memeorandum: AN UNSHAKABLE PERSECUTION COMPLEX.... I missed the speech yesterday … (Steve Benen/Washington Monthly)

3:55 PM ET, January 20, 2011

Top Items:

Mark Weaver / 630 WMAL:

Michelle Obama's ‘Get Moving’ Program Linked to Pedestrian Deaths — WASHINGTON — The Governors Highway Safety Association says pedestrian deaths increased in the first half of 2010 and the First Lady's program to get Americans to be more active could be partly responsible.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, Mediaite, The Impolitic, No More Mister Nice Blog, Pirate's Cove, Rumproast and The Powers That Be

Amanda Carey / The Daily Caller:

First Lady's anti-obesity campaign could be causing more pedestrian deaths — Pedestrian deaths increased sharply during the first half of 2010, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). The reason may be First Lady Michelle Obama and her “Let's Move” campaign.

Discussion: Guardian, Wonkette, TPMMuckraker and FrumForum

James Joyner / Outside the Beltway:
Michelle Obama “Linked” to Pedestrian Deaths

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Hot Air, Detroit News, The Atlantic Online, USA Today and Mediaite

Scott McCabe / Washington Examiner:
Exercise, iPods could be causing pedestrian deaths

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Atlantic Online and Ben Smith's Blog

TBogg: Michelle Obama Wants To Death Race 2000 Kill Your Fat Ass

Dan Friedman / The Atlantic Online:

GOP Can Force a Senate Vote on Repeal — While the health care repeal that the House passed Wednesday has little chance of passage in the Senate, Republicans will probably succeed in eventually forcing a vote on the measure — albeit with at least a 60-vote threshold.

Discussion: NationalJournal.com and Salon

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

How Should Dems Manage the Healthcare Repeal Circus? — It's a slow day, so let's do some political strategizing. Here's what the LA Times has to say about yesterday's vote in the House to repeal healthcare reform: … Here's my take: Democrats are nuts to take this attitude.

Discussion: Ezra Klein

Myglesias / Yglesias:
Senate Democrats and Health Care Repeal

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Christina Wilkie / The Hill:
Harkin to raise cash at Lady Gaga show

Discussion: CNN

Wall Street Journal:
The Repeal Vote — An historic repudiation of an entitlement that is only 10 months old.

Discussion: Right Turn

The Fix:

A three-way pileup atop 2012 GOP presidential race — Former Govs. Mike Huckabee (Ark.), Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Mass.) make up the top tier of the 2012 Republican presidential field, according to a new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, GOP 12, Weigel, Swampland, Public Policy Polling, Lone Star Report Blog, PoliticsPA, Right Turn, Taegan Goddard's …, CNN, Outside the Beltway, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos and msnbc.com

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Obama looking stronger — PPP's monthly look ahead to next year's Presidential race finds Barack Obama in his best position against the major Republican contenders since 2009. — The GOP hopefuls who would make it most competitive against Obama continue to be Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, each of whom he leads by 5 points.

Discussion: GOP 12, Taegan Goddard's …, The Politico and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

First Read / msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: Are the political winds changing?

Discussion: GOP 12, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Other McCain

Lbentzterp / CNN:
Huckabee's book tour lavishes attention on Iowa, South Carolina

Discussion: ABCNEWS, GOP 12 and Ben Smith's Blog

Jon Ward / The Daily Caller:

A number of the House GOP's leading conservative members on Thursday will announce legislation that would cut $2.5 trillion over 10 years, which will be by far the most ambitious and far-reaching proposal by the new majority to cut federal government spending.

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, Wake up America and AmSpecBlog

Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Republicans set down marker on spending: $2.5 trillion in cuts

Discussion: Washington Monthly and TPMDC

Washington Examiner:
Can't reduce federal spending? Here's a plan to cut $2.5 trillion by 2021

Discussion: Cubachi, The Foundry and Big Government

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:

Rick Santorum plays race card on President Obama — In eye-brow raising comments, possible presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is questioning how President Barack Obama - as an African-American - can support abortion rights. — Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, NJDC Blog, TPMDC and FrumForum

David Brody / The Brody File:

Rick Santorum Responds to Brody File on Comment About President Obama's Race and Abortion — EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: RICK SANTORUM HAS JUST SENT THE BRODY FILE A STATEMENT ON THE STORY BELOW: … Abortion is a toxic subject. Race is a toxic subject. And soon to be GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, CNN, AmSpecBlog, TPMDC, GOP 12 and Right Wing Watch

The Note:

SPOTTED: Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan Waiting for Jury Duty — ABC News' Devin Dwyer reports: If you thought Supreme Court justices are exempt from jury duty in their local courts, think again. — Justice Elena Kagan was spotted among a crowd of prospective jurors huddled in a waiting lounge this morning at D.C. Superior Court.

Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
Advocacy Group Says Justices May Have Conflict in Campaign Finance Cases

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Common Cause, The Politico, The Huffington Post, Patterico's Pontifications, ThinkProgress, Law Blog, The Caucus, Wonk Room, Raw Story, FrumForum and Prairie Weather

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

Obama to Close Political Office and Start 2012 Campaign — WASHINGTON — President Obama will close the office of political affairs at the White House, aides said, restructuring his organization to prepare for his re-election campaign, which is to start building a fund-raising and grassroots operation based in Chicago by late March.

Discussion: The Fix, Lynn Sweet, CNN, Ben Smith's Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, Political Punch and msnbc.com

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Biden: Obama has best record since FDR

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Ballot Box

Ezra Klein:

If Obama wants to be bold, he should be bold — Peter Baker has a lot of juicy tidbits about the frequent infighting and petty spats that split the White House economic team over the past two years, but the individual who comes off worst in the article is not Larry Summers or Christina Romer or Peter Orszag or Rahm Emanuel.

Discussion: TalkLeft, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Huffington Post, Booman Tribune, Grasping Reality …, Commentary, Felix Salmon, The Caucus and The Moderate Voice

Scott Conroy / Real Clear Politics:

Palin Putting Out Presidential Feelers in Iowa — DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has tasked her aides with quietly gauging her level of support for a potential presidential campaign by making inquiries to a select pool of likely allies and grassroots activists in Iowa, RealClearPolitics has learned.

Discussion: The Politico, The Note, Hot Air, Conservatives4Palin, GOP 12, Washington Post, TPMDC and National Review

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

AN UNSHAKABLE PERSECUTION COMPLEX.... I missed the speech yesterday in which a House Republican compared health care reform to tyranny of King George III, so I was glad to see Greg Sargent track it down. — Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a freshman, railed against the individual mandate provision …

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Delusions of world-historical grandeur

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and TPMDC

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Palinoia, the Destroyer — What's behind the left's deranged hatred. — Why does their hatred of her burn so hot? — Ask them, and they'll most likely tell you: Because she's a moron. But that is obviously false. To be sure, her skills at extemporaneous speaking leave much to be desired.

Discussion: The Other McCain, The Mahablog, Mediaite, Conservatives4Palin, Classical Values and Power Line

Jose Lambiet / Page2Live.com:

Parents of Giffords' doc supported Tea Partier Christine O'Donnell with Palm Beach cash — The name of Michael Lemole, the University of Arizona neurosurgeon who's been treating U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' brain injuries since the Jan. 8 shooting, may sound familiar to Palm Beachers.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Patterico's Pontifications

P.J. Gladnick / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Palm Beach Post Columnist Slams Parents of Rep. Giffords Doctor …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Page2Live.com and Michelle Malkin

Jonathan Dienst / NBC New York:

FBI Rounding Up 100 Mobsters in Biggest Mafia Bust in New York History — Charges range from gambling to racketeering to murder — The FBI calls it the biggest mafia round-up in New York history. More than 100 suspected mobsters are being arrested this morning in connection …

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, TPMMuckraker and Gawker

William K. Rashbaum / New York Times:
F.B.I. and Police Arrest More Than 100 in Mob Sweep

Discussion: New York Magazine, AOL News, Prairie Weather and Eschaton

Gail Collins / New York Times:

Goodbye to a Guy Named Joe — On Wednesday, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced that he won't be a candidate for re-election in 2012. Normally people look particularly appealing when they're promising to go away. This time, not so much. — “I can't help but also think about …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Opinion L.A., Commentary, Connecting.the.Dots, Daily Kos, The Impolitic, Balloon Juice, Swampland, First Draft and The New Republic

The Huffington Post:

Obama's Social Security Talk Is Turning Voters Off, Pollsters Say … WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's apparent willingness to consider cuts in Social Security benefits may be winning him points with Washington elites, but it's killing him with voters, who see the program as inviolate …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars, The Confluence, Daily Kos, Suburban Guerrilla, Taylor Marsh, The Agonist, AMERICAblog News and Open Left

Reuters:
Fixing Social Security is progressive

Discussion: ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Murphy / The Beast:

The 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010 — Charges: The A.Q. Khan of the culinary world, her secret recipes are demonstrably more dangerous to America than a nuclear armed North Korea. When not delighting delusional hicks on “Huckabee,” she's cooking up coronary-clogging treats like the …

Discussion: Liberty Street, Althouse and Pharyngula

Spencer Ackerman / Danger Room:

Petraeus Team: Taliban Made Us Wipe Village Out [Updated] — Expect more Afghan villages to be destroyed by American rockets and bombs — if, that is, the Taliban “saturate” them with homemade explosives and kick out the villagers. But the U.S.-led coalition isn't going to destroy populated areas …

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Registan.net, Swampland and Gawker

Paul Bedard / US News:

House GOP Lists $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts — Moving aggressively to make good on election promises to slash the federal budget, the House GOP today unveiled an eye-popping plan to eliminate $2.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years. Gone would be Amtrak subsidies …

Discussion: Hit & Run

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

A Racy Show With Teenagers Steps Back From a Boundary — MTV executives have a new hit drama on their hands, featuring the sexual and drug-fueled exploits of misfit teenagers. They also have something else — a fear that coming episodes of the show may break the law.