memeorandum: Enemies of the Poor — Suddenly it's O.K., even mandatory … (New York Times)

2:50 PM ET, January 13, 2014

Top Items:

Chris Frates / CNN:

CNN exclusive: Feds investigating Christie's use of Sandy relief funds — Scandal is unfolding around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge as part of a political vendetta to punish a local mayor who wouldn't support him at the polls.

Politico:

Hillary's hit list — The Clintons keep a favor file of saints and sinners, according to this excerpt from HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton. — Inside a cramped third-floor office of Hillary Clinton's once-bustling presidential campaign headquarters in the Ballston neighborhood …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Monthly, CNN, The Moderate Voice, Real Clear Politics, National Review, Washington Free Beacon, First Read, Mediaite, Scared Monkeys, TIME, Business Insider, Washington Times, Capital New York, The Dish, Politicker, Taylor Marsh and Seanet

Niall Stanage / The Hill:

Kerry, Kennedy top Clinton's traitor list — Aides on Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign kept a detailed list of party colleagues who staffers believed had betrayed her during the long and bitter primary battle with President Obama, a new book reveals.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, BizPac Review, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, Hot Air, americanthinker.com, Jammie Wearing Fools and Booman Tribune

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

MSNBC Contributor Sees Sexism in Media Coverage of Hillary Clinton's ‘Hit List’ — An MSNBC panel convened on Monday to discuss the hours-old revelations surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's maintaining a graded list of Democrats she believed did not support her 2008 presidential bid to her satisfaction.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and National Review

Eun Kyung Kim / Today:

Robert Gates: My memoir has been ‘hijacked’ by politics — Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates clarified claims he supposedly made about President Obama's commitment to the military surge in Afghanistan, saying Monday he “absolutely believed” the commander-in-chief supported the mission at the time.

Discussion: Washington Wire, NewsBusters and NewsBusters blogs

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

Christie Story Attracts Little Public Interest — Recent Opinions of New Jersey Governor Are Largely Unchanged — The public paid far more attention to last week's cold snap than to the controversy swirling around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. There also has been little short-term change …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Post Politics and Washington Post

Diane Sweet / crooksandliars.com/user/33:
John McCain: If I Were Robert Gates, ‘I Would Have Waited’ To Publish Memoirs

Discussion: Liberaland

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
Gates ‘disappointed’ by reaction to memoir

Discussion: Hot Air

National Security:
Transcript: Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' Interview With NPR

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo and Washington Wire

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

SCOTUS skeptical on White House recess appointments — The Supreme Court seems poised to reject President Barack Obama's bold use of the recess appointment power, judging from the surprisingly widespread hostility the administration's arguments received Monday from conservative and liberal justices.

New York Times:

Enemies of the Poor — Suddenly it's O.K., even mandatory, for politicians with national ambitions to talk about helping the poor. This is easy for Democrats, who can go back to being the party of F.D.R. and L.B.J. It's much more difficult for Republicans, who are having a hard time shaking …

Discussion: AEIdeas and The Moderate Voice

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Morning Plum: Republicans all over the map on jobless benefits

Discussion: Washington Monthly, PoliticusUSA and Prairie Weather

Heather Haddon / Wall Street Journal:

Records Show Christie Administration Canceled Meetings After Jersey City Mayor Didn't Endorse — Documents released Monday indicate that meetings arranged between top commissioners to Gov. Chris Christie and Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop were abruptly canceled without reason last year …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, ABC News, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Mediaite, American Power and TheBlaze.com

Heather Haddon / Wall Street Journal:
Traffic scandal puts spotlight on tactics of Gov. Chris Christie's aides with local officials in N.J.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Ted Cruz hires sacked RSC staffer Paul Teller — A sacked aide to the Republican Study Committee, a group of House conservatives, has joined the office of Sen. Ted Cruz. — Paul Teller, who was fired in December as executive director of the RSC after leaking private conversations of members …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Todd J. Gillman / Trail Blazers Blog:
Ted Cruz adds Katrina Pierson to his expanding list of the “utterly fearless”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and National Review

Jill Lepore / New Yorker:

The reputation of Roger Ailes. — In the nineteen-thirties, one in four Americans got their news from William Randolph Hearst, who lived in a castle and owned twenty-eight newspapers in nineteen cities. Hearst's papers were all alike: hot-blooded, with leggy headlines.

David Carr / New York Times:
Roger Ailes's Permanent Pushback Campaign

Discussion: NewsBusters blogs, The Huffington Post, Capital New York, The Verge and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:

The Fight Over Unemployment Benefits Underscores the Right's Extremism — Under George W. Bush, the GOP never balked at extending unemployment benefits, but that was then. Their newfound intransigence on this issue proves afresh that the party has been hijacked by extremists.

Discussion: NewsBusters blogs

Sen. Mitch McConnell / Politico:
How to save the Senate — Lyndon B. Johnson is usually remembered …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Daily Kos and The Hill

David Rogers / Politico:

Veteran Dem George Miller to retire — California Rep. George Miller, Nancy Pelosi's strong right arm and one of the top Democratic legislators of his generation, is stepping down at the end of this year after four decades in Congress. — Miller informed Pelosi, the Democratic leader …

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, Roll Call, ABC News and Politicker

Bill Keller / New York Times:

Heroic Measures — LISA BONCHEK ADAMS has spent the last seven years in a fierce and very public cage fight with death. Since a mammogram detected the first toxic seeds of cancer in her left breast when she was 37, she has blogged and tweeted copiously about her contest with the advancing disease.

Discussion: Mediaite, Boing Boing, Shakesville, American Power, Mashable, Poynter and Making Light, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Alex Sink rises to top in Florida special election — It's been framed as the clearest barometer of the public's mood heading into this year's midterms: a special election battle for a 50-50 congressional district in the famously 50-50 state of Florida. — But upon closer inspection …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, TBO.com, Tampa Bay Times, First Read and The Reaction

Ari Fleischer / Wall Street Journal:

How to Fight Income Inequality: Get Married — In families headed by married couples, the poverty level in 2012 was just 7.5%. Those with a single mother: 33.9%. — If President Obama wants to reduce income inequality, he should focus less on redistributing income and more on fighting …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Shakesville and Taylor Marsh

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court Won't Hear Arizona Appeal on Abortion Ban — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Arizona officials seeking to revive a state law that barred most abortions after 20 weeks of fetal gestation. The justices offered no reasons for turning down the appeal, as is their custom.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, Taylor Marsh and Mediaite