memeorandum: GOP Rep Ducks Transvaginal Ultrasound Question With: 'I Haven't Had One' (Evan McMorris-Santoro/Talking Points Memo)

1:25 AM ET, March 1, 2013

Top Items:

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

U.S. endorses limited gay marriage right — The Obama administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to rule in the case of California's Proposition 8 that same-sex marriage should be required in eight more states, beyond the nine that already permit it, although it stopped short …

Discussion: Associated Press, Towleroad News #gay, AMERICAblog, Mediaite, emptywheel, Joe. My. God. and ACS Blog

New York Times:

U.S. Offers Broad Support for Gay Marriage Rights — The Obama administration threw its support behind a broad claim for marriage equality on Thursday, and urged the Supreme Court to rule that voters in California were not entitled to ban same-sex marriage there.

Discussion: The Plum Line and The Week

Miranda Leitsinger / NBCNews.com:
Clint Eastwood to Supreme Court: Drop California's ban on same-sex marriage

Discussion: ABCNEWS, First Read, Equality On Trial, L.A. NOW, Advocate, PinkNews.co.uk, The Raw Story and Addicting Info

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Obama Administration Urges Supreme Court To Strike Down California Anti-Gay Marriage Ban

Discussion: CNN, Washington Blade, Equality On Trial, Firedoglake and Hot Air

Pete Williams / First Read:
Obama administration to express support for gay marriage before Supreme Court

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay, The Huffington Post, Washington Blade, ABCNEWS, Gawker, Good As You, Poliglot, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAblog, Daily Kos and American Foundation …

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Obama Urges Supreme Court To Strike Down California's Marriage Ban

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay and Weekly Standard

Mike Flynn / BREITBART.COM:
EXCLUSIVE: CLINT EASTWOOD SIGNS BRIEF SUPPORTING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Discussion: NBCNews.com, Associated Press, The Daily Caller and Joe. My. God.

Wendy Kaminer / The Atlantic Online: Is Campaign Spending Regulated Too Much, or Not Enough?

Politico:

Exclusive: The Woodward, Sperling emails revealed — POLITICO's “Behind the Curtain” column last night quoted Bob Woodward as saying that a senior White House official has told him in an email he would “regret” questioning White House statements on the origins of sequestration.

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Gawker, Outside the Beltway, BuzzFeed, Twitchy, Fox News, WMAL, News Desk, Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Business Insider, USA Today, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite, Hullabaloo, Democracy in America, Daily Kos, Prairie Weather, CNN, DownWithTyranny!, NewsBusters blogs, Reuters, The Fix, The Raw Story, NO QUARTER USA NET, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Angry Bear, Power Line, Liberal Values, The Impolitic, BREITBART.COM, his vorpal sword, Daily Download, driftglass, FishbowlDC, Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, Washington Wire, The Dish, The Reaction, NBCNews.com, TechCrunch, JustOneMinute, msnbc.com, Rule of Law, Hit & Run, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, New York Magazine, Riehl World News, Little Green Footballs, National Review, Michelle Malkin, The Hinterland Gazette, Mother Jones, The Week, Booman Tribune, Paul Krugman, Patterico's Pontifications, Hot Air, Firedoglake, The Plum Line, The Mahablog, American Prospect, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Right Turn, The Gateway Pundit, The Other McCain, Balloon Juice, Althouse, Taylor Marsh, The Huffington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog and Betsy's Page, more at Mediagazer »

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:

Why Bob Woodward's Fight With The White House Matters to You — And why I iced a senior Obama White House official. — The fight between the White House and journalistic legend Bob Woodward is a silly distraction to a major problem: The failure of President Obama and House Republicans to lead the country under a budget deadline.

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Press corps to Woodward: Really?

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, New Republic, Mediaite, Fox News Insider and Hullabaloo

Ian Swanson / The Hill:
Obama adviser didn't threaten Woodward, says White House

Discussion: Politico, Weasel Zippers and Doug Ross

Mike Riggs / Hit & Run:
The Most Openly and Transparently Thin-Skinned Administration in History

Discussion: Twitchy, Vodkapundit, Ed Driscoll, The PJ Tatler and The Daily Caller

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Businessweek Warns That Minorities May Be Buying Houses Again — Bloomberg Businessweek is a genuinely great magazine that does an amazing job of making business and economics news accessible and interesting, but this way of illustrating a cover story about the return of aggressive mortgage lending products is really something else.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Daily Kos

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

A BusinessWeek cover crosses a line — Minorities as greedy grotesqueries fueling a new housing bubble — Bloomberg BusinessWeek is a lot edgier than its predecessor, at least where design is concerned. Sometimes it's too edgy, like when it takes two minutes to read some headline intentionally designed to be barely legible.

Discussion: The Raw Story and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Bloomberg Businessweek apologizes

Discussion: msnbc.com and The Hinterland Gazette

Katrina Trinko / National Review:

In Closed-Door Meeting, Cantor Warned of ‘Civil War’ — House majority leader Eric Cantor is increasingly frustrated with a group of House Republicans who are working against the leadership, and he's not afraid of voicing his dismay. — In a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit, protein wisdom, The National Memo, Booman Tribune, Mother Jones, Atlas Shrugs, American Prospect, Guardian and New York Times

Kate Nocera / Politico:

House passes Violence Against Women Act — The Violence Against Women Act is finally headed to President Barack Obama's desk for his signature. — The House voted Thursday to accept the bipartisan Senate bill, 286-138. Eighty-seven Republicans joined 199 Democrats to support the bill.

Discussion: Hot Air, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Hill, The Democratic Daily, The Moderate Voice, BuzzFeed and Taylor Marsh

Chris Good / ABCNEWS:
Eric Holder's Contempt for Contempt

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Jawa Report, The PJ Tatler, ABCNEWS and Red Alert Politics

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
The Nine Republican Men Who Won't Consider Any Version Of The Violence Against Women Act

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Slate and The Week

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Why Scalia's ‘Racial Entitlement’ Quote Is Even Scarier Than You Think — Justice Antonin Scalia quite deservedly came under fire yesterday for his claim that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act is a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” If the justice were looking to confirm every suspicion …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Rumproast

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Sotomayor, Kagan ready for battles

Discussion: RH Reality Check, The Mahablog and Prairie Weather

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:

Minnesota Republican Legislator: Homosexuality Is A ‘Sexual Addiction’ And An ‘Unscientific Lie’ … After a bipartisan group in Minnesota's state legislature introduced marriage equality legislation Wednesday, Republican State Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen is already on the warpath to prevent equality.

Discussion: Bluestem Prairie, Hot Dish Politics and PinkNews.co.uk

Baird Helgeson / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Gay marriage fight begins in Minnesota Legislature

Discussion: Advocate, Gawker and The Raw Story

Colin Campbell / Politicker:

Pete King Can't Believe Rubio Has the ‘Balls’ to Fundraise in New York — Congressman Pete King was not pleased with his fellow Republicans who opposed the federal Hurricane Sandy relief package. Accordingly, Mr. King told us he was shocked to learn that Florida Senator Marco Rubio …

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, CNN, Post Politics, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Peggy Noonan's Blog

Evan McMorris-Santoro / Talking Points Memo:

GOP Rep Ducks Transvaginal Ultrasound Question With: 'I Haven't Had One' — Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) declined to take a position last week during a town hall meeting on whether transvaginal ultrasounds should be mandatory for women seeking abortions, saying he has never heard of the practice …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Raw Story

Raphael Ahren / The Times of Israel:

Erdogan calls Zionism a ‘crime against humanity’ — Turkish PM slammed for juxtaposing Jewish self-determination with anti-Semitism, Islamophobia; UN chief called out for remaining silent — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday described Zionism as a “crime against humanity” on par with anti-Semitism and fascism.

Discussion: Israel Matzav, The Lede, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Free Beacon, National Review and Jihad Watch

View from Geneva:
Turkey's Erdogan Calls Zionism A “Crime Against Humanity” at UN Conference

Discussion: The Spectacle Blog, The Heritage Foundation, Atlas Shrugs, The PJ Tatler and Israel Matzav

Jim Avila / ABCNEWS:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Regrets Surprise Announcement of Immigrant Release — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had no part in a decision by underlings to release low-risk illegal immigrant detainees as a way to save money before the sequestration …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Max Fisher / Washington Post:

China is happy with John Kerry because it thinks he'll drop the ‘pivot to Asia’ — John Kerry's first weeks as secretary of state, and even the weeks before he took the job, certainly gave the impression that he would focus on the Middle East- on restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks …

Discussion: Via Meadia and thomaspmbarnett.com

Sam Masters / The Independent:

Green fatigue sets in: the world cools on global warming — Worldwide concerns about climate change have dropped dramatically since 2009 — Public concern about environmental issues including climate change has slumped to a 20-year low since the financial crisis, a global study reveals.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers, Ed Driscoll and The Dish

Associated Press:

Dennis Rodman tells Kim Jong Un: ‘You have a friend for life’ — SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Thursday on the third day of his improbable journey to Pyongyang, telling the leader “You have a friend for life,” a delegation spokesman said.

Jean H. Lee / bigstory.ap.org: Rodman tells Kim Jong Un he has ‘friend for life’

Gretchen Reynolds / Well:

What Housework Has to Do With Waistlines — One reason so many American women are overweight may be that we are vacuuming and doing laundry less often, according to a new study that, while scrupulously even-handed, is likely to stir controversy and emotions.

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Shakesville