memeorandum: Ron Paul wins RLC straw poll (Jonathan Martin/The Politico)

5:55 PM ET, June 18, 2011

Top Items:

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

2 Top Lawyers Lost to Obama in Libya War Policy Debate — WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war …

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Obama rejects top lawyers' legal views on Libya — (updated below) — The growing controversy over President Obama's illegal waging of war in Libya got much bigger last night with Charlie Savage's New York Times scoop. He reveals that top administration lawyers — Attorney General Eric Holder …

Balkinization:

George W. Obama and the OLC — Charlie Savage writes that President Obama took the unusual step of overruling the head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the top counsel for the Defense Department in order to conclude that the U.S.'s participation in the war in Libya did not amount to …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Daily Dish, The Volokh Conspiracy, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Guardian

David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Obama Ignored Advice of Top Legal Advisors, OLC in Waging War in Libya

Discussion: Balloon Juice and The Volokh Conspiracy

Walter Russell Mead / Via Meadia:
Can This Presidency Be Saved? — Can the Obama Presidency still be saved?

Discussion: The Other McCain and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Ron Paul wins RLC straw poll — NEW ORLEANS — As has become typical at GOP cattle calls, Ron Paul captured the presidential straw poll at the Republican Leadership Conference here, easily besting his nearest competitor, Jon Huntsman. — Paul won 612 votes to Huntsman's 382.

Discussion: GOP 12, Hot Air and Outside the Beltway

Washington Post:

Obama impersonator pulled offstage after making racial, gay jokes at GOP gathering — NEW ORLEANS — A President Obama impersonator was pulled off the stage Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference, after telling a string of racially themed jokes about the president.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Hotline On Call and Balloon Juice

Jamie Klatell / Ballot Box:
Ron Paul wins Republican Leadership Conference straw poll by wide margin

Discussion: CNN

Thomas Beaumont / Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: Perry aides fact-finding on Iowa

Discussion: PERRspectives, Outside the Beltway and FrumForum

Mitt Romney / National Review:

My Pro-Life Pledge — I am pro-life and believe that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. — I support the reversal of Roe v. Wade, because it is bad law and bad medicine. Roe was a misguided ruling that was a result of a small group …

Kendra Marr / The Politico:
Romney won't sign abortion pledge

Discussion: CNN, The Note, National Review, Comments from Left Field, Outside the Beltway, Datechguy's Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, SBA-List, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Dish

Jon Ward / The Huffington Post:
Mitt Romney Refuses To Sign Pro-Life Pledge

Discussion: The Mahablog, Hot Air and FrumForum

Olivia Katrandjian / ABCNEWS:

Golf Summit: President Obama and Speaker Boehner Tee Off — President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner may be at odds over taxes, the debt ceiling and the conflict in Libya, but for today at least, they are putting aside their differences for a round of golf.

Discussion: CNN, Political Punch and Guardian

Julie Pace / WTOP.com:
Obama and Boehner balance putting and policy

Discussion: CNN, Michelle Malkin and FrumForum

Helene Cooper / The Caucus:
A Good Day to Play Golf and Talk Politics

Discussion: The Hill and New York Magazine

Brian Bolduc / Wall Street Journal:

Don't Know Much About History — The popular historian David McCullough says textbooks have become ‘so politically correct as to be comic.’ Meanwhile, the likes of Thomas Edison get little attention. — Boston — 'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate …

Discussion: Points and Figures, Althouse, National Review and FrumForum

Laura / barackobama.com:

A NEW APPROACH TO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER — Starting today, you'll notice something new about President Obama's Facebook page and his Twitter account, @BarackObama. — Obama for America staff will now be managing both accounts, posting daily updates from the campaign trail, from Washington, and everywhere in between.

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air, The Caucus, TechCrunch and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!:
Barack Obama to Start Tweeting From @BarackObama Account

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and Outside the Beltway

Mike McIntire / New York Times:

Friendship of Justice and Magnate Puts Focus on Ethics — PIN POINT, Ga. — Clarence Thomas was here promoting his memoir a few years ago when he bumped into Algernon Varn, whose grandfather once ran a seafood cannery that employed Justice Thomas's mother as a crab picker.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Catherine Rampell / New York Times:

For Want of a Word, Arizona's Jobless Lose Checks — One word, just one little word. — That's all that Frank Ballesteros, a 62-year-old desperate for work, needs to stay afloat. The word is not “hope” or “God” or “patience.” It is, improbably, “three.”

Discussion: Balloon Juice and JSOnline

New York Times:

A Watchdog Professor, Now Defending Himself — For the last two years, David Protess, a renowned journalist and professor who spent three decades fighting to prove the innocence of others, has been locked in a battle to do the same for himself. It hasn't gone as well.

Discussion: American Power, more at Mediagazer »

Marc Thiessen / The Enterprise Blog:

The New York Post Outdoes Itself — The New York Post is famous for its page one headlines, such as the classic “Headless Body in Topless Bar” and the understated “UN Meets” (with a photo of weasels sitting in the French and German chairs of the UN Security Council before the Iraq war).

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Gay group chief under pressure over AT&T issues — The president of the group Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is under pressure to resign from within his own organization's after aligning his group with AT&T's regulatory issues. — POLITICO's Eliza Krigman reported recently …

New York Times:

Looking Back, Gates Says He's Grown Wary of ‘Wars of Choice’ — WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, as he prepared to depart the government for the second time, said in an interview on Friday that the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had made him far more wary …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and FrumForum

Jennifer Preston / New York Times:

Fake Identities Were Used on Twitter in Effort to Get Information on Weiner — At least three months before the revelation that former Representative Anthony D. Weiner was sending lewd messages and photos to women online, a small group of self-described conservatives was monitoring his exchanges with women on Twitter.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Riehl World View, Mediaite, iOwnTheWorld.com, Gawker, Patterico's Pontifications, Hullabaloo, Verum Serum and FrumForum, more at Techmeme »

A.Killough / CNN:

Bachmann: Schools should teach intelligent design — New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann explained her skepticism of evolution on Friday and said students should be taught the theory of intelligent design. — Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota …