memeorandum: Greek lawmakers approve austerity bill as Athens burns (Reuters)

12:45 PM ET, February 13, 2012

Top Items:

Santorum's Turn — At the moment Rick Santorum appears to be overtaking Newt Gingrich as the principal challenger to Mitt Romney. Santorum has won more contests than Gingrich (who has won only one), has more delegates, and leads him in the polls. In at least one poll, he also leads Romney.

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos, Business Insider, americanthinker.com, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Hot Air, The Maddow Blog, The Caucus, Media Decoder and News Desk

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Severe Conservative Syndrome — Mitt Romney has a gift for words — self-destructive words. On Friday he did it again, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was a “severely conservative governor.” — As Molly Ball of The Atlantic pointed out, Mr. Romney “described conservatism as if it were a disease.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, The Mahablog, ThinkProgress, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Daily Kos and Globe and Mail

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Santorum moves ahead in Michigan — Rick Santorum's taken a large lead in Michigan's upcoming Republican primary. He's at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich. — Santorum's rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity …

Discussion: Politico, The Maddow Blog, RedState, Daily Kos and Ricochet Conversations Feed

American Research Group:

Presidential Primary Preference: — Michigan — Rick Santorum leads the Michigan Republican presidential primary with 33%. Santorum is followed by Mitt Romney with 27%, Newt Gingrich with 21%, and Ron Paul with 12%. — Santorum leads Gingrich 42% to 24% among self-identified Republicans …

Discussion: Hot Air, GOP 12, CNN and Taegan Goddard's …

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Sen. Inhofe says Santorum has ‘better’ record on defense, economy, energy

Discussion: CNN

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
Gingrich Money Hunt Faces Obstacles

Discussion: ABCNEWS, GOP 12, Political Mojo, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Bark Bark Woof Woof and The Page

Robert Costa / National Review:
Romney's Case — Last week, Rick Santorum's three-state sweep …

Discussion: GOP 12, Boston Globe and msnbc.com

Neil King Jr / Wall Street Journal:
GOP Momentum Is Michigan's Prize

Discussion: Politico, Los Angeles Times, ABCNEWS, The Hill and The Page

Tucker Carlson / The Daily Caller:

Inside Media Matters: Sources, memos reveal erratic behavior, close coordination with White House and news organizations — This is the first in a Daily Caller investigative series on Media Matters For America. Daily Caller reporters Alex Pappas and Will Rahn contributed to this report.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Michelle Malkin, The Jawa Report, Hot Air, Big Journalism, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, Taylor Marsh, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Booman Tribune, Weasel Zippers, Atlas Shrugs, FishbowlDC, TBogg, The PJ Tatler and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, more at Mediagazer »

The Daily Caller:
Inside Media Matters: Sources, memos reveal erratic behavior, close coordination with White House and news organizations

Discussion: Wake up America and Big Journalism

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

Dem lawmaker: Obama budget is a ‘nervous breakdown on paper’ — Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) expressed concern President Obama's budget would go too far to rein in government spending in the midst of an economic recovery, calling the forthcoming proposal a ‘nervous breakdown on paper.’

Discussion: Politico, Guardian and Weasel Zippers

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

WH Chief of Staff Errs on Senate Budget Rules — As President Obama prepares to unveil his FY2013 budget Monday, White House chief of staff Jack Lew this morning was asked by CNN to defend the Senate's refusal to pass a budget in more than 1,000 days. — “You can't pass a budget in the Senate …

Discussion: Power Line, Campaign 2012, americanthinker.com, Betsy's Page, Erick's blog, ThinkProgress and tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com

ABCNEWS:
Obama's Budget Has Populist Focus

Discussion: Daily Kos

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Jack Lew's misleading claim about the Senate's failure to pass a budget resolution

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, CNN, Hot Air, The Heritage Foundation, Washington Free Beacon, Power Line and Campaign 2012

Tom Cohen / CNN:
President Obama will present his 2013 budget plan Monday

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Hot Air, State of the Union and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Richard Florida / The Atlantic Cities:

Why America Keeps Getting More Conservative — Even with the president's approval rating showing signs of life and the Republicans busily bashing themselves over the head — “one is a practicing polygamist and he's not even the Mormon,” retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently quipped …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, In America, The Reaction and Althouse

Dan Williams / Reuters:

Israel says bombs target embassies in India, Georgia — (Reuters) - Bombers targeted staff at Israel's embassies in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of involvement.

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch, American Spectator and National Review

New York Times:
Israel Blames Iran for Attacks in India and Georgia

Discussion: The Enterprise Blog, The New Republic and The Lede

Yaakov Katz / Jerusalem Post:
Attacks target Israeli embassies in Georgia, India

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Associated Press and Israel Matzav

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:

Contraception and the cost of culture wars — Politicized culture wars are debilitating because they almost always require partisans to denigrate the moral legitimacy of their opponents, and sometimes to deny their very humanity. It's often not enough to defeat a foe.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Eschaton, TalkLeft, Ricochet Conversations Feed, No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice

John Holbo / Crooked Timber:

Religious Freedom and Contraception (among other things) — I'm amazed by the turns this issue has taken. I posted about it two weeks ago. My post had problems. Among other things, I slighted legal issues to focus on what I took to be really going on, motivation-wise.

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette, Stinque and The New Republic

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
McConnell: Birth-control debate will continue until Obama ‘backs down’

Discussion: Shakesville, Daily Kos, White House.gov Blog, ThinkProgress, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Booman Tribune and Los Angeles Times

New York Times:

Greek Parliament Passes Austerity Plan After Riots Rage — ATHENS — After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early on Monday to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country's foreign lenders in exchange for new loans …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Bloomberg, Questions and Observations, Gothamist, Guardian, Mish's Global Economic …, BBC, The Confluence, Washington Post, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Runnin' Scared and The Raw Story

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

Romney Runs as an Outsider but Makes Room for Lobbyists — They have hosted fund-raisers and raised millions of dollars for his campaign. They employed some of his top operatives after his first White House run, helped create the platform for his second bid and have deployed regularly …

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, The Caucus and Prairie Weather

Ben White / Politico:

Wall Street turns wrath — and cash — on Obama — NEW YORK — Profits and bonuses are down across Wall Street. Banks are slicing jobs and shuttering once profitable trading units in the face of new regulations. — But the financial services industry is poised to set records in one arena in 2012: politics.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Cronyism 101 — I wrote about my participation in the Koch brothers' semi-annual seminar in Palm Springs two weekends ago here. Along with Peter Schweizer, I did a presentation on cronyism. My speech focused on corporate cronyism, while Peter's centered on the sort of political cronyism …

Discussion: Balloon Juice