memeorandum: U.S. Fears Greater Turmoil In Region (Washington Post)

10:50 AM ET, December 29, 2007

Top Items:

Huckabee Slipping — WASHINGTON — While public polls show Mike Huckabee leading Mitt Romney in Iowa, a new survey of an oversized sample shows Huckabee slipping and no longer ahead of Romney. — A private corporate interest commissioned a phone bank survey of 15,000 Iowans …

Discussion: Power Line

Washington Post:

Romney Eyes Huckabee Lead — Onetime Favorite Launches 11th-Hour Attacks — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney launched a fresh attack Friday on rival Mike Huckabee, raising the stakes in the tense two-person contest in Iowa that could prove critical to both candidates' hopes of winning the GOP nomination.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The New Republic, MSNBC and Slate

Marc Hansen / Des Moines Register:

McCain could be comeback codger — Every four years, it seems, one of the presidential candidates left for dead rises from the tomb and surprises everyone on caucus night. — Around this time in 2004, John Kerry and John Edwards came alive, finishing first and second. — Who will it be this time?

Discussion: The Caucus

Jill Zuckman / The Swamp:
McCain to Romney: ‘Try to relax, Mitt’

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Politico

Howard Kurtz / The Trail:
Romney Rips McCain on Senate Record

Discussion: TIME, TownHall Blog, Washington Wire, The Caucus, The Swamp and SCHotline Press Releases

Jesus H Christ / The Huffington Post:

Bill Kristol To Become New York Times Columnist In 2008 — The Huffington Post has learned that, in a move bound to create controversy, the New York Times is set to announce that Bill Kristol will become a weekly columnist in 2008. Kristol, a prominent neo-conservative who recently departed …

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Kristol To The NYT — He's obviously an extremely talented writer …

Discussion: UrbanGrounds, alicublog, The Agitator, Unqualified Offerings and LewRockwell.com Blog

Patrick Healy / New York Times:

Crisis Overseas Is Sudden Test for Candidates — WEBSTER CITY, Iowa — For the presidential candidates, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has emerged as a ghoulish sort of test: a chance to project leadership and competence — or not — on a fast-moving and nuanced foreign policy issue.

Discussion: The Politico, Jules Crittenden, Brendan Nyhan, Prairie Weather, Democratic Strategist, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Note

Washington Post:

U.S. Fears Greater Turmoil In Region — Pakistan's Crisis Could Affect War In Afghanistan — President Bush held an emergency meeting of his top foreign policy aides yesterday to discuss the deepening crisis in Pakistan, as administration officials and others explored whether Thursday's assassination …

Discussion: AMERICAblog, PBD, Prairie Weather, MSNBC, CNN and New York Times

Roger Simon / The Politico:
Dodd unloads on Obama and Clinton

Discussion: CNN, JammieWearingFool, PoliGazette, Hot Air and The Swamp

Agence France Presse:
Clinton demands international Bhutto probe

Discussion: CTV.ca, Wizbang, Forbes, TPM Election Central, Power Line, BitsBlog, Truthdig and Buck Naked Politics

Matt Bai / New York Times:

Invisible Blogger — The sidewalks of Harlem's main thoroughfares are wide and inviting, and in the 1960s the kids playing “boxball” shared the asphalt squares with some of the greatest orators in creation. The most famous spot for speechifying was the “Speakers' Corner” …

Discussion: Group News Blog, driftglass, American Street and Althouse

New York Times:

In Surprise Step, Bush Is Vetoing a Military Bill — CRAWFORD, Tex. — For months President Bush harangued Democrats in Congress for not moving quickly enough to support the troops and for bogging down military bills with unrelated issues. — And then on Friday, with no warning …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, MSNBC and Reuters

Kagro X / Daily Kos:
Bush claims Senate's pro forma sessions don't count

Discussion: Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, Group News Blog, Hullabaloo, Prometheus 6, White House and Open Left

Office of the Speaker / The Gavel:
Pelosi and Reid Condemn Bush Plan to Veto of Defense Authorization Bill

Discussion: Washington Post, White House, The Discerning Texan, The Democratic Daily, Big Brass Blog, The Sideshow, Buck Naked Politics, Greatscat!, Emptywheel, USA Today, New York Times and Flopping Aces

Greg Giroux / CQ Politics:

Lott's Mississippi Senate Successor Gets Named on Monday — There will be a New Year's Eve Senate name-dropping in Mississippi, when Republican Gov. Haley Barbour is scheduled to announce his appointee as the interim replacement to resigned Republican Sen. Trent Lott.

Discussion: Cliff Schecter

Bill Minor / Clarion-Ledger:
Has Barbour set stage for ‘lifetime job’ for GOP Senate seat?

Discussion: Hattiesburg American

Janny Scott / New York Times:

A Biracial Candidate Walks His Own Fine Line — The 2006 Democratic primary campaign for the presidency of the Cook County Board of Commissioners was vintage Chicago politics. — The incumbent was an aging party loyalist, mayoral confederate and institution in black Chicago.

Discussion: TalkLeft and MSNBC

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

John Edwards: Obama 'Living in Never-Never Land'? — Edwards Criticizes Rivals as the Campaign in Iowa Enters the Home Stretch — In a wide-ranging, free-wheeling interview with Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards with ABC News Friday afternoon, the former North Carolina senator labeled …

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Political Radar, Jules Crittenden, Associated Press, TigerHawk, MyDD and TPM Election Central

ABCNEWS:
John Edwards: Obama 'Living in Never-Never Land'?

Discussion: Hot Air and TalkLeft

Michael Cooper / New York Times:

Giuliani, Seeking to Gain Ground, Returns to a Familiar Theme: 9/11 — FORT DODGE, Iowa — With his campaign hitting a rocky patch just before the first votes are cast, Rudolph W. Giuliani is returning to the themes that transformed him from a lame-duck mayor of New York City …

Discussion: New York Post and Horses Mouth

Michael Kamber / New York Times:

Shame of Imported Labor in Kurdish North of Iraq — SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — The tiny Filipino woman's hands trembled. She was in hiding, fearing capture at any moment. — She and a friend had come to Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish north as guest workers six months earlier.

Discussion: IraqPundit and American Street

CNN:

Bhutto aide suggests cover-up — KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) — A top aide who helped bathe Benazir Bhutto's body after her death said it was clear that the former Pakistani prime minister suffered bullet wounds to her head, contrary to a government report that she died because she hit her head on a sunroof lever.

Discussion: The Impolitic and On Deadline

Sabrina Eaton / OPENERS:

Kucinich backers mad over Pizza Hut ad — A new Pizza Hut ad (see YouTube video above) that uses slices of presidential debate commentary to tout a cut-rate pizza deal has angered backers of Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich. — “Are people seeing lower prices now?” …

Discussion: Rox Populi and Cliff Schecter

David Harsanyi / Reason:

The Amateurs' Hour — Is the Internet destroying our culture, or is it just annoying our snobs? — The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture, by Andrew Keen, New York: Currency, 228 pages, $22.95 — Andrew Keen's website claims, without a hint of humility …

Discussion: Michael J. Totten