memeorandum: Holder begins gun-control push (Megan R. Wilson/The Hill)

6:20 PM ET, January 26, 2013

Top Items:

Thomas Beaumont / bigstory.ap.org:

AP NEWSBREAK: HARKIN WON'T SEEK 6TH SENATE TERM — You are here — Home » United States Congress » AP NewsBreak: Harkin won't seek 6th Senate term — CUMMING, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin will not seek re-election in 2014, the Iowa Democrat said Saturday.

Discussion: Washington Post, Roll Call, Crooks and Liars, Weasel Zippers, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, The Raw Story, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Times, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Ballot Box

Eric Jones / harkin.senate.gov:

Senator Harkin Announces His Plans for the Future — Thanks Iowans for dedication during his nearly 40 years in public service - outlines full HELP Committee agenda for next two years — CUMMING, Iowa - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today issued the following statement on his plans for the future …

Discussion: CNN and Addicting Info

James Hohmann / Politico:

Harkin retirement: Jump ball in Iowa — Democratic Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin announced Saturday he will not seek re-election in 2014, giving Republicans a shot at picking up his seat but increasing the likelihood of a contentious GOP primary. — “It'll be wide-open as far as both parties,” Republican state chairman A.J. Spiker said.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Jennifer Jacobs / USA Today:
Iowa Sen. Harkin will not seek re-election

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Daily Kos and Wake up America

Jeremy Herb / Ballot Box:
Harkin won't seek another term in Senate

Discussion: CNN

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Boehner full of regret over ‘fiscal-cliff’ moves — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is sharing his regrets about his “fiscal-cliff” strategy, less than a month after the House bitterly swallowed a last-minute deal hatched in the Senate. — In a private speech to the Ripon Society on Tuesday …

Discussion: The Agonist and The PJ Tatler

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Rep. Ryan: Republicans can't play the ‘villain’ in Obama's ‘morality play’ — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Saturday warned that President Obama was working to delegitimize the Republican Party, and urged conservatives not to fall into the president's trap by playing the villain.

Discussion: CNN and Little Green Footballs

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Boehner says bipartisan group ‘basically’ has deal on immigration — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is voicing confidence in the prospects for immigration reform in the House, saying that a bipartisan group of lawmakers “basically [has] an agreement” after more than three years of secret talks.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Post Politics

Samuel Knight / Washington Monthly:

Four years later, Paul Ryan wants more of the same — Just when I thought that the National Review Institute demonstrated that Republicans are ready to compromise, Paul Ryan outlined a somewhat apocalyptic vision of budget negotiations there on Saturday. — According to POLITICO, Ryan said …

Discussion: The Hill and Booman Tribune

David Rogers / Politico:
Paul Ryan: Obama 2nd term 'won't be pretty'

Discussion: Associated Press, The PJ Tatler and Online NewsHour

Donovan Slack / Politico:

Obama wants country to appreciate Hillary — President Barack Obama said Friday that he wanted to do a joint interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because he wants the country to appreciate the extraordinary role she has played in his administration.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette

Stephen K. Bannon / BREITBART.COM:

PALIN: 'WE HAVEN'T YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!' —EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BREITBART NEWS — In my research for the film I made on Governor Palin, The Undefeated, I was constantly amazed at the anti-establishment stands she took at every step in her rise to power.

Discussion: The Hill and The Hinterland Gazette, more at Mediagazer »

The New Yorker / Page-Turner:

What Nate Silver Gets Wrong — Can Nate Silver do no wrong? Between elections and baseball statistics, Silver has become America's secular god of predictions. And now he has a best-seller, “The Signal and the Noise,” in which he discusses the challenges and science of prediction …

Discussion: Brad DeLong

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Republicans' Effort To Rig Electoral College Gets National Backing — Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R), who was the chief elections officer when the state experienced massive voting problems in 2004, is planning to lead a national effort to rig the electoral college in favor …

Discussion: Addicting Info, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Atlantic Online

Gary Heinlein / detroitnews.com:
Michigan legislators weigh changes to Electoral College rules

Discussion: New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mother Jones, Naked Politics, The Maddow Blog, FiveThirtyEight and Business Insider

Joanna Stern / ABCNEWS:

Starting Today, It's Illegal to Unlock Your Cellphone — You likely have a cellphone that you bought from a carrier, like AT&T, Verizon or Sprint, and that phone only works on that carrier's cellular and data network — unless you “unlock” it. — That is a software process that allows …

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog

Jim Angle / Fox News:

Social Security's disability trust fund could fail to cover all benefits early as 2016 — As President Obama faces pressure on the left to defend federal entitlement programs from the benefit cuts that the Republicans say are necessary to keep the programs solvent decades down the road …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The PJ Tatler

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:
Thune: Democrats must pass a budget

Discussion: CNN

Abby Livingston / Roll Call:

Five Races in Which the Gun Debate Matters — In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., the politics of gun control turned upside down — or so the proponents of increased firearms regulations would like to believe. The reality, however …

Discussion: Booman Tribune