memeorandum: How not to help homeowners (Washington Post)

11:55 PM ET, October 18, 2010

Top Items:

The Conway Rorschach — I'm fascinated by the divide among Democrats in reaction to Jack Conway's fusillade over the weekend against Rand Paul. I first saw the ‘Aqua Buddha’ ad late Saturday afternoon in an email blast from Conway campaign. And my jaw dropped.

Discussion: The Fix, Hullabaloo, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Sister Toldjah, Democracy in America, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Ezra Klein, Booman Tribune and Riehl World View

TPMDC:

The Nastiest Debate Of 2010 In 2:44 (VIDEO) — Last night's Kentucky Senate debate was one of the most brutal of the year, hands down. Though the forum included talk of the health care bill, illegal immigration, the economy and energy legislation, most of the talk was about Republican nominee Rand Paul's days in college.

Discussion: Guardian, The Plum Line, Rough Sketch, Firedoglake, MyDD, The Atlantic Online, Towleroad News #gay and msnbc.com

Myglesias / Yglesias:

Why The Fuss About Jack Conway? — I'm a little taken aback by how taken aback some people are over Jack Conway's hit on Rand Paul: — This ad has the virtue—not that common in politics—of being accurate. It also has the virtue of raising actual policy issues about the consequences of Paul's position on tax reform.

Discussion: JustOneMinute and The New Republic

Kos / Daily Kos:
KY-Sen: What's wrong with the ad?

Discussion: The New Republic, The Reality-Based Community, The Note, Washington Monthly and Talking Points Memo

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Sympathy For Rand Paul

Discussion: Commentary, TPMDC, Ben Smith's Blog, Talking Points Memo, msnbc.com, American Power, Left Coast Rebel, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Althouse, No More Mister Nice Blog, Ezra Klein, Gateway Pundit, Bluegrass Politics and The Reality-Based Community

Meredith Shiner / The Politico:
Claire McCaskill: Jack Conway ad ‘very dangerous’

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Caucus, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, National Review, Wake up America, Moe Lane, RedState and Associated Press

Jon Ralston / Las Vegas Sun Blogs:

Angle to Hispanic children: “Some of you look a little more Asian to me” — As more of the video surfaces from GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle's meeting last week with Rancho High School's Hispanic kids, the more bizarre it gets. Elsewhere on this blog, I have posted the video of her claiming …

The Note:

ABC News Exclusive: Tea Party Candidate in Nevada Senate May Tip the Scales in Reid's Favor — ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: — Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for U.S. Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid …

Discussion: The Politico, Raw Story, YID With LID and TPMDC

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Palin fires up Tea Partiers to launch bus tour

Discussion: The Politico, Weasel Zippers, CNN and Anchorage Daily News

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Sharron Angle: My ads aren't referring to Mexico, except when they clearly are

Discussion: Zandar Versus The Stupid, TPMDC, The Reaction and msnbc.com

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Sarah Palin to GOP: “Man Up” and Support Tea Party Candidates

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Other McCain, CBS News and The Huffington Post

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Sharron Angle says Hispanic students look ‘Asian’

Discussion: msnbc.com and Wonkette

The Daily Caller:

Guy gets revenge on ex-girlfriend on CSPAN2 — When the audience gathered for a Book TV discussion of Jonah Goldberg's new book, “Proud to be Right,” they got more than your average CSPAN fare. — It turns out panelists Todd Seavey and Helen Rittelmeyer, both contributors to Goldberg's collection …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Salon, Wonkette, FishbowlDC, Mediaite, Hot Air, Swampland, The New Republic, The Other McCain and TPM LiveWire

Pundit Review Radio / BLACKFIVE:

URGENT: VFW DISSOLVES PAC BOARD! — This, from last week, is just now making it to my in-box. THIS IS WHAT WAS NEEDED ALL ALONG- Download Memo to council - new ballot Oct 10 … This, after the Ladies Auxilery withdrew all funding support for the PAC (which, I'm told, is a good chunk of it) …

Discussion: Big Peace, Gateway Pundit, Beltway Confidential and Weigel

Jim Carlton / Washington Wire:
VFW Shuts Off Campaign Arm

Discussion: Hot Air

Richard L. Eubank / VFW:
VFW NATIONAL COMMANDER MOVES FOR DISSOLUTION OF POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

Discussion: The Politico

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
VFW moves to dissolve PAC's board

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Steve / What Do I Know?:

Joe Miller: “If East Germany could, we could.” — I went to the Joe Miller town hall this afternoon at Central Middle School. It was an interesting session, about 175 people, and I was impressed with how courteous, for the most part, the audience was with several questions from people who were clearly not Miller supporters.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Anchorage Daily News, Outside the Beltway, palingates, TPMDC, FrumForum and Conservatives4Palin.com, more at Mediagazer »

Jillian Rayfield / TPMDC:
Joe Miller On Securing The Border: ‘If East Germany Could, We Could’ (VIDEO)

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Speakeasy, Harry's Place and KTUU-TV

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Alaska Race May Make for Long Election Night

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Hill, Washington Monthly, Progressive Alaska, New York Magazine, Anchorage Daily News, Crooks and Liars, The Mahablog and Prairie Weather, more at Mediagazer »

Lpratapas / CNN:
Joe Miller responds on job questions

Discussion: Washington Wire, Joe Miller for Senate, Ben Smith's Blog, The Politico, TPMDC, POLISING and Daily Kos

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

GOP Holds Solid Leads in Voter Preferences for Another Week — Gallup trends from prior midterm years suggest shifts are still possible — PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup's tracking of the generic ballot for Congress finds Republicans leading Democrats by 5 percentage points among registered voters …

Discussion: The Hill, Top of the Ticket, Viking Pundit, The Other McCain, JammieWearingFool and Wake up America

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:

Obama to Appear on “Mythbusters” — For a president under siege, maybe this could help. — In an episode of “Mythbusters” on the Discovery Channel to be shown on Dec. 8, President Obama will help determine whether the Greek scientist Archimedes really set fire to an invading Roman fleet using …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The New Republic, HillBuzz, Wonkette, Mediaite, Hot Air, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Dot Earth, The Powers That Be, iOwnTheWorld.com and Althouse

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:
He's Doing What?! Barack Obama To Appear On Discovery Channel's ‘Mythbusters’

Discussion: PopEater

Andrew Harmon / Advocate:

Judge Skeptical of Govt. Arguments — If a Monday afternoon federal court hearing in Riverside, Calif., was any indication, a recent judicial ruling barring any enforcement of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy will remain in effect unless a higher court intervenes.

Discussion: skippy the bush kangaroo, Pam's House Blend and Towleroad News #gay

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Obama: 15 Senate seats ‘up for grabs’ — President Obama implored supporters on Monday for donations to help Democrats in the 15 Senate seats he said were “up for grabs” on Nov. 2. — The president painted a picture of an expansive map of competitive Senate races in a fundraising e-mail …

Discussion: The Politico, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Washington Wire, Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool and Washington Post

The DSCC:
A Message From Barack Obama

Discussion: The Politico, Ben Smith's Blog and Don Surber

Daily Kos:

Meet Joe Miller's Thugs: Drop Zone Security — If you went to bed early tonight, you may have missed one of the most wonderful gifts that the Teabaggers have ever given to the Democrats: Alaskan GOP Senate candidate, Joe Miller. — If you wanna catch up on Joe's recent antics …

Discussion: TPMDC, Little Green Footballs, Progressive Alaska and Talking Points Memo

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

Dennis Menaced? — Is Kucinich in trouble? — THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained the results of a private poll conducted last night in Ohio-10, the Cleveland-area district held for seven terms by Democrat Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich has been widely viewed as safe—even though he fell short …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, HillBuzz, Ben Smith's Blog, Real Clear Politics and Gateway Pundit

CNN:

Former surgeon general calls for marijuana legalization — (CNN) — Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders told CNN Sunday she supports legalizing marijuana. — The trend-setting state of California is voting next month on a ballot initiative to legalize pot, also known as Proposition 19.

Discussion: Neptunus Lex, skippy the bush kangaroo and Liberty Pundits Blog

Lpratapas / CNN:

Political theater but no fireworks in NY gubernatorial debate — (CNN) - New York's gubernatorial debate lived up to its expectation that it would be political theater as Republican candidate Carl Paladino faced Democrat Andrew Cuomo for the first time in a debate in a race making headlines for its nasty tone.

Discussion: The Politico

New York Times:

In Climate Denial, Again — Former Vice President Dick Cheney has to be smiling. With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate — including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning — accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Grist, Climate Progress, Left in the West, Questions and Observations, Right Wing News, AmSpecBlog, Prairie Weather, Dennis the Peasant, The Washington Independent and ThinkProgress

Jackson Diehl / PostPartisan:

How Obama sabotaged Middle East peace talks — For 15 years and more, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conducted peace talks with Israel in the absence of a freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Now, it appears as likely as not that his newborn negotiations …

Discussion: AmSpecBlog and Commentary

Bruce Golding / New York Post:

Jurors convict Riverdale bomb plotters on 30 of 32 counts — Tweet — A jury today found four Muslim converts guilty of 30 of 32 counts in the May 2009 plot to bomb two Riverdale synagogues and shoot down military aircraft at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.

Discussion: Jihad Watch and New York Magazine

Caroline May / The Daily Caller:

Confusion was the word of the day on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” this morning when the panel questioned why so many women have been drawn to the Tea Party movement. — Co-host Mika Brzezinski, The New York Times' Sam Tanenhaus, CBS's Lesley Stahl, columnist Mike Barnicle, and Newsweek's Jon Meacham …

Discussion: Hot Air

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Many Chamber ads attacking House Dems contain debunked falsehoods, distortions — UPDATE, 1:57 p.m.: The Chamber has responded to all these fact checks with a detailed rebuttal, which you can read right here. — ORIGINAL POST: — Last week I noted that the ads that have been bankrolled …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, iOwnTheWorld.com, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

Charles Johnson / Little Green Footballs:

The Ludicrous Lies of Robert Spencer — If you've read anything by Robert Spencer, you already know that he will blatantly lie when cornered. — Today he responds to my piece for the Guardian, with a ridiculous article that calls Pamela Geller a defamed freedom fighter.

Discussion: Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, Guardian, The Atlantic Online and Dennis the Peasant

Paul Krugman:

Epitaph For An Administration … Surely this can serve as a generic statement: … Stimulus, bank rescue, China, foreclosure; it applies all along. At each point there were arguments for not acting; but the cumulative effect has been drift, and a looming catastrophe in the midterms.

Discussion: Dennis the Peasant