memeorandum: Nancy Pelosi fades as power player (Jonathan Allen/The Politico)

4:25 PM ET, April 14, 2011

Top Items:

Nancy Pelosi snaps at White House adviser Gene Sperling — In a tense moment that may well have encapsulated the frustrations of three-plus months in the minority, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi snapped at a top presidential economic adviser, Gene Sperling, during a closed-door meeting …

Discussion: The Note, Hot Air, Swampland, Weasel Zippers, Pirate's Cove, Ballot Box and The Hill

Jonathan Allen / The Politico:

Nancy Pelosi fades as power player — During the past election season, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could have starred in a remake of the Hollywood cult classic “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.” In an endless string of campaign ads, Republicans caricatured her — even put her image on billboards — as a political monster.

Discussion: Fox News and FrumForum

The Note:
Harry Reid ‘Embarrassed’ About 2006 Opposition To Raising Debt Limit

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, ABCNEWS, Political Punch and Fox News

Ben Terris / NationalJournal.com:
‘Patriotic Millionaires’ Ask to Be Taxed More

Discussion: The Other McCain, Left Coast Rebel, Pirate's Cove, The Lonely Conservative, Right Wing News, Hot Air, Moe Lane and Instapundit

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner expects spending deal to pass with ‘bipartisan majority’

Discussion: The Page

Azi Paybarah / New York Observer:

Trump: ‘Always Had a Great Relationship With The Blacks’ — You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly. — Donald Trump speaking with Fred Dicker. — Donald Trump shot down a report claiming …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Wonkette, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, Taegan Goddard's …, Fox News, The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, Outside the Beltway and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Trump and the blacks — Donald Trump was asked just now on Fred Dicker's radio show about African-American support for President Obama. — “I have a great relationship with the blacks,” he said, continuing to call the overwhelming black support for President Obama “frightening.”

Discussion: CNN and TPMDC

Lauraklairmont / CNN:
Trump to make announcement about announcement

Discussion: NewsMax.com, Wake up America, Outside the Beltway, FrumForum and GOP 12

Wall Street Journal:

The Presidential Divider — Obama's toxic speech and even worse plan for deficits and debt. — Did someone move the 2012 election to June 1? We ask because President Obama's extraordinary response to Paul Ryan's budget yesterday—with its blistering partisanship and multiple distortions …

New York Times:
President Obama, Reinvigorated

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Washington Monthly, The White House, Los Angeles Times, About.com US Liberal Politics, Washington Post, American Thinker and The Caucus

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:
Raise America's Taxes

Discussion: Questions and Observations, NewsBusters.org, Daily Kos and PERRspectives

Ramesh Ponnuru / National Review:
Paul Ryan vs. the Mythmakers

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Washington Post:

House approves budget deal that averted shutdown — Alex Wong/ GETTY IMAGES - U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, holds up a copy of the 2012 Republican budget proposal. — Eliminating any threat of a government shutdown until the fall …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Hill, Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, The Page, FrumForum, TPMDC and Gawker

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House approves FY 2011 spending bill in 260-167 bipartisan vote

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

John Bresnahan / The Politico:
GOP reached out to Steny Hoyer for help on budget vote

Discussion: AmSpecBlog

National Review:
Strike One — We initially supported the deal House Speaker …

The Hill:
WHIP COUNT: Budget deal appears to have votes to pass Congress

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Hill, Hot Air and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

Dennis Cauchon / USA Today:

Share of population working — Roll over each state to see the share of the population working in 2010: — Sources: USA TODAY, Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics — The share of the population that is working fell to its lowest level last year since women started entering the workforce …

Discussion: National Review, Firedoglake, The Blaze, The Politico, The Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Right Wing News, Pajamas Media, msnbc.com and JammieWearingFool

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

DeMint: If vote to raise debt ceiling is GOP's Waterloo, ‘let it be’ — A top conservative senator on Thursday indicated he is willing to go to extreme lengths to prevent a vote on raising the debt ceiling, even if it hurts the Republican Party politically.

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Monthly and FrumForum

David Weigel / Slate:
Dancing on the Ceiling — How Republicans are framing the debate …

Discussion: OpenSecrets.org, Weigel and protein wisdom

Shane D'Aprile / The Hill:
Freshmen shrugging off Tea Party primary threats over spending deal

Discussion: CNN, DownWithTyranny!, New York Times, The Note and AMERICAblog News

Sara Murray / Washington Wire:

Gov. Walker Gets Some Awkward Questions — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker faced some awkward questions during his much-anticipated testimony Thursday before the House Oversight Committee. … Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) had intended the hearing to focus on state and municipal debt …

Discussion: Althouse

Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:
Fireworks expected as Gov. Walker heads to Hill to talk unions

Discussion: msnbc.com, ThinkProgress and ABCNEWS

Henry Blodget / The Business Insider:

PROFESSOR: Sarah Palin Probably Staged A Gigantic Hoax About Being Trig's Mother — An interesting footnote has emerged to a theory that raged around the Internet during Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President: — The theory is that Sarah Palin is actually the grandmother of her purported son Trig …

Discussion: Indecision Forever and The Daily Dish

New York Times:

In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures — It is a question asked repeatedly across America: why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?

Discussion: Salon, The Project …, Yglesias, The Confluence, The Awl, The Big Picture, Prairie Weather, Reuters, FrumForum and The Politico

Derek Tang / Macroadvisers:

The Economic Effects of the Ryan Plan: Assuming the Answer? — Last week the House Budget Committee, chaired by Congressman Paul Ryan (R, WI) issued a Budget Resolution for fiscal year 2012 along with a Republican blueprint for addressing the nation's long-term fiscal imbalance.

Discussion: FrumForum, Yglesias and Connecting.the.Dots

Alan J. Kuperman / Boston Globe:

False pretense for war in Libya? — EVIDENCE IS now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya. The president claimed that intervention was necessary to prevent a “bloodbath” in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and last rebel stronghold.

Discussion: Eunomia and The Daily Dish

Donald L. Luskin / Wall Street Journal:

Remembering the Real Ayn Rand — The author of “Atlas Shrugged” was an individualist, not a conservative, and she knew big business was as much a threat to capitalism as government bureaucrats. — Tomorrow's release of the movie version of “Atlas Shrugged” is focusing attention …

Discussion: Big Hollywood, Hit & Run, Outside the Beltway and RedState

Kelly Chernenkoff / Fox News:

GWU Suicide Tragically Coincides with Obama Speech — George Washington University students in Washington, D.C. learned of a tragic coincidence of timing on their campus Wednesday. As President Obama delivered a speech on deficit reduction in the Jack Morton Auditorium …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Mediaite and Daily Kos

CNBC:

Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise; Inflation Pressure Grows — New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, bouncing back above the key 400,000 level, while core producer prices clumbed faster than expected in March, government reports showed on Thursday.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Scared Monkeys and The Lonely Conservative

Steven E.F. Brown / bizjournals:

Marijuana causes global warming, uses 1% of U.S. electricity — People growing marijuana indoors use 1 percent of the U.S. electricity supply, and they create 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year (not counting the smoke exhaled) according to a report by Evan Mills …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Boing Boing and Clayton Cramer's Blog

Myglesias / Yglesias:

The False Promise of Class Size Reduction — The idea of reducing class sizes is very popular with the public, and there's no organized interest group opposition to it. Consequently, one of the main things we've done in US education policy over the years is make class sizes smaller.

Discussion: Center for American Progress and Eschaton

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

About That Lawsuit... The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Jonathan Tasini is so utterly without merit, and has been so thoroughly eviscerated in the media — including being ridiculed as the “dumbest lawsuit ever” — I am hesitant to take any time away from aggregating adorable kitten videos to respond.

Discussion: Mixed Media, Liberal Values, Left Coast Rebel, New York Times, Mediaite, Don Surber, The Atlantic Online, TechCrunch, The Daily Dish, The TrogloPundit and The Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »

iowahawk:

16 Tons — Contents © 1999-2010 by David Burge / Iowahawk. — For reprint inquiries, please contact Lynn Chu. — IOWAHAWK'S OTHER HAUNTS — BLURBS — Het Vrije Volk (Netherlands) — “Laat de rijken de crisis betalen, zegt de SP. Let's eat de rich, zegt Michael Moore.

Discussion: AMERICAN DIGEST

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:

Budget Confusion — Some conservatives were taken aback by the AP's report yesterday that the continuing resolution (CR) that cuts $38 billion will only reduce this fiscal year's deficit—i.e. reduce total outlays through September 30—by $352 million. — Is the CR a sham? Nope, not really.

Discussion: Firedoglake, NationalJournal.com, The Politico, TPMDC, Hot Air, Ben Smith's Blog, hosted2.ap.org, Fox News and AmSpecBlog

Ed Kilgore / The New Republic:

The Fred Thompson Effect — Why a dark-horse candidate can't save the GOP. — By now, it should be obvious that anyone hoping party insiders will draft a Jeb Bush or Chris Christie or Rick Perry to rescue the lackluster Republican 2012 field from itself is living in a hopeless fantasyland.