memeorandum: Interview With Vice President Joe Biden (NPR)

4:00 PM ET, March 21, 2013

Top Items:

Manu Raju / Politico:

Saxby Chambliss: 'I'm not gay. So I'm not going to marry one' — Support for gay marriage is picking up steam all over the country — except on Capitol Hill. — Take Sen. Saxby Chambliss. When asked if his views had changed on gay marriage, the Georgia Republican quipped: “I'm not gay.

Discussion: The Raw Story, Firedoglake, Taegan Goddard's …, Taylor Marsh, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Political Carnival, Ajc Blogs: &lsquo, Guardian, Post Politics, Mediaite, The Maddow Blog, Towleroad News #gay and Daily Kos

Zack Ford / ThinkProgress:
Starbucks CEO: If You Don't Like Marriage Equality, Feel Free To Sell Your Starbucks Stock

Discussion: bizjournals

Gabriel Spitzer / KPLU News for Seattle …:
Schultz defends Starbucks' support of same-sex marriage

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Obama Appears to Move Closer to Israeli Position on Peace Talks — RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Obama, visiting the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appeared to move closer to the Israeli position on Thursday regarding resumption of long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians …

Discussion: Reuters, BBC, Foreign Policy, The Hinterland Gazette, Mediaite and Althouse

Mary Bruce / ABCNEWS:
Obama Stands Firm on Mideast Two-State Solution

Discussion: Politico

Rick Gladstone / New York Times:
Obama Lays Out Case for Israel to Revive Peace Talks

Discussion: Post Politics, Towleroad News #gay and Capital New York

James S. Robbins / Associated Press:
Obama's Middle East policy in tatters: Column

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Pew Global Attitudes Project, Instapundit and This Just In

Reuters:
Palestinians protest Obama visit: We want RPGs, not CIA collaboration

Discussion: Haaretz, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

Cuomo Seeks to Ease a Newly Passed Gun Restriction — ALBANY — In the wake of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York pushed through the State Legislature gun control measures that included not only a tougher assault weapons ban but also a tighter restriction …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, New York Magazine, JustOneMinute, Hit & Run, Capital New York, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The PJ Tatler

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Biden: Voters think gun restrictions already law

Discussion: Politico

NPR:
Interview With Vice President Joe Biden

Discussion: Hawkings Here, msnbc.com, The Fix, Hot Air, Guns.com, Post Politics, Mother Jones, Hit & Run and The Hill

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Vulnerable senators face lose-lose scenario on assault weapon vote

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Plum Line

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:
Biden, Bloomberg Present United Front On Assault Weapons Ban

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and NPR

Peter Hamby / CNN:

Romney campaign chief to lead new GOP research group — (CNN) - Post-mortems written after the 2012 campaign focused on a variety of Republican shortcomings: underwhelming television ads, an outdated voter contact model, and a message that was out-of-step with the changing face of America.

Discussion: Post Politics

Thomas B. Edsall / Opinionator:

The Republican Autopsy Report — On Monday a Republican task force released a remarkably hard-headed diagnosis of the party's many liabilities: its ideological rigidity, its preference for the rich over workers, its alienation of minorities, its reactionary social policies and its institutionalized repression of dissent and innovation.

Discussion: The Dish, Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway, Poliglot, Prairie Weather, GOP.com and msnbc.com

Stuart Rothenberg / Roll Call:
The GOP: A Party Increasingly at Odds With Itself

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Jesse Helfrich / The Hill:

Unified House Republicans poised to pass Ryan budget blueprint — Republican leaders are poised to pass Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget on Thursday, having convinced centrists and conservatives to back the blueprint that Democrats believe is their road map back to the House majority.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, msnbc.com and Daily Kos

Nancy Cook / NationalJournal.com:
The GOP Disconnect on Economic Policy

Discussion: The Plum Line, First Read and Reuters

Alan Silverleib / CNN:
House passes Ryan budget

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Weasel Zippers, neo-neocon and The Hill

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

What Needless, Xenophobic Panic Looks Like — While researching another item, I came across a Townhall column written by Michelle Malkin in 2002, a couple years before she published her book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror.

Discussion: Eschaton

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

Iraq War made Obamacare possible … This week brought two milestones: It has been 10 years since the United States invaded Iraq, and three years since President Obama's health care legislation became law. It's fitting that the two events coincided, because it was the Iraq War that made the passage of Obamacare possible.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Hit & Run

Catherine Saint Louis / New York Times:

Pediatrics Group Backs Gay Marriage, Saying It Helps Children — The American Academy of Pediatrics declared its support for same-sex marriage for the first time on Thursday, saying that allowing gay and lesbian parents to marry if they so choose is in the best interests of their children.

Discussion: John M. Becker, The Raw Story and ThinkProgress

Manu Raju / Politico:
Saxby Chambliss: 'I'm not gay. So I'm not going to marry one'

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Ashley Parker / New York Times:
Young Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Undaunted

Discussion: Good As You, The Heritage Foundation, NOM Blog, Opinionator and Business Insider

Herb Keinon / Jerusalem Post:

Analysis: Obama, he had us at ‘Shalom’ — We so want to be accepted, so want to be understood. — He had us at the word “Shalom,” did President Barack Obama, on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport. — Or if not at “Shalom,” then 33 words later when he said in Hebrew, “Tov lihiyot shuv ba'aretz” (It's good to be back in Israel).

Discussion: Haaretz, Washington Free Beacon and Washington Wire

James Nye / Daily Mail:
Thanks but no thanks: Tree gifted by President Obama to Israel this morning is dug up hours later for ‘pest’ testing

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Guardian

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Native American Lawmaker To Anti-Immigrant Kansas Official: ‘When You Mention Illegal Immigrant, I Think Of All Of You’ — Left: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R). Right: State Rep. Ponka-We Victors (D). — A Native American state representative in Kansas rebuked Secretary of State Kris Kobach …

Andy Marso / Topeka Capital-Journal:
Emotions flow during immigrant tuition hearing

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:

Obama Job Approval Slips as Economic Pessimism Rises — Positive Signs on Stocks, Housing Have Little Impact — OVERVIEW — Barack Obama's job approval rating has tumbled since shortly after his re-election, as the public's economic expectations for the coming year have soured.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and The Daily Caller

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Michele Bachmann: Obamacare Will ‘Literally’ Kill People — As the country prepares to celebrate the third anniversary of health care reform, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) insisted on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act will “kill” vulnerable women and children during a speech on the floor of the House.

Discussion: msnbc.com and Mediaite

David Edwards / The Raw Story:

West Virginia paper's anti-LGBT column wants death for ‘n*ggers, spics, kikes and wops’ — A newspaper in West Virginia is defending its decision to publish a reader's racist and homophobic comments, which called for “queers” to be put to death along with “n*ggers, spics, kikes and wops.”

Discussion: Associated Press

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

Why I was hoping for a government shutdown — I'll be honest. I was sort of hoping for a government shutdown. — Congress, you're terrible at your job. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomber) — It's not that I like government shutdowns. I'm as big a fan of national parks as the next guy.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Week, Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog and Politico

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:

THE SILENT MAJORITIES — There's a lot of buzz at and around the Cool Kidz table today because, glorioski, there's actually another budget proposal out there, the one put together by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and it not only seems to make more sense to more people than, for example …

Discussion: The Reaction, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and Gallup

Greg Miller / Washington Post:

Secret report raises alarms on intelligence blind spots because of AQ focus — A panel of White House advisers warned President Obama in a secret report that U.S. spy agencies were paying inadequate attention to China, the Middle East and other national security flash points because they had become …