memeorandum: Cloudy Future for Fannie and Freddie (Charles Duhigg/New York Times)

9:10 AM ET, February 2, 2010

Top Items:

U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O'Keefe Case — James O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was “framed” by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday.

Discussion: Althouse, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Gawker, Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, The Jawa Report, Another Black Conservative, American Power, Left Coast Rebel, POWIP, Don Surber and Big Government

Jim Treacher / The DC Trawler:

Andrew Breitbart, master of the rope-a-dope — If you're too young to remember Ali vs. Foreman — which most of the people I work with are, damn them — Ali used something he called the rope-a-dope to win. Basically, he let Foreman beat the hell out of him until Foreman got tired, and then Ali swabbed the canvas with him.

Discussion: Sense of Events

Justin Elliott / TPMMuckraker:

Breitbart Claim: Jailed O'Keefe Couldn't Access Attorney For Hours — Interviewed on Fox just moments ago, Andrew Breitbart claimed that alleged Landrieu phone tamperer James O'Keefe “sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney.” — Breitbart, who has been on a public campaign defending O'Keefe …

Discussion: Main Justice, skippy the bush kangaroo, Emptywheel, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Raw Story and Nice Deb

Publius / Big Government:
U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O'Keefe Case

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Hit & Run and The Lonely Conservative

Patterico / Hot Air:
U.S. Attorney Recuses Himself from O'Keefe Case; Updated with Video …

Discussion: Big Journalism

Fred Pearce / Guardian:

Climate emails scientist ‘hid’ flaws — Exclusive: Key study by East Anglia professor Phil Jones was based on suspect figures — • How the location of weather stations in China undermines data — • How the ‘climategate’ scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics' lies

Discussion: Andrew Bolt, Cassy Fiano, Watts Up With That?, MyDD, The Independent, Barcepundit, Vox Popoli, Don Surber, EU Referendum, Jay Currie and Tim Blair

Mark Steyn / The Corner on National Review Online:
Change of Climate — By: Mark Steyn

Discussion: Moonbattery and GINA COBB

Fred Pearce / Guardian:
Strange case of moving weather posts and a scientist under siege

Discussion: YID With LID and Watts Up With That?

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power — WASHINGTON — In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power. — The first is the projected deficit in the coming year …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Washington Post, Law Blog, Beat the Press, Prairie Weather, Veterans Today, New Deal 2.0, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Page, Pajamas Media and RADAMISTO

New York Times:

Curveball Alters Talks on Wall St. Reform — WASHINGTON — President Obama's proposals to tax and curb the activities of Wall Street have thrown an unpredictable element into the debate over financial regulatory reform. They also have touched off an intensive new round of lobbying …

Discussion: The Caucus, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Big Picture and Swampland

The Huffington Post:
Frank Luntz Pens Memo To Kill Financial Regulatory Reform

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, Wonkette, Wonk Room, Gawker, ProfessorBainbridge.com, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Truthdig, The Washington Independent, Firedoglake, The Agonist and New York Times

Stephen Ohlemacher / Associated Press:

Obama Budget Would Impose Host of Tax Increases — Obama budget plan would imposes host of tax increases on businesses, wealthy families — While President Barack Obama is proposing to cut some taxes for companies that hire workers, his budget would raise a host of other taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals.

Discussion: QandO, Wall Street Journal, The Lonely Conservative, CBS News, TaxVox and ProfessorBainbridge.com

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

$1 Trillion Obama Will Never See — Raising tax rates on high income earners is the key to the Obama way, both during the campaign and in his latest budget and tax proposals. Taxing the wealthy, or rather, taxing those making over $250k a year, is the gospel according to Obama.

Discussion: Times of London, Riehl World View and Wall Street Journal

Sen. Carl Levin / The Politico:

Ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' — When the Senate Armed Services Committee hears Tuesday morning from the Defense Department's top leaders, we will hopefully begin the task of ending the “don't ask, don't tell” policy on gays in the military. This change would improve our military's capability …

Discussion: CNN, Towleroad News #gay and Harry's Place

Yochi J. Dreazen / Wall Street Journal:
Iraq Veteran Leads 'Don't Ask' Push

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel, Washington Post, AMERICAblog Gay, New York Times, The Washington Independent and ATTACKERMAN

Gautham Nagesh / The Daily Caller:
Polls show service members oppose gays in military as Gates …

Discussion: American Spectator

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:

Virginia Senate bills say no to requiring health insurance — RICHMOND — Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health care.

Discussion: The Politico, Commentary, Wall Street Journal and RedState

Garance Franke-Ruta / Washington Post:

Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores — One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image. So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee …

Discussion: Mediaite, JammieWearingFool, Gawker and GOP 12

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:

Poll: Republicans Think Obama Is A Socialist, And Palin More Qualified To Be President — A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, conducted among 2,000 self-identified Republican respondents nationwide, gives an interesting peek into the psyche of the minority party's base.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post and The Washington Independent

Chris Bowers / Open Left: National House Ballot, February 1st: Republicans take their first lead

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Obama administration is tone-deaf to concerns about terrorism — There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer. Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists their rights …

Discussion: Commentary, Firedoglake and The Poor Man Institute

Los Angeles Times:
Officials OKd Miranda warning for accused airline plotter

Discussion: Main Justice, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and NewsReal Blog

CBC News:

Danny Williams going to U.S. for heart surgery — Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States. — CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 59, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and QandO

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Geezers' Crusade — We like to think that in days gone by, the young venerated the elderly. But that wasn't always so. In “As You Like It,” Shakespeare's morose character, Jaques, calls old age “second childishness and mere oblivion.” Walt Whitman hoped that the tedium and pettiness …

Discussion: Beat the Press and Mediaite

David Neiwert / Crooks and Liars:

Bill Kristol agrees that Obama's ‘been doing all kinds of crazy stuff that risks destroying America’ — One of the key points President Obama made in his back-and-forth with House Republicans seems to be really sticking in the craw of the right-wing pundit class: … Bill Kristol, yesterday on Fox News Sunday:

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Durbin, Schumer prep for fight with donations to Senate colleagues — The second- and third-ranking Senate Democratic leaders are doling out huge sums of cash, laying the groundwork for a leadership race should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lose reelection.

Discussion: The Page

Erick Erickson / RedState:

We've got a big announcement — I'm just going to republish the press release that went out: — The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) - a project of the American Conservative Union Foundation, in association with Young America's Foundation and Human Events …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

Facebook:

Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel? — The newly-released mind-boggling, record-smashing $3,400,000,000,000 federal budget invites plenty of opportunity to debate the merits of incurring more and more debt that will drown the next generation of Americans. Never has it been possible to spend your way out of debt.

Discussion: Think Progress, Gawker, The Hill and GOP 12

James Fallows:

Why bipartisanship can't work: the expert view — I got this note from someone with many decades' experience in national politics, about a discussion between two Congressmen over details of the stimulus bill: … I wrote back saying, “Great story!” and got the response I quote below and after the jump.

Ezra Klein:
Getting real about Congress

Discussion: TalkLeft and Washington Post

Ken Shepherd / NewsBusters.org:

Chris Matthews Compares Conservative Republicans to Murderous Khmer Rouge Regime — Appearing on the January 29 “Rachel Maddow Show,” fellow MSNBCer Chris Matthews compared Republican conservatives to the Khmer Rouge, the murderous Communist regime that racked up a body count of some two million during its reign of terror:

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Moonbattery and No Sheeples Here

Rob Stein / Washington Post:

Abstinence-only programs might work, study says — Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts …

Discussion: Gawker

Walter Russell Mead / Walter Russell Mead's Blog:

The Death of Global Warming — The global warming movement as we have known it is dead. Its health had been in steady decline during the last year as the once robust hopes for a strong and legally binding treaty to be agreed upon at the Copenhagen Summit faded away.

John Campanelli / Plain Dealer:

Bill Watterson, creator of beloved ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ comic strip looks back with no regrets — This marks the 15th year since “Calvin and Hobbes” said goodbye to the comics pages. Creator Bill Watterson, who grew up in Chagrin Falls and still makes Greater Cleveland his home …

Discussion: The DC Trawler, ArtsBeat and The Awl

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Obama to unveil small biz lending plan drawn from bailout funds — President Barack Obama on Tuesday will call for a new, $30 billion small business lending fund drawn from bailout funds as part of his push for new job creation. — The president will unveil his new “Small Business Lending Fund” …

Discussion: The Swamp and The Politico

Alan Boyle / msnbc.com:

PRIVATE SPACEFLIGHT GOES PUBLIC — “Apollo on steroids”? Forget about it. Back to the moon? Not anytime soon. NASA's new vision for space exploration is less specific on a destination, but more focused on making room for new technologies and new players in spaceflight.

Discussion: Transterrestrial Musings, Opinion L.A. and Space Politics