memeorandum: Retiring Sen. Snowe: Washington suffering from ‘political paralysis’ (Alicia M. Cohn/The Hill)

5:55 PM ET, February 29, 2012

Top Items:

Odds of a Brokered Convention Are Increasing — We're finally close enough to Super Tuesday to get a sense of how the overall delegate count might work out in the GOP primary. The end result: Assuming that none of the four candidates drops out of the race, it looks increasingly …

Discussion: Hot Air, Firedoglake, Salon, Washington Post, Daily Kos, American Prospect, The New Republic, Dean's World, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Rick Santorum / CNN:

Santorum camp: Michigan's a tie — (CNN) - Armed with a new delegate count, a Rick Santorum adviser on Wednesday painted Tuesday's contests as a “disaster” for Mitt Romney. — John Brabender said the campaign's count proves Santorum and Romney are tied in delegates won …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, 2012 Decoded, Mediaite, Big Government and Riehl World View

Ross Douthat / Campaign Stops:

What Mitt Lost While He Won — In the end, Mitt Romney didn't lose the Michigan primary, and he didn't lose his near-lock on the Republican nomination. Rick Santorum isn't going away, but a solid victory in Michigan and an easy win in Arizona leaves the Romney campaign's basic math more or less intact.

Discussion: p m carpenter's commentary, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post and Prairie Weather

ABCNEWS:
Romney Says He Owns Guns - But Does He?

Discussion: The Hill and Taegan Goddard's …

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
G.O.P. Greek Tragedy

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, The Hinterland Gazette, Daily Kos and Connecting.the.Dots

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Santorum Loses Catholic Vote—But Did He Ever Have It?

Discussion: The Agonist, hanoverhenry's Diary, Gawker, The New Republic and Outside the Beltway

msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: Winning ugly

Discussion: Reuters, Liberal Values, ABCNEWS, neo-neocon, Wake up America and Power Line

Aliyah Shahid / NY Daily News:
Rick Santorum: I regret saying John F. Kennedy speech on religion made me want to throw up

Discussion: New York Times, The Spectacle Blog, The Reaction and ABCNEWS

Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:
Poll finds Santorum up by double-digits in Ohio

Discussion: CNN, Politico, News Desk, The Caucus, Indecision Forever, The Moderate Voice and ThinkProgress

Justin Sink / Ballot Box:
Romney's new Web ad says Obama's ‘Kill Romney’ strategy failed

Discussion: CNN

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Mitt Romney 2008 Michigan Victory Speech Mentioned Getting Health Care For All Americans

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Right Scoop and Gawker

Max Abelson / Bloomberg:

Wall Street Bonus Drop Means Trading Aspen for Discount Cereal — Andrew Schiff was sitting in a traffic jam in California this month after giving a speech at an investment conference about gold. He turned off the satellite radio, got out of the car and screamed a profanity.

Discussion: Mock, Paper, Scissors, TBogg, Gawker, Boing Boing, Gothamist, Sky Dancing and Eschaton, more at Mediagazer »

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

Are the Rich Completely Undeserving of Sympathy? — I saw a fair amount of chortling this morning about this Bloomberg piece on wealthy financial-industry types who are having to cut back because of plummeting bonuses. And to be sure, some of the cuts are in the “Call me a Waaaah-mbulance” category: can't go to Aspen any more?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Balloon Juice

Barak Ravid / Haaretz:

Netanyahu will ask Obama to threaten Iran strike — Intensive preparations underway to ensure a successful meeting between the two leaders next week in Washington, despite lack of trust between two sides. — Get Haaretz on iPhone — Get Haaretz on Android

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Mother Jones, ABCNEWS and LewRockwell.com Blog

New York Times:
U.S. Sees Iran Attacks as Likely if Israel Strikes

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, Israel Matzav and Mother Jones

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Obama's Most Dangerous GOP Opponent: Netanyahu

Discussion: Israel Matzav and Balloon Juice

Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:

North Korea Agrees to Suspend Nuclear Work — WASHINGTON — North Korea agreed to suspend nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and to allow international inspectors to verify and monitor activities at its main reactor, the State Department and the North's official news agency announced on Wednesday …

Discussion: World Now, Algemeiner.com, Outside the Beltway and Truthdig

Victoria Nuland / US Department of State:
U.S.-DPRK Bilateral Discussions

Discussion: World Now, The Enterprise Blog, News Desk, American Spectator and msnbc.com

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Democrats' nightmare scenario — If Republicans regain the Senate, will they seek to reform the filibuster, sweeping away an obstacle that bedeviled Dems and making it far easier for them to enact their own agenda with a simple Senate majority? — Matt Steinglass argues that the GOP …

Discussion: American Prospect, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

Christian Hartsock / Big Journalism:

EXCLUSIVE: O'Keefe Files Suit Against Al Gore's Current TV, Keith Olbermann, David Shuster — Conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe filed suit for defamation this morning against Al Gore's CurrentTV, as well as “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann and guest host David Shuster …

Discussion: Mediaite, Patterico's Pontifications and National Review

Religion News Service:

Franklin Graham apologizes for questioning Obama's faith — WASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelist Franklin Graham apologized Tuesday (Feb. 28) to President Obama for questioning his Christian faith and said religion has “nothing to do” with Graham's decision not to support Obama's re-election.

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, USA Today, The Democratic Daily, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Balloon Juice and The Political Carnival

Donovan Slack / Reuters:

Obama lunches with Hill leaders — President Barack Obama lunched privately with congressional leaders Wednesday to talk about jobs and the economy — the first such meeting since last summer's debt-ceiling negotiations dissolved. — The group was limited to only the top congressional leaders …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Campaign 2012 and Politico

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner describes Obama meeting with bipartisan leaders as constructive

Discussion: Algemeiner.com

David Rogers / Politico:

Kerrey's officially in for Nebraska run — Climbing down from the fence, Democrat Bob Kerrey said Wednesday that he will run for his old Senate seat from Nebraska, soon to be vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson and a major target for Republicans who hope to win control of the chamber in November.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Josh Lederman / The Hill: Kerrey makes it official; will run for Nebraska's open Senate seat

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:

House subcommittee votes to repeal healthcare reform law's ‘death panel’ — Bipartisan legislation to repeal the healthcare law's cost-control board sailed through a House panel on Wednesday, raising pressure on the Senate to take up the bill and dealing President Obama a political blow.

Discussion: Hot Air, LifeNews.com and The PJ Tatler

Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:

Three Percent — When you have a candidate few people really like, whose support is a mile wide and an inch deep, whose raison d'etre (a 4am fancy word) is fixing an economy that is fixing itself without him, and who only wins his actual, factual home state by three percentage points …

Discussion: Jay Bookman, A Certain Enthusiasm and Washington Post

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

Bernanke warns lawmakers nation headed for ‘massive fiscal cliff’ — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress Wednesday it risked taking the nation over a “massive fiscal cliff” at the end of the year. — The central bank's boss warned expiring tax cuts and spending cuts set …

Discussion: Politico and Taegan Goddard's …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Will Olympia Snowe Join Americans Elect? — Olympia Snowe's retirement statement seemed like it dropped a huge hint, and I'm surprised it hasn't received any attention: … This sounds exactly like the kind of rhetoric emanating from Americans Elect, the third-party group that believes …

Discussion: Politico, American Prospect, Guardian, The Maddow Blog, Balloon Juice, Washington Monthly, Salon, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, The Caucus, The Hill and Mother Jones

Sacramento Bee:

Support for gay marriage takes dramatic leap in California, new poll shows — A new poll shows gay marriage has arrived in California - in public opinion if not in state lawbooks. — Golden State registered voters now favor same-sex unions by 59 percent to 34 percent …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway, ThinkProgress, The Daily Dish, Towleroad News #gay, Steve Rothaus' Gay …, Joe. My. God. and Law Blog

Stephen Galloway / Hollywood Reporter:

Whatever Happened to Ted Turner? — The “Mouth of the South” is no longer as he devotes his time (and $1 billion) to the U.N., jets between 28 homes and four girlfriends, misses Jane Fonda and opens up to THR about Rupert, Jerry and his abuse as a child. Says a friend: “He's definitely changed.”

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers and The PJ Tatler, more at Mediagazer »

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Reid to promote David Brock's ‘Fox Effect’ — My colleague Ken Vogel sends over the following comments from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which he made at last night's Media Matters For America party, held in honor of the new anti-Fox News book by MMFA founder David Brock.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler and The Daily Caller

Michelle Boorstein / Washington Post:

D.C. archdiocese: Denying Communion to lesbian at funeral was against ‘policy’ — Deep in grief, Barbara Johnson stood first in the line for Communion at her mother's funeral Saturday morning. But the priest in front of her immediately made it clear that she would not receive the sacramental bread and wine.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, The Daily Caller, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and WJLA-TV

E.J. Graff / American Prospect:

Do Women Count? — Yesterday, after I made some snarky comment, a friend asked me if I was Eeyore. The truth is, I'm a mash-up of Eeyore and Tigger. Tigger bounces up and down gleefully whenever I talk about gay rights. But today I'm talking about the ladies again, so get ready for Eeyore.

Discussion: Mother Jones

Jason Clayworth / Des Moines Register:

House Democrats to return to Capitol, hold press conference after daylong absence to protest gun bills — Update: House Democrats will hold a press conference at the Capitol at 4:15 p.m. — Update: House Speaker Kraig Paulsen met with reporters at about 3 p.m. to say he had spoken by phone …