memeorandum: A National Strategy Funds State Political Monopolies (Nicholas Confessore/New York Times)

9:05 AM ET, January 12, 2014

Top Items:

Karen Tumulty / Post Politics:

Tom Kean says Christie's leadership should give pause to voters nationally — Former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean, one of the state's most revered figures and a mentor to current Republican Gov. Chris Christie, contends that the leadership qualities Christie has shown while in office …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Agonist and Washington Post

Michael Isikoff / NBCNews:

Democrat heading bridge probe says Christie could be impeached if he knew of closures — The chairman of a New Jersey legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures said Gov. Chris Christie's top aides had engaged in a “cover-up” and the governor could be impeached …

Discussion: Liberaland and Mediaite

New York Times:

Imagining President Christie — Let us count the ways that this week's traffic-jam scandal is actually good for Chris Christie's presidential prospects. — First of all, he proved that he could definitely handle an international crisis that required apologizing when the United States did something really stupid.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Michael Linhorst / NorthJersey.com:
Incoming NJ Assembly speaker to renew the subpoena power of panel in GWB scandal

Discussion: Washington Monthly

NorthJersey.com:
Vulgarity-laced emails show attempts to silence GWB story

Discussion: The Impolitic, The Reaction, Gothamist, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice and The Other McCain

Alexander Burns / Politico:
The GOP's tarnished golden boys

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Joan Walsh / Salon: No, really: It's over for Christie in 2016 — MSNBC's Rachel …

Shadee Ashtari / The Huffington Post:

U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Anti-Abortion Group's Case For Lying In Political Ads — WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear a challenge to an Ohio law that forbids candidates and issue groups from making false campaign statements. — The case, involving …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Moderate Voice and The Raw Story

Ben Birnbaum / The New Republic:

Ariel Sharon, 1928-2014 — He ultimately confronted the right wing. Will Netanyahu do the same? — One day at the Knesset in the early eighties, then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon passed a left-wing lawmaker in the hall and said hello, but the lawmaker pretended not to notice.

Jerusalem Post:
Former prime minister Ariel Sharon dies at 85

Discussion: The Times of Israel, Bloomberg, americanthinker.com, National Review, Israel Matzav, ABC News, The Other McCain, Scared Monkeys, New York Times, The Jawa Report and Outside the Beltway

Darlene Superville / Associated Press:
Obama Says Sharon Dedicated His Life to Israel

Discussion: CNN

Alan Duke / CNN:
Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime Minister, dead at 85

Discussion: Mashable

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Democrats plead with Obama to abandon Social Security cut — Democratic senators are pleading with President Obama to abandon his proposal to trim Social Security benefits before it becomes a liability for them in the midterm elections. — The president proposed a new formula …

Discussion: The Agonist

Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:

Rep. Darrell Issa's agenda in 2014: IRS, Benghazi and Fast and Furious — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in 2014 will pursue the IRS scandal, the deadly Benghazi attack and the botched Fast and Furious operation in what will likely be his last year as the House GOP's chief investigator.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

A National Strategy Funds State Political Monopolies — By his third year as chairman of the Alabama Republican organization, Mike Hubbard believed his party had just about everything it needed to win control of the State Legislature. — He had a plan: an 88-page playbook for the 2010 campaign …

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Liberaland

Oregonian:

Portland pimp sues Nike for $100 million for lack of warning label after beating victim with Jordans — Sirgiorgio Clardy sits strapped into a restraint chair in July during his sentencing hearing. His legal adviser, sits in the foreground — a safe distance away from Clardy based on the advice of a judge.

Discussion: NBCNews, Mediaite, Scared Monkeys, Hinterland Gazette, News One and The Raw Story

Paul Krugman:

A Hammock In Kentucky? — National Review has an actually interesting report by Kevin Williamson on the state of Appalachia, providing a valuable portrait of the region's woes — plus an account of how people turn food stamps fungible by converting them into soda.

Discussion: National Review, The Other McCain, No More Mister Nice Blog and Hullabaloo

James Hohmann / Politico:

Terry McAuliffe offers olive branch to GOP — RICHMOND, Va. — Terry McAuliffe, the legendary Democratic fundraiser and political fixer, had a message for Republicans during his rain-drenched inauguration Saturday as Virginia's governor: Let's make a deal. — With a Republican-controlled …

Discussion: CNN and Hot Air

Wallace Matthews / ESPN:

A-Rod's ban reduced to 162 games — Alex Rodriguez has been suspended for the entire 2014 season by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, who reduced the New York Yankees third baseman's ban from 211 games to 162 for his involvement in Major League Baseball's Biogenesis scandal.

Discussion: ABC News, Scared Monkeys, SI Wire and Gothamist