memeorandum: Supreme Court will hear case on affirmative action at colleges (David G. Savage/Los Angeles Times)

12:15 PM ET, February 21, 2012

Top Items:

Steven Bertoni / Money Talks:

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican — Sheldon Adelson: The GOP's $25 billion man … Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he's trying to personally buy the presidential election …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Reuters, Washington Monthly, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Taylor Marsh, TheBlaze.com, Ballot Box, DownWithTyranny! and Political Insider

Mike Littwin / Denver Post:

Santorum's phony theology — I don't usually go first to Rick Santorum for enlightenment, but I think he may be onto something with this “phony theology” business. — It's not clear exactly what he meant when he said over the weekend that Barack Obama's policies were based on a “phony theology,” and not the Bible.

Discussion: The Agonist

Politico:

Mitt Romney's burn rate a boon for Barack Obama — Mitt Romney is burning through cash more than twice as fast as he's raising it, new reports filed Monday show — a clear sign that a protracted GOP primary fight could leave the front-runner limping into a general election fight with President Barack Obama.

Discussion: CNN and Daily Kos

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Santorum Expands Lead, but Romney Gets Electability Vote — Fifty-eight percent of Republicans say Romney has best chance to beat Obama — PRINCETON, NJ — Rick Santorum now holds a 10-percentage-point lead in Gallup's Daily tracking of national Republicans registered voters' preferences for the 2012 GOP nomination.

Discussion: CNN, Reuters, Arizona Republic, Hot Air, TIME Ideas, The Other McCain, GOP 12, Lists, Ballot Box, FiveThirtyEight, Washington Wire and msnbc.com

Erica Werner / Associated Press:

Obama peddles modest American dream — WASHINGTON (AP) - This time around, President Barack Obama's message can sound decidedly down-to-earth. — Four years after winning the White House, Obama is dealing with a different economic and political reality as he seeks re-election.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Grim's Hall and The Lonely Conservative

Wall Street Journal:
Sex, Lies and Rick Santorum

Discussion: National Review and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Peter Overby / NPR:
Romney Benefits From Campaign, SuperPAC Funds

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Daily Kos and Guardian

T.W. Farnam / Washington Post:
Study: Negative campaign ads much more frequent, vicious than in primaries past

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Boston Globe, Online NewsHour, Ballot Box, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and msnbc.com

Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Republican voters oppose a ‘brokered’ convention

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, msnbc.com, Big Government, American Power, Mediaite, IndyStar Bloggers, Bloomberg, Ballot Box, TheBlaze.com, Politico and ABCNEWS

Peter H. Gleick / The Huffington Post:

The Origin of the Heartland Documents — Climate Change , Global Warming , Heartland Institute , Heartland Institute Leaked Documents , Green News — Since the release in mid-February of a series of documents related to the internal strategy of the Heartland Institute to cast doubt on climate science …

Andrew C. Revkin / Dot Earth:

Peter Gleick Admits to Deception in Obtaining Heartland Climate Files — Peter H. Gleick, a water and climate analyst who has been studying aspects of global warming for more than two decades, in recent years became an aggressive critic of organizations and individuals casting doubt …

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Balloon Juice, Vox Popoli, Watts Up With That?, Right Wing News, Guardian, The Huffington Post, Instapundit and TBogg

Felix Salmon:

The improbable Greece plan — Greece is now officially a ward of the international community. It has no real independence when it comes to fiscal policy any more, and if everything goes according to plan, it's not going to have any independence for many, many years to come.

Discussion: Jared Bernstein, EU Referendum, Reuters, National Review and Paul Krugman

Peter Spiegel / Agence France Presse:

Greek debt nightmare laid bare — A “strictly confidential” report on Greece's debt projections prepared for eurozone finance ministers reveals Athens' rescue programme is way off track and suggests the Greek government may need another bail-out once a second rescue - set to be agreed on Monday night - runs out.

Discussion: National Review, Via Meadia, Political Mojo and Financial Times

Associated Press:
Greece secures bailout to avoid debt default

Discussion: Firedoglake and Balloon Juice

Wall Street Journal:
Europe Reaches a Greek Deal

Discussion: Bloomberg, New York Times, americanthinker.com and The Big Picture

Scott Jaschik / Inside Higher Ed:

Supreme Court takes up affirmative action case — WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to consider whether the University of Texas at Austin has the right to consider race and ethnicity in admissions decisions. Those bringing the case hope the Supreme Court will restrict …

Discussion: Washington Post

Adam Liptak / New York Times: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Affirmative Action Case

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Supreme Court will hear case on affirmative action at colleges

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

Politico:

Pro-Rick Santorum PAC picks up another mega-donor — The super PAC supporting Rick Santorum's presidential campaign pulled in $2.1 million in January - half of which came from a relatively low-profile Louisiana energy executive, according to a report filed Monday evening with the Federal Election Commission.

Discussion: Shakesville and The Raw Story

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
‘Super PAC’ Role Grows for Republican Campaigns

Discussion: Firedoglake, USA Today, Media Decoder, FiveThirtyEight, Guardian, Bloomberg, CNNMoney.com, ABCNEWS, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Washington Post and The Caucus

Saul Loeb / ABCNEWS: January Fundraising: Campaigns and Super PACs, Side by Side

JournalGazette.net:

You choose, we deliver … Indiana — Authorities are searching for an Indianapolis man who fled on foot, accused of shooting at a state trooper near a southern Indiana highway.Today 9:03 am — Rep. Bob Morris said he did some Web-based research and found allegations that the Girl Scouts …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, We Party Patriots, The Maddow Blog, The Raw Story, Towleroad News #gay, Balloon Juice, BuzzFeed and Booman Tribune

Jonathan Strong / Roll Call:

Associate Confronted Rep. Ron Paul About Flights — In March 2005, David James called Rep. Ron Paul's (R-Texas) Congressional office for some documentation. — James's nonprofit group, the Liberty Committee, had paid for one of Paul's flights, and James needed a receipt or boarding pass to document the expense.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air and The Spectacle Blog

Capital Flows / Opinions That Matter:

The “Robo-Signing” Settlement: Seeds of Recovery, Or Chaos? — George Mason law professor Todd J. Zywicki fears that the “robo-signing” agreement will lead to further efforts to bleed the banks, all the while delaying the necessary clearing of the housing market.

Discussion: EconLog

WRTV-TV:

Lugar Defends Himself On Residency Question — Longtime Senator Says He Meets Requirements — INDIANAPOLIS — Sen. Richard Lugar defended himself during an appearance in Indianapolis on Monday that came days after opponents claimed that he isn't qualified to run for office because he doesn't live in the state.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Daily Caller

David Weigel / Slate:

My Candidate Ate Here — There are so many serious factoids to pull out of the four remaining Republicans' FEC reports. Here's an unserious one. Below, the restaurants or food-selling establishments patronized by the campaigns in January. We can break them down into two neat categories.

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:

Google draws more scrutiny after accidental tracking of Apple users — Lawmakers called for investigations of Google after it was revealed the company has been tracking Apple Safari users in violation of the Web browser's privacy settings. — Google says the tracking was inadvertent and has been fixed.