memeorandum: Saudi activist released ahead of Bush's visit (Reuters)

5:50 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 …

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

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.

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

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

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

Discussion: QandO

Meghan Daum / Los Angeles Times:
Hillary's gotta have it — In courting the voters, maybe she should play by ‘The Rules.’

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings

Booman Tribune:
The Clintons' Racial Strategy

Discussion: Firedoglake, Oliver Willis and Open Left

The Caucus:
Bill Clinton Tries to Tamp Down ‘Fairy-Tale’ Remark About Obama

Discussion: TPM Election Central, Horses Mouth, Salon and The Swamp

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: 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...”

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, Daily Kos and Taylor Marsh

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

Discussion: The Daily Dish and 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

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
De-Baathification Reform Law Passes In Iraqi Parliament

Discussion: Redstate, Jules Crittenden, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Wake up America and Cadillac Tight

Cernig / The Newshoggers: De-Baathification Passes

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

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

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

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Chris Matthews stands behind his words — Chris Matthews has been taking a lot of heat over his vitriolic analysis of Hillary Clinton's political career during MSNBC's coverage of the NH primary. Is it possible that Hillary might have won her Senate seat without the scandal that Bill was involved in?

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Daily Kos and skippy the bush kangaroo

Media Matters for America:
“Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser

Discussion: The Impolitic, QandO, Making Light, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Sweet Jesus …, Group News Blog and The Reaction

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

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