memeorandum: Mitch McConnell lies low as ‘fiscal cliff’ nears (Lisa Mascaro/Los Angeles Times)

5:50 PM ET, December 27, 2012

Top Items:

Fiscal cliff: House will come back on Sunday — House Republican leaders are bringing the House back into session on Sunday, lawmakers were told in a Thursday conference call. — one day before the nation reaches the fiscal cliff.

Discussion: Guardian, Business Insider, CNN, The National Memo, Slate and Daily Kos

Reuters:

Fiscal cliff deal increasingly unlikely — Nearly all the major players in the fiscal cliff negotiations are starting to agree on one thing: A deal is virtually impossible before the New Year. — Unlike the bank bailout in 2008, the tax deal in 2010 and the debt ceiling in 2011 …

Discussion: Slate, CNN, ABCNEWS, Politico, Washington Examiner, Donklephant, Taylor Marsh, ABCNEWS, Business Insider, The Moderate Voice, Politicker, The Lonely Conservative, Rasmussen Reports, americanthinker.com, Daily Kos, Weekly Standard, Pundits Blog and The Hill

Rebecca Berg / BuzzFeed:

Scott Brown Breaks News Of Nonexistent Fiscal Cliff Offer — The senator's scoop falls flat. “Not true,” an aide to Harry Reid responds. — Image by Charles Krupa, File / AP — WASHINGTON — With a post to his Facebook page Thursday, Sen. Scott Brown sent Washington scurrying …

Discussion: Daily Download and Hot Air

Steve Kornacki / Salon:

Triumph of the Tea Party mindset — Don't be fooled by those who say it's dying: The fiscal cliff impasse proves its spirit dominates the GOP — Two stories that might seem to contradict each other ran in the New York Times this week. One declared the Tea Party movement “significantly weakened” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, BREITBART.COM, msnbc.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Mahablog, The Plum Line, American Power, Bluestem Prairie and CNN

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic Online:

Federal Court Won't Rescue the Senate From Its Own Incapacity — Senators must tame the filibuster or it will destroy them — and the Congress they serve in. — Joshua Roberts/Reuters — Federal Judges rarely play Santa Claus, and U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan declined to brighten the holiday for Senate Democrats.

Discussion: The Plum Line, Outside the Beltway and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times:
Mitch McConnell lies low as ‘fiscal cliff’ nears

Discussion: Mother Jones, Roll Call, The Maddow Blog and New York Times

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
HARRY REID: ‘It Looks Like’ We'll Go Over The Cliff Because Of Boehner's ‘Dictatorship’

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Ramsey Cox / The Hill:
Reid: ‘Fiscal cliff’ deal unlikely

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes'

CBS News:
The “fiscal cliff”: What to expect if there's no deal

Discussion: Lynn Sweet and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
Obama reaches out to congressional leaders on ‘fiscal cliff’ talks

Discussion: First Read, The Plum Line, WorldViews, Post Politics and Hot Air

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Senate Leader Says Deal Is Unlikely Before Fiscal Deadline

Discussion: The Caucus, Prairie Weather and Gothamist

Manu Raju / Politico:
House will return as cliff anxiety grips Washington

Discussion: CNN and Forbes

Mark Arsenault / Boston Globe:

US Rep. Markey to run in Senate special election — US Representative Edward Markey, dean of the state's Washington delegation, will run in 2013 for the US Senate seat expected to open with the nomination of US Senator John Kerry to head the State Department.

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Roll Call and First Read

Talking Points Memo:

Rep. Markey To Run For Kerry's Senate Seat — Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) will run for the Senate seat expected to be vacated by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) who was nominated to be secretary of state, he told the Boston Globe. A special election to fill Kerry's seat will likely take place in June.

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Wall Street Journal:

Free David Gregory — Moving right along in America's gun control, er, “conversation,” we now have the illuminating debate over the alleged criminality of “Meet the Press” host David Gregory. Somehow this seems appropriate to the quality of the rest of the gun debate.

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »

Howard Kurtz / Daily Download:
Why David Gregory Shouldn't Be Behind Bars

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Michelle Malkin, National Review, Gretawire, Shot in the Dark and TVNewser, more at Mediagazer »

Dylan Byers / Politico:
WSJ ed board: ‘Free David Gregory’

Discussion: CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite and The Agonist, more at Mediagazer »

John M. Broder / New York Times:

E.P.A. Chief to Step Down, With Climate Still Low Priority — Lisa P. Jackson is stepping down as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after a four-year tenure that began with high hopes of sweeping action to address climate change and other environmental ills but ended …

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Daily Kos, The Hill, protein wisdom, First Read, Washington Examiner, The Raw Story and Mother Jones

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:

Report: Mike Crapo drank vodka shots — Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) drank multiple vodka shots before he was arrested for driving under the influence early Sunday morning in Alexandria, according to public court documents. — Crapo, 61, has a court date set for Jan. 4, according to news reports.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

Drew Hansen / Del Ray, VA Patch:
Sen. Crapo Consumed Vodka Prior to Arrest in Del Ray

Discussion: Mediaite and The Raw Story

Jennifer Martinez / The Hill:

Feinstein defends foreign surveillance program amid criticism — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday pushed back against claims made by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that a counterterrorism surveillance law lacks sufficient oversight.

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
Senator calls for oversight of agencies that might be monitoring Americans

Discussion: Guardian

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

As Swing Districts Dwindle, Can a Divided House Stand? — In 1992, there were 103 members of the House of Representatives elected from what might be called swing districts: those in which the margin in the presidential race was within five percentage points of the national result.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Plum Line

Joyce Lee Malcolm / Wall Street Journal:

Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control — After a school massacre, the U.K. banned handguns in 1998. A decade later, handgun crime had doubled. — Americans are determined that massacres such as happened in Newtown, Conn., never happen again. But how? Many advocate more effective treatment …

Discussion: Hit & Run, BizzyBlog and LewRockwell.com Blog

Josh Rogin / Josh Rogin's blog:

Republican senators were for Hagel, before they were against him — A growing number of GOP senators have expressed concerns about the potential nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Obama's next secretary of defense, but only four years ago many of these same Republicans praised Hagel as a statesman …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Post Politics, The Maddow Blog and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Log Cabin Republicans release ad attacking possible Hagel nomination

Discussion: The National Memo and Politico

Sam Baker / The Hill:

Abortion-rights champion stepping down — As the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, a leading abortion-rights advocate is ready to hand over the reins to a new generation. — Nancy Keenan will step down early next year from her post as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America …

Discussion: LifeNews.com

Edward Glaeser / Bloomberg:

2013 Is the Year to Go to Work, Not Go on Disability — The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the U.S. recession ended in June 2009, yet 2012 didn't look like much of a resurgence. — To me, the number that sums up the year's doldrums is the 1.27 million increase in the number …

Discussion: Eschaton and Weekly Standard

Pew Internet:

E-book Reading Jumps; Print Book Reading Declines — Findings — The population of e-book readers is growing. In the past year, the number of those who read e-books increased from 16% of all Americans ages 16 and older to 23%. At the same time, the number of those who read printed books …