memeorandum: John McCain's Surprising Toast at Kissinger's 90th Birthday Party (The Daily Beast)

3:35 PM ET, June 4, 2013

Top Items:

Erick Erickson Shows Everything That's Wrong With The GOP — Conservative pundit Erick Erickson doesn't like me. This morning he wrote 900 words about why. — But the main thing his post reveals is what's wrong with Erickson - and with a Republican party that is built to appeal to people like Erickson.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, The Plum Line, Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman

Erick Erickson / RedState:
On Conservative Reformers — There is a lot of back and forth chatter …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Other McCain and The Daily Caller

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Bob Woodward criticizes IRS ‘fiction’ — The Washington Post's Bob Woodward says the Obama administration has explaining to do on the IRS scandal and needs to answer questions about who knew what, when. — “This fiction that somehow [The IRS is] totally an independent agency is absurd,” …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and No More Mister Nice Blog

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Accuse first and ask questions later — A third House committee joined the stampede to examine the IRS on Monday, and its chairman did exactly what you would expect somebody to do before launching a fair and impartial investigation: He went on Fox News Channel and implicated the White House.

Discussion: msnbc.com, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, Right Wing News, The Huffington Post and The Hill

Associated Press:
IRS victims testify as new agency scandal emerges

Discussion: The Hill, The Impolitic, The Gateway Pundit and Wake up America

Jack Gillum / Associated Press:

Emails of top Obama appointees remain a mystery — WASHINGTON (AP) - Some of President Barack Obama's political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts they say are necessary to prevent their inboxes …

Discussion: White House Dossier, protein wisdom, Jammie Wearing Fools, Weekly Standard, Judicial Watch, The Verge, Coloradoan Online, National Review, Wake up America, americanthinker.com, Power Line, The PJ Tatler, Michelle Malkin and Washington Free Beacon

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
Bush Administration Appointees Also Used ‘Secret E-mail Addresses’

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Hit & Run and The Raw Story

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

Obama Names 3 to Top Appeals Court in Challenge to Republicans — WASHINGTON — President Obama set a confrontation with Senate Republicans in motion on Tuesday morning by naming a slate of judges to a top appeals court and daring his rivals to block their confirmations.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, The Caucus, New Republic, The Maddow Blog, The Stranger …, Yahoo! News, The Hugh Hewitt Show, A plain blog about politics and The Hinterland Gazette

John Gramlich / Roll Call:
Obama's D.C. Circuit Picks Likely to Prompt GOP Outcry

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Taegan Goddard's … and The World's Greatest …

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Obama dares GOP to block three nominations to critical court

Discussion: Politico

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:

Military brass oppose removing sexual assault cases from chain of command — Military leaders on Tuesday expressed unified opposition to stripping commanders of the power to decide where sexual assault cases are prosecuted. — In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee …

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway, Prairie Weather, CNN and Shakesville

Stacy Kaper / NationalJournal.com:
Sandra Fluke Redux? Senate Stacks the Deck Against Reformers in Sexual Assaults Crisis

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Yahoo! News

Craig Whitlock / Washington Post:
U.S. military chiefs balk at taking sex-assault cases out of commanders' hands

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, ABCNEWS and Post Politics

Valerie Strauss / The Answer Sheet:

Mississippi governor: Educational troubles began when ‘mom is in the workplace’ — VIDEO — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said Tuesday that America's educational troubles began when women began working outside the home in large numbers. — Bryant was participating in a Washington Post Live event focused …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, No More Mister Nice Blog, Business Insider, Taegan Goddard's …, The Moderate Voice, The Maddow Blog, Post Politics, FOX13Now.com and The Raw Story

The Atlantic Wire:

The Latest Navy SEAL Book Could Impact the Military's Transgender Rules — In every Navy SEAL is a memoir, it seems lately. Retired SEAL Kristin Beck's new memoir, published on Tuesday and titled Warrior Princess, is a bit different, though. In it, Beck describes how …

Discussion: Advocate, SOFREP, Towleroad News #gay, Business Insider, AMERICAblog, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville and Hullabaloo

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
SEAL Team 6 Vet Comes Out As Transgender In New Memoir

Discussion: ABCNEWS and The Raw Story

The Daily Beast:

John McCain's Surprising Toast at Kissinger's 90th Birthday Party — At Henry Kissinger's 90th birthday party, the assembled VIP guests learned a piece of the past shared by the imprisoned Navy pilot and Nixon's secretary of state. — Henry Kissinger's 90th birthday party on Monday night …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Hullabaloo and ABCNEWS

Dr. Keith Ablow / Fox News:

Is Obama waging psychological warfare on Americans? — I believe that the Obama administration is conducting psychological warfare on conservative Americans. Not only that but it is also waging this war on all Americans who previously viewed themselves, their country …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Balloon Juice and Shakesville

Noah Feldman / Bloomberg:

Court's DNA Ruling Brings U.S. a Step Closer to ‘Gattaca’ — The day that DNA cheek swabs officially became the new fingerprints deserves to be marked and remembered — and not just because of the inevitable march of technology. — No, the Supreme Court's 5-4 holding today in Maryland v. King …

Discussion: SCOTUSblog and Althouse

New York Times:
Why the Court Was Right to Allow Cheek Swabs

Discussion: msnbc.com, Lawyers, Guns & Money, National Review, SCOTUSblog, THEROOT.COM, Balloon Juice, American Prospect and The Week

Tara Bahrampour / Washington Post:

Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why? — Last spring, Frank Turkaly tried to kill himself. A retiree in a Pittsburgh suburb living on disability checks, he was estranged from friends and family, mired in credit card debt and taking medication for depression …

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Vox Popoli and Clayton Cramer's Blog

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Rubio: Senate immigration reform bill lacks 60 votes — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Tuesday said the Senate's immigration bill does not have 60 votes, contradicting Democrats who say it would pass the chamber in its current form. — Asked by FOX News if the bill approved …

Discussion: Politico

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Harry Reid says immigration bill on floor next week

Discussion: CNN

New York Times:

Death of Senator Places Christie in Difficult Spot — The death of Frank R. Lautenberg on Monday has left Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey with the kind of opportunity that politicians usually covet: the chance to give away a seat in the United States Senate.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Daily Kos, msnbc.com, Taegan Goddard's … and WJLA-TV

Jarrett Renshaw / New Jersey Online:
Top Democrat to Christie: Hold senate election in November for Lautenberg's seat

Discussion: Post Politics, The Week, First Read and Rothenblog

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Democrats' 2014 strategy: Own Obamacare — Scarred by years of Republican attacks over Obamacare, with more in store next year, Democrats have settled on an unlikely strategy for the 2014 midterms: Bring it on. — Party strategists believe that embracing the polarizing law …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Sister Toldjah, The Plum Line, Via Meadia, americanthinker.com, National Review and CNBC

Nicole Flatow / ThinkProgress:

Citing Stand Your Ground, Jury Acquits Man Who Killed Wife's Lover — As trial approaches for the man who generated national controversy over Stand Your Ground laws when he shot dead 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on a Florida street, a jury has acquitted another man under Florida's controversial law …

Arthur Brice / CNN:

Iran, Hezbollah mine Latin America for revenue, recruits, analysts say — (CNN) — An Argentine special prosecutor's accusation that Iran has established terrorist networks throughout Latin America has renewed debate over how big a threat that poses to the region and the United States.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Shushannah Walshe / ABCNEWS:

Christie Likely to Announce Dates of Special Election — ABC News' Josh Margolin and Shushannah Walshe report: — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is holding a 1:30 p.m. press conference and and sources briefed on the governor's thinking say it's likely he will address the special election process …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Business Insider

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

House Republicans broken into fighting factions — On New Year's Day, in a cramped room in the Capitol basement, House Republican leaders faced an angry caucus. Democrats had negotiated them into a corner — virtually every American would be hit with a massive tax increase unless …