memeorandum: Mike Shields tapped as RNC chief of staff (Maggie Haberman/Politico)

5:10 PM ET, February 26, 2013

Top Items:

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Boehner tells Senate to ‘get off their ass;’ Reid says GOP ‘sitting on their posterior’ — A salty Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday told members of the Senate to “get off their ass” and pass a bill to replace $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, setting off an exchange with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Discussion: Politico, Crooks and Liars, The Impolitic, Examiner, ABCNEWS, Associated Press, The Democratic Daily, Taegan Goddard's … and The Spectacle Blog

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Republican Sequestration Plan — Whether or not you agree with it, and whether or not it will work, President Obama's strategy on sequestration is perfectly obvious. His goal is to end the automatic budget cuts, which he regards as stupidly constructed and likely to harm the economy …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Marginal Revolution, Eschaton and The Reaction

Jake Sherman / Politico:

John Boehner's big bet — House Speaker John Boehner has dug in. — If the let-the-cuts-happen approach on the sequester seems risky — especially with President Barack Obama blaming Republicans for everything from kids not getting vaccines to long lines at the airport — the alternative for Boehner is worse.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, The Maddow Blog and The Hill

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
I don't understand the Republican position on the sequester

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Washington Examiner, Daily Kos and Mother Jones

Sabrina Siddiqui / The Huffington Post:
Ron Johnson: John Boehner Would Lose Speakership If He Caves On Taxes To Avert Sequester

Discussion: Fox News, Business Insider and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jake Sherman / Politico:
John Boehner: Let Senate get ‘off their ass’ this time

Discussion: National Review, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Monthly

New York Times:
The States Get the Bad News

Discussion: Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, Esquire, The Confluence, Cincinnati.com and Daily Kos

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage — WASHINGTON — Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry …

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Lesbian Widow Urges Supreme Court To Declare DOMA Unconstitutional

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay and Joe. My. God.

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Meet The Republicans Telling The Supreme Court To Let Gay People Marry

Discussion: Daily Download, The Hinterland Gazette and Towleroad News #gay

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Influential Republicans Champion Same Sex Marriage

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch and msnbc.com

Phillip M. Bailey / WFPL:

Liberal Super PAC Goes After Mitch McConnell's ‘Chinese’ Wife — A Democratic group is under sharp criticism for controversial online messages about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's wife. — For months, the liberal super PAC Progress Kentucky has attacked McConnell and held demonstrations at his offices and home.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, The Hill, Mediaite, Roll Call, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, Post Politics and National Review

John Stanton / BuzzFeed:
Liberals Accuse McConnell Of Favoring China Because Of Wife's Race

Discussion: TheBlaze.com and The Daily Caller

Kirk Semple / New York Times:

Wave of Immigrants Released Ahead of Automatic Budget Cuts — In a highly unusual move, federal immigration officials have released a wave of detainees from immigration detention centers around the country in an effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said.

Discussion: Hot Air, Addicting Info and Prairie Weather

Franco Ordonez / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

In face of coming budget cuts, U.S. frees illegal immigrants from custody — WASHINGTON — The federal government released groups of illegal immigrants from custody across the country Monday at the same time the White House was making its case that impending budget cuts would harm efforts …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, Post Politics, TheBlaze.com and The Daily Caller

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Illegal immigrants set free from detention centers as sequester approaches

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, The PJ Tatler and The Gateway Pundit

Chris Moody / Yahoo! News:

Nikki Haley slams Washington after meeting with Obama — During President Barack Obama's meeting with U.S. governors at the White House Monday, the president dismissed members of the press to hold a private, hourlong discussion with the visiting state executives.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Hot Air

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Right cheers Bob Woodward ‘fact check’

Discussion: Esquire, PERRspectives, National Review, NewsBusters blogs, The Daily Caller and TheBlaze.com

Virginia / CNN:
Obama: Cuts are a ‘self-inflicted wound’

Discussion: Politico

Carrie Budoff Brown / Politico:
Obama plan: Divide and conquer GOP

Discussion: USA Today, New York Times, Reuters, Right Wing News, The PJ Tatler and First Read

Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:

Kerry defends liberties, says Americans have “right to be stupid” — (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America “you have a right to be stupid if you want to be.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Hill and Mediaite

Susan Jones / CNSNews:
Kerry to American Diplomats: ‘We Are Also Citizens of the World’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and American Spectator

Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:

GOP Seen as Principled, But Out of Touch and Too Extreme — Images of the Parties: A Closer Look — OVERVIEW — At a time when the Republican Party's image is at a historic low, 62% of the public says the GOP is out of touch with the American people, 56% think it is not open to change and 52% say the party is too extreme.

Discussion: Politico, American Prospect, Business Insider, The Plum Line, Daily Kos, Liberal Values, The Fix, The Moderate Voice and Taegan Goddard's …

Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
Most Say Spending Cuts Would Have Major Impact on Economy, Military

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway and prairieweather.typepad.com

Tim Mak / Politico:

Chuck Hagel clears Senate hurdle toward confirmation — The Senate voted 71-27 on Tuesday to end debate on Chuck Hagel's nomination to become secretary of Defense, ending a Republican campaign that forced Democrats to fight for every step toward confirmation, which is expected later in the day.

Discussion: New York Times, National Review, Booman Tribune, Red Alert Politics, Outside the Beltway and Lynn Sweet

Peter Brookes / Boston Herald:
Prez should pull Hagel's nomination

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and BREITBART.COM

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Chris Christie to take Obamacare Medicaid expansion — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is preparing to announce he's accepting Medicaid expansion under the president's health care law, becoming the eighth GOP governor to buck his party and align himself with President Barack Obama on the issue, according to POLITICO sources.

Discussion: CNN and Taegan Goddard's …

Salvador Rizzo / New Jersey Online:
Gov. Christie to announce expansion of Medicaid in budget speech, sources say

Discussion: National Review, The Plum Line, Hot Air and Wonkblog

BuzzFeed:

There's A Conservative Parody Of Michelle Obama's Evolution Of Dance Video — It was made by popular conservative blogger Michelle Malkin and it's definitely something. — Ryan Broderick — a half hour ago — 15 responses

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Charlie Spiering / Washington Examiner:
ABC broadcast edits out Michelle Obama claim that Chicago teen was killed by an ‘automatic weapon’

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Mediaite and Weasel Zippers

Michael Doyle / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Who should pay to defend Larry Craig's bathroom antics? — WASHINGTON — A federal judge this week will confront the surprisingly important fallout from former Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's 2007 bathroom arrest. — Craig's own money may be on the line Wednesday, but that's not all.

Discussion: Advocate, The Raw Story, Joe. My. God. and Towleroad News #gay

Andrew Stiles / National Review:

GAO Report: Obamacare Adds $6.2 Trillion to Long-Term Deficit — Obamacare will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion, according to a Government Accountability Office report that will be released today. — Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), who requested the report …

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and Watchdog.org

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

In Cannibal Case, Officer's Wife Testifies About a Chilling Discovery — One day last September, the wife of a New York City police officer opened her laptop computer and discovered that her husband had used it to visit a fetish Web site on the Internet. She said she went to the site and saw a photograph of a dead girl.

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Gothamist

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

9th Circuit judges split over anti-Bush protest — Over an impassioned dissent signed by eight judges, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday rejected the Obama Administration's request that the court reconsider a ruling favoring demonstrators who sued the Secret Service …

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Surveillance Law — WASHINGTON — In a 5-to-4 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a challenge to a federal law that authorized intercepting international communications involving Americans.

Discussion: Reuters, more at Mediagazer »

Luke Johnson / The Huffington Post:

Walter Jones, GOP Congressman, Hits Dick Cheney Over Iraq War — Dick Cheney, Video, HuffPolitics Blog, Walter Jones, Dick Cheney Water Jones, Walter Jones Dick Cheney, Walter Jones Iraq, Walter Jones Iraq War, Politics News — Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), an outspoken critic of the war in Afghanistan …

Discussion: The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, TheBlaze.com and The Raw Story