memeorandum: Defensible Missile Defense (Theodore Postol/New York Times)

1:00 PM ET, March 12, 2009

Top Items:

Steele backs off abortion remarks — RNC Chairman Michael Steele said today that despite telling an interviewer he supports “individual choice” and state-level decisions on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban. — Steele said in a statement through an RNC spokesman:

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

TIMEBOMB, POSTDATED THREE WEEKS? — Ever since I read Michael Steele's trainwreck interview with GQ that came out yesterday, I've been wondering, he thought this was a good moment to give a let it all hang out interview? — Remember, this is the one where he appeared to forget in real …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, La Shawn Barber's Corner, RedState, Ben Smith's Blog, PoliticalBase.com Blog and Washington Monthly

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Steele reverses himself on choice — For the third time in his short tenure as RNC chair, Steele has fumbled a media appearance, this time on abortion, and had to reverse himself afterwards. Steele told an interviewer that he thought abortion was a matter of personal choice and that it should be regulated by the states.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, JustOneMinute, The Note, PBD, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Corner, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Huffington Post and Say Anything

Alexander Mooney / CNN: Steele forced to clarify abortion stance

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Steele Steps In It (Again)

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Pam's House Blend, MSNBC and Ta-Nehisi Coates

David S. Broder / Washington Post:

The Country's Loss — The Obama administration has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place, and their friends on Capitol Hill. The country has lost an able public servant in an area where President Obama has few personal credentials …

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Commentary

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The distorting effect of anonymity — (updated below) — In response to the criticisms I wrote last week of the widespread and baseless grants of anonymity by journalists, Julian Sanchez responds that, while he largely agrees with the objections I raise, it is a more complicated problem …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Mondoweiss, TalkLeft, The Smirking Chimp, Balloon Juice and Democracy in America

John Podhoretz / Commentary: Allow Me to Twirl My Evil Moustache (or Payess, If You Know What I Mean)

Washington Post:
Blame the ‘Lobby’ — FORMER ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Huffington Post, Little Green Footballs, Informed Comment, Israpundit, Taylor Marsh, Jeffrey Goldberg, Israel Matzav, Commentary, Yourish.com, Weekly Standard, The New Republic and The Cable

Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
Influence of Israel Lobby Debated as Intelligence Pick Casts Blame for Pullout

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Ben Smith's Blog, Mondoweiss, Brian Beutler, NPR, Capital J | JTA, Yourish.com, Spin Cycle and Commentary

Charles Lane / PostPartisan:
The Real Chas Freeman

Discussion: Jeffrey Goldberg

New York Times:
Israel Stance Was Undoing of Nominee for Intelligence Post

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Michael Calderone's Blog, Mideast Peace Pulse, Kausfiles, Foreign Policy, Commentary, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, TPMCafe and Israel Matzav

Ben Smith / The Politico:

2 arrests in Obama appointee's office — Federal agents this morning are searching the office Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer. — The search of the office at 1 Judiciary Square is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI's D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said.

Discussion: D.C. Wire, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs, RedState, TPMMuckraker and JammieWearingFool

WTOP.com:

2 arrested in FBI raid at Obama appointee's office — WASHINGTON - Two officials in the D.C.'s Office of the Chief Technology Officer have been arrested in a federal bribery sting, sources tell WTOP. — D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employees Sushil Bansal and 40-year-old Yusuf Acar …

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Michelle Malkin and Wonkette

Del Quentin Wilber / Washington Post:

D.C. Official Arrested in Federal Bribery Sting — An official in the D.C. government's office of the chief technology officer has been arrested in a federal bribery sting, according to law enforcement sources. — Yusuf Acar, 40, was taken into custody this morning by FBI agents at his home in Northwest Washington, the sources said.

Discussion: DCist, The Raw Story and Say Anything

Lisa Schiffren / The Corner:

Young Miss Palin — A mere ten weeks or so after the birth of their baby, Bristol Palin and her co-parent, Levi Johnston, have split up. There will be no marriage. According to the AP, and Mr. Johnston, it was a mutual decision. The same article manages to note that Bristol is devastated.

Rachel D'Oro / Associated Press:
Alaska Gov. Palin's daughter, fiance break up

Discussion: The New Republic, MSNBC, Swampland and The Impolitic

Associated Press: Alaska Gov. Palin's Daughter, Boyfriend Break Up

Bloomberg:

Madoff Life in Prison Means Inmates Who Blame Money Man for Crash — Bernard Madoff, scheduled to plead guilty today to masterminding the largest Ponzi scheme in history, may have to fight off prison inmates who want to squeeze him for money or blame him for the Wall Street crash.

Discussion: Associated Press, TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh and CNBC

New York Times:

Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty — Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to all the charges against him and expressed remorse for a vast Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars. — Standing before Judge Denny Chin in United States District Court in Manhattan …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Atlantic Business Channel, DealBook, New York Post, New York Magazine and Runnin' Scared

Jimmy Orr / Christian Science Monitor:

New Limbaugh billboard slogan announced - creativity was not considered — E-mail a friend - Print this - Letter to the Editor - Republish - - Get e-mail alerts - RSS — Setting a world record today for beating a dead horse, the Democratic National Committee will announce they've selected …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Don Surber

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Obama's honeymoon bliss fading — President Obama's honeymoon is beginning to fade. — Members of Congress and old political hands say he needs to show substantial progress reviving the economy soon. — Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don't and won't understand …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, WillCollier.com, pandagon.net, QandO, AMERICAblog News and The Reaction

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Paved With Magnificent Intentions — Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, described Washington as a “city of magnificent intentions” because of the incongruity between the city's grand aspirations and muddy, swampy actuality. Today Washington's discrepancy is not architectural but political.

Discussion: Commentary

Forbes:
How Low Can The Stock Markets Go?

Discussion: The Campaign Spot

Edward Yeranian / Voice of America:

Iraqi Shoe-Thrower Sentenced to Three Years in Prison — The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush during a farewell visit to Baghdad has been sentenced by an Iraqi court to three years in prison. — The trial of Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi …

Maria Recio / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration — WASHINGTON — President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.

Discussion: CBS News, The Impolitic, Fox News, QandO and Connecting.the.Dots

Wall Street Journal:

Obama Makes Use of Signing Statements — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed a $410 billion spending bill Wednesday that includes thousands of pet projects inserted by lawmakers, even as he unveiled new rules to restrict such so-called earmarks. — At the same time …

Discussion: The Opinionator, New York Times, NO QUARTER, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Chicago Tribune, The Next Right, QandO, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Wizbang

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:

The most technologically progressive decade of the 20th century — Can you guess? According to economic historian Alexander Field, it is (controversially) the 1930s. Opening paragraph: — Because of the Depression's place in both the popular and academic imagination …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Theodore Postol / New York Times:

Defensible Missile Defense — IN his recent letter to President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia, President Obama offered to modify the previous administration's plans for a missile defense system in Europe. He was right to do so. A continued impasse with Russia might have prevented future arms reductions …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Foundry and Outside The Beltway

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

KEEP YOUR EYE OUT — As I said last night, I think Michael Steele's forgetting that he's pro-life in his interview with Lisa DePaulo may finally bring some GOPers off the sidelines and pushing to get this guy to step down. You're going to get Christian conservatives saying that he should go, presumably.

Wall Street Journal:

Recession Thinned Ranks of Washington Lobbyists Last Year — WASHINGTON — The recession has hit K Street, home of the Washington influence business. — The number of active lobbyists declined 2% in 2008 to 15,900, recording its first yearly drop in seven years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of public records.

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel and The Washington Independent