memeorandum: Rep. Upton pushed for loan to now-bankrupt solar company (Andrew Restuccia/The Hill)

12:40 PM ET, February 16, 2012

Top Items:

Gov. Rick Snyder / detroitnews.com:

Mitt Romney is the best choice — A little more than a year ago, Michigan voters put their trust in a businessman to serve as their governor. They were looking for someone who understands the private sector and has a plan for reversing the economic decline that had befallen our great state.

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, ThinkProgress, Yahoo! Autos, CNN, msnbc.com, Ballot Box, GOP 12, Mitt Romney Central, Washington Post, emptywheel and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

Mike Wilkinson / detroitnews.com:

Poll: Rick Santorum leads Mitt Romney in Michigan — Rick Santorum visits a school in North Dakota on Wednesday. Santorum, who has turned the Michigan race into a fight, will be in Detroit and Novi today. (Will Kincaid / Associated Press) — Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, Politico, GOP 12, The Page, Hot Air and msnbc.com

Nate Reens / MLive.com:

Mitt Romney lose to Rick Santorum in Michigan? 'That won't happen,' Romney says — KENTWOOD - Jerome Bush, an 81-year-old lifelong Republican, shook GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's hand Wednesday, recalling doing the same with his father, George Romney, during his campaign for governor more than 40 years ago.

Discussion: Ballot Box, Daily Kos and The Page

Rasmussen Reports:

Ohio GOP Primary: Santorum 42%, Romney 24% — Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum continues to ride his polling momentum into Ohio where he leads Mitt Romney by nearly two-to-one in the first Rasmussen Reports survey of Republicans in the state. — The new statewide telephone survey …

Discussion: Hot Air and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Pro-Santorum super-PAC making big ad buy in Michigan

Discussion: CNN, msnbc.com and GOP 12

Byron York / Campaign 2012:
Romney doesn't rule out Santorum as veep

Discussion: Hot Air

Fox News Insider: Mitt Romney Responds to Sarah Palin's Criticism That He Isn't Conservative Enough

Jeremy Lin / Associated Press:
Romney makes hometown appeal in new ad, blames Obama for Detroit's economic woes

Discussion: Lippmann's Ghost

Rory Sheehan / democrats.oversight.house.gov:

ISSA REJECTS MINORITY WITNESS FOR HEARING ON CONTRACEPTION — Cummings Asks Issa to Reconsider and Let Witness Testify on Behalf of Women Across the Country — Washington, DC (Feb. 15, 2012)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform …

Discussion: Religion Dispatches, The Maddow Blog and ECHIDNE of the snakes

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying — This morning, Democrats tore into House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) for preventing women from testifying before a hearing examining the Obama administration's …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, No More Mister Nice Blog and Feministing

Tom Shine Serena Marshall / ABCNEWS:
All Male Contraception Panel Criticized

Discussion: oversight.house.gov and Daily Kos

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Supreme Court should take on New York City's rent control laws — James and Jeanne Harmon reside in and supposedly own a five-story brownstone on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a building that has been in their family since 1949. But they have, so to speak, houseguests who have overstayed their welcome by …

Discussion: Hit & Run

Carol Morello / Washington Post:

Intermarriage rates soar as stereotypes fall — Virginia leads the nation in the percentage of marriages between blacks and whites, a new study by the Pew Research Center shows, barely four decades after state laws criminalizing interracial marriage were struck down by the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Hit & Run, National Review and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Wendy Wang / Pew Social & Demographic Trends:

The Rise of Intermarriage — Rates, Characteristics Vary by Race and Gender — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY — This report analyzes the demographic and economic characteristics of newlyweds who marry spouses of a different race or ethnicity, and compares the traits of those who “marry out” with those who “marry in.”

Discussion: msnbc.com and National Review

Glenn Thrush / Politico:

Marco Rubio and Obama duel on diplomacy — Sen. Marco Rubio isn't waiting for a vice presidential offer to go after President Barack Obama: He's been locked in a quiet battle with the White House for months, blocking key diplomatic appointments in hopes of getting his say on foreign policy.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Weasel Zippers

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:
OVERNIGHT TECH: Cybersecurity bill headed straight to Senate floor

Discussion: Politico, RedState and Pirate's Cove

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Rep. Upton pushed for loan to now-bankrupt solar company — Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich), a leading GOP critic of the Obama administration's loans to Solyndra, pressed the Energy Department in 2009 to back a Michigan solar firm that filed for bankruptcy this week.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Don Surber

Garry Wills / New York Review of Books:

Contraception's Con Men — By a revolting combination of con men and fanatics, the current primary race has become a demonstration that the Republican party does not deserve serious consideration for public office. Take the controversy over contraceptives.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, Corey Robin, The Hill and A plain blog about politics

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:

Who Wants to See Tina Korbe's Thighs? — The title of this post is not a hypothetical question, because last week the aforesaid Miss Korbe joined her Hot Air colleague Ed Morrissey for a video interview with Rick Santorum, which I didn't see until somebody brought it to my attention yesterday:

Mark Thoma / Economist's View:

“Romer Advised Obama To Push $1.8 Trillion Stimulus” — Via Brad DeLong, more details of how the size of the stimulus package was determined, and how the administration's mistaken pivot to deficit reduction came about: … If Obama goes go “big on entitlements,” it will be a mistake.

Discussion: Suburban Guerrilla

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
‘The Escape Artist’: Christina Romer Advised Obama To Push $1.8 Trillion Stimulus

Discussion: National Review

Tim Mak / Politico:

Sarah Palin will ‘help’ brokered convention — Former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday that a brokered Republican presidential convention was a possibility and that if it happened she “would do whatever I could to help.” — “If one of the nominees, one of the GOPers …

Discussion: TBogg, Wonkette and Outside the Beltway

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Exclusive: Santorum releases four years of tax returns — Rick Santorum said they would come this week, and here are four years worth of his taxes, from years 2007 through 2010. — They can be found here, here, here and here. The returns are the most in number that have been released …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Mediaite, msnbc.com, Campaign 2012, New York Times and Angry Bear

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Negotiators reach deal; vote expected soon on $150B economic package — Congressional negotiators gave final approval early Thursday to an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. — A key roadblock was overcome …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Politico and Swampland

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Lawmakers reach deal to extend payroll tax cut

Discussion: The CFO Report

Ben Adler / CJR:

The Right-Wing Media's Discipline Machine — Talk radio and Fox News bully the GOP candidates into line—and, in the process, offer a narrow vision of conservatism — When Mitt Romney was asked at a New Hampshire town hall in June 2011 about climate change, he probably did not think he was taking …

Discussion: American Prospect and Hullabaloo

Tim Mak / Politico:

The Colbert Report suspended temporarily — The late-night comedy program hosted by Stephen Colbert will suspend production for at least two days this week, POLITICO has confirmed. — The Colbert Report, the home of relentless parodying of super PACs and the campaign finance system …

Discussion: Mediaite, newsfeed.time.com and Third Beat, more at Mediagazer »

Mitt Romney / Wall Street Journal:

How I'll Respond to China's Rising Power — The character of the Chinese government—one that marries aspects of the free market with suppression of freedom—shouldn't become the norm. — Should the 21st century be an American century? To answer, it is only necessary to contemplate the alternatives.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Hill, New York Times and Daniel W. Drezner

Jennifer Epstein / Politico:

Obama: 'We've been slogging through prose' — President Obama appeared at two star-studded Los Angeles fundraisers on Wednesday night and, as he spoke to a crowd that included actor George Clooney, acknowledged that governing hasn't been easy. — Mentioning former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's quip …

Discussion: ABCNEWS and RedState

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Ryan urges GOP candidates to ‘prepare the country’ for tax, entitlement reform — House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday urged his party's presidential candidates to make the 2012 election a stark choice between policy choices so that massive changes on taxes and entitlements can be enacted quickly next year.

Discussion: Politico