memeorandum: Texas Vote-Buying Case Casts Glare on Tradition of Election Day Goads (Manny Fernandez/New York Times)

12:40 AM ET, January 13, 2014

Top Items:

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Why Bridgegate made headlines but Obama's IRS scandal didn't — Most government scandals involve the manipulation of the system in obscure ways by people no one has ever heard of. That is why George Washington Bridgegate is nearly a perfect scandal — because it is comprehensible and …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog and Outside the Beltway

David Edwards / The Raw Story:

Karl Rove: Bridge scandal proves Christie is ‘what we want’ in a president — Republican strategist Karl Rove asserted on Sunday that New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie's (R) handling of the George Washington Bridge Scandal showed he had the right qualities to be president of the United States.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Weasel Zippers, ThinkProgress, The Moderate Voice, Liberaland, Mediaite, Washington Monthly and Hullabaloo

Keith Laing / The Hill:

Christie scandal: 5 things we don't know — Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) may have exhausted reporters' inquiries into his administration's involvement in the closing of lanes on the country's most heavily-traveled bridge, but there are still many unanswered questions in the unfolding political saga.

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Taylor Marsh, The Reaction and New York Times

New York Times:
Thunder Road — WASHINGTON — I HAVE learned two things covering politics.

Discussion: Althouse, Connecting.the.Dots, Daily Kos and Riehl World News

Benjamin Bell / ABC News:
Rudy Giuliani: Chris Christie's Career ‘Completely at Risk’ If He Isn't Telling the Truth

Discussion: ABC News

Seung Min Kim / Politico: Giuliani defends Christie in bridge scandal

CBS News:

Shares — Washington has been abuzz this past week over the new memoir by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Now Secretary Gates speaks for himself in his first television interview about his book. Our Cover Story is reported by Rita Braver: — Robert Gates doesn't pull …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Hot Air, CNN, Mediaite and Politico

Andrea Drusch / Politico:

Jim Inhofe: Robert Gates wasn't being honest — Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe slammed Robert Gates in an interview that aired Sunday for not being honest with the American people during his tenure as secretary of defense. — Responding to descriptions from Gates' memoir, “Duty” …

Discussion: Mediaite

Robert Fulford / National Post:

Barack Obama may be commander-in-chief, but he's a partisan at heart — A newly published account of Barack Obama's White House confirms the worst that outsiders have imagined: The Obama staff is over-politicized, over-confident and desperate to oversee every aspect of government.

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Moe Lane and Power Line

Ashley Killough / CNN: McCain: Send Petraeus back to Iraq

Manny Fernandez / New York Times:

Texas Vote-Buying Case Casts Glare on Tradition of Election Day Goads — DONNA, Tex. — In this Rio Grande Valley town of trailer parks and weedy lots eight miles from the Mexico border, people call them runners or politiqueras — the campaign workers who use their network of relatives and friends to deliver votes for their candidates.

msnbc.com:

Important new developments in New Jersey's ‘bridgegate’ scandal — Steve Kornacki shares new information about why the “bridgegate” scandal in New Jersey is much bigger than a traffic jam. He explains how the political and...

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Raw Story

Associated Press:

Health Care Website Frustrates Spanish Speakers — Mirroring problems with the federal health care website, people around the nation attempting to navigate the Spanish version have discovered their own set of difficulties. — The site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, launched more than two months late.

Discussion: Moe Lane, Hot Air and Hit & Run

Ariana Eunjung Cha / Washington Post:

Second wave of health-insurance disruption affects small businesses — When millions of health-insurance plans were canceled last fall, the Obama administration tried to be reassuring, saying the terminations affected only the small minority of Americans who bought individual policies.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Robert H. Frank / New York Times:

The Vicious Circle of Income Inequality — Almost every culture has some variation on the saying, “rags to rags in three generations.” Whether it's “clogs to clogs” or “rice paddy to rice paddy,” the message is essentially the same: Starting with nothing, the first generation builds …

Discussion: EconLog

Steven Yaccino / New York Times:

Keeping Public Buildings Free of Guns Proves Too Costly for Kansas Towns — WICHITA, Kan. — Reasoning that more guns mean greater safety, Kansas lawmakers voted last year to require cities and counties to make public buildings accessible to people legally carrying concealed weapons.

Discussion: Balloon Juice