memeorandum: Chief Justice Defends Peers on Health Law (Adam Liptak/New York Times)

1:05 PM ET, January 1, 2012

Top Items:

Romney leads Paul in new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll; Santorum surges — The Des Moines Register's latest Iowa Poll shows a surprise three-way match-up in contention to win the Iowa Republican caucuses: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. — Santorum, who has been largely invisible …

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: Breaking down the final Iowa poll — By NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro — Breaking down the Des Moines Register poll... How Santorum and Romney could end up winning Tuesday's caucuses... Santorum's appearance on “Meet the Press”... Paul's appearance on CNN …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Taegan Goddard's … and Iowa Caucuses

Des Moines Register:

Romney leads Paul in Des Moines Register Iowa Poll; Santorum surges — Mitt Romney tops the latest Des Moines Register Iowa Poll in the closing days before the Iowa caucuses, but Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are poised within striking distance. — The poll, conducted Tuesday through Friday …

Discussion: CNN, Real Clear Politics, Los Angeles Times, Hot Dish Politics, Washington Post, The Other McCain, National Review and Wall Street Journal

Niall Stanage / Ballot Box:

No endorsement yet by Rep. Steve King — DES MOINES, Iowa — With only two full days of campaigning left before the Iowa caucuses, one of the state's most influential conservative figures claims he still does not know whom he will support. — Rep. Steve King, who represents …

Discussion: The Politico, CNN and ABCNEWS

New York Times:
Republicans Wage Hidden Ground War in Iowa

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses, Washington Post, Sioux City Journal and CNN

Paul West / Los Angeles Times:
Iowa's GOP caucuses may see some Democratic defectors

Discussion: Daily Kos

Niall Stanage / Ballot Box:
A new problem for Santorum in Iowa: Overcrowding

Discussion: CNN

Kevinliptak / CNN:
Perry bets Iowa fortunes on robust ground game

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Monthly, Don Surber, FiveThirtyEight, Towleroad News #gay, Los Angeles Times and msnbc.com

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies — The benefits of his candidacy are widely ignored, as are the Democrats' own evils — As I've written about before, America's election season degrades mainstream political discourse even beyond its usual lowly state.

Discussion: The Talking Dog, Taylor Marsh, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Moderate Voice and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

Pariahs and Prophets — IN 1984, after serving three terms in the House of Representatives, Ron Paul was defeated by Phil Gramm in Texas's Republican Senate primary. Paul left Congress, and a few years later he left the Republican Party entirely to run for president on the Libertarian line.

Discussion: Spengler, No More Mister Nice Blog and Rod Dreher

New York Post:

OWS mob in clash with cops — Some 800 Occupy Wall Street protesters began the new year by trying to retake Zuccotti Park last night, starting a massive clash with police in which one officer was stabbed in the hand with a pair of scissors. — A suspect was arrested in the 11:30 p.m. incident, according to a law enforcement source.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

City Room:
Surging Back Into Zuccotti Park, Protesters Are Cleared by Police

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

New York Times:

I Just Got Here, but I Know Trouble When I See It — BELIEVE it or not, times are getting better. — At least that's what the dry statistics keep telling us. Industrial production, G.D.P. — the kind of figures that Washington and Wall Street sweat over — suggest that the economy is on the mend.

Discussion: The Big Picture, Brad DeLong, Economist's View and EconLog

Associated Press:

Obama Signs Military Spending Bill — President Obama signed a broad military spending bill into law on Saturday despite “serious reservations” about provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists. — The bill also applies penalties …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The White House, Althouse, emptywheel, Pat Dollard, TalkLeft, The Agonist and NationalJournal.com

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
BREAKING: Obama Signs Defense Authorization Bill

Discussion: Blog of Rights, Suburban Guerrilla, emptywheel, Firedoglake, Osborne Ink and The Political Carnival

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:
Obama Makes It Official: Suspected Terrorists Can Be Indefinitely Detained Without a Trial

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Joe. My. God.

David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Obama signs defense bill, pledges to maintain legal rights of U.S. citizens

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Obama signs defense funding bill, objects to terror detainee provisions

Discussion: The Politico

Julia Duin / Washington Post:

Adam Bellow hopes to give voice to the tea party with new conservative imprint at HarperCollins — NEW YORK — Attention, conservatives: Adam Bellow says this is your moment. — The intellectual left, he contends, is in a vacuum. The right is where there are ideas, variety, excitement.

Discussion: Fausta's Blog

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:

Online community Reddit driving opposition to piracy bill — Members of Congress and their staff have grown used to scouring the Web, Twitter and Facebook to see where voters stand before finalizing their positions. But the heated debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) …

Discussion: Betabeat

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:

TRENDING: Democrats send ghost from Romney's past — (CNN) - Democrats aren't missing a chance to take aim at their favorite target: Republican presidential frontrunner and former Bain Capital executive Mitt Romney. — Randy Johnson, a worker laid off when Bain bought American Pad and Paper Company …

Discussion: The Politico

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Chief Justice Defends Peers on Health Law — In the face of a growing controversy over whether two Supreme Court justices should disqualify themselves from the challenge to the 2010 health care overhaul law, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Saturday defended the court's ethical standards.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Ginger Gibsonand James Hohmann / The Politico:

Newt Gingrich reins himself in during final push — ATLANTIC, Iowa — After months of bringing his legendary rhetorical meanderings to the presidential campaign trail, Newt Gingrich has suddenly discovered message control. — With just three days to go to the Iowa caucuses …