memeorandum: Approval of Congress hits all-time low in Gallup poll (Michael O'Brien/The Hill)

11:30 AM ET, December 15, 2010

Top Items:

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

DeMint will force readings of START Treaty and omnibus bill — Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) will force readings of both a nuclear arms treaty and $1.1 trillion spending bill that could eat up hours of the remaining lame-duck Congress. — DeMint will invoke a senatorial privilege to ask …

Discussion: The Politico, Guardian, Booman Tribune and FrumForum

Wall Street Journal:

Harry Reid's Holiday Jam — What the Senate wants to pass while you're not paying attention. — In the famous formulation often attributed to George Washington, the U.S. Senate is the saucer designed to cool the drink before it becomes law. In Majority Leader Harry Reid's rush to beat …

Discussion: Right Turn and Betsy's Page

Manu Raju / The Politico:
DeMint threatens to force a reading of omnibus bill

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The BLT

David M. Herszenhorn / The Caucus:
Dreaming of a Post-Christmas Congress

Discussion: Yglesias, Washington Monthly, TPMDC, The Impolitic, Taegan Goddard's … and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
Senators load spending bill with earmarks

Discussion: Washington Monthly, USA Today, gopleader.gov, Right Turn and National Review

Fox News:
Revolt: Republicans Angry About Omnibus Spending Bill Decry ‘Total Mess’

Discussion: RedState, Jrichardson's blog, National Review, Michelle Malkin, Right Wing News, Pundit & Pundette, Hot Air, Right Turn, The Note, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Whiskey Fire and The Other McCain

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate Dems unveil $1.1T spending bill

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Congress' Job Approval Rating Worst in Gallup History — Thirteen percent approve of the way Congress is handling its job — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job.

Discussion: CNN, Top of the Ticket, theblogprof, Front Row Washington, Fox Nation, Hot Air, TPMDC, Don Surber, Online NewsHour, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, The Foundry, Outside the Beltway and JammieWearingFool

Washington Post:

Post-ABC Poll: Public not yet sold on GOP — Republicans made major gains in the November elections, but they have yet to win the hearts and minds of the American people, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. — The midterm elections - where Republicans gained 63 seats …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, NewsBusters.org blogs, Outside the Beltway, Front Row Washington, Behind the Numbers, The Politico, Politics Daily and CNN

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Poll finds voters not impressed with Republicans' House takeover that hasn't happened yet — Premature Emasculation — With Republicans still 20 days away from taking control of one chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, the Washington Post could no longer resist delivering …

Discussion: Fox News, Pat Dollard and Michelle Malkin

Federal Eye:
Most back repealing 'don't ask, don't tell,' poll says

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress, The Daily Dish, AMERICAblog News, Raw Story and Outside the Beltway

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Approval of Congress hits all-time low in Gallup poll

Discussion: Gallup and FrumForum

Lev Grossman / Time:

Mark Zuckerberg — On the afternoon of Nov. 16, 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was leading a meeting in the Aquarium, one of Facebook's conference rooms, so named because it's in the middle of a huge work space and has glass walls on three sides so everybody can see in.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, ReadWriteWeb, Shakesville, AOL News, The Gateway Pundit, The Next Web, TechCrunch, The Page, PopEater and newsfeed.time.com, more at Mediagazer »

Richard Stengel / Time:

Person of the Year 2010 — For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is TIME's 2010 Person of the Year. — Only Connect

Discussion: Hit & Run, Gothamist, FP Passport, BlogPost and This Just In, more at Mediagazer »

Laura T. Coffey / msnbc.com:
Mark Zuckerberg is Time's 2010 Person of the Year

Discussion: Politics Daily and Right Pundits

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Time's POTY: Facebook founder?

Discussion: National Review, The Moderate Voice and Moe Lane

Ben Dimiero / Media Matters for America:

FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science — In the midst of global climate change talks last December, a top Fox News official sent an email questioning the “veracity of climate change data” and ordering the network's journalists to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Weasel Zippers, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, TPMMuckraker and Informed Comment

Keach Hagey / The Politico: Fox editor urged climate skepticism

The Politico:

Obama plans 2011 staff makeover — President Barack Obama has delayed the most significant staff shuffle of his presidency until after New Year's — but the changes may be more sweeping than anticipated and could include the hiring of high-profile Democrats defeated in the midterms.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air and FrumForum

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:

WHITE HOUSE APPOINTS JON BON JOVI — Actor. Poet. Musician. Performer. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi can now add one more title to his impressive resume: White House appointee. — On Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the White House Council for Community Solutions …

Discussion: The White House, Michelle Malkin, Booman Tribune, Scared Monkeys and Shakesville

Sam Youngman / Ballot Box:
The left's frustration with President Obama will hamper his fundraising

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

Reuters:

Financial Crisis Panel In Turmoil As Republicans Defect; Plan To Blame Government For Crisis — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … The four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan to bypass the bipartisan panel and release their own report Wednesday …

Discussion: Rortybomb, The Daily Caller, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, The Politico, Paul Krugman, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Emptywheel

Sewell Chan / New York Times:

G.O.P. Panelists Dissent on Cause of Crisis — WASHINGTON — The Republican members of the commission appointed by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis plan to release on Wednesday a document that assigns government housing policies substantial blame for the origins of the 2008 financial crisis.

Discussion: naked capitalism, The Big Picture and Prairie Weather

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention — Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico …

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog and The Nation

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

House Democrats consider amendments to estate tax — As the Senate prepared Tuesday to push through a sweeping tax package negotiated by the White House and congressional Republicans, House leaders were looking to amend the measure to satisfy the concerns of angry liberals without unraveling the deal altogether.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNNMoney.com, FrumForum, The Page and msnbc.com

Russell Berman / The Hill:
For House Democrats, fight over tax cuts is now about saving face

Discussion: USA Today and TPMDC

Chris Van Hollen / Washington Post:
First, fix the estate tax giveaway

Discussion: The Note, New York Times, Cafe Hayek and The Hill

David Cay Johnston / Nieman Reports:

It's Scary Out There in Reporting Land — ‘Beats are fundamental to journalism, but our foundation is crumbling.’ — To understand how badly we're doing the most basic work of journalism in covering the law enforcement beat, try sitting in a barbershop. When I was getting my last haircut …

Discussion: Suburban Guerrilla, Balloon Juice, Poynter and Philly.com

National Review:

Anybody but Steele — Say what you will about him — Michael Steele plays by nobody else's rules. He shocked the political world on Monday night by announcing he'd run for reelection as chairman of the Republican National Committee. We admire his pluck, but not his judgment.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and USA Today

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
GOP donors: We'll leave if Steele stays

Discussion: FrumForum and The Gateway Pundit

Brad Phillips / Mr. Media Training:

2012 Election Preview: The Final Rankings — Editor's Note: This morning, we issued a press release on the national wires that ranks the 18 most likely 2012 Republican contenders - and President Obama - on their communications skills. Below, you'll find the full text of that release.

Discussion: National Review and Taegan Goddard's …

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

The Preposterousness of the Commerce Clause — Julian Sanchez comments on people calling Hudson's interpretation of the commerce clause “preposterous”: … Obviously, I agree with Julian. I have been reading a lot of well-meaning liberals who are befuddled by the notion that conservatives …

Discussion: Viking Pundit

Radley Balko / The Agitator:
An Honest Question for Lefties

Discussion: Bottom-up

Christian Heinze / Ballot Box:

In shift, Sarah Palin stresses electability as a reason to run for president — Over the past month, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has quietly altered her case for the presidency in a savvy shift of rhetoric. — The lofty goal? Turning the main reason a Republican might oppose her into the primary reason for voting for her.

Discussion: Classical Values

Theodore H. Frank / Washington Examiner:

Manhattan Moment: Courts shouldn't ignore due process to create class actions — Wal-Mart v. Dukes, a case claiming job discrimination against at least 1.5 million women, reached the Supreme Court last week after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed, in a 6-5 vote …

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Donna Leinwand / USA Today:

Kids write Santa this year for basic needs instead of toys — Santa Claus and his elves are seeing more heartbreaking letters this year as children cite their parents' economic troubles in their wish lists. — U.S. Postal Service workers who handle letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole …

Discussion: FrumForum

Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:

Intelligence Reports Offer Dim Views of Afghan War — WASHINGTON — As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment …

Discussion: Cato @ Liberty, FrumForum and The Washington Note

Myglesias / Yglesias:

Deficit-Talk — Atrios: “I really can't comprehend that with 9.6% unemployment politicians keep talking about the deficit as if it's the big problem.” — Of course he's right. The deficit is a problem only in the sense that the short-term deficit is currently too small.

Discussion: Ezra Klein