drug use against him.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Washington Wire, Wake up America, New York Daily News Blogs and Newsday

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Democratic Debate: Winners and Losers — DES MOINES, Iowa — The final Democratic debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses is in the books. — Rather than give Fix readers a roundup of what just happened (you can get that here from the AP's Nedra Pickler), we figured we would take a page …

Discussion: The Caucus and John Edwards for President

Mark Murray / MSNBC:
Did meeting lead to Shaheen ouster?

Discussion: The RBC

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs: Hardball fun — Hardball tonight was great political TV …

CNN:
Clinton aide resigns over Obama drug remarks

Discussion: MoJoBlog

Charles Babington / Associated Press:

Pelosi: Republicans `like' Iraq War — WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Republicans on Thursday, saying they want the Iraq war to drag on and are ignoring the public's priorities. — "They like this war. They want this war to continue," Pelosi, D- Calif., told reporters.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, BLACKFIVE, Blue Crab Boulevard, Gateway Pundit, PoliPundit.com and QandO

Mike Soraghan / The Hill:

After losing spending battle, Pelosi eyes '08 election — Congressional Democrats have lost their end-of-the-year showdown with President Bush, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) countered Thursday that the House succeeded in showing what Democrats can do, and would do, if a Democrat were in the White House.

Discussion: Power Line, michellemalkin.com, Flopping Aces, Daily Kos and Right Voices

Pamela Hess / Associated Press: House OKs bill banning CIA waterboarding

Thomas Ferraro / Reuters:
Lawmakers vote to hold Bush aides in contempt

Discussion: New York Times, michellemalkin.com and MSNBC

Sean Hackbarth / Fred File:

Fred Thompson Campaign Apologies — From Karen Hanretty, Deputy Communications Director: — In light of Mike Huckabee's heartfelt apology to Mitt Romney for making reference to Romney's religion in the New York Times Magazine, we at the Thompson Campaign would like to offer Huckabee …

Discussion: The Swamp, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Political Machine, The Campaign Spot, Redstate, Hot Air, Riehl World View and Los Angeles Times

Marc Ambinder:

Democratic Debate: First Take — Everyone had a good debate. — (Campaign pull-quote compilers, take note.) — But who did best? The audience is undecided Democratic caucus goers. Who stood out? Who was different? Who seemed most presidential? Who parlayed their strengths?

Discussion: The New Republic, Spin Cycle, MyDD and Salon

Ben Smith / The Politico:
HRC struggles for points at last debate

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, The Swamp and Examining Presidential …

Rick Klein / Political Radar:
Live-Blogging during Democratic Debate

Discussion: Reason Magazine, TPM Election Central, TalkLeft, The Swamp, Wake up America and John Edwards for President

ESPN:

Mitchell report: Baseball slow to react to players' steroids use — NEW YORK — George Mitchell's 20-month report into steroid use in professional baseball blamed both players and management for the problem. — Mitchell addressed the media and released his report Thursday.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The New Republic, Crooks and Liars, Publius Endures, Right Wing Nut House, LAist, Associated Press, Outside The Beltway, Patterico's Pontifications and THE LIBERAL JOURNAL

New York Times:

Steroid Report Implicates Top Players — Former Senator George J. Mitchell released a blistering report Thursday that tied 89 Major League Baseball players, including Roger Clemens, to the use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs. The report used informant testimony and supporting documents …

Discussion: Abovethelaw.com, Norwegianity, Debsweb, The Moderate Voice, The Agonist, WBBM-TV, JustOneMinute and Deadspin

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Govt's Kooky Cult Terrorism Case Goes Bust — The Miami "Seas of David" terror bust was such an important blow in the War on Terror that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales himself gave a press conference in July of 2006. Federal agents had stopped a plot to blow up the Sears Tower, he said.

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal

Curt Anderson / Associated Press: Jurors deadlock on 6 of 7 in Sears plot

David Hazinski / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Unfettered 'citizen journalism' too risky — You're beginning to get a lot more news ... from you. — It ranges from the CNN YouTube debates to political blogs to cellphone video of that sniper who opened fire at an Omaha Mall. These are all examples of so called "citizen journalism," …

Discussion: Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, TigerHawk, Riehl World View and Instapundit.com

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Military Leaders: Ignore Bush Veto Threat, Ban Waterboarding — Thirty retired admirals and generals have penned a letter to key Democrats, urging them to defy President Bush's veto threats and pass legislation requiring U.S intelligence agents to follow strict standards for detainee treatment.

Discussion: The Gavel, Daily Kos, The Carpetbagger Report, Think Progress, ArchPundit and Riehl World View

Jared Bernstein / The Coffee House:

Boy, Have We Got an Inequality Problem — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just updated their invaluable data series on income inequality and the results are startling. Income inequality among households, both before and after Federal taxes, grew more quickly over the last two years of the series …

Discussion: Angry Bear

ArkansasTimes:

Dumond goes viral UPDATE — Mike Huckabee's advocacy of rapist/killer Wayne Dumond's release has hit YouTube in a piece Talking Points Memo terms brutal in the course of looking into its provenance. The mother of Dumond's Missouri murder victim is featured. — An Arkansas Republican, Keith Emis, takes responsibility.