memeorandum: Romney shifted on ‘conscience’ issue (Tracy Jan/Boston Globe)

12:05 PM ET, February 3, 2012

Top Items:

Tom Benning / The Scoop:

Komen apologizes for ‘recent decisions,’ pledges to continue funding Planned Parenthood — Komen for the Cure just released the following statement from Nancy Brinker and the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors:

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Campaign 2012, Hot Air, The Raw Story, The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org blogs, Political Mojo, Jammie Wearing Fools and Jezebel

Michael Brendan Dougherty / Business Insider:

HOPE KILLS: Susan G Komen Foundation Would Rather Be Associated With A Handgun Than Planned Parenthood — Well, here's an interesting weapon! — The Susan G. Komen Foundation, which collects and distributes money for Breast Cancer research and prevention is in the news for withdrawing its …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Jawa Report, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Mahablog, Pirate's Cove, LifeSiteNews.com Latest …, Rumproast, Balloon Juice, Runnin' Scared, Flopping Aces and Newshoggers.com

New York Times:

A Painful Betrayal — With its roster of corporate sponsors and the pink ribbons that lend a halo to almost any kind of product you can think of, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has a longstanding reputation as a staunch protector of women's health.

Discussion: Business Insider, Washington Post, Crooks and Liars, Bloomberg, NewsBusters.org, Outside the Beltway, Wall Street Journal, Campaign 2012, AUL.org, CatholicVote.org, TBogg, blogs.wsj.com, The Maddow Blog, Daily Kos and The Loyal Opposition

Kate Noceraand David Nather / Politico:
Susan G. Komen fights to contain Planned Parenthood damage

Discussion: CNN, CBS Los Angeles, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, The Reid Report, Daily Kos, LifeNews.com and AlterNet

New York Times:
Komen Foundation Urged to Restore Planned Parenthood Funds

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Post, TIME Ideas, Daily Kos, Healthland, The Confluence, Balloon Juice, AlterNet, Capital New York, Media Decoder, The Lede, Gothamist and American Prospect

Caroline May / The Daily Caller:
After cutting ties with Planned Parenthood, Komen donations up 100 percent

Steven Ertelt / LifeNews.com:
Why Did Komen Stop? Planned Parenthood Doesn't Do Mammograms

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Sarah Kliff / Washington Post:
Komen speaks on Planned Parenthood

Discussion: TBogg, Political Mojo, Feministing, msnbc.com, The American Independent, The Hill, Comments from Left Field, Wizbang, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Atlantic Online

Tyler Durden / ZeroHedge:

Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low — A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Swampland, Daily Pundit and The Strata-Sphere

Jeff Cox / CNBC:

Employment Jumps; Rate 8.3%, 243,000 New Jobs Created — The pace of job creation surged in January, with the US economy generating 243,000 new positions while the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, according to government data released Friday. — Both numbers were far better than consensus …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Questions and Observations and The Lonely Conservative

Bob Willis / Bloomberg:
Unemployment Drops to 8.3%; Payrolls in U.S. Jump 243,000

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Motoko Rich / New York Times:
U.S. Economy Added 243,000 Jobs in January; Unemployment Rate Is 8.3%

Discussion: Economix, TalkLeft and Prairie Weather

Lucia Mutikani / Reuters:
Job growth surges, jobless rate drops to 8.3 percent

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Vodkapundit and The Page

Wall Street Journal:
Economy Adds 243,000 Jobs

Discussion: Washington Wire, Washington Post, The Maddow Blog, Real Time Economics, Gothamist and Saint Petersblog

Byron Tau / Politico:

Obama campaign plays Trump card against Romney — The Obama campaign is fundraising off of Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney, calling the New York real estate mogul the “birth certificate conspiracy leader” in an email to supporters. — “Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he was ‘humbled’ to accept Donald Trump's endorsement.

Byron York / Campaign 2012:

Team Obama shocked to learn Romney wants to win — Late Thursday night, as the political world was obsessing over fallout from Mitt Romney's “not concerned about the very poor” remarks, the Obama campaign was scandalized by something else Romney said in the wake of victory in Florida.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Cameron Joseph / The Hill:
Romney gaffes alarm GOP

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, ABCNEWS, GOP 12, Wall Street Journal, The Other McCain, Mediaite, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

Maggie Haberman / Politico:
Romney playing with Trump-brand fire?

Discussion: Washington Wire, Washington Examiner, Swampland, Politics and Wall Street Journal

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Obama's Magic Number? 150,000 Jobs Per Month — The unemployment report on Friday will give us the most tangible read to date on how the economy is performing in 2012. It might also represent the most important number yet for President Obama's prospects of winning re-election.

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Monthly, Political Mojo, Washington Post and Jay Bookman

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Chris Christie Doubles Down On Same-Sex Marriage Referendum: ‘This Is The Bargain Of Your Life!’ — New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) argued that he is offering activists of marriage equality “the bargain of your life” by advocating that the legislature pass a bill asking residents …

Discussion: NewJerseyNewsroom.com and Towleroad News #gay

Bloomberg:
Christie: Voters Would Pass N.J. Gay Marriage

Discussion: Capital New York, Towleroad News #gay and ThinkProgress

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks — WASHINGTON — Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Felix Salmon, New Deal 2.0, naked capitalism, Prairie Weather, The BLT and Economix

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Romney up big in Nevada — Mitt Romney is headed for a dominant victory in Nevada on Saturday. PPP finds him polling at 50% to 25% for Newt Gingrich, 15% for Ron Paul, and 8% for Rick Santorum. — Certainly in Nevada the Mormon vote will get a lot of attention and Romney leads Paul 78-14 …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Ballot Box, New York Times, GOP 12, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, Campaign 2012, Outside the Beltway and Saint Petersblog

Washington Examiner:

Holder should walk the plank on ‘Fast and Furious’ — A petulant, angry, and defiant Attorney General Eric Holder refused yesterday to take any responsibility for the growing scandal surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the ill-conceived and incompetently managed program …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Hot Air

ABCNEWS:
Attorney General Eric Holder Disgusted by Personal Attacks at Fast and Furious Hearing

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Power Line, TalkLeft, Commentary Magazine and The Hill

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Sierra Club took $26m from gas industry to fight coal — The Sierra Club disclosed Thursday that it received over $26 million from natural gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. between 2007 and 2010 to help the group's campaign against coal-fired power plants. — Sierra Club Executive Director …

Michael Brune / Coming Clean:
The Sierra Club and Natural Gas

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Ecocentric, Big Government and Politico

BuzzFeed:

Sandra Day O'Connor Hasn't Offended This Many People Since She Upheld Roe V. Wade — The former Supreme Court Justice made a comment about Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Zing. — by JP Moore · added an hour ago · 58 responses — 12 Pets That Hate Their Families

Discussion: Politics and Balloon Juice

Politics:

Mitt Romney Was A Democrat — It may only have been for a few minutes in 1992. But this is a little-known, true fact: The likely GOP nominee is a former Democrat. — Mitt Romney's 1992 Democratic Primary vote for Paul Tsongas — a technocratic modernizer and reformer, but very much a Democrat …

Discussion: Mediaite

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:

Colbert v. the Court — Why, in the battle over Citizens United, the Supreme Court never had a chance. — The Supreme Court has always had its critics. Chief Justice John Marshall had to contend with the temper of President Andrew Jackson ("John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!").

Discussion: CNN

Andy Pierrotti / WBBH-TV:

NBC2 Investigates: Voter fraud — Two elections supervisors are taking action after an NBC2 investigation uncovers flawed record keeping and human error allowing people who are not citizens of the United States to vote. — No one knows how widespread this problem is …

Discussion: UrbanGrounds

Tracy Jan / Boston Globe:

Romney shifted on ‘conscience’ issue — '05 contraception stance similar to Obama's now — C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League said Mitt Romney has a ‘very mixed record’ on the contraception issue. — WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney accused President Obama this week of ordering …

Discussion: Mitt Romney for President …, ThinkProgress, Guardian, The New Republic and The Right Scoop