memeorandum: White House Formalizes Supreme Court Short List (Theresa Cook/Legalities)

9:55 PM ET, May 7, 2009

Top Items:

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

Thou Shall Not Mock Obama's Mustard — My post the other day, MSNBC Hides Obama's Dijon Mustard (aka Dijongate), has hit a nerve unlike anything else I have written. — The post concerned the lunch trip of Obama and Biden to a burger shop to get a “Hell Burger.”

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Moonbattery, Fausta's Blog and Moe Lane

Media Matters for America:

Dijon Derangement Syndrome: Conservative media attack Obama for burger order — SUMMARY: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Steyn criticized President Obama as an elitist because he ordered a burger with “spicy mustard” or “Dijon mustard.” — Following President Obama's May 5 visit …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Salon and Gawker

The Huffington Post:
Hannity Attacks Obama For Putting Mustard On His Burger [UPDATED]

Discussion: BuzzFlash.org

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Latest right-wing-lunatic smear about Obama: Dijongate

Discussion: Gawker and TIME.com

Lindsey Ellerson / The Note:

Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. '02 — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Human Events, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Gun Toting Liberal, ATTACKERMAN, The Hill, Brutally Honest, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, The Daily Dish, Wake up America, me and Weekly Standard

pa2010.com:

BREAKING NEWS: Ridge won't run for Senate — After much speculation, former Gov. Tom Ridge today announced that he would not seek the GOP nomination for Senate next year. — In a statement, Ridge said he had been heartened by the support and encouragement he received from within the party …

Discussion: TPMDC, PittsburghLIVE.com, Scorecard's Blog, Open Left, FiveThirtyEight, MyDD, Newshoggers.com, Michelle Malkin and Talking Points Memo

Kos / Daily Kos:

PA-Sen: Baseline poll — Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/4-6. Likely voters. MoE 4%, 5% for primary oversamples. — First off, it's a good thing former Gov. Tom Ridge decided he had better things to do, because he was facing just as tough slow as a “moderate Republican” in a GOP primary as Specter would've.

Discussion: Swing State Project, Scorecard's Blog, PoliticalBase.com Blog, TPMDC, The Note, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Open Left

Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:

GOP relies on Specter-like recruits — For many Republicans, including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, the reaction to Sen. Arlen Specter's party switch was unequivocal: good riddance. — Yet even as his jilted former party slams the door behind him …

Discussion: Indecision Forever

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
RIDGE NOT RUNNING — From NBC's Domenico Montanaro

Discussion: D-Day

Jeffrey Rosen / The New Republic:

More Sotomayor — Rosen responds to his critics. — I've just returned from London to find that my piece on Sonia Sotomayor has provoked an energetic response in the blogosphere. — RELATED CONTENT — Just (5/7/09): The Upside Of Nominating A Lesbian To The Court

Discussion: TalkLeft, Salon, The Atlantic Politics Channel, TPMDC, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Media Matters for America, Balloon Juice, Think Progress, The American Scene, DailyHowler.com, The XX Factor, Crooks and Liars, Law Blog and Ta-Nehisi Coates

Theresa Cook / Legalities:

White House Formalizes Supreme Court Short List — The White House has formalized its short list of Supreme Court contenders and asked six prospects to provide personal background information, with an intensive vetting process well underway, according to sources close to the process.

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy and Bench Memos

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Hatch: Sotomayor has ‘a problem’ — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Thursday that Judge Sonia Sotomayor's past statement that the “court of appeals is where policy is made” would be a problem for her if she were nominated for the Supreme Court. — “That's a problem,” Hatch said during …

Discussion: Liberty Street, The Anonymous Liberal and DISSENTING JUSTICE

Aaron Belkin / The Huffington Post:

Obama To Fire His First Gay Arabic Linguist — Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, received notice today that the military is about to fire him. Why? Because he came out of the closet as a gay man on national television.

Discussion: Think Progress, Hot Air and D-Day

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Obama Fires A Military Linguist

Discussion: Don Surber

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Obama Tells Journalists To Stress “Significant” Nature Of Budget Cuts — In remarks on his administration's proposed $17 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget this morning, President Obama was somewhat on the defensive against charges that his cuts don't amount to much considering that next year's total budget amounts to $3.4 trillion.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, JammieWearingFool, USA Today and Commentary

Bloomberg:
Obama Proposes Saving $17 Billion by Cutting Programs

Discussion: Swampland, Gateway Pundit and D-Day

Washington Post:
Obama Releases Details of $3.4 Trillion Budget Plan

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, The Corner, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Ace of Spades HQ, theblogprof, Don Surber, Associated Press, Michelle Malkin, Brutally Honest and Hot Air

Conor Clarke / The Atlantic Business Channel:
Why Peter Orszag Reminds Me of John McCain

Discussion: Salon, Washington Post, The Foundry, PoliGazette and Democracy in America

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Presenting ... The GOP's New “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act”! — A House GOP staffer sends over a summary of the “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act,” which the GOP leadership plans to unveil later today at a press conference, in keeping with the stepped-up national security attacks on Obama I noted here yesterday.

Discussion: The Note, The Washington Independent, Creeping Sharia, Washington Monthly, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and American Power

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
The Keep Terrorists Out of America Act

Discussion: The American Scene

The Plum Line:
Summary Of “The Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act”

Discussion: Stop The ACLU, D-Day and Liberty Street

Fox News:
Lawmakers Spar Over Closing Guantanamo Prison

Discussion: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Politics Daily and RedState

Michael Grunwald / Time:

Republicans in Distress: Is the Party Over? — These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species. They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Note, Washington Monthly, Politics Daily, All Spin Zone, DownWithTyranny! and Think Progress

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Joe The Plumber — Quitting The GOP?

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, DownWithTyranny!, Indecision Forever and D-Day

Walter Pincus / CJR:

Newspaper Narcissism — Our pursuit of glory led us away from readers — American journalism is in trouble, and the problem is not just financial. My profession is in distress because for more than a decade it has been chasing the false idols of fame and fortune.

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Matthew Yglesias, Philly.com, Neptunus Lex and Outside The Beltway

Rasmussen Reports:

Election 2010: Texas Republican Primary — Texas Governor's Primary A Toss-Up — Texas Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison find themselves essentially tied in an early look at their 2010 Primary battle. — The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey shows …

Discussion: Burnt Orange Report, Off the Kuff and PoliTex

Mark Joseph / Fox News:

Leahy Blocks Democrats' Deal to Give Specter Judiciary Subcommittee Chair — Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois has volunteered to give up his chairmanship of the crime subcommittee to GOP-turned-Dem Sen. Arlen Specter, but Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy says not so fast. — FOXNews.com

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Manu Raju / The Politico:
No seniority guarantees for Specter

Discussion: Commentary

Jeff Greenwald / Salon:

Obama is Spock: It's quite logical — “Star Trek” is a cultural comet. From its tiny, ancient core — a mere 79 episodes, airing before we set foot on the moon — a seemingly infinite tail has grown, its glow still bright after 43 years. The original series (featuring James T. Kirk …

Discussion: TigerHawk

Marc Bain / Newsweek:
Enterprise Ethics — The original ‘Star Trek’ series dealt …

Discussion: protein wisdom and Moe Lane

Hillary Chabot / Boston Herald:

Free cars for poor fuel road rage — Gov. Deval Patrick's free wheels for welfare recipients program is revving up despite the stalled economy, as the keys to donated cars loaded with state-funded insurance, repairs and even AAA membership are handed out to get them to work.

Discussion: The New Republic and Don Surber

Dan Nephin / Associated Press:

Government to condemn land for Flight 93 memorial — PITTSBURGH - One man inherited property that his grandfather bought during the Depression. A Lutheran pastor owns a cottage where he planned to retire with his wife. Two others own businesses. — But they and other property owners …

Discussion: Hot Air, Creeping Sharia and Atlas Shrugs

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Fresh GOP Infighting: First Shots Fired In 2012 Primary? — Uh oh — looks like the 2012 GOP primary, or at least a preview of it, is getting underway. — In a fresh round of GOP infighting over the soul of the battered party, Mike Huckabee just took a shot at a host of potential primary rivals …

Discussion: CNN, Right Wing Watch, MyDD and Ben Smith's Blog

Anne Schroeder Mullins / Anne Schroeder's Blog:

Franken schools heckler — Politicians and stand-up comedians both get plenty of hecklers. And it looks like Al Franken, as both a comedian and the still-disputed senator from Minnesota, is getting his fair share these days. — On Tuesday night, at Bobby Van's on 15th Street near the White House …

Discussion: Politics Daily

Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:

Teenage Bomb Threat Suspect Was Internet Prank-Call Star — A 16-year-old North Carolina boy arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat against Purdue University had a secret identity as a superstar in an unusual online subculture — one dedicated to making prank phone calls for a live internet audience, his mother admitted Thursday.

Discussion: The Daily Dish and LewRockwell.com Blog

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Cheney to GOP: ‘It would be a mistake for us to moderate’ — Dick Cheney did an interview today with Scott Hennen, a North Dakota radio host, whose staff sent over a transcript (after the jump), defending the Bush administration and advising the Republican Party to stay with its roots.

Discussion: Think Progress

Meghan McCain / Blogs and Stories:

The GOP Doesn't Understand Sex — Blogs and Stories — Bristol Palin's new abstinence campaign shines a light on the Republican Party's unhealthy attitude about sex and desire. — The first time I ever heard about oral sex was during the Lewinsky scandal.

Discussion: Politics Daily and Wonkette