memeorandum: Repeal of sodomy, bestiality ban sparks fight on Defense bill (Jeremy Herb/The Hill)

8:30 PM ET, December 9, 2011

Top Items:

Gingrich Is Inspiring—and Disturbing — The first potential president about whom there is too much information. — I had a friend once who amused herself thinking up bumper stickers for states. The one she made up for California was brilliant. “California: It's All True.”

Discussion: The Caucus, The Spectacle Blog, Vodkapundit, GOP 12, Betsy's Page, JustOneMinute, National Review, Slate, Indecision Forever, 2012 Decoded and Connecting.the.Dots

Jonathan Lemire / NY Daily News:

Donald Trump looks into canceling GOP debate he's set to host — The Donald says he may still run for the White House as an independent — Donald Trump smiles at left as Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich talks to media after their meeting in New York, Monday, Dec. 5, 2011.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Gothamist, The Political Carnival, Campaign 2012 and Jammie Wearing Fools

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

The reach of the GOP establishment — I remain pretty skeptical about Newt Gingrich's chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination, but on the “Why Newt Will Lose” list of arguments, some points are more compelling than others. — Ezra Klein makes the case today …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Gingrich Tragedy — Of all the major Republicans, the one who comes closest to my worldview is Newt Gingrich. Despite his erratically shifting views and odd phases, he continually returns to this core political refrain: He talks about using government in energetic but limited ways to increase growth, dynamism and social mobility.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, FrumForum, The Caucus, ThinkProgress, Opinionator, Democracy in America, Ron Paul 2012 Presidential …, Hit & Run, The PJ Tatler, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Daily Kos and Prairie Weather

Sen. Rand Paul / Des Moines Register:

Rand Paul: Republicans would take a giant step backward by choosing Gingrich — As a U.S. senator elected from and by the tea party, I am often asked about the tea party, the conservative movement and the presidential race. — While conservatives and limited-government activists did …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Iowa Caucuses, The Iowa Republican, Riehl World View, Washington Post, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Booman Tribune, Hit & Run, O.KayHenderson.com and The Spectacle Blog

Matt K. Lewis / The Daily Caller:

As you probably heard, some Mitt Romney surrogates hosted a conference call today to attack Newt Gingrich. Because Romney is attempting to win a Republican primary — and cast Newt Gingrich as unacceptable to conservatives — you probably assume that center-right journalists or conservative bloggers got to ask some questions, right?

Discussion: Hot Air, Jamie Dupree Washington …, Datechguy's Blog, Big Journalism, Reuters and Sister Toldjah

Datechguy / Datechguy's Blog:
If you're a conservative Mitt Romney apparently doesn't want you / Update Romney Camp cries false

Discussion: LifeNews.com, The Lonely Conservative, Hot Air and Catholic Bandita

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:
Newt Strikes Back at Romney

Discussion: Coffee and Markets, The PJ Tatler, Daily Kos and The Page

Jeremy W. Peters / The Caucus:
Newsmax Says Trump Debate Is ‘Full Steam Ahead’

Discussion: TVNewser

Associated Press:
Trump might scrub his GOP presidential debate

Discussion: Wonkette, Indecision Forever, The Right Scoop and Little Green Footballs

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Trump ‘very disappointed in’ Bachmann

Discussion: CNN, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and GOP 12

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Mitt Romney Goes After Gingrich: 'We're Going To Have To Make Changes Like The Ones Paul Ryan Proposed'

Discussion: Daily Kos, The New Republic and Washington Monthly

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Oops: Perry Forgets Justice Sotomayor's Name — Echoing his devastating “oops” moment in an earlier GOP debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) forgot the name of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in an interview today with the Des Moines Register editorial board. He had to be assisted by a reporter who offered the jurist's name.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Mediaite and Shakesville

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:

Repeal of sodomy, bestiality ban sparks fight on Defense bill — One surprising issue is riling both social conservatives and animal rights activists: the repeal of a ban on sodomy and bestiality. — As the final Defense authorization bill gets hammered out in conference committee …

Discussion: Hot Air

Alicia M. Cohn / Ballot Box:
White House: Obama not ‘aware’ of Perry attacks

Discussion: CNN

Charlemagne / Economist:

Europe's great divorce — WE JOURNALISTS are probably too bleary-eyed after a sleepless night to understand the full significance of what has just happened in Brussels. What is clear is that after a long, hard and rancorous negotiation, at about 5am this morning the European Union split in a fundamental way.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, BBC and Bagehot's notebook

Felix Salmon:

Europe's disastrous summit — I thought disasters were all meant to happen over the weekend? Somehow, in Brussels, EU leaders have contrived to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory on Thursday night, leaving Friday for finger-pointing and recriminations and wondering whether anybody …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Reuters, Daniel W. Drezner, Business Insider, The Enterprise Blog, Political Mojo, americanthinker.com, New York Times, Paul Krugman, Economix, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal

Bloomberg:
EU Leaders Drop Demands for Investor Write-Offs

Discussion: Economix

Nicholas Watt / Guardian:
Cameron: ‘Britain better off outside treaty’

Discussion: Financial Times, Firedoglake, News Desk and National Review

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Ron Paul: 9/11 prompted “glee” in Bush administration — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Thursday evening that Bush administration officials were gleeful after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because it gave them a pretext to invade Iraq. — “Just think of what happened after 9/11.

Discussion: Mediaite, Weasel Zippers and The Raw Story

Brent Budowsky / Pundits Blog:
Ron Paul on steady upward trajectory, third-party talk will escalate

Discussion: CNN, ABCNEWS, The Daily Caller and Campaign 2012

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Rick Perry, the Iowa x-factor

Discussion: msnbc.com, Guardian and CBS News

Chris Moody / Yahoo! News:
Saint Paul: Inside Ron Paul's effort to convince Christian conservatives that he's their man

Discussion: Hit & Run, Right Wing Watch, ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, Ben Smith's Blog and Iowa Caucuses

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Labor Board Drops Case Against Boeing — A top official with the National Labor Relations Board announced on Friday that the agency was dropping its politically charged case against Boeing, in which the agency had accused the company of violating federal labor law by opening a new aircraft production plant in South Carolina.

Discussion: NLRB, Hot Air, RedState, Campaign 2012, Weasel Zippers, The ChamberPost, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, The Right Scoop and The PJ Tatler

Justin Sink / The Hill:
GOP candidates applaud NLRB complaint withdrawl

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress, CNN and Reuters

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Gingrich: Palestinians ‘invented,’ promises Netanyahu-style foreign policy — Former Speaker Newt Gingrich dismissed the Palestinian bid for statehood as the effort of an “invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community.”

Discussion: ThinkProgress, TJC Newsdesk, The Daily Dish, Mediaite, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and National Review

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Real G.O.P. Dark Horse: None of the Above — Two of my favorite analysts, Rhodes Cook and Josh Putnam, have a good debate going about just how plausible it is that a Republican who is not currently running for president could enter the race later and potentially win it (probably necessitating a brokered convention).

Discussion: Washington Post, A plain blog about politics, The Politico, Booman Tribune, Outside the Beltway, Business Insider, Patterico's Pontifications, National Review, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, GOP 12, Don Surber, Prairie Weather, Daily Kos and The Impolitic

Tamara Keith / NPR:

GOP Objects To ‘Millionaires Surtax’; Millionaires We Found? Not So Much — For the second week in a row, the Senate on Thursday voted down proposals to extend the payroll tax holiday through next year. In the case of the Democrats' proposal, Republicans objected to the “millionaires surtax” that would be used to pay for it.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Felix Salmon, ThinkProgress, The Impolitic, Little Green Footballs, Prairie Weather and Political Mojo

Russell Berman / The Hill:

House GOP releases payroll-tax package under Obama veto threat — House Republicans on Friday released their legislation to extend the payroll-tax cut, reform and extend unemployment insurance and delay changes to the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors.

Discussion: CNN, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Wall Street Journal:

Corzine's Loss May Be Soros's Gain — Investor Places Big Bet on Euro Debt, Buying MF Global Former Holdings — Investor George Soros's family fund bought about $2 billion of European bonds formerly owned by MF Global Holdings Ltd., the very debt that helped force the securities firm …

Discussion: Wizbang, The Lonely Conservative and Business Insider

Ben Protess / DealBook:
Corzine Defends His Actions at MF Global

Discussion: American Prospect, Wonkette and naked capitalism

Hillary Chabot / Boston Herald:

Elizabeth Warren slaps down Karl Rove, latest attack ad — A feisty Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren shot back at Republican strategist Karl Rove yesterday — calling his second negative ad “factually wrong and morally wrong” after a University of Massachusetts …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, The PJ Tatler and The Baseline Scenario

Ross Douthat:

The Huntsman 2016 Fallacy — Jon Chait points out, correctly, that Newt Gingrich should be hoping against hope that a Jon Huntsman surge in New Hampshire cuts into Mitt Romney's support. But then he veers off into implausible speculations about Huntsman's 2016 ambitions: