memeorandum: In Defense of Obama on the Gates Memoir (Ron Fournier/NationalJournal.com)

5:45 PM ET, January 8, 2014

Top Items:

Emails link top Christie aide to GWB lane-closing controversy — Private messages between Governor's Christie's deputy chief of staff and two of his top executives at the Port Authority reveal a vindictive effort to create “traffic problems in Fort Lee” by shutting lanes to the George Washington Bridge …

Kate Zernike / New York Times:

Top Christie Staff Sought to Disrupt Traffic as Revenge — Newly released emails and text messages show that Gov. Chris Christie's office was closely involved with lane closings on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge in September, and that officials closed the lanes as retribution …

Discussion: NorthJersey.com, The Daily Beast, American Spectator, Spectator, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, The Dish, Outside the Beltway, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Reality-Based Community

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Big Trouble — As I've written several times, this Christie Bridge Scandal is far more potentially damaging for Christie that it might seem on its face because its fits so perfectly with the negative view (as opposed to the positive view) of Chris Christie. That is, that he and his crew are thugs and bullies.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Impolitic

Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:

N.J. Senate Majority Leader Says Criminal Charges May Come In Bridge Scandal — New Jersey State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D) said Wednesday she thinks criminal charges may come in the growing scandal over last September's lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

Discussion: National Review and Riehl World News

Wall Street Journal:
CONNECT — A top aide to Gov. Chris Christie told an executive …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and CNN

Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:
Christie Aide: ‘Time For Some Traffic Problems In Fort Lee’

Discussion: American Prospect, The Fix, Liberal Values, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News, Balloon Juice and National Review

Politico:
Emails tie Chris Christie staff to bridge flap

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Power Line, The Raw Story, Business Insider, Mediaite, Riehl World News, Daily Kos and Liberaland

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Record-High 42% of Americans Identify as Independents — Republican identification lowest in at least 25 years — PRINCETON, NJ — Forty-two percent of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago.

Joan Walsh / Salon:
GOP is losing on unemployment insurance — and running scared

Discussion: The Mahablog

Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:

Strict Obstructionist — MITCH MCCONNELL IS A MASTER MANIPULATOR AND STRATEGIST—THE UNHERALDED ARCHITECT OF THE REPUBLICAN RESURGENCE. NOW THAT HIS RELENTLESS TACTICS HAVE MADE HIS PARTY VICTORIOUS, HE IS POISED TO TAKE DOWN THE PRESIDENT AND WIN THE SENATE MAJORITY HE COVETS …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Impolitic

New York Times:
Bridging the Compassion Gap

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Talking Points Memo

Politico:

Carolyn McCarthy, Mike McIntyre to retire — North Carolina Rep. Mike McIntyre and New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy will not seek reelection this year, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with their plans - marking a blow to Democratic efforts to win control of the House.

Discussion: CNN, Business Insider and Daily Kos

Emily Cahn / Roll Call:
Longtime Dems McIntyre, McCarthy to Retire (Updated) (Video)

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Tom Brune / Newsday:
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy: I won't run again

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:

In Defense of Obama on the Gates Memoir — The president questioned the generals? Good. That's his job. — Robert Gates (left) and President Barack Obama cover their hearts during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner during Gates' Armed Forces Farewell Tribute on the River Parade Field …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian, Liberal Values, Hit & Run, The Hugh Hewitt Show and Outside the Beltway

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
How Bob Gates's memoir could haunt Hillary in 2016

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Democrats downbeat on paying for unemployment — There is waning appetite among Democrats to find a way to cover the cost of an emergency three-month extension of unemployment benefits, raising the prospects of an impasse in the Senate. — Senate Republicans have spent the last 24 hours floating …

Discussion: CNN

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
It's Obamacare all the time for Republicans

Discussion: VodkaPundit, Hullabaloo, The Plum Line, The Fix and Balloon Juice

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Utah Governor Says State Will Not Recognize 1300+ Same-Sex Marriages — Utah's governor says the Constitution does not apply to these two men — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's (R) office announced Wednesday that his state will not recognize the over 1,300 same sex marriages performed between …

Discussion: Utah Office …, Liberaland, Advocate and SCOTUSblog

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Utah Marriages Of Same-Sex Couples “On Hold” Pending Appeal, Governor's Office Says

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Noah Berlatsky / The Atlantic Online:

What It Means to Be a Public Intellectual — Last night my wife and I went out for dinner. Our server was French, a fact that allowed us to spend a few moments practicing the language. When the server left, my wife said, “It's everywhere.” Indeed. Some years ago I decided to learn French.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and This Is Brad DeLong's …

ThinkProgress:

West Virginia Lawmaker Wants To Make It A Felony To Enforce Obamacare — Nullificationist Senator John C. Calhoun — CREDIT: (AP Photo/National Portrait Gallery) — At least 82,000 West Virginia residents are signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion alone.

Discussion: Martinsburg Journa and Liberaland

Lisa Demer / Anchorage Daily News:
GOP targets Begich over Affordable Care Act - with ad that airs just once

Discussion: The Fix and Talking Points Memo

Gabrielle Giffords / New York Times:

The Lessons of Physical Therapy — TODAY, the anniversary of the shooting in Tucson that put a bullet through my head and killed six of my constituents, is when I make my annual resolutions. — Many may look at me and see mostly what I have lost. I struggle to speak, my eyesight's not great …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Today, Daily Kos, Political Capital, Politico, CNN, Business Insider and Talking Points Memo

Jenn Taylor / Twitchy:

‘Oh COME ON’: The Guardian's description of pro-abort Wendy Davis is beyond absurd; Update: Guardian issues correction — Here's how the sane see abortion booster Wendy Davis: … And here's The Guardian's description of the Texas Dem, courtesy of National Review fellow Betsy Woodruff:

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, The Daily Caller and Weasel Zippers

Jamie Stiehm / US News:

The Catholic Supreme Court's War on Women — Et tu, Justice Sonia Sotomayor? Really, we can't trust you on women's health and human rights? The lady from the Bronx just dropped the ball on American women and girls as surely as she did the sparkling ball at midnight on New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Discussion: Hot Air, National Review and Mirror of Justice

Paul Krugman:

On Fighting the Last War (On Poverty) — Sorry about radio silence — I've been on the road, and busy. And I still am. — I wanted, however, to say something about the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. — By 1980 or so, as the linked CBPP piece says, there was widespread consensus that the WoP had failed.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos and Taylor Marsh

CBS News:

Survey: Reported Christian “martyr” deaths doubled in 2013 — Shares - — Tweets - Stumble — LONDON — Reported cases of Christians killed for their faith around the world doubled in 2013 from the year before, with Syria accounting for more than the whole global total in 2012, according to an annual survey.

Discussion: Hot Air, Jihad Watch, Weasel Zippers, The Jawa Report and National Review

Steven Hayward / Power Line:

Climateers Caught in the Vortex — Coming on the heels of the Ship of Fools stunt in Antarctica last week, these are the worst of times for the climate campaign. And just where is Al Gore these past 10 days? As is well known, wherever Gore goes, a cold snap seems to follow; there's even a Wikipedia entry for the “Gore Effect.”

Discussion: Politico, Liberal Values, Ed Driscoll, Weasel Zippers, Motherboard and Slate