memeorandum: Plan B For Pelosi And Reid (E. J. Dionne Jr/Washington Post)

2:55 PM ET, December 14, 2007

Top Items:

Election 2008: Florida Republican Primary — Florida: Huckabee 27% Romney 23% Giuliani 19% — Mitt Romney's strategy for winning the Republican nomination was to win the early states and build momentum. Rudy Giuliani's plan was to accept defeats in the early states and come back strong …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Associated Press, The Corner, Hot Air, Riehl World View, The Caucus Cooler, Below The Beltway, eyeon08.com and Taegan Goddard's …

CNN Political Ticker:

S.C. poll: Huckabee bolts to top of GOP; Obama cuts into Clinton lead — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee surged to the top among Republican presidential candidates in South Carolina, while Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead over Sen. Barack Obama among Democrats narrowed since July in that state, according to a new poll.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Outside The Beltway, Balloon Juice, The Swamp, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Carpetbagger Report, Comments from Left Field, TPM Election Central, Below The Beltway, Reason Magazine, Riehl World View, New York Observer, PoliBlog (TM) and Marc Ambinder

Sarah Liebowitz / Concord Monitor:

Obama edges Clinton in poll — Romney well ahead in 'Monitor' survey — December 14. — Barack Obama has come from behind to turn the Democratic presidential race in New Hampshire into a toss-up, according to a new Monitor opinion poll. The results - which show Obama with a one-point edge …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, michellemalkin.com, USA Today, CNN Political Ticker, MSNBC, TIME, MyDD, Washington Post, TIME: Swampland, TPM Election Central, Obama HQ, Pollster.com, Blue Hampshire, Taegan Goddard's … and Raising Kaine

Associated Press:

How the 2008 candidates chill out — WASHINGTON - In the midst of furious campaigning, The Associated Press asked presidential candidates to reflect on what they like to do on a lazy day. — Their answers: — DEMOCRATS: — New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: "Reading, crossword puzzles …

Discussion: Hot Air

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News:
New polls in the Michigan primary campaign

Discussion: The Corner, eyeon08.com and RIGHTWINGSPARKLE

Ed Tibbetts / Quad City Times:
Obama, Huckabee lead new Iowa poll

Discussion: Pollster.com and TPM Election Central

Rich Lowry / National Review:

Huckacide — Editor's note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext 246). — The ghost of Howard Dean haunts the pundit class.

Discussion: The Anonymous Liberal, Swords Crossed, The New Republic, Balloon Juice, Riehl World View, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Sadly, No!

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

The Pulpit and the Potemkin Village — Would Reagan survive in today's GOP? And is Mrs. Clinton in for a fall this winter? — What is happening in Iowa is no longer boring but big, and may prove huge. — The Republican race looks—at the moment—to be determined primarily by one thing, the question of religious faith.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Ross Douthat, The Moderate Voice, PoliGazette, The American Scene, Washington Post, Political Machine, The Anchoress, No More Mister Nice Blog, Liberal Values, Stop The ACLU, QandO, Below The Beltway, Eunomia and Fred File

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:

Apologies From the Heart (of Darkness?) — It must be the season of apologies in presidential politics. — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized personally to Senator Barack Obama on Thursday for a top adviser's public suggestion that Republicans would go after Mr. Obama for his youthful drug use.

Discussion: New Hampshire Union Leader, Horses Mouth, Spin Cycle, NY Daily News, Political Machine, MSNBC, The RBC, CNN Political Ticker, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Swamp and Taylor Marsh

E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:

Plan B For Pelosi And Reid — Congressional Democrats need a Plan B. — Republicans chortle as they block Democratic initiatives — and accuse the majority of being unable to govern. Rank-and-filers are furious that their leaders can't end the Iraq war. President Bush sits back and vetoes at will.

Discussion: Washington Times, Corrente, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Glittering Eye and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Al Kamen / Washington Post:
Instead of Plum Appointments, Maybe a Lump of Coal

Discussion: New York Times, AMERICAblog and The Democratic Daily

Scarecrow / Firedoglake:
Will the Senate Gut the Constitution and FISA Again?

Discussion: Salon, Booman Tribune, The Newshoggers, Hullabaloo, The Strata-Sphere and Corrente

Matthew Yglesias:

Class Warfare — Here's a chart based on Paul Krugman's writeup of data from the CBO's new "Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates" report. Naturally, the only solution is tax cuts.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Shakespeare's Sister

Paul Krugman:
Bush boom bah

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:

Why Isn't Gore Running? — The White House is the place to battle global warming. — There he was again on the world stage—in Oslo this time—celebrating his Nobel Peace Prize with singer Melissa Etheridge and actress Uma Thurman, the Hollywood hottie who called him "adorable" …

Matthew Yglesias:
The Case for Gore — Michael Hirsch says Al Gore should run for president.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Michael Crowley / The New Republic:

Hillary's New Pitch: "No Surprises" — Johnston, Iowa— Hillary just held an extraordinary press conference here after taping an interview with Iowa public television in which she introduced a provocative new theme to her candidacy: "[T]here are no surprises."

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Obama's 'surprises'? — Clinton didn't mention specifics …

Discussion: The Swamp

Ali / Think Progress:

600: — Percent the cost of government paper-shredding has increased since President Bush took office. USASpending tracked how the government spent $452,807 on contracts for paper-shredding services in 2000, only to see that number rise astronomically to over $2.9 million in 2006.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

RADAR:
BUSH SECRET SHREDDING SOARS

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Newshoggers

CNN Political Ticker:

Veteran GOP strategist signs on with Huckabee — WASHINGTON (CNN) — A veteran Republican strategist considered by many the architect of Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide election victory is set to take the helm of Mike Huckabee's surging presidential bid, CNN has learned.

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The New Republic, Boston Globe and Donklephant

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Rove, Bolten Found in Contempt of Congress — Senate Committee Cites Top Bush Advisers in Probe of U.S. Attorney Firings — A Senate panel found former presidential adviser Karl Rove and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten in contempt of Congress yesterday for refusing …

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics, The Democratic Daily, Daily Kos, The Newshoggers, Comments from Left Field, Crooks and Liars and Shakespeare's Sister

Paul Waldman / American Prospect:

ENHANCED BULLS***T TECHNIQUES. — As we go around and around on waterboarding yet again, I couldn't help noticing that I cannot recall a single instance in which I've seen a journalist simply refer to waterboarding and similar methods of interrogation as "torture."

Discussion: Washington Monthly

BBC:

Iraqi oil exceeds pre-war output — Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). — The IEA said Iraqi crude production is now running at 2.3 million barrels per day, compared with 1.9 million barrels at the start of this year.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Dean's World

The Corner:

Omar the Actor — In conservative circles, I take a lot of ribbing for the fact that I used to work for The New York Times. But during the years I was at the paper, my editors held us to a very high standard. Apparently, things have changed. — The most recent example is the Times quoting …