memeorandum: MINORITY REPORTS — After New Hampshire, a hint of racial politics. (Ryan Lizza/New Yorker)

6:30 PM ET, January 12, 2008

Top Items:

Clintons Move to Tamp Down Criticism From Blacks About Recent Comments — WASHINGTON — The Clinton campaign moved Friday to try to quell a potentially damaging reaction to recent comments by Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton that have drawn criticism from African-Americans …

Ryan Lizza / New Yorker:

MINORITY REPORTS — After New Hampshire, a hint of racial politics. … The brief interregnum between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary may be remembered as a time when it appeared that the magical qualities ascribed to Barack Obama included an ability to suspend all the ordinary rules of politics.

Discussion: American Street

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Newt: Hillary shows courage, integrity — Newt Gingrich's on-again, off-again adulation of Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be back on. — The leader of the 1994 Republican revolution — who as House speaker in the mid 1990s clashed fiercely with then-first lady Clinton and her husband …

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Obama Giving Clinton a Race in Her Backyard — With Senator Barack Obama vowing to challenge Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on her home turf, the Democratic presidential primary in New York on Feb. 5 is shaping up as the state's most competitive since 1992, when Bill Clinton took up a rival's mantra …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Moderate Voice, New York Daily News Blogs, Captain's Quarters, Stumper and Prairie Weather

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Edwards Will Face a Moment of Truth After South Carolina Primary

Discussion: Firedoglake, Buck Naked Politics, The Caucus, The Politico, The Sideshow, Blue Crab Boulevard, Prairie Weather and The Huffington Post

Washington Post:
U.S. Political Drama Compels — and Baffles

Discussion: Think Progress, Needlenose and Daniel W. Drezner

Wayne Washington / The State:
Clinton camp hits Obama | Attacks ‘painful’ for black voters

Discussion: The Caucus and QandO

Booman Tribune:
The Clintons' Racial Strategy

Discussion: Firedoglake, Oliver Willis and Open Left

George W. Bush / Newsweek:

Sorry, Barack, You've lost Iraq. — Bush's efforts to negotiate a long-term U.S-Iraq pact may remove troops as an '08 election issue for Obama, Clinton. — Camp Arifjan in the desert kingdom of Kuwait, America's depot to the Iraq war, feels about as far away as you can get from South Carolina …

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal, Wizbang and Cliff Schecter

Gateway Pundit:

VICTORY!... In Kuwait Bush Claims Surge a Huge Success! (Video) — “History will say, it was when you were called upon, you served, and the service you rendered was absolutely necessary to defeat an enemy overseas so we do not have to face them here at home...”

The State:

John McCain clearly the best in GOP primary — FOR SOUTH CAROLINA, and to some extent for the nation, the choice among Republican candidates for president has come down to two men. — First Rudy Giuliani, then Mitt Romney looked at political realities and fled the Palmetto State, deciding their priorities lay elsewhere.

Discussion: race42008.com

Robert Novak / Real Clear Politics:
Women vs. Oprah

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Carpetbagger Report and Bookworm Room

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Joe Won't Be The Veep Pick For McCain

Discussion: PSoTD and PoliGazette

Steve Friess / New York Times:

Teachers Sue to Block Hotel Workers' Union Vote in Nevada Caucus — LAS VEGAS — Nevada's state teachers union and six Las Vegas area residents filed a lawsuit late Friday that could make it harder for many members of the state's huge hotel workers union to vote in the hotly contested Jan. 19 Democratic caucus in Nevada.

Discussion: protein wisdom, TalkLeft, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Trail, Blue Crab Boulevard, Daily Kos and Taylor Marsh

Las Vegas Sun:
Voting on the Strip a no-no, suit says

Discussion: TPM Election Central

Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press:

Iraq to reinstate Saddam party followers — BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament passed a benchmark law Saturday allowing lower-ranking former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to reclaim government jobs, the first major piece of U.S.-backed legislation it has adopted.

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, The Reaction, Liberty Street, Balloon Juice, QandO and State of the Day

Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:

Ben Nelson To Endorse Obama — Now this is a predictable development as Ben Nelson is the king of bipartisanship, voting with Republicans more than any other Democrat: … Again, the national implications for me are not positive for Obama, they are negative.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Hotline On Call

Jake Thompson / Omaha World-Herald:
Nelson's support shows broad Obama appeal

Discussion: Daily Kos

Francis Wilkinson / New York Times:
Fighting to Lose — Nyack, N.Y. — IF parts of Hillary …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and The Plank

Rudyg / Stumper:

Blumenthal On the Boil — Sidney Blumenthal plays hardball. A longtime confidante and adviser to the Clintons, he has zealously defended them through any number of scandal investigations. Along the way, Blumenthal has shown an affinity for the sharp counterattack.

Discussion: TalkLeft, NewsBusters.org, Cold Fury, BizzyBlog, UrbanGrounds and Daily Pundit

Stephanie Hooper / Nashuatelegraph.com:
Clinton adviser arrested in Nashua

Discussion: BitsBlog

Paul Vitello / New York Times:

A Combative Thompson Sways Voters — MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — John and Ann Berenberk dutifully watched the umpteenth Republican presidential debate on television on Thursday night and had an epiphany. It was about the candidate they had previously referred to as the tall, silent one. Fred D. Thompson.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Wake up America, QandO, Fausta's blog, Fred File, Daily Pundit and PoliGazette

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Dissent Of The Day — A reader writes:

Discussion: TalkLeft and The RBC

Navy Times:

‘Filipino Monkey’ may be behind radio threats, ship drivers say — The threatening radio transmission heard at the end of a video showing harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a locally famous heckler known among ship drivers as the “Filipino Monkey.”

Discussion: In From the Cold, SWJ Blog, rubber hose, toohotfortnr, Emptywheel and CANNONFIRE

Joan Z. Shore / The Huffington Post:

They're Driving Us Crazy (or, A Couple More Reasons Why I Love France) — First, it was Voter ID: The idea of issuing official identity cards that would be required in order to vote. — Now, it's officially-certified driving licenses, in order to board a domestic flight. — What next?

Discussion: Don Surber

Reuters:

Saudi activist released ahead of Bush's visit — Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has released a reform activist just days before a visit by US President George W. Bush. — Mohammad Al Bijadi was detained by state security police in the northern town of Buraida on Wednesday, the latest of a series …

Washington Post:

Objects From Iranian Boats Posed No Threat, Navy Says — The small, boxlike objects dropped in the water by Iranian boats as they approached U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday posed no threat to the American vessels, U.S. officials said yesterday, even as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs …

Discussion: AMERICAblog