memeorandum: Competition Is Healthy for Governments, Too (N. Gregory Mankiw/New York Times)

2:10 PM ET, April 15, 2012

Top Items:

Mitt Romney: Mothers Should Be Required To Work Outside Home Or Lose Benefits … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Video, Ann Romney, Hilary Rosen, Romney Campaign, Ann Romney Hilary Rosen, Ann Romney Stay At Home Mom, Hilary Rosen Ann Romney …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Feministe and Blue Virginia

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Romney Flashback: Poor Mothers Should Be Required To Work Outside The Home Or Lose Welfare — In case it wasn't already clear that last week's controversy over stay at home moms was entirely manufactured, this should put the question to bed. — Romney and allies cried that Democrats had declared …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Crooks and Liars and Washington Post

Guy Benson / Townhall.com:

Bill Maher: Ann Romney Has “Never Gotten Her A** Out of the House to Work” — The conservative outrage machine is going to churn on all cylinders over this one, I think — and rightly so. Not necessarily because Maher said something unusually contemptible here, but for reasons we'll discuss in a moment.

Discussion: Power Line, Los Angeles Times and Mediaite

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Geithner calls Romney statements on women, economy ‘ridiculous’ — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ripped presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday, calling Romney's argument that women have been disproportionately hurt during the recession “a ridiculous argument.”

Discussion: CNN, Scared Monkeys, Wake up America, The Other McCain and Jammie Wearing Fools

ABCNEWS:

‘This Week’ Transcript: Timothy Geithner — STEPHANOPOULOS (voice-over): Good morning, and welcome to “This Week.” — And they're off. The general election begins, and so do the wars over women. — ROSEN: His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.

Discussion: American Spectator

ABCNEWS:
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: 'We Can't Tell Yet' If Growth Has Stalled

Discussion: Hot Air

New York Post:

Secret Service hooker flap over $47 (or just 83,475 naughty lil' pesos) — By GEOFF EARLE in DC and DON KAPLAN in NY — A Secret Service agent shamed the United States after a wild night of babes and booze that ended in an argument with a Colombian hooker over as little as $47.

Discussion: Don Surber, Instapundit, Weasel Zippers, Althouse and Hot Air

Politico:
Military ensnared in Colombia Secret Service scandal

Discussion: CNN, americanthinker.com, Outside the Beltway and Washington Monthly

NY Daily News:
Secret Service agents busted because they refused to pay hooker: source

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Taylor Marsh, Fox News, Jammie Wearing Fools, Macsmind, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin, The Hill, Don Surber, Outside the Beltway, White House Dossier, Scared Monkeys, New York Times and CNN

New York Times:

White House Opens Door to Big Donors, and Lobbyists Slip In — Last May, as a battle was heating up between Internet companies and Hollywood over how to stop online piracy, a top entertainment industry lobbyist landed a meeting at the White House with one of President Obama's technology advisers.

Discussion: Hot Air, JustOneMinute, protein wisdom, Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com and State of the Union

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard: Former Dem. Congressman Kennedy Alleges ‘Quid Pro Quo’ for Access to White House

Maha / The Mahablog:

The Republican War Against Women — The Wall Street Journal wants us to know that Republicans can win the War Against Women. Seriously. I like this headline so much I screen captured it before some dweeb at WSJ wakes up and realizes what it says - — Anyway, WSJ thinks Romney …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Booman Tribune

Wall Street Journal:
Winning the War Against Women

Discussion: Althouse and ECHIDNE of the snakes

Sara Mead / Washington Monthly:
The Real War on Moms Has a Mortality Rate

Discussion: The Mahablog and Feministe

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Romney Adviser Ed Gillespie Struggles To Defend Campaign's Major Economic Claim — Mitt Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie struggled to defend his campaign's central piece of evidence supporting its claim that President Obama is waging a war on women today.

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Caucus and Blue Virginia

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:
Gillespie says he's not running Romney's vice president search

Discussion: CNN

Fox News:

Cheney calls Obama ‘unmitigated disaster’ in post-surgery speech — Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Wyoming Republican state convention at the Little America Hotel and Resort in Cheyenne, Wyo. — Dick Cheney, just weeks after undergoing heart transplant surgery …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit and Macsmind

N. Gregory Mankiw / New York Times:

Competition Is Healthy for Governments, Too — SHOULD governments — of nations, states and towns — compete like business rivals? — The question is simpler to ask than to answer. But it reflects why conservatives and liberals disagree on many big issues facing the nation.

Discussion: Brad DeLong, The Reality-Based Community, No More Mister Nice Blog, Althouse and Greg Mankiw's Blog

Yusuf / Somaliland Sun:

Al-Shabaab execute al-Amriki — The al-Qaeda-allied group al-Shabaab executed US-born jihadist Omar Hammami on April 5th, according to unconfirmed Somali media reports. — Hammami, known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, said he feared for his life from other al-Shabaab leaders because of strategic …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, americanthinker.com and Weasel Zippers