memeorandum: Are Republicans Scared of Al Franken? (Michael Catalini/NationalJournal.com)

4:30 PM ET, January 9, 2013

Top Items:

Hans Nichols / Bloomberg:

Obama Said to Name Jack Lew to Replace Geithner at Treasury — Obama Said to Name Lew Tomorrow to Replace Geithner — President Barack Obama plans to name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew tomorrow as his choice for Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, a person familiar with the process said.

Discussion: Politico, Infowars, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, Fox News, The Hill, The Plum Line, Taylor Marsh, Capital New York, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway, msnbc.com, Hot Air and The Hinterland Gazette

Kevin Roose / Bloomberg:

Jack Lew's Terrible Signature May Grace Dollar Bills Now — Obama's America. — Jack Lew, President Obama's reported pick to replace outgoing Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, is known as a no-nonsense backroom negotiator with wonkish tendencies, who is admired on the left and grumbled about on the right.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Politico, ABCNEWS, Economix, Wonkblog, New York Times, NationalJournal.com, Mediaite and The Atlantic Online

Politico:

Why President Obama is picking fights with Congress — Barack Obama is looking for a few good fights. — Obama, the same president who campaigned twice on breaking the cycle of conflict in Washington, sees the utility — even the necessity — of rattling Republican cages as he plunges …

Discussion: NBC Politics, neo-neocon and The Hill

David A. Graham / The Atlantic Online:
Who Is Jack Lew, Obama's Nominee for Treasury Secretary?

Discussion: Wonkblog, The Fix, Economix and Post Politics

Wall Street Journal:
Lew to Be Tapped for Treasury

Discussion: AEIdeas

Manu Raju / Politico:
Senate vs. President Obama over Cabinet

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Week, Business Insider and The National Memo

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Biden: Obama Considering ‘Executive Order’ to Deal With Guns — Vice President Joe Biden revealed that President Barack Obama might use an executive order to deal with guns. — “The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence.

Discussion: Slate, protein wisdom, Maggie's Notebook, neo-neocon and The Gateway Pundit

Josh Levs / CNN:

Biden: Obama exploring executive orders to combat gun violence — On Wednesday night, Piers Morgan goes one-on-one with firearms lobbyist Larry Pratt over guns in America. “Piers Morgan Tonight” airs nightly at 9 ET. — (CNN) — President Barack Obama is exploring executive orders …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Political Carnival, Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette, Piers Morgan and This Just In

Amie Parnes / The Hill:

Biden: Obama prepared to take executive action on gun control — President Obama will likely take executive action in an effort to tamp down the recent rash of gun violence, Vice President Biden said Wednesday. — “The president is going go act,” said Biden, who is conducting meetings all week on the issue of gun control.

Discussion: CNN, Politico, ABCNEWS, Hot Air and The Hill

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Biden, Meeting Gun Control Advocates, Vows Action

Discussion: Taking Note and msnbc.com

Washington Wire:
Wal-Mart Misses a Meeting With Biden on Gun Violence

Discussion: Forbes, AMERICAblog, Business Insider, Shakesville, The Raw Story and Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes'

Andy Kroll / Mother Jones:

Revealed: The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics — A month after President Obama won reelection, America's most powerful liberal groups met to plan their next moves. Here's what they talked about. — It was the kind of meeting that conspiratorial conservative bloggers dream about.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Maggie's Notebook and The Agonist

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

McConnell to take lead in entitlement talks, with Boehner in back seat — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is poised to play a bigger role in negotiations to reform entitlement programs in the wake of the tax deal he helped forge last week. — Lawmakers see the passage of a bill …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Plum Line, Angry Bear, CNN, Patterico's Pontifications and Booman Tribune

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Can Chris Christie rescue the GOP?

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, msnbc.com, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Business Insider, Ballot Box, Weekly Standard and Post Politics

Ginger Gibson / Politico:
McConnell takes a hit from the right

Discussion: Campaign for America's Future

Blue Texan / Crooks and Liars: Tea Party Brand Now Toxic: Only 8% of Americans Identify As Members

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

In U.S., Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation — In 2012, 47% identified or leaned Democratic, 42% Republican — PRINCETON, NJ — An average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican.

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Fix, The Moderate Voice, Politico, The Political Carnival, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Ballot Box, Post Politics and National Review

James Hohmann / Politico:

At 100, still little love for Nixon — Richard Nixon would have turned 100 Wednesday, but about the only people marking the occasion are historians, family members and loyalists from the disgraced 37th president's administration. — And even they're slowly dying off.

Discussion: USA Today, CNN, The Week, Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly, ABCNEWS and Althouse

Sarah Parnass / ABCNEWS:
Five Key Legacies of Former President Richard Nixon On His 100th Birthday

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Politico

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Why Republicans Won't Bargain With Obama Again — James Capretta, writing at National Review, lays out what looks like the emerging Republican strategy on the debt ceiling. Rather than take up President Obama's offer to cut Social Security and Medicare in return for higher revenue through tax reform …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Prairie Weather and p m carpenter's commentary

Katie Glueck / Politico:

President Obama poet Richard Blanco's ‘queer shame’ pain — The poet tapped Wednesday to appear at President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony has written frankly about the challenges and hostility he faced growing up as a gay man, recounting how his own grandmother thought of him as the …

Discussion: CNN and Althouse

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Richard Blanco, 2013 Inaugural Poet

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Political Carnival, Advocate, Towleroad News #gay and Colorlines

Michael Catalini / NationalJournal.com:

Are Republicans Scared of Al Franken? — SNL star-turned-senator isn't drawing much early GOP opposition. — After winning election by the narrowest of margins in 2008, Sen. Al Franken looked like one of the GOP's most inviting Senate targets in 2014. But instead, the party is facing …

Discussion: The Fix

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:

Scalpers hawking members' inaugural tickets online — Free presidential inauguration tickets given out by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and other lawmakers are being hawked online for thousands of dollars. — The scalping of the tickets technically is not illegal …

Discussion: Political Watch, Texas on the Potomac and msnbc.com

People.com:
Beyoncé & Kelly Clarkson to Sing for the Obamas at Presidential Inauguration

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette and Reuters

Aaron Dykes / Infowars:

Piers Morgan and Guests Discuss Shooting Alex Jones — Daily Beast writer Buzz Bissinger says Piers Morgan should “pop” Alex Jones with a semi-automatic weapon. — Infowars.com — CNN and the gun grabbing media are now calling for Alex Jones to be shot the day after his heated appearance with Piers Morgan.

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog and Shot in the Dark

Evan McMorris-Santoro / Talking Points Memo:

California Town Hall Provides Glimpse At The Future Of The Gun Control Debate — Advocates on both sides of the gun control debate are prepared to make a lot of noise about the future of gun regulations in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting. That's the message from the first of House …

Discussion: KGO-TV and The Plum Line

The New / New York Times:

Transcript of Nate Silver's ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Reddit — Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight took questions Tuesday on the popular social news site Reddit's “Ask Me Anything” section. What follows is an edited transcript, with the questions and answers sorted into several subject areas.

more at Mediagazer »

Ryan Cooper / Washington Monthly:

Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe on the Legality of #mintthecoin — Facebook Twitter Digg Reddit StumbleUpon Delicious — I talked with Professor Tribe today over email, asking him two questions. One, would it be legal to exploit the platinum coin “loophole,” (my word) …

Discussion: American Prospect, New Economic Perspectives, Paul Krugman, Business Insider and PostPartisan

Megan McArdle / Asymmetrical Information:
Washington Goes Platinum

Discussion: Althouse, Mother Jones, American Prospect and Hot Air

Amy Odell / BuzzFeed:

DC Sex Workers Prepare for Huge Influx of Inauguration Partiers — If you require the services of a stripper or dominatrix over inauguration weekend, be prepared to pay extra. — Image by Shutterstock — When Steve Baker talks about the inauguration, he gets a little giddy.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

Cuomo to Propose Broader Ban on Assault Weapons — ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, pushing New York to become the first state to enact major new gun laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., plans on Wednesday to propose one of the country's most restrictive bans on assault weapons.