memeorandum: House Democrats to return to Capitol, hold press conference after daylong absence to protest gun bills (Jason Clayworth/Des Moines Register)

5:15 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: Firedoglake, Hot Air, American Prospect, Salon, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, The New Republic, Dean's World 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

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

G.O.P. Greek Tragedy — Rick should scat. — Mitt Romney needs to be left alone to limp across the finish line, so he can devote his full time and attention to losing to President Obama. — Robo-Romney, who pulled out victories in his home state and in Arizona, and Sanctorum are still in a race to the bottom.

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

msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: Winning ugly

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Right Scoop and Gawker

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

Discussion: The Spectacle Blog and ABCNEWS

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

Discussion: CNN

Mj Lee / Politico:
Reince Priebus: ‘I feel good about this’

Discussion: Guardian and Rush Limbaugh

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Ron Paul calls Romney a ‘flip-flopper’ in new ad

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Romney Wins Arizona; Tight Race in Michigan

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: TBogg, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Gawker, Boing Boing, Gothamist, Sky Dancing and Eschaton

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

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: Washington Monthly, Mediaite, Outside the Beltway, USA Today, The Democratic Daily and Balloon Juice

Tim Mak / Politico:
Report: Rev. Franklin Graham apologizes to Obama

Discussion: News Desk, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Political Carnival and Religion Dispatches

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, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice and Mother Jones

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Obama's Most Dangerous GOP Opponent: Netanyahu — This is disturbing news: … What it amounts to is a formal declaration that, if the US attempts at any point to differ seriously with Israel's far right, the alliance is over. That's after the most serious sanctions ever imposed on Iran …

Discussion: Israel Matzav and Balloon Juice

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

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

Barak Ravid / Haaretz:
Netanyahu will ask Obama to threaten Iran strike

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ABCNEWS and LewRockwell.com Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 »

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

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

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 …

Discussion: Don Surber, The PJ Tatler, Big Government and The New Editor