memeorandum: With Clinton vote, RNC pushes back on debates (James Hohmann/Politico)

1:05 PM ET, August 16, 2013

Top Items:

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:

GOP CHIEF: Mitt Romney's ‘Self-Deportation’ Quote Was ‘Racist’ And ‘Horrific’ — BOSTON — In condemning Rep. Steve King's incendiary comments on immigration, RNC chairman Reince Priebus swept in his party's presidential nominee, saying that talk of “self-deportation” was “horrific” and even “racist.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, The Hinterland Gazette, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, The Right Scoop, Daily Kos, Shakesville and The Raw Story

Politico:

Eve of Destruction — It is almost impossible to find an establishment Republican in town who's not downright morose about the 2013 that has been and is about to be. Most dance around it in public, but they see this year as a disaster in the making, even if most elected Republicans don't know it or admit it.

Discussion: The Plum Line, The Dish, Seeing the Forest and CNN

James Hohmann / Politico:

With Clinton vote, RNC pushes back on debates — BOSTON — The Republican National Committee will pass a resolution Friday to bar NBC and CNN from hosting GOP primary debates in 2016 if the networks move forward with their Hillary Clinton projects. — But the vote is not just about Clinton.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Booman Tribune, americanthinker.com, CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Fix, TheBlaze.com, Post Politics, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly and The Daily Caller

John Fund / National Review:

Taking Back the GOP Debates — The summer meetings of national political parties are usually quiet affairs, but this week's Republican National Committee meeting in Boston is full of controversy about who should moderate and run the 2016 GOP presidential-primary debates.

Discussion: Power Line, American Prospect and Washington Times

James Hohmann / Politico:

RNC approves skipping NBC/CNN debates — BOSTON — The Republican National Committee unanimously passed a resolution here Friday to not partner with NBC or CNN on 2016 primary debates if they air Hillary Clinton projects. — RNC Chairman Reince Priebus got an extended standing ovation …

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

GOP to vote Friday on banning NBC, CNN from debates — The Republican National Committee will vote Friday on whether to pull the group's partnership with NBC and CNN for the 2016 GOP presidential primary debates because of the networks' plans to air films on Hillary Clinton.

Discussion: The Raw Story and Politico

Zeke J Miller / TIME:

GOP Votes To Punish Networks Over Clinton Projects — The vote to boycott CNN and NBC as debate sponsors is expected to pass easily — Republican leaders voted Friday to centralize party control over presidential primary debates in the name of punishing two networks that are producing major films about Hillary Clinton.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
The key part of the RNC resolution on NBC and CNN debates

Discussion: Pat Dollard

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds — The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited — The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government's vast spying programs said that its ability do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

Discussion: The New Republic, ThinkProgress, Hillicon Valley, The Fix, Daily Kos, The Hinterland Gazette, Hit & Run, msnbc.com, The Verge, Gizmodo, Techdirt and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:
Remember when Obama said the NSA wasn't “actually abusing” its powers? He was wrong.

Discussion: Techdirt, Weasel Zippers, Hillicon Valley, Patterico's Pontifications and The PJ Tatler

Washington Post: NSA report on privacy violations in the first quarter of 2012

Jeffrey Goldberg / Bloomberg:

What Obama Misunderstands About Egypt — This morning, President Barack Obama condemned the Egyptian military's slaughter of Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers, and canceled joint military exercises scheduled for next month. He said that the violence should stop and that “a process of national reconciliation should begin.”

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Booman Tribune, Hot Air and Wonkblog

CNN:
More clashes feared as protesters vow ‘Friday of anger’ in Egypt

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, Global Grind and Weasel Zippers

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
It's Official: Obama Has Surpassed Jimmy Carter

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Reuters, Associated Press and New York Post

Elizabeth Chuck / World News:
Egypt may avoid civil war — but bloody conflict could continue for years

Discussion: msnbc.com, Pat Dollard and Red Alert Politics

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:
America Looks at Egypt and Sees Itself

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Atlas Shrugs, Israpundit, New York Times and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

BBC:
Egypt crisis: Deaths as Cairo violence resumes

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Blazing Cat Fur

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Edward Snowden To HuffPost: Media Being Misled — NEW YORK — National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wants to set the record straight after individuals associated with his father have, in his words, “misled” journalists into “printing false claims about my situation.”

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, RIA Novosti, CNN, Smartypants, Techdirt, The Hill and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Edward Snowden Talks With His Father

Discussion: Business Insider, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs and RIA Novosti

Mark Hosenball / Reuters: Snowden downloaded NSA secrets while working for Dell, sources say

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

Joe Scarborough: Talkers on Radio, TV Tell Voters 'If You're Not White,' ‘Not Welcome’ in GOP — On Friday morning, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe, blasted Republicans for focusing on the wrong issues in their efforts to reassemble a coalition of voters that can win national elections.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Pat Dollard

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:
Michael Savage Predicts He Will Replace Hannity at Cumulus, Limbaugh Likely to Stay

Discussion: The Week, Politico, The Huffington Post and Pat Dollard

Philip Bump / The Atlantic Wire:

Defying Reagan, Obama Returns Solar Panels to the White House — Now that the tedium of the 2012 campaign is over, President Obama is making good on his 2010 pledge to put solar panels on top of the White House. The panels (American-made, of course) will be the second set the building has ever seen.

Discussion: rubber hose, Taegan Goddard's … and E2-Wire

Washington Examiner:
Examiner Editorial: The ‘Great Divider’ likes political speech only when it likes him

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Washington Post

Juliet Eilperin / Post Politics:
White House solar panels being installed this week

Discussion: PlanetSave, John Hanger's Facts of The Day, Mercury News, Politico, The Verge, ThinkProgress and The PJ Tatler

Politicker:

Anthony Weiner's Relationship With Former Staffer Raises Questions — Anthon Weiner. (Photo: Getty) — Before he married his wife, former Congressman Anthony Weiner had a previously undisclosed relationship with an on-again-off-again congressional and campaign aide nearly two decades his junior.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and The Daily Banter

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Moment of Truthiness — We all know how democracy is supposed to work. Politicians are supposed to campaign on the issues, and an informed public is supposed to cast its votes based on those issues, with some allowance for the politicians' perceived character and competence.

Discussion: JustOneMinute and The Plum Line

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Political rent-seeking and her expected coronation. — The New York Times gave us an amusing juxtaposition earlier this week. Editorialist David Firestone sang the praises of Hillary Clinton's deceptive and pandering speech in which she denounced measures against voter fraud …

Discussion: CNN, Moonbattery and NewsBusters