memeorandum: House passes Ron Paul's Fed audit measure (Stephen Dinan/Washington Times)

9:35 AM ET, July 26, 2012

Top Items:

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

Senate passes bill to keep tax cuts for the middle class — The Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved a plan to preserve tax cuts for the middle class while letting them expire for the wealthy, a powerful if largely symbolic victory for Democrats who have been pushing to raise taxes on the rich for more than a decade.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Right Wing News, New York Magazine and ataxingmatter

Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPMDC — Senate Dems Jam House Republicans, Pass Bush Tax-Cut Extension For Middle Class — Senate Democrats have accomplished a feat they were unable to muster back in 2009 and 2010, when they had a much larger majority: On Wednesday, they passed a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone's first $250,000 in income.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Addicting Info, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, Firedoglake, The Mahablog and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Conservatives urge Cantor to push spending fight into 2013

Discussion: Politico

Lee Enterprises / host.madison.com:
Cullen breaks with Democratic caucus in state Senate, may become independent

Discussion: Hot Air, UrbanGrounds and The Caucus

Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress:

Romney Falsely Claims Colorado Gunman Obtained Weapons Illegally — Mitt Romney revealed that he is unfamiliar with the details of the largest mass shooting in American history, during an interview with NBC's Brian Williams. The former Massachusetts governor claimed that alleged gunman in the Aurora …

Discussion: Business Insider, NationalJournal.com, The Reaction and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jana Winter / Fox News:

EXCLUSIVE: Movie massacre suspect sent chilling notebook to psychiatrist before attack — Three days after he allegedly shot up a Colorado movie theater, killing 12 and injuring scores, suspect James Holmes appeared in court, where he seemed disheveled and disoriented.

msnbc.com:
Romney talks with NBC's Brian Williams in exclusive interview

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Moderate Voice and The Hinterland Gazette

Jason Cherkis / The Huffington Post:

Mitt Romney Registered As Lobbyist For Salt Lake City Olympics … REACT: — FOLLOW: — John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Elections 2012, Newt Gingrich, Barack Obama , Olympics, Video, London Olympics 2012, Atlanta Summer Games, Federal Spending, London Olympics 2012 …

Discussion: The Agonist and ABCNEWS

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Negative Ads Hit at Identity to Shape Race for Presidency

Discussion: ABCNEWS, iWatch News Latest Stories, American Prospect, Newsy and CNN

Associated Press:
FACT CHECK: Romney-Bain contacts outlasted exit

Discussion: Washington Post, Truthdig, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Ballot Box, The Hinterland Gazette and ThinkProgress

Lymari Morales / Gallup:

U.S. Business Owners Now Among Least Approving of Obama — Professional workers are the most approving — WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. business owners' approval of President Barack Obama fell in the second quarter of 2012 to 35%, essentially tying farmers and fishers for the lowest approval among major occupational groups.

Discussion: GOP 12, Hot Air, Politico and The Lonely Conservative

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

The Battle for Ballot Integrity in Pennsylvania — Pennsylvania is, for the moment, ground zero in the battle over voter fraud. In March, Pennsylvania's legislature enacted a law that requires identification for voting. The ACLU has sued to enjoin enforcement of the law …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal and BREITBART.COM

Daniel Denvir / Philadelphia City Paper:
A whopping 43 percent of Philly voters may not have voter ID, according to new data

Discussion: Reuters, Daily Kos, Washington Post, Business Insider, American Prospect, ThinkProgress and The Raw Story

Tomer Ovadia / Politico:

Jeb Bush told Romney to pick Rubio — Jeb Bush launched a campaign of his own on Wednesday — to get fellow Floridian Sen. Marco Rubio on the GOP ticket. — The former Florida governor is making a big public and private push for Rubio to become the Republican vice presidential nominee …

Discussion: Israel Matzav, New York Magazine and Washington Post

Brendan Farrington / MiamiHerald.com:
Jeb Bush wants Rubio for VP

Discussion: The Hill and Donklephant

Michael Falcone / ABCNEWS:

‘D’ Is for Diplomacy — LONDON — Mitt Romney has only been on British soil for 24 hours, but he and his campaign are quickly finding out that every word matters. — Even before he touched down, a quote by an unnamed Romney adviser in London's Daily Telegraph newspaper was already creating a stir.

Discussion: CNN, Towleroad News #gay and ABCNEWS

First Read / msnbc.com:
NBC exclusive: Romney talks with Brian Williams

Discussion: Politico, Washington Wire, Business Insider, Washington Post, Ballot Box, ThinkProgress and The Page

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Democratic Voting Enthusiasm Down Sharply From 2004, 2008 — Republicans more enthusiastic than in 2008 — PRINCETON, NJ — Democrats are significantly less likely now (39%) than they were in the summers of 2004 and 2008 to say they are “more enthusiastic about voting than usual” in the coming presidential election.

Discussion: Questions and Observations, DownWithTyranny!, Mediaite, Washington Post, msnbc.com, RedState, Swampland, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, National Review, Rush Limbaugh, Washington Monthly, Indecision Forever, Politico, Independent Journal Review and Ballot Box

Mark Sappenfield / Christian Science Monitor:

North Korea flag mixup to go down in Olympic history as major insult — A video before the North Korea-Colombia Olympic women's soccer game Wednesday showed the South Korean flag. In the history of Olympic host nation embarrassments, it's a whopper. — LONDON

Discussion: Riehl World View

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

House passes Ron Paul's Fed audit measure — Bernanke opposes ‘nightmare’ — In a move that serves as a capstone to Rep. Ron Paul's colorful career, the House on Wednesday voted to have Congress' chief investigators conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve's shrouded decision-making process.

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Examiner, UrbanGrounds, Independent Journal Review and The Lonely Conservative

Kate Nocera / Politico:
Ron Paul's swan song

Discussion: Newsy, Hit & Run, Truthdig, CNN, Examiner, Red Alert Politics and New York Times

Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:

The Story So Far — History may someday settle on one of the competing and contradictory narratives now running rampant within the virtual Beltway to explain the decision by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to save the Affordable Care Act. Since that day seems far off, here in quick summary are the emerging story lines.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Obama: AK-47s belong on battlefield, not streets — NEW ORLEANS - President Obama touched the sensitive issue of guns here on Wednesday, pivoting off last week's Colorado movie theater shootings to call for a “consensus around violence reduction” in the country.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove and BBC

Washington Post:

Skype makes chats and user data more available to police — Skype, the online phone service long favored by political dissidents, criminals and others eager to communicate beyond the reach of governments, has expanded its cooperation with law enforcement authorities to make online chats …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE

Alyssa Newcomb / ABCNEWS:

Chicago Latest to Oppose Chick-Fil-A — A Chicago politician said he will block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant in his ward, following anti-gay marriage remarks by the fast food chain's president. — Alderman Joe Moreno, who represents Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, The Volokh Conspiracy, JOSHUAPUNDIT, LewRockwell.com Blog and Michelle Malkin

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Rahm: Chick-fil-A disrespects us

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Huffington Post and Chicago Tribune

Scott Johnson / Power Line:

How I was Cory Booker'd into submission — “How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission” is the alternate title of “A Simple Desultory Philippic,” the jokey Paul Simon song that appears on Simon and Garfunkel's 1966 album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme. This year the Democrats …

Discussion: Hot Air and Politico

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Portman pushes bill to end shutdowns — Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Wednesday introduced a bill aimed at ending the threat of a government shutdown once and for all. — The bill would automatically extend government spending at current levels for 120 days when funding expires.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, BuzzFeed, Examiner, Politico and Reuters

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Presidential debate formats announced — The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the formats for the 2012 presidential and vice presidential debates, each of which will be 90-minutes long. Moderators will be selected in August. — First presidential debate: October 3 …

Discussion: The Reaction, CBS News, Scared Monkeys, CNN, Outside the Beltway and Shakesville

Reid Cherlin / GQ:

“We Do Absolutely Anything They Ask”: How the NRA's Grading System Keeps Congress on Lockdown — Mere hours after we woke up to the horrendous, terrifying news of the Aurora shooting, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took to the airwaves to criticize the candidates for their relative silence on gun policy.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Connecting.the.Dots, Washington Post and The New Republic