memeorandum: Scanning for a GOP Running Mate (Gerald Seib/Wall Street Journal)

10:25 AM ET, March 11, 2008

Top Items:

Brian Ross / ABCNEWS:

It Wasn't the Sex; Suspicious $$ Transfers Led to Spitzer — Officials Say Spitzer Is ‘Client 9’ in a Federal Complaint Against the Prostitution Ring — The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers …

Scott Horton / Harper's:

The Spitzer Sex Sting: A Few More Questions — It looks like the Bush Justice Department just bagged themselves another Democratic Governor. Here's the New York Times on the story: … On the other hand, ABC News this evening offers a starkly different account of how the investigation got launched.

Discussion: protein wisdom, No More Mister Nice Blog, Majikthise, Balloon Juice, TalkLeft, Slate, Open Left, The Mahablog, I Am TRex, DownWithTyranny!, Corrente, Law Blog, ConnecticutBLOG and D-Day

New York Times:

Mr. Spitzer's ‘Private Matter’ — New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer could not have been more wrong in his brief public appearance after the world learned that he was suspected of patronizing a prostitution ring. He did not just betray his family in a private matter.

Discussion: Newsday, NY Daily News, New York Post, New York Sun, The Glittering Eye, PrairiePundit, Hot Air, Real Clear Politics, GINA COBB, JammieWearingFool, WCBS-TV and Publius Pundit

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Some Questions About the Spitzer Incident — ABC is reporting that Eliot Spitzer came under the attention of the Feds because his bank reported “suspicious money transfers” to the IRS. The Justice Department brought it to the FBI's Public Corruption Squad, who looked into it and found …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Harper's, The RBC, Off the Kuff, Shakesville, D-Day, DownWithTyranny!, Marc Ambinder and Attytood

Wall Street Journal:

Spitzer's Rise and Fall — One might call it Shakespearian if there were a shred of nobleness in the story of Eliot Spitzer's fall. There is none. Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined.

Discussion: City Room, BizzyBlog, TigerHawk and PrairiePundit

New York Times:

Spitzer Said to Be Weighing Resignation — ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer continued to weigh whether to resign early Tuesday, a day after law enforcement officials said he was a client of a high-end prostitution ring broken up last week by federal authorities.

William K. Rashbaum / New York Times:

Revelations Began in Routine Tax Inquiry — The rendezvous that established Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement with high-priced prostitutes occurred last month in one of Washington's grandest hotels, but the criminal investigation that discovered the tryst began last year in a nondescript …

Discussion: Spin Cycle, Associated Press, Feministe, At-Largely, Washington Post and Hullabaloo

Michelle Malkin:

Left and right agree: Eliot Spitzer must go — Cover of today's NYPost. — A survey of this morning's lead editorials in the NY press shows a bipartisan consensus: Eliot Spitzer has to go. Both left and right bristled at Spitzer's brief, arrogant, remorseless, and dishonest statement …

Discussion: New York Post, Hot Air and Riehl World View

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
Eliot Spitzer As Alexander Portnoy

Discussion: Time

Joseph Goldstein / New York Sun:
A Criminal Case Possible Under the Mann Act

Discussion: New York Post, City Room and Spin Cycle

Tim Graham / NewsBusters.org:
Early MSNBC Pundits Defend Spitzer, Lash Out at Prudish America

Discussion: Moonbattery and Roger L. Simon

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?

Discussion: New York Times, protein wisdom, michellemalkin.com, Jezebel, Moonbattery, Redstate, Firedoglake, CNN, Riehl World View, TRAIL BLAZERS, The Reaction and Slate

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo: BRIBERY CASE TURNED VICE BUST

Maria Gavrilovic / CBS News:

Obama Accuses Clinton of Using “Republican Tactics” — From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic: — JACKSON, MISS. — Barack Obama continued to go after Hillary Clinton this evening, accusing her of using “Republican tactics” against him. — “When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw …

Discussion: Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, The Fact Hub, The Trail, Connecting.the.Dots, TPM Election Central, The Moderate Voice, Gateway Pundit and Corrente

Clarion-Ledger:

Clinton or Obama? Mississippi's time to decide — Despite election fervor, moderate turnout expected — A close race between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama will draw more voters to the polls today than the last presidential primary, state officials predict.

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Charles Babington / Associated Press:
Obama hopes for win in Mississippi

Discussion: Associated Press, The Caucus and New York Times

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

How the Democrats Could Lose — By official count, The Post's 10th most e-mailed column of 2007 was published last June under the headline “How the GOP Could Win.” It said that the Republican Party would promote national security as the salient issue of the campaign, making a silk purse …

Discussion: Firedoglake and Booman Tribune

Mark Karlin / BuzzFlash.org:
The John McCain for President, Hillary Clinton for Vice President …

Discussion: Blogcritics Comments and The RBC

Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:

House Steers Its Own Path on Wiretaps — WASHINGTON — In continued defiance of the White House, House Democratic leaders are readying a proposal that would reject giving legal protection to the phone companies that helped in the National Security Agency's program of wiretapping without warrants …

Discussion: Hold Fast

William Branigin / Washington Post:
House Panel Sues to Force Bush Aides to Table

Discussion: Political Machine and cab drollery

Thomas de Zengotita / The Huffington Post:
Why The Spitzer Scandal Should Work For Obama

Discussion: Blogs of War

Orlando Patterson / New York Times:

The Red Phone in Black and White — ON first watching Hillary Clinton's recent “It's 3 a.m.” advertisement, I was left with an uneasy feeling that something was not quite right — something that went beyond my disappointment that she had decided to go negative. Repeated watching of the ad on YouTube increased my unease.

Discussion: Hot Air, Prairie Weather and Dean's World

Jeff Bliss / Bloomberg:

Obama-Clinton Race Creates Security Concerns for Secret Service — The political passions stirred by the Democratic presidential battle between the possible first black nominee and the possible first woman are also stirring security concerns on the part of the U.S. Secret Service.

Discussion: Unfogged

Froma Harrop / Real Clear Politics:

The Specter of McCain Democrats — A significant slice of Hillary Clinton's supporters — that is, moderate Democrats — might prefer McCain over Obama, or so I speculated a few weeks back. It was a hunch based on conversations and some suggestive but hardly definitive poll numbers.

Discussion: URGENT AGENDA, Donklephant, Don Surber and Republicans for Obama