memeorandum: Jack Colwell: START a big victory for Lugar (Howey Politics Indiana)

11:20 AM ET, January 4, 2011

Top Items:

Strict Obstructionist — Mitch McConnell is a master manipulator and strategist— the unheralded architect of the Republican resurgence. Now that his relentless tactics have made his party victorious, he is poised to take down the president and win the Senate majority he covets …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, msnbc.com and Connecting.the.Dots

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
House Republicans set Jan. 12 vote on repeal of health-care law

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Politico, Hotline On Call and Big Think

Erika Niedowski / The Hill:
Obama urges House, Senate GOP leaders to put politics aside

Discussion: Caffeinated Thoughts and Right Wing News

Wall Street Journal:
New Speaker Vows to Share Power—a Tricky Proposition

Discussion: Publius Forum and A plain blog about politics

Aharding / CNN:
Obama: ‘Plenty of time to campaign in 2012’

Discussion: TPMDC

The Politico:
House freshman throws a party - and GOP cringes

Discussion: CNN, National Review, Weigel, The Political Carnival and Weasel Zippers

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Senate Dems warn Boehner: Don't bother with healthcare repeal

Discussion: The Politico, TPMDC, Weasel Zippers, Don Surber, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Nice Deb, PERRspectives, Toledo Blade, USA Today, Sister Toldjah, Liberty Central, Doug Ross, The Political Carnival and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Mike Allen / The Politico: Bill Daley talks West Wing with Rahm …

Terry / CNSNews:
Republican Congressman: Ban Funding of Obamacare in Every …

Discussion: The Politico and Weasel Zippers

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dems playing rough on health reform?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Wonk Room, No More Mister Nice Blog and Daily Kos

The Huffington Post:

Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Balkinization, Scholars and Rogues, Hullabaloo and Althouse

callawyer.com:

THE ORIGINALIST — Last October marked the 24th anniversary of Justice Antonin Scalia's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Well known for his sharp wit as well as his originalist approach to the Constitution, Justice Scalia consistently asks more questions during oral arguments and makes …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Towleroad News #gay, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The BLT, Washington Post, Raw Story, Pam's House Blend and Advocate

Roger Pilon / Wall Street Journal:
Congress Rediscovers the Constitution

Discussion: National Review, Cold Fury and Betsy's Page

Liz Goodwin / Yahoo! News:
14 states may target birthright citizenship

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Outside the Beltway and Weasel Zippers

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Liberals fear betrayal by Obama on Social Security in new political climate — Liberal groups say they are increasingly worried that President Obama will strike a deal with Republicans on Social Security in exchange for a ‘yes’ vote on increasing the nation's debt ceiling.

Roger Hickey / The Huffington Post: Washington Post refused to print this: President Obama, Ignore …

Gideon Rachman / Foreign Policy:

Think Again: American Decline — This time it's for real. — “We've Heard All This About American Decline Before.” — This time it's different. — It's certainly true that America has been through cycles of declinism in the past. Campaigning for the presidency in 1960 …

John Rossomando / The Daily Caller: The ACLU's untold Stalinist heritage

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Incoming House GOP chairmen have a long list of issues to investigate — House Republican leaders announced plans Monday for congressional investigations into a wide range of issues, from corruption in Afghanistan to Washington's regulation of private industries, using the power of their new majority …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, ThinkProgress, THEROOT.COM and The Page

Darren Goode / The Politico:
Issa to business: Tell me what to fix

Discussion: Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Bankrupting America and The Hill

Gil Ronen / Arutz Sheva:

Vulture in Saudi Custody Suspected as Mossad Agent — Follow Israel news on and . — Saudi Arabian security forces have captured a vulture that was carrying a global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitter and a ring etched with the words “Tel Aviv University.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Israel Matzav and Sense of Events

Bloomberg:

Obama Said to Consider William Daley for Top White House Post — President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level White House post, possibly as his chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said.

The Caucus:
Obama Talks With William Daley About a Job

Discussion: Ezra Klein, The Politico, Ben Smith's Blog, DealBook and Balloon Juice

David Dayen / news.firedoglake.com:

Ohio Ruling: No Substitution of Foreclosure Documents in Robo-Signing Cases — Thanks to an obscure ruling from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, mortgage lenders in the Cleveland, Ohio area trying to substitute new documents for ones found to be faulty will have 30 days to explain …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Philip Caulfield / NY Daily News:

Chilling photo captures Philippines politician's killer moments before he is shot dead — A politician in the Philippines who was shot dead while taking a photograph of his family on New Year's Day captured his killer on camera just seconds before the assassin fired the fatal shots.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions — Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

TRENDING: Palin re-tweet raises questions — (CNN) - Normally, it's what Sarah Palin tweets that makes news. This time it's what she has re-tweeted. — The former Alaska governor Monday relayed a comment from gay conservative pundit Tammy Bruce, who was expressing her criticism …

Discussion: The Note, Gawker and NewsBusters.org blogs

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Obama May Bypass Guantánamo Rules, Aides Say — WASHINGTON — President Obama's legal advisers, confronting the prospect of new restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees, are debating whether to recommend that he issue a signing statement asserting that his executive powers …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Politics Daily, ProPublica, Outside the Beltway, Prairie Weather, Oliver Willis, TalkLeft, Emptywheel and TigerHawk

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / The Atlantic Online:

The Unexpected Return of ‘Duck and Cover’ — Sixty years ago, in 1951, Ray Maurer and Anthony Rizzo produced a film for the federal government's Civil Defense agency in response to Soviet nuclear tests. Featuring an animated turtle named Bert and real-life schoolchildren from New York …

Steve Everley / American Solutions:

Top Five Things Obama Has Done to Raise Gasoline Prices — With gasoline currently above $3 per gallon nationwide and economists expecting that price to rise even further in 2011, America should be getting serious about producing more of its own resources. But instead of focusing on how to bring …

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Wizbang, The Foundry, Michelle Malkin and The Volokh Conspiracy

Rachel Slajda / TPM LiveWire:

There's One Huge State Budget Crisis That Everyone Is Refusing To Talk About — You know the story and you know the names: states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and California are supposed to be in huge financial trouble thanks to bloated governments, business-unfriendly regulations, and strong public sector unions.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Moderate Voice and Arkansas Blog

Howey Politics Indiana:

Jack Colwell: START a big victory for Lugar — SOUTH BEND - Republican leaders in the Senate, anxious to hinder President Obama, no matter the cost, turned what they could have hailed as a Republican success into a major victory for the president, a stinging defeat for them.

Discussion: Hot Air and National Review

Leslie Scism / Wall Street Journal:

Insurers Sued Over Death Bets — Scrutiny on Secondary-Market Policies That Paid Investors When Others Died — New investor lawsuits are emerging amid the wreckage of an investment boom in life-insurance policies that spectacularly collapsed. — The suits involve the secondary market in life policies …

Discussion: The Agonist and The Volokh Conspiracy

Oregonian:

Are recent snows from global warming? — By David Appell — Can we talk about global warming? — Scientists already know that man is behind it. They have known it for decades. 'Nough said. — But that hardly means that every little bit of weather can be blamed on it.Sometimes, it is just cold.

Discussion: Stop The ACLU