memeorandum: Democrats Want Leverage From Sequester (Humberto Sanchez/Roll Call)

8:55 PM ET, July 16, 2012

Top Items:

David Frum / CNN:

Mitt Romney's painfully bad week — Editor's note: David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of seven books, including a new novel, “Patriots.” — (CNN) — By any measure, the Mitt Romney for president campaign has had a painfully bad week.

Discussion: This Just In, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, Marbury, Michelle Malkin, American Power, david-frum and New York Times

Mitt Romney for President of the United States …:

Memorandum — Location — To: Interested Parties — From: Neil Newhouse - Romney Campaign Pollster — Re: The State Of The Race: Ballot Narrowing Despite Obama Attack Ads — Four years ago today, candidate Barack Obama led John …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, American Power, Weekly Standard and National Review

CNN:

Facts don't support Obama's charges against Romney — Editor's note: David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four presidents. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Hit & Run, Fortune, American Power, Guardian, Crooks and Liars, Wake up America, The Caucus, The Daily Dish, Red Alert Politics, Balloon Juice and National Review

David Corn / Mother Jones:

Romney's Account of His Departure From Bain Undercut By...Romney Testimony — In a previously unreported remark, Romney indicated he went through a “transition” at Bain after heading to Utah in February 1999. — Mitt Romney, his campaign, and Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded …

Discussion: PERRspectives, The Daily Dish, Mother Jones, Daily Kos and TBogg

Rob Portman / CNN:
Portman slams president for ‘personal’ attacks

Discussion: Politico and The New Republic

Matt Negrin / ABCNEWS: Democrats Revive Attack That Romney Misstated Role at Bain

Hillary Clinton / CNN:
TRENDING: Hillary Clinton: Romney ads featuring her a ‘waste of money’

Discussion: Politico

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Politifact: Mitt Romney's companies sent jobs overseas

Discussion: The New Republic and The Daily Dish

John Cassidy / News Desk:
Why Won't Romney Release More Tax Returns?

Discussion: Bloomberg, msnbc.com, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Liberal Info, ABCNEWS, The Moderate Voice, The Hinterland Gazette and The Daily Dish

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
The Bain Quatrain

Discussion: Washington Post, Red Alert Politics, The Maddow Blog and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Kevin Robillard / Politico:
Mitt Romney rips Obama camp's ‘dishonesty’

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Crooks and Liars, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Examiner

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Republicans Turn Against John Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court — Democrats now positive about both — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' opinions of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts are now much more negative than they were seven years ago, with the most recent reading coming soon …

Discussion: Politico, Weasel Zippers, The Hill and Business Insider

Jay Nordlinger / National Review:
Against Growth! — In today's Impromptus, I have some comments …

Discussion: Gawker, Little Green Footballs, Wonkette and Angry Black Lady Chronicles

Lila Shapiro / The Huffington Post:
Edie Windsor vs. DOMA: 83-Year-Old Lesbian Petitions U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Case

Discussion: Firedoglake, Towleroad News #gay and ThinkProgress

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Rush Limbaugh: Obama ‘hates this country’ — President Barack Obama “hates this country,” and his philosophy appeals to “people with miserable, meaningless lives” and “people who don't count,” Rush Limbaugh said Monday. — “I think it can now be said, without equivocation …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Weasel Zippers, Rush Limbaugh and The Maddow Blog

Rush Limbaugh:

Barack Obama Hates This Country — RUSH: Roanoke, Virginia. This is Friday night. This did not get a lot of coverage at the time. It did not get a lot of coverage over the weekend. The Drive-Bys did not focus on this much. Fox News, at some point, did bring it to people's attention.

Discussion: Doug Ross, Examiner, The Gateway Pundit, The PJ Tatler, americanthinker.com, Business Insider and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Humberto Sanchez / Roll Call:

Democrats Want Leverage From Sequester — Party Members See Little Risk in Waiting Out Republicans — Senate Democrats see no political downside to leaving the issue of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending until after the November elections, as they try to use the cuts as leverage …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Suburban Guerrilla

Jake Sherman / Politico:
Dick Cheney to talk sequester with House GOP

Discussion: CNN

BuzzFeed:
Senate Dems Plan ‘Midnight Vigil’ For Campaign Finance Bill

Discussion: Influence Alley

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama Cites Campaign Donor as ‘Non-Partisan Economist’ — At a speech earlier today in Cincinnati, Ohio, President Obama cited economic analysis conducted by one of his campaign donors, Kimberly Clausing, and called her a “non-partisan economist.” Clausing, a college professor from Reed College …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Lonely Conservative

James Hohmann / Politico:
Bain not going away—Kucinich launching PAC—Bush 43 unveiling book tomorrow—Gillespie …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Tampa Bay Times

Orlando Sentinel:

‘Witness 9’ tells prosecutors Zimmerman molested her for years — A woman told authorities that while they were children, murder suspect George Zimmerman sexually molested her for a decade, according to prosecution records released today. — The woman, identified only as “witness 9,” …

Discussion: CBS News, New York Times, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Daily Kos, theGrio, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Mediaite, The Other McCain, ThinkProgress, msnbc.com, New York Magazine and Balloon Juice

Andy Campbell / The Huffington Post:

Jonah Falcon, Man With World's Largest Penis, Frisked By TSA At California Airport … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Anatomical Wonders, TSA, Video, 13.5 Inches, Jonah Falcon, San Francisco International Airport, Stop And Frisk, X-Ray Body Scanners, Airport Screening, Largest Penis …

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Riehl World View and The Raw Story

DealBook:

Google's Marissa Mayer Becomes Yahoo's Chief — Marissa Mayer, one of the top executives at Google, will be the next C.E.O. of Yahoo, making her one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and corporate America. — The appointment of Ms. Mayer, who was employee No. 20 at Google …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Jezebel, Online NewsHour, Gawker, ThinkProgress and The Loop, more at Mediagazer »

Bob Cusack / The Hill:

Probe cites officials for soliciting prostitutes, accepting gifts, FOIA docs reveal — Treasury Department officials have been cited for soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules and accepting gifts from corporate executives, according to the findings of official government investigations.

Discussion: Washington's Blog, The Raw Story, RedState, ABCNEWS and ThinkProgress

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

Pawlenty Looked at as Romney Running Mate — EAGAN, Minn. — It was four years ago this summer, when Tim Pawlenty ranked high on the list of John McCain's potential running mates, and Mr. Pawlenty and his wife, Mary, were plowing through a voluminous questionnaire probing deep into their finances …

Tammie Fields / Tampa Bay Fl News:

Lt. Governor speaks out about sex scandal accusations — Lt. Governor Carroll made the comments Saturday in Orange Park, at the opening of a campaign office for Mitt Romney. — Carletha Cole claims she walked in on a sexual encounter between Carroll and Carroll's travel aide, Beatriz Ramos.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Advocate, The Other McCain, Jezebel, Wonkette, The Raw Story, theGrio and Towleroad News #gay

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Latest Word on the Trail? I Take It Back — The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative. — They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under …

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Outside the Beltway, Wake up America, Guardian, Hot Air, protein wisdom, Mother Jones, New York Magazine, Washington Wire, Jammie Wearing Fools, Michelle Malkin and Nick Turse, more at Mediagazer »

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Romney Suggests Releasing Additional Tax Returns Could Be Politically Damaging — Mitt Romney appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to respond to the growing number of conservatives who are calling on the former Massachusetts governor to release more of his tax returns.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Wonkette, The Hinterland Gazette, ABCNEWS, The Maddow Blog and FreakOutNation

James Pethokoukis / AEIdeas:

JPMorgan just gave a calamitous economic forecast for Obama — Just out from JPMorgan: … Basically, this is a forecast for stagnation for the rest of this year and through 2013. Also note that the forecast sees monthly job growth at just 100,000 a month in the third quarter, with the unemployment rate averaging 8.2%.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Ed Driscoll, protein wisdom and Washington Free Beacon

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Norquist rebuts Coburn, says he ‘stands alone’ on taxes — Anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist on Monday called Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) a liar after the senator blasted him in the pages of The New York Times. — Coburn's op-ed piece argues that Senate Republicans have already violated Norquist's strict …

Discussion: Hot Air, CNN, Booman Tribune and ThinkProgress

Alex Carp / News Desk:

Writing With Antonin Scalia, Grammar Nerd — The first time Bryan A. Garner, a lawyer and writer, met Antonin Scalia—over breakfast at the Washington, D.C., Four Seasons, in 2006—the Justice spent the early part of their conversation praising a magazine essay he had recently read on English grammar and usage.

Discussion: Althouse

Ali Gharib / ThinkProgress:

REPORT: Biggest Donor To Romney And GOP Did Business With Chinese Mob — GOP mega-donor and casino kingpin Sheldon Adelson — Things are getting awkward for Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who pledged to spend a “limitless” amount of money to get Mitt Romney elected.

Discussion: PBS and Hullabaloo