memeorandum: How ‘Cliff’ Talks Hit the Wall (Wall Street Journal)

5:55 PM ET, December 22, 2012

Top Items:

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

News Analysis: Still Bitter About Election, Republican Opposition Unwilling to Compromise with President — WASHINGTON — If Friday's memorial service for one of this country's long-serving senators was a somber recollection of a bipartisan era that once was, the rest of the day was a frenetic reminder …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Angry Bear, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balkinization, The PJ Tatler and Washington Post

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:

HOUSE REPUBLICANS CIRCULATE PLAN TO OUST BOEHNER FROM SPEAKERSHIP — Several conservative House Republican members are contemplating a plan to unseat Speaker John Boehner from his position on January 3, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. Staffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, protein wisdom, Doug Ross, The Political Carnival, Conservatives4Palin, The Gateway Pundit and The Hill

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Enough! — Between the humiliating and chaotic collapse of Speaker Boehner's already ludicrously extreme Plan B and Wayne La Pierre's deranged proposal to put government agents in schools with guns, the Republican slide into total epistemic closure and political marginalization has now become a free-fall.

Discussion: Mario Piperni dot Com

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Tax fight sends GOP into chaos — Video: Speaker of the House John Boehner says a tax bill did not advance to a vote in the House because it lacked votes. But he says Republicans still want to negotiate a deal avoiding a big tax hike in 2013 and wants President Obama to get serious.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, American Power, First Read, Hullabaloo and Right Wing News

Politico:
Hill GOP cool to Obama overtures

Discussion: CNN

Lee Enterprises / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Talk radio host Dana Loesch files suit in St. Louis against Breitbart.com — • By Robert Patrick rpatrick@post-dispatch.com 314-621-5154 — ST. LOUIS • Conservative talk radio host and commentator Dana Loesch sued the owner of the conservative website Breitbart.com Friday …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Mediaite, The Other McCain, The Raw Story, Roger Ailes, 24Ahead, The Hinterland Gazette, Politico and American Power

BuzzFeed:

Breitbart.com Star Dana Loesch Sues Site — Internal tensions erupt. Loesch seeks $75,000 and her walking papers in a federal lawsuit, below. — Source: danaloesch.com — The internal disputes roiling the website founded by the late conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart broke …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative and The Other McCain

David M. Martosko / The Daily Caller:
Former ‘BigJournalism’ star sues Breitbart empire for $75k, demands release from contract

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Wall Street Journal:

How ‘Cliff’ Talks Hit the Wall — Behind Scenes, Boehner Failed to Sell Republicans on Taxes, While Obama's Spending Plans Rankled — WASHINGTON—Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama called Friday for a return to negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff …

Discussion: Business Insider, Addicting Info, Paul Krugman, Wonkblog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Power Line, Washington Examiner and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama Uses Funeral Service to Talk About Himself — President Barack Obama used the funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye to talk about himself. In the short 1,600 word speech, Obama used the word “my” 21 times, “me” 12 times, and “I” 30 times. — Obama's speech discussed how Inouye had gotten him interested in politics.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative and protein wisdom

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:

Obama to attend Inouye funeral in Hawaii — President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend the funeral service for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) in Honolulu on Sunday, the White House announced on Saturday. — Inouye, who died on Monday, will be buried Sunday morning …

Discussion: CNN

New York Times:

The N.R.A. Crawls From Its Hidey Hole — Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, would have been better advised to remain wherever he had been hiding after the Newtown, Conn., massacre, rather than appear at a news conference on Friday.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Washington Monthly, Guardian, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, The Agonist, The BRAD BLOG, IHT Rendezvous, The Plum Line, Mashable! and Outside the Beltway

Annys Shin / Washington Post:

D.C. house inspires 168 bids in red-hot real estate market — It didn't look like a house anyone would pay $400,000 extra for. — Several walls inside the gray townhouse with blue trim were streaked with water stains. The first floor was noticeably uneven. And termites had dined in front.

Discussion: AEIdeas and Weekly Standard

Agoldberg / The Smoking Gun:

Formal Reprimand Issued To Flatulent Federal Worker — Man's gas blamed for creating “intolerable” workplace — A federal employee was formally reprimanded this month for excessive workplace flatulence, a sanction that was delivered to him in a five-page letter that actually included a log …

Discussion: NO QUARTER USA NET