memeorandum: Eric Cantor's tea party opponent in Va. primary may be picking up momentum (Washington Post)

3:25 PM ET, May 14, 2014

Top Items:

Kate Nocera / BuzzFeed:

Harry Reid Says He “Can't Vote” For Obama's Controversial Judicial Pick — “Unless I have a better explanation, I can't vote for him,” the Senate Majority Leader said of Michael Boggs. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) — Jonathan Ernst / Reuters / Reuters

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo and Washington Post

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Senate Dems pound Obama judge pick — Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday suggested President Obama's nominee for a federal court in Georgia is in trouble. — The Democrats said they have deep concerns with Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs's voting record …

Discussion: Althouse

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

New Benghazi Investigation Spooks GOP Leaders — It's not just the Democrats who are opposed to a new select committee looking into the Benghazi attacks. Many top Republicans are uneasy, too. — Last Wednesday, as the House was preparing for its new investigation into the Benghazi attacks …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Daily Kos and ABC News

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:
McCain: Send U.S. Special Forces to Rescue Nigerian Girls

Discussion: Politico, YouGov US Opinion Center News, Naked DC, Just Security, The Heritage Foundation, NewsBusters, The Dish, Hot Air, Reuters, RT, Washington Post, Yahoo! News and Guardian

Washington Post: Rescuing the kidnapped girls should be only a first step for Nigeria to counter Boko Haram

Jonathan Ernst— / TIME:

Bill Clinton Defends Hillary On Benghazi, Rove Attacks — Former President BIll Clinton said at the Peterson Foundation Fiscal Summit on Wednesday that his wife handled the attack in Libya appropriately and that he was “dumbfounded” by Karl Rove's suggestion she suffered brain damage from a fall in 2012

Discussion: Mediaite, Daily Kos, National Review and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Associated Press:
Bill Clinton vouches for Hillary's health

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Our Second Black President?

Discussion: The Reaction and Prairie Weather

KERO-TV:

AMAZING VIDEO: Cat saves boy from dog attack in Southwest Bakersfield — BAKERSFIELD - A cat came to her best friend's rescue Tuesday when the young boy was attacked in his driveway in Southwest Bakersfield. — The surveillance video shows the boy playing on his bicycle when a dog sneaks up behind him and grabs his leg.

Discussion: CNN, Jezebel, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, SFGate Blog, The Gateway Pundit and Gawker

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Jill Abramson to exit New York Times — New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson announced Wednesday that she will leave the paper, two sources familiar with the news informed POLITICO. Managing editor Dean Baquet will take over as executive editor, effective immediately.

Discussion: Gawker, Washington Post and NewsBusters

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Jill Abramson Being Replaced as Top Editor at Times — Jill Abramson, the executive editor of The New York Times, is unexpectedly leaving the position and will be replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor of the newspaper, the company said Wednesday. — Ms. Abramson, 60 …

Discussion: Mediaite and Mashable, more at Mediagazer »

Elizabeth Kolbert / New Yorker:

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt: Defending the Drama — If you hang around climate scientists, you often hear the saying “Uncertainty is not our friend.” It came to mind yesterday, when two teams of scientists released papers that reached the same terrifying conclusion.

Discussion: Questions and Observations, New York Times, The New Republic and Here & Now

Noah Millman / The American Conservative:
Climate Change Isn't Just About Sea Levels, And Adaptation Will Require Action, Not A Sense Of Futility

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The New Republic and CNN

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:

Georgia Senate Frontrunner Touches Republicans' Third Rail, Suggests Raising Taxes — The Georgia Republican contenders for U.S Senate have made a lot of outrageous assertions, from calling evolution a lie “straight from the pit of hell” to proposing that poor students sweep floors to pay for lunch.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Daily Kos

Greg Bluestein / Political Insider blog:
David Perdue and the ‘reality’ of increasing federal revenue

Discussion: RedState

ThinkProgress:

Nebraska Senate Nominee Says Religious Beliefs Can Justify Breaking Any Law — “[O]ur right to the free exercise of religion is co-equal to our right to life,” according to the campaign website of Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who won his party's nomination to the United States Senate on Tuesday.

Discussion: The Raw Story

Washington Post:

Eric Cantor's tea party opponent in Va. primary may be picking up momentum — RICHMOND — There was a time when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sympathized with the tea party's frustration with Washington. — Now, he's engaged in open warfare with the GOP's insurgent wing.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, National Review and Booman Tribune

Omaha World-Herald:

Sasse's dominant victory in Senate race affirms Tea Party influence in Nebraska — LINCOLN — To Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ben Sasse, his blowout primary victory is a win for sweeping ideas and the U.S. Constitution. — “We were only going to do this (campaign) if we were going to talk about big …

Discussion: Roll Call

CBS News:
Tea party pulls out a modest victory in Nebraska Senate primary

Discussion: Hot Air and Wall Street Journal

ABC News:
Tea Party Favorite Wins Nebraska's GOP Primary

Discussion: CNN and The Gateway Pundit

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Liberal Columnist Insists Again That Chris Stevens Wasn't Murdered In Benghazi — Republicans remain convinced that the Obama administration deliberately avoided labeling the attacks in Benghazi an act of terrorism. But that alleged “cover-up” has nothing on a recent characterization by Eleanor Clift.

Discussion: Townhall.com and Liberaland

Olivia Nuzzi / The Daily Beast:

The Oh-So-Fragile Class of 2014 Needs to STFU And Listen to Some New Ideas — Another powerful woman has been discouraged from speaking on campus. Because God forbid my fellow, fragile millennials have their ears damaged by words with which they don't agree.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Jezebel, Washington Post and Booman Tribune

New York Times:

Newark's Voters Choose New Mayor and New Path — Councilman Ras Baraka, the fiery scion of a militant poet, was elected mayor of Newark on Tuesday, signaling a likely shift in the direction that New Jersey's largest city had embarked upon for most of the last decade.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Joanne Jacobs

Kat Stoeffel / New York Magazine:

Harvard's Kennedy School Adds Privilege-Checking to New-Student Orientation — The wonks in training at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government will soon be subjected to a new and touchy-feely line of inquiry: Checking Your Privilege 101. In response to growing demand from student activists …

Discussion: Mediaite, TPNN and The Gateway Pundit

Joshua Rothman / Page-Turner:
The Origins of “Privilege”

Discussion: Althouse

Ece Toksabay / Reuters:

Hopes fade for survivors after Turkish mine fire kills more than 230 — (Reuters) - Hopes faded of finding more survivors in a coal mine in western Turkey on Wednesday, where 238 workers were confirmed killed and 120 more still feared to be trapped in what is likely to prove the nation's worst ever industrial disaster.

Discussion: Guardian and Shakesville