memeorandum: Wait! Paul Ryan has a point (Matt Miller/Washington Post)

9:45 AM ET, May 27, 2011

Top Items:

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

DNC chairwoman doesn't drive American — The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to drive a foreign car, despite criticizing Republican presidential candidates for supposedly favoring foreign auto manufacturers. — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) …

Discussion: theblogprof, The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers, Scared Monkeys, Weekly Standard, The Last Tradition, Questions and Observations, The Last Refuge, Michelle Malkin, Moe Lane and The Foundry

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

DNC chairwoman supports U.S. auto industry so much she owns a Japanese car — Oh, how embarrassing. — Like roll-up-the-tinted-windows-and-slouch- down-in-your-seat embarrassing. — The new chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee was criticizing Republicans who opposed President Obama's bailout …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, The Hill and Nice Deb

Paul Bedard / US News:
New DNC Boss Calls GOP ‘Anti-Women’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
DNC Chair: Republicans Are Waging a ‘War on Women’

Discussion: LifeNews.com, TPMDC and AmSpecBlog

The Note:

Mitt Romney Sends Leftover Pizza to Obama Chicago HQ — ABC's Emily Friedman (@abcemily) reports: After spending the day in Chicago fundraising, Mitt Romney sat down with small business owners at Gino's East, a pizza joint famous for their deep-dish pizza. — Not wanting any of the leftover slices …

Discussion: CNN, Outside the Beltway and New York Magazine

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Medicare and Mediscares — Yes, Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is a sore loser. Why do you ask? — To be sure, Mr. Ryan had reason to be upset after Tuesday's special election in New York's 26th Congressional District. It's a very conservative district …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Matt Miller / Washington Post:
Wait! Paul Ryan has a point

Discussion: The Incidental Economist and Firedoglake

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Clinton walks back debt remarks

Discussion: The Talking Dog, Firedoglake, United States Senator …, Hullabaloo and Raw Replay

John DiStaso / unionleader.com:

Romney to formally announce run for President in NH on June 2 — MANCHESTER _ Emphasizing the importance of the first-in-the-nation primary state to his campaign, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will formally announce his candidacy for President in New Hampshire next Thursday, June 2.

Discussion: The Politico and FrumForum

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Romney, Palin lead in new GOP poll, Herman Cain not far behind

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Gallup, CBS News, ThinkProgress and FiveThirtyEight

CNN:
Romney to announce candidacy for president in New Hampshire

Discussion: The Politico, Connecting.the.Dots, The Caucus, Conservatives4Palin, Mediaite and The Note

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Electoral Consequences of the Rapture

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Liberal Values and GOP 12

Brendan Greeley / Business Week:

Tyler Cowen, America's Hottest Economist — The George Mason University professor has written a bestseller, The Great Stagnation, keeps an influential blog, and reads way too many books — Tyler Cowen sits with a cranberry juice and a pile of books he no longer intends to read.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Moderate Voice

Bloomberg:

U.S. Congress Passes Extension of Patriot Act Wiretap Power — The U.S. Congress yesterday approved, and President Barack Obama signed into law, a four-year extension of provisions in the USA Patriot Act that allow law enforcement to track suspected terrorists with roving wiretaps.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Top of the Ticket, Outside the Beltway, The Moderate Voice and Danger Room

Julian Sanchez / Cato @ Liberty:

Manufactured Panic over Patriot Act — To judge by the hysterical statements issuing from elected officials—not to mention the breathless press coverage—you'd think the three little-used Patriot Act provisions set to expire unless reauthorized today are like the doomsday timer from the TV show Lost …

Discussion: Danger Room, Emptywheel, Eschaton, Weigel and Salon

Scott Wong / The Politico:
Patriot Act clears House, Senate

Discussion: The Note, CNN and Ballot Box

The Hill:

GOP forces Senate pro-forma session, blocking Warren recess appointment — GOP opposition is preventing the Senate from completely adjourning for the Memorial Day recess. — GOP opposition is preventing the Senate from completely adjourning for the Memorial Day recess.

Discussion: ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, naked capitalism, Pajamas Media and The Lonely Conservative

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

What Obama did to Israel — Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace …

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Huffington Post, AlterNet, OpEdNews and TomDispatch

James Zilenziger / CNSNews:

$500 Million Obama Administration Program Will Help Kids ‘Sit Still’ in Kindergarten — (CNSNews.com) - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the administration's new $500 million early learning initiative is designed to deal with children …

Discussion: iOwnTheWorld.com, The Lonely Conservative and Don Surber

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Sarah Palin to tour East Coast, New Hampshire — Sarah Palin is launching a nationwide bus tour starting Sunday in Washington, a Palin source has confirmed to POLITICO. — The first stop will be at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally. Palin will then travel up the East Coast …

Discussion: CNN, msnbc.com, GOP 12, The Note, Philly.com and Althouse

Scott Conroy / Real Clear Politics:
Palin's “Exploratory” Campaign: A Nationwide Bus Tour

Aharding / CNN:
Fox News: No change in Palin status

Discussion: The Politico and Outside the Beltway

Patricia Sellers / Fortune:

Mark Zuckerberg's new challenge: Eating only what he kills (and yes, we do mean literally...) — Last year Mark Zuckerberg set out to learn Chinese. Now he's determined to get in touch with his food. If the goats, lobsters and chickens of Silicon Valley aren't trembling, they should be.

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Gawker, Runnin' Scared, Althouse, Gothamist, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Vox Popoli, more at Techmeme »

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

In 2012 campaigns, spoilers from the Tea Party worry GOP — The Democrats' upset victory in New York's special election Tuesday shows that Tea Party candidates could prevent Republicans from winning the White House and Senate, GOP senators say. — Political analysts interpret Kathy Hochul's …

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

House defeats effort to scale down Afghan war in close 204-215 vote — The House on Thursday narrowly shot down an amendment to scale back military operations in Afghanistan. — In a close 204-215 vote, the House rejected a bipartisan amendment from Reps. James McGovern (D-Mass.) …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Booman Tribune and FrumForum

B. Daniel Blatt / GayPatriot:

Barney admits helping his partner get a job at Fannie Mae in 1990s — Back in the George W. Bush era, Barney Frank, either in his role as a senior member or Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was one of the Congress's biggest cheerleaders for Fannie Mae, the Government Sponsored Enterprise …

Discussion: POWIP, JammieWearingFool and Boston Herald

Dave Wedge / Boston Herald: Barney Frank knocked on his Fannie

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Allen West Suggests Anti-War Congressmen Should ‘Get Shot At A Few Times’ — In the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the House came closer than it ever has to voting for an end to the war in Afghanistan today when a bipartisan amendment that would have required President Obama to submit …

Discussion: miamiherald.typepad.com, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, The Politico and The Daily Pulp

The Note:

John Edwards Meets Privately with Bunny Mellon, Potential Witness in Cover Up Case — ABC's James Hill reports: John Edwards, while facing looming criminal indictment, spent the afternoon in Upperville, Virginia, visiting one of the key players in the alleged scheme to cover-up his affair.

Discussion: The Politico, CNN and Ben Smith's Blog

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

The Economy Is Wavering. Does Washington Notice? — The latest economic numbers have not been good. Jobless claims rose last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Another report showed that economic growth at the start of the year was no faster than the Commerce Department initially reported …

Discussion: msnbc.com and Calculated Risk

Matthew Yglesias / Yglesias:

The Growth And Success Of Post-Jewish Zionism — Tanya Somanader has a post about a curious op-ed from Joe Walsh (R-IL) in which he castigates “most American Jews” for our insufficiently hawkish views on Israel. And over the weekend Dan Webster (R-FL) offered a plausible rebuttal …

Discussion: The Mahablog, The Daily Caller, Israel Matzav, ThinkProgress, PERRspectives and Capital J | JTA

Ed Rogers / Washington Post:

Huntsman-Bachmann in 2012! — Former governor and ambassador Jon Huntsman is an articulate, attractive, cerebral, urbane internationalist. He's a proven conservative with a reassuring, moderate tone and a model family. His vast experience in state and federal government …

Discussion: Pirate's Cove and The Daily Caller