memeorandum: She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It (Frank Rich/New York Times)

2:55 PM ET, July 12, 2009

Top Items:

Probe of Alleged Torture Weighed — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with administration officials who would prefer …

Discussion: New York Times, The Caucus, Balloon Juice, Right Wing Nut House, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, AMERICAblog News and Obsidian Wings

Washington Post:

Democrats May Investigate Secret Program — House Democrats said yesterday that they expect to launch a formal investigation into a secret CIA program that was not disclosed to Congress for almost eight years, a probe that could entangle senior Bush administration officials who oversaw intelligence issues.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Times, This ain't Hell … and The Page

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project — The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta …

Scott / Power Line:

How much damage did the Times do? — James Risen and Eric Lichtblau are the New York Times reporters who disclosed the highly classified NSA eavesdropping program in December 2005. In my view their behavior was blatantly illegal. In all likelikhood it did great damage to the national security of the United States.

Discussion: The Corner, Commentary and PERRspectives

Matt Corley / Think Progress:
GOP Responds To Cheney's Concealment Of CIA Program With Strawmen …

Discussion: The Politico and Washington Monthly

Daniel Klaidman / Newsweek:
Obama doesn't want to look back, but Attorney General Eric Holder …

Pamela Hess / Associated Press:
Report: Bush surveillance program was massive

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Holder Considers A Torture Prosecutor

Discussion: ATTACKERMAN, Salon, Emptywheel and Hullabaloo

Frank Rich / New York Times:

She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It — SARAH PALIN and Al Sharpton don't ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson's memorial service. When Sharpton told the singer's children it was their daddy's adversaries, not their daddy …

Discussion: Firedoglake, TalkLeft, Blogs and Stories, BuzzFlash.org, Newshoggers.com and Alternate Brain

Jordy Yager / The Hill:

McCain: Palin not a quitter — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) defended his former running mate Sarah Palin on Sunday, saying she wasn't a quitter and that her decision to resign as governor was consistent with his own leadership qualities. — McCain said Palin did not tell him she was resigning …

Discussion: The Swamp, Think Progress, PERRspectives and Washington Monthly

Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:

EXCLUSIVE: Palin plans to stay in politics — Brushing aside the criticisms of pundits and politicos, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she plans to jump immediately back into the national political fray — stumping for conservative issues and even Democrats — after she prematurely vacates her elected post at month's end.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Huffington Post, Tammy Bruce, The Page, Outside The Beltway, TBogg, PoliBlog and Conservatives4Palin.com

WCBS-TV:

Teen Girl Falls In Open Manhole While Texting — Alexa Longueira Suffers Deep Cuts, Bruises After Landing In Raw Sewage, Blames DEP For Leaving Hole Unattended — NEW YORK (CBS) ― It was an accident waiting to happen — an open sewer and a 15-year-old girl who was texting while she walked.

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY, The Moderate Voice, UrbanGrounds, American Power, Jules Crittenden and Scared Monkeys

Barack Obama / Washington Post:

Rebuilding Something Better — Nearly six months ago, my administration took office amid the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. At the time, we were losing, on average, 700,000 jobs a month. And many feared that our financial system was on the verge of collapse.

Discussion: KeithHennessey.com, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Hot Air, Macsmind and The Page

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / Washington Examiner:

Glenn Reynolds on the hidden cost of national health care — Lots of people are beginning to question the cost of President Barack Obama's healthcare “reform” plans, and with good reason. (Just compare the original projections for Medicare with what it wound up costing in reality).

Discussion: Liberal Values, Don Surber and TigerHawk

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Will ObamaCare threaten medical innovation? — Glenn Reynolds argues that the wait lines for treatments in a single-payer system are not the biggest concern. In a Washington Examiner column, Glenn relates personal stories of how his family members have benefited from innovation in medical treatments …

Discussion: Jules Crittenden

John O'Connor / The State:

Why tide against Sanford ebbed — Governor's wife, political realities helped put calls for resignation to rest — The shock had subsided. — Then Gov. Mark Sanford set the scandal ablaze again, saying he considered his Argentine lover his “soul mate” and saw her more often than he originally had said.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and Taegan Goddard's …

Amy Goldstein / Washington Post:

In Supreme Court Pick Sotomayor, an Insider's Rise Meets an Outsider's Doubts — In Sotomayor, an Insider's Achievements Meet an Outsider's Insecurities — Within weeks of arriving in New Haven as a law student in the fall of 1976, Sonia Sotomayor fell in with a few first-year classmates whose ascent …

Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Nominee Wraps Up Rehearsals

Discussion: Los Angeles Times