memeorandum: Richard Cohen Defends Column: ‘Word Racist Is Truly Hurtful’ (Ryan Grim/The Huffington Post)

10:35 PM ET, November 12, 2013

Top Items:

Christie's tea-party problem — The day after Chris Christie, the cuddly moderate conservative, won a landslide reelection as the Republican governor of Democratic New Jersey, I took the Internet Express out to Iowa, surveying its various newspapers, blogs and such to see how he might do in the GOP caucuses …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, PostPartisan, RH Reality Check, Politico, Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, Hullabaloo and The Dish

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Richard Cohen Defends Column: ‘Word Racist Is Truly Hurtful’ — Richard Cohen says that his latest piece was not intended to be and shouldn't be read as racist. — “The word racist is truly hurtful,” he told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “It's not who I am. It's not who I ever was.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Shakesville, Daily Kos, theGrio, Balloon Juice and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

WaPo Publisher Calls Cohen Column ‘Brilliant’ — Before Richard Cohen's latest column sparked widespread outrage, the publisher of the Washington Post praised the piece. — Katharine Weymouth tweeted a link to Cohen's column on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) relationship with the tea party, which she hailed as “brilliant.”

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Feministing and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Richard Cohen Has Written Something Insane About Interracial Marriage — Cotton-topped ladies man Richard Cohen hilariously poses as a “liberal” columnist at the Washington Post, despite being... how can we put this gently... a power-worshiping bigot. Don't take our word for it.

Discussion: Twitchy, Joe. My. God., Daily Kos, theGrio and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Alan Taylor / The Atlantic Online:

Richard Cohen on Black-White Marriage — I'm not racist. I just don't recognize my country. — Here's a fairly amazing paragraph from Richard Cohen's latest: … Right. I'm not racist. I just don't recognize my country. Also, the sight of you, and your used-to-be-lesbian black wife …

Discussion: The Wrap, p m carpenter's commentary, Making Light, Business Insider, Daily Kos and Booman Tribune

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Racist Op-Ed Columns Are a Strange Business Strategy — I'm not sure what, if anything, Jeff Bezos will do to try to turn around the financial fortunes of the Washington Post. But Richard Cohen's column today suggests one small step that the owner of the daily paper in a majority-black city could take …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, ThinkProgress and Talking Points Memo

President Bill Clinton / Ozymandias:

Assessing the Healthcare Rollout … When OZY sat down with President Clinton, one of the things we were most interested to hear were his impressions of the recent national health care rollout. Here's what he had to tell us. — 1. The country is better off with the Affordable Care Act than without it.

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Obama's critic-in-chief strikes again — President Bill Clinton — the man President Barack Obama once dubbed his “Secretary of Explaining Stuff” — once again has some explaining of his own to do with the Obama White House. — In an interview released Tuesday, Clinton called for a fix …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and BizzyBlog

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Bill Clinton: ‘President Should Honor the Commitment’ and Let People Keep Their Insurance Plans

Discussion: Ross Douthat, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys, Michelle Malkin, DailyRushbo.com, The Daily Caller, Yahoo! News, Mediaite, Post Politics, Red Alert Politics, Talking Points Memo, Conservatives4Palin and NewsBusters

Rush Limbaugh:
Clinton Lectures Obama: Keep Your Word

Discussion: Politico

Matt Higgins / CBS Sacramento:

Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS Sacramento/AP) — Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross of California has agreed to a two-month extension of about 104,000 individual policies after failing to give the required 90 …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Brian Beutler / Salon:

GOP about to hurt itself again!: New ploy to kill Obamacare will blow up — The new “Keep Your Health Plan Act” sounds great — but its timing reveals Republicans' dubious ulterior motives — Starting on Jan. 1, votes to repeal Obamacare will become votes to take health insurance away from a lot of people.

Discussion: The Mahablog and A plain blog about politics

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Why It's Not Too Late for the ‘Keep Your Health Plan’ Act

Discussion: Hot Air

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
Fox Guest on Obamacare Website: 'Al Qaeda Couldn't Have Run This Worse'

Discussion: Red Alert Politics, Crooks and Liars and The Raw Story

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Dem. Rep.: ‘I Think the President Was Grossly Misleading to the American Public’

Discussion: Power Line, The PJ Tatler, National Review and Scared Monkeys

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:

Obama Lunches With US Service Members at Irish Pub — President Barack Obama made an unannounced trip out for lunch with members of the military. — The president and Vice President Joe Biden dined with active duty service members from each of the five military branches at Capitol Hill restaurant Molly Malone's on Tuesday.

Discussion: Politico

ABC News:
Biden to Push Immigration at Naturalization Event

Discussion: Politico and Weasel Zippers

Jay Bookman / Ajc Blogs:

Cobb GOP chairman concerned about (those) people coming to Braves' games — I just got back from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed's press conference on the Braves' move to a transportation-challenged site in Cobb County, and will have a lot more to say on that later. But I can't let this pass without notice:

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Esquire

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Congressional Approval Sinks to Record Low — Current approval at 9%; 2013 average now 14% — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' approval of the way Congress is handling its job has dropped to 9%, the lowest in Gallup's 39-year history of asking the question. The previous low point was 10%, registered twice in 2012.

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Reuters, ABC News and Firedoglake

CNN:

White House technology chief to testify at hearing — (CNN) - The top White House technology officer will appear before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, despite the Obama administration's insistence that he was too busy helping to repair the flawed Obamacare website

Discussion: Politico

David Shamah / The Times of Israel:

Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station — A cyber-security expert says several ostensibly secure facilities became victims of the virus that struck Iran's nuclear program — A Russian nuclear power plant was reportedly “badly infected” by the rogue Stuxnet virus …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway and Liberaland

New York Times:
Iran Nuclear Talks: Unfinished, but Alive

Discussion: CFR.org, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CNN, National Review, Mondoweiss and emptywheel

Ivan Watson / CNN:

Projected Typhoon Haiyan death toll falls, but tensions rise amid aid bottlenecks — Typhoon Haiyan — Cebu, Philippines (CNN) — While still unimaginably devastating, Typhoon Haiyan may not turn out to be as deadly as initially thought, the president of the Philippines told CNN's Christiane Amanpour Tuesday.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, BBC, New York Times, VICE, Washington Post, WGBH News, The Week, Sydney Morning Herald and Associated Press

Sharyl Attkisson / CBS News:

Memo warned of “limitless” security risks for HealthCare.gov — (CBS News) WASHINGTON — CBS News has learned that the project manager in charge of building the federal health care website was apparently kept in the dark about serious failures in the website's security.

Discussion: msnbc.com, Crooks and Liars, American Prospect, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, The Lonely Conservative and Washington Free Beacon

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:

“Don't Get Screwed By Obamacare, Find A Sugar Daddy!” Says Dating Website — Don't get screwed, by the government. — Seekingarrangement.com is a site that connects young females and older males for a “sugar daddy arrangement.” — seekingarrangement.com

Discussion: Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Taylor Marsh and National Review

Amy Davidson / Close Read:

“60 Minutes” and the Benghazi Scandal Trap — “I didn't even have to go into the room to see who it was,” a man calling himself Morgan Jones told Lara Logan, of “60 Minutes,” on October 27th, remembering how he had glimpsed a body through the glass in a door.

Discussion: Roger Ailes and Hullabaloo

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Dem poll: Kay Hagan lead vanishes — Incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) is near the top of national Republicans' target list for 2014 — and a new poll shows her lead over her potential GOP challengers has all but evaporated. — Against state House Speaker Thom Tillis, Hagan leads by only 2 points …

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway, The Hill, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Blair Kamin / Chicago Tribune:

Tallest building ruling: Willis Tower loses to One World Trade Center — One World Trade Center will be the nation's tallest building when it is completed next year. — One World Trade Center will be the nation's tallest building when it opens next year, a Chicago-based tall buildings …

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Outside the Beltway

John Fund / National Review:

The Truth about Navigators — James O'Keefe, the guerrilla videographer who helped bring down ACORN (the “community organizing” group that Barack Obama worked for as a lawyer and trainer) and got NPR's president fired, is back. — This time, his undercover investigators focused on Obamacare's …

Discussion: PJ Media, Ed Driscoll, The Heritage Foundation, Scared Monkeys, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Twitchy, The Lonely Conservative, The Other McCain, Betsy's Page and Riehl World News

Rasmussen Reports:

55% Favor Repeal of Obamacare — Most voters view the new national health care law as bad for the country and want to repeal it. — A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 35% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the trouble-plagued health care law is good for America.

Discussion: Washington Times, Power Line, LifeNews.com and The PJ Tatler

Alex Roarty / NationalJournal.com:

Why Obama Won't Bounce Back — History shows presidents who aren't running for reelection don't recover from drops in their approval rating. — President Obama's approval rating is hovering around 40 percent, which could make him a drag on Democrats running in next year's midterm elections.

Discussion: Mediaite, Reuters, Hot Air, PostPartisan and Conservatives4Palin

Charles Lane / Washington Post:

Liberals' investment drives Tesla's survival — These are trying times for Tesla Motors. Its third-quarter sales and revenue disappointed the markets, causing a sell-off in its high-flying stock. Then a Tesla Model S burst into flames after a collision, the third time that's happened.

Discussion: Hit & Run

Patrick Marley / JSOnline:

Wisconsin Supreme Court considers stay in Act 10 case — By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel — Madison — Supreme Court justices raised the prospect Monday of quickly blocking a Dane County judge's decision that found unconstitutional Gov. Scott Walker's limits on collective bargaining for public workers.

Discussion: National Review and Althouse