memeorandum: Governor's Office gives direction to state agencies on same-sex marriages (Derek B. Miller/Utah.gov)

7:50 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: The Daily Beast, NorthJersey.com, NBCNews, The Democratic Daily, Gothamist, American Spectator, Business Insider, The Dish, Booman Tribune, The Daily Caller, The Week, Outside the Beltway, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Reality-Based Community

Linh Tat / NorthJersey.com:

EMS responses delayed by GWB lane closures in Fort Lee — FORT LEE - Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations - including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious - due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, CBS New York, Hot Air, Business Insider, Riehl World News and ABC News

Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:

Christie: I Was ‘Misled By A Member Of My Staff’ — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has acknowledged that the New Jersey bridge closing scandal has reached his office. — In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Christie responded to the revelation that one of his close aides discussed plans …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Weasel Zippers and Balloon Juice

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

Rush Limbaugh:

Media Gloms On to Christie Traffic Story — RUSH: The left right now is very excited over what we just learned about Governor Christie, because what we've just learned about Governor Christie is helping to take the Gates thing off the front page. — What, you haven't heard about the Christie thing?

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, The Star-Ledger Editorial Page, Ed Driscoll and CNN

Politico:

Chris Christie: ‘People will be held responsible’ — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he is “outraged” by newly released documents linking a senior member of his staff to the closure of lanes on a major bridge in September — shutdowns that caused massive traffic jams …

Discussion: CNN, Power Line, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Raw Story, Riehl World News, Guardian, Daily Kos and Liberaland

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

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

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

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and CNN

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Chris Christie's problem is that he's really, truly a bully

Discussion: CNN, The Star-Ledger Editorial Page, Business Insider, Spectator, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Hit & Run

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.

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Why is the GOP launching a new anti-poverty campaign?

Discussion: Ricochet Conversations Feed, AEIdeas, Ross Douthat, Hot Air, The Plum Line, Washington Post and New York Times

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Heritage Scholar Slams Marco Rubio's Anti-Poverty Speech — Will Rubio's push into welfare reform make him a pariah on the right all over again? — Toby Melville / Reuters — WASHINGTON — A senior scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation was quick to criticize Sen. Marco Rubio's …

Dave Boyer / Washington Times:
That's rich: Poverty level under Obama breaks 50-year record

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

New York Times:
Republicans Move to Claim Poverty-Fighting Mantle

Discussion: Slate, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Salon and 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

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Issa threatens perjury probe of Sebelius — House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Wednesday accused Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of providing “false and misleading” testimony to Congress and threatened to open an investigation.

Discussion: Liberaland

Brett Norman / Politico: Darrell Issa accuses Sebelius of ‘false’ testimony

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 and Advocate

Derek B. Miller / Utah.gov:
Governor's Office gives direction to state agencies on same-sex marriages

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, National Review and SCOTUSblog

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: The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, NBCNews, Walter Russell Mead, PostPartisan, Washington Post and Liberal Values

Jonathan Allen / Politico:
W.H. responds to Gates book

Discussion: NBCNews, White House Dossier, PoliticusUSA, Hot Air, Informed Comment and New York Times

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 …

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, Daily Kos and Business Insider

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

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Dems downbeat on 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 a raft …

Discussion: CNN and The Hill

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

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

Matt Ferner / The Huffington Post:

Colorado Recreational Marijuana Sales Exceed $5 Million In First Week — Colorado marijuana dispensaries made huge sales in the first week of legal recreational marijuana. — Owners of the 37 new dispensaries around the state reported first week retail sales to The Huffington Post that, when added together, were roughly $5 million.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, The Democratic Daily, PJ Media, Global Grind, National Review, Motherboard, ThinkProgress and Wall Street Journal

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 …