memeorandum: Diplomat Holbrooke in critical condition (Arshad Mohammed/Reuters)

1:35 PM ET, December 11, 2010

Top Items:

Jon Bershad / Mediaite:

President Obama Brings Bill Clinton In To Talk Tax Plan...And Then Leaves To Go To A Christmas Party! — “I've never seen anything like that,” said MSNBC's Cenk Uygur after cutting back following a press conference on the tax plan. It had begun with a surprise appearance by President Obama …

Discussion: American Power, Questions and Observations, Confederate Yankee, BizzyBlog, The Daily Caller and Wake up America

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

Lights, camera, Clinton — If not a transfer of power, the whole show seemed at least a temporary handoff. An embattled president, fresh off an electoral shellacking and struggling to sell a controversial tax deal to members of his own party, turned to a former president who, exactly 16 years ago …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly and The Plum Line

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

Bill Clinton Holds Forth on Tax Plan, for Starters — WASHINGTON — They have been foes and they have been, kind of, friends. And on Friday afternoon, President Obama and former President Bill Clinton walked unexpectedly into the White House briefing room for a news conference …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Althouse, American Power and Daily Kos

RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Obama Ditches Tax Cut Presser, Bill Clinton Takes Control

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, minx.cc, Instapundit, Pajamas Media, Fausta's Blog, Nice Deb, The Gateway Pundit, theblogprof, The Confluence, Clusterstock, JammieWearingFool, Viking Pundit and The Other McCain

Steven Thomma / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Poll: Obama's losing support; Romney would beat him now

Discussion: TalkLeft, Booman Tribune, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, GOP 12 and New York Times

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
The Surprise Trip to the Briefing Room

Discussion: Hot Air, Moe Lane and New York Times

CNN:
Obama predicts tax deal will pass

Discussion: Say Anything and Parker Spitzer

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Great news: Bill Clinton apparently now president again

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Daily Caller, The Jawa Report, Bookworm Room, Swampland, Patterico's Pontifications, Michelle Malkin, The Caucus, NewsBusters.org blogs, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Hill, Pundit & Pundette, Wall Street Journal, Left Coast Rebel, Power Line, Pajamas Media, Ben Smith's Blog and ABCNEWS

Associated Press:
Add-ons turn tax cut bill into ‘Christmas tree’

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Power Line

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Will Obama really end tax cuts for rich in 2012?

Discussion: TalkLeft, No More Mister Nice Blog, Ezra Klein, Firedoglake, TPMDC and Daily Kos

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks — YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Runnin' Scared, Telegraph, Althouse, Pajamas Media, Booman Tribune, Gawker, L.A. NOW, Outside the Beltway, Harry's Place, Washington Wire, Balloon Juice and The New Republic

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

Henry Kissinger to Soviet Jewry: Drop Dead — Okay, I don't usually blog on the Sabbath day (the Torah says Tweeting is okay, because it's so short), but I can't resist posting what I think might become Henry Kissinger's epitaph. This statement was captured on Richard's Nixon secret White …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Washington Wire and Outside the Beltway

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:

Palin-Hating Columbia Professor, Huffington Post Blogger, Busted for Incest — Let's begin with a flashback, shall we? In July 2009, when Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska, Columbia University professor David Epstein wrote at his Huffington Post blog: … Got that?

Discussion: Althouse, theblogprof, Classical Values, American Power, Flopping Aces, Moonbattery, Pundit & Pundette, AmSpecBlog, NY Daily News and Gawker

Columbia Daily Spectator:

Professor David Epstein charged with incest with his daughter — Political science professor David Epstein was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with one count of incest in the third degree at an arraignment hearing on Thursday. — Political science professor David Epstein, 46 …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Confluence, Salon and Runnin' Scared

The Huffington Post: Palin Proves Voters Were Right in 2008

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Huffington Post Blogger Charged With Incest

Discussion: Althouse, American Power, NewsReal Blog and Above the Law

Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:

Appointment Fight Divides Judges — Here is one for the “only in New Jersey” file: A state Supreme Court justice refuses to participate in any rulings because he objects to another jurist's serving temporarily on the court. — The dispute, aired in opinions released on Friday …

Discussion: Politics Daily and National Review

Wall Street Journal:

Justice Stymies New Jersey High Court — A mini-revolt broke out on the New Jersey Supreme Court Friday when an associate justice said he would abstain from all future decisions while a temporary justice is serving, leading top Democrats to call for the associate justice's resignation.

Discussion: RedState

Charlie Stross / Charlie's Diary:

Invaders from Mars — “Voting doesn't change anything — the politicians always win.” 'Twas not always so, but I'm hearing variations on that theme a lot these days, and not just in the UK. — Why do we feel so politically powerless? Why is the world so obviously going to hell in a handbasket?

Discussion: Prairie Weather, ProfessorBainbridge.com and Cafe Hayek

Paul Krugman:
Hive-minds and Kleptocrats — It's not often that I get a chance …

Discussion: ProfessorBainbridge.com

Politifact.com Truth-O-Meter rulings from National:

Bernie Sanders: In 2007, “the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income,” which is “more than the entire bottom 50 percent.” — Bernie Sanders, in viral speech, says top 1 percent earn more than 23 percent of U.S. income

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, Jay Bookman, Daily Kos, Guardian and Taylor Marsh

Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:

Diplomat Holbrooke in critical condition — (Reuters) - Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was in critical condition on Saturday after doctors performed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta, the State Department said.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Chicago Sun Times:

Emanuel's wife may have to fly to Chicago to testify in residency battle — Rahm Emanuel's wife may have to fly in from Washington, D.C., to testify Tuesday in the Election Board case about whether or not her husband is eligible to run for mayor of Chicago.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin

John R. Quain / Fox News:

Navy Sets World Record With Incredible, Sci-Fi Weapon — U.S. Navy engineers at the Office of Naval Research prepared and test-fired a slug from their rail gun in a 2008 test firing. On Friday, December 9, the ONR will attempt to break its own record. — A theoretical dream for decades …

Discussion: Mashable!, Hot Air and TPM LiveWire

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

With Filibuster, C-SPAN Has A Hit On Its Hands — Mr. Sanders has gone to C-SPAN. — Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, started speaking against the Obama administration's tax cut deal on Friday morning, in full view of C-SPAN2's cameras, and by lunchtime his old-fashioned filibuster …