memeorandum: Gary Busey withdraws Gingrich endorsement (Emily Goodin/The Hill)

5:35 PM ET, December 14, 2011

Top Items:

Romney Warns of Nominating ‘Zany’ Gingrich — Mitt Romney is sharpening his warning to Republicans about the consequences of nominating Newt Gingrich as the party's presidential candidate, declaring in an interview on Wednesday: “Zany is not what we need in a president.” — “Zany is great in a campaign.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, USA Today, Business Insider, The Page, New York Times, The Impolitic and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Newt Gingrich commits a capital crime — Newt Gingrich — the friend of his detractors, to whom he offers serial vindications — provided on Monday redundant evidence for the proposition that he is the least conservative candidate seeking the Republican presidential nomination: He faulted Mitt Romney for committing acts of capitalism.

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Ricochet Conversations Feed, The Daily Dish, Business Insider, Riehl World View, The New Republic and National Review

Mj Lee / The Politico:

Christine O'Donnell: I like Mitt Romney's flip — Talk about a backhanded compliment. — Christine O'Donnell, who has endorsed Mitt Romney, appeared on CNN Wednesday and inadvertently drew attention to one of the charges against the former Massachusetts governor from his critics - flip-flopping.

Discussion: CNN, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Fox News, Washington Monthly, Indecision Forever, Washington Post, New York Times, Outside the Beltway, The Caucus, ABCNEWS, Connecting.the.Dots, Harry's Place, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, Public Policy Polling and The Hill

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Obama looking good in Virginia — PPP has polled Virginia four times in 2011 and has come to the same conclusion every time: Barack Obama just hasn't slipped there to the extent he has nationally. That's a finding with major, major implications for his reelection prospects …

Discussion: The Politico, Ballot Box, Hot Air and USA Today

Opinionator:
With Candidates Like This ... David Brooks: Gail …

Discussion: Gallup and Hullabaloo

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Romney's Eerie Post-Flip-Flop Consistency

Discussion: Hot Air, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Reaction and The Politico

Jonathan Bernstein / Washington Monthly:

Stepping back and watching a mugging — Newt Gingrich, as far as I can tell from 1000 miles away (I'm in San Antonio), is just getting hammered right now in Iowa. Either in ads or in their stump speech, at least four of Newt's competitors are slamming him hard. — There are two theories about how this will play out.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Rick Perry, Mitt Romney internals show Newt Gingrich slippage, sources say

Discussion: CNN, Swampland and Daily Kos

Kevinliptak / CNN: Paul reacts to positive poll fortunes, nagging questions about electability

The Iowa Republican:
Focus Group Fallout

Discussion: USA Today, Catholic Bandita, The Other McCain, Washington Wire, Iowa Caucuses, Washington Post, The Raw Story, Shakesville and Taylor Marsh

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
New ad from pro-Romney ‘super PAC’ edits out mention of individual mandate

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Caucus and Daily Kos

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Ron Paul questions his own stamina in protracted nomination fight

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Hot Air

Kurt Andersen / Time:

The Protester — Once upon a time, when major news events were chronicled strictly by professionals and printed on paper or transmitted through the air by the few for the masses, protesters were prime makers of history. Back then, when citizen multitudes took to the streets without weapons …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, NewsBusters.org, The Daily Caller, JustOneMinute, Ricochet Conversations Feed, The PJ Tatler, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Law Librarian Blog, News Desk, The Lonely Conservative, Boing Boing and Poynter

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Time's POTY: “The Protester” — Really? The most influential and newsworthy person of the year currently occupies space in urban downtown areas, unless you're on the West Coast, where you can find them hanging out at the docks, blocking traffic and making your cost of goods needlessly increase.

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Taylor Marsh, The Week and Patterico's Pontifications

WISN Milwaukee's Channel 12:

Mickey Mouse, Adolf Hitler Allowed On Wis. Recall Petitions — GAB Rules Address, Date More Important Than Names — MADISON, Wis. — The signatures of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler will be counted on recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker as long as they are properly dated and include …

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, The Heritage Foundation, Wizbang, Mediaite, Althouse, The Daily Caller, The Jawa Report, The PJ Tatler, The Impolitic and Instapundit

Robert / KAYAK:

We Handled This Poorly — We would like to apologize to anyone who was offended by how we handled our decision not to continue advertising on All-American Muslim when it returns in January. We decided to advertise on it in the first place because we adamantly support tolerance and diversity.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Star-Ledger Editorial Page, Media Decoder, The Daily What and National Review

Emily Goodin / The Hill:

Gary Busey withdraws Gingrich endorsement — Actor Gary Busey is withdrawing his endorsement of Newt Gingrich for president. — {mosads}"It is not time for me to be endorsing anyone at this time! When there are the two final candidates, then I will endorse," Busey said Wednesday in a statement released through his representative.

Discussion: PopWatch, Indecision Forever and The Daily Caller

Stephanie Hallett / The Huffington Post:

Marriage Rate In America Drops Drastically … Barely half of Americans over the age 18 are married, according to a new report from the Pew Research Institute. The number of married couples dropped a startling five percent between 2009 and 2010 and has declined by more than 20 percent since 1960.

Discussion: Pew Social & … and On Top Magazine Headlines

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Santorum Blames Gays For Plummeting Marriage Rate

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Boehner gets tough with Senate: Time to act on House payroll tax extension — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday implored the Senate to act on the House-passed payroll-tax bill, making a bid to wrap up Congress's work for the year and head home for the holidays.

Discussion: The Politico and CNN

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell blocks Senate vote on House payroll-tax-cut package

Discussion: Roll Call, Wake up America and Daily Kos

Keith Koffler / White House Dossier:

Obama Campaign Collecting GOP Emails — The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website. — The effort could help the Obama campaign build …

Discussion: Don Surber, Hit & Run, Nice Deb, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, Daily Pundit and Sister Toldjah

Office of the Assistant Secretary …:

2.5 Million Young Adults Gain Health Insurance Due to the Affordable Care Act — This Issue Brief is available on the Internet at: — Printer Friendly version in PDF format (2 pages) — [Free PDF reader ] — How to Obtain a Printed Copy — Results released today [12/14/11] …

Discussion: The New Republic, ThinkProgress, American Prospect, White House.gov Blog, The Hill, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Daily Kos, The Raw Story and Booman Tribune

CNBC:

Realtors: We Overcounted Home Sales for Five Years — Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought.

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, Outside the Beltway, americanthinker.com, Balloon Juice and KVOA-TV

Malcolm Moore / Telegraph:

Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back — Something extraordinary has happened in the Chinese village of Wukan. — Thousands of Wukan's residents gathered for a second day in front of a triple-roofed pagoda that serves as the village hall — For the first time on record …

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway, The Lede, Global Spin, americanthinker.com, Vox Popoli and msnbc.com

Matthew Lynn / MarketWatch:

This slump won't end until 2031 — Commentary: Our predicament parallels the Long Depression of 1870s — LONDON (MarketWatch) — In retrospect, it wasn't hard to see that the markets were becoming dangerously unstable. Germany had just adopted a new monetary system, and Europe was being flooded with cheap German money.

Discussion: Newshoggers.com, The Agonist and Outside the Beltway

Reuters:

Analysis: Europe's austerity zeal risks killing the patient — (Reuters) - Europe's “no pain no gain” attitude to solving its sovereign crisis risks exacerbating the bloc's problems, choking off the very growth needed to raise the money to pay down the debt.

Discussion: AMERICAN FUTURE

Jamelle Bouie / American Prospect: Important Election News from Across the Pond

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:

Marines' Haditha Interviews Found in Iraqi Junkyard — BAGHDAD — One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America's time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Robert Costa / National Review:

Ryan to Gingrich: ‘This Is Not the 1990s’ — Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the influential Budget Committee chairman, has kept his distance from the GOP primary. But after reading Newt Gingrich's latest comments about entitlement reform, he says the contenders must seriously address the debt crisis, not play political games.

Discussion: Time, The Hill, RedState, Ricochet Conversations Feed, The Enterprise Blog and American Spectator

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Ron Paul For The GOP Nomination — The Dish goes through the process of endorsing candidates in a primary season, not because I'm under any illusions that my endorsement counts. It probably hurts an insignificant amount, if anything. I try to make a decision - because it's easy to pontificate …

Discussion: Hit & Run, Belmont Club, The PJ Tatler and GOP 12

Investor's Business Daily:

Jet Fuel-Gate Is Obama's New Solyndra — Ecofanaticism: SolyndraGate was no isolated case of corrupt government misspending. The U.S. Navy was just forced to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels from an Obama-connected firm at an outrageous $16 per gallon. — The massive Obama stimulus …

Discussion: Moonbattery and TigerHawk

Julia Preston / New York Times:

Immigration Crackdown Also Snares Americans — A growing number of United States citizens have been detained under Obama administration programs intended to detect illegal immigrants who are arrested by local police. — In a spate of recent cases across the country, American citizens …

Discussion: Blog of Rights, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, Balloon Juice and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Spencer Ackerman / Danger Room:

Man Who Hunted Bin Laden With a Sword Now Jailed on a Gun Charge — Gary Brooks Faulkner became internationally famous last year after the Greeley, Colo. native packed up a sword and a pistol and went on a one-man hunt for Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Pakistan. But now Faulkner has a new mission: get out of jail.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Attackerman and The Raw Story

Jim Siegel / The Columbus Dispatch:

Dems, GOP agree on single March primary in 2012 — Democratic and Republican House leaders have apparently worked out a deal today on a new congressional map and a single 2012 primary on March 6, instead of the current split primary that moves presidential and congressional races to June.

Discussion: The Politico

James Crugnale / Mediaite:

Obamney Fail: Fox News Mistakenly Uses Barack Obama Photo On Mitt Romney Poll Graphic — On America Live Wednesday with Megyn Kelly, Fox News's graphics department had a bit of a problem. While displaying a poll graphic with the portraits of all the GOP presidential contenders in Iowa …

Discussion: The Right Scoop, Inside Cable News, The Daily What and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion