memeorandum: How The Worst Political State In The Country Ruined The Republican Party's Best Hope (McKay Coppins/BuzzFeed)

3:25 PM ET, June 10, 2014

Top Items:

ABC News's Diane Sawyer destroys Hillary Rodham Clinton on Benghazi — A standard defense for Hillary Rodham Clinton when facing questions about Benghazi, Libya, has been to cite her commissioning of a report from the State Department's Accountability Review Board (ARB) …

Discussion: Power Line

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Hillary Clinton's Book Signing Has Air of a Campaign Event — Andre Morales, a 36-year-old from Brooklyn, arrived before 3:00 a.m. Tuesday and planned to ask Hillary Rodham Clinton how it felt to work for President Obama after he had defeated her in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Mediaite

Michael Scherer / TIME:
Hillary Clinton Avoids Hard Choices in Hard Choices

Discussion: OnPolitics

Chris Good / ABC News:
The Hillary Clinton Interview: 21 Revealing Quotes

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Guardian, CNN and The Lead with Jake Tapper

Shushannah Walshe / ABC News:
Why Hillary Clinton Wouldn't Attack Palin ‘For Being A Woman’

Discussion: ABC News, Talking Points Memo and CNN

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
Clinton defends, clarifies debt remarks

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, Mediaite, Fox News, The Dish and Hot Air

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Aide: Clintons ‘Have a Life and a Set of Expectations that Are Different’ from Middle Class

Discussion: Politico, Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air, National Review and Ed Driscoll

Frank James / NPR:
Hillary Clinton: I Helped Restore U.S. Leadership In The World

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Weekly Standard

CBS News:

How do Americans view the Bergdahl swap? — Shares - — Just over a week after U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was freed by the Taliban, a CBS News Poll shows 45% of Americans disapprove of the deal that saw him released in exchange for five Taliban militants, while 37% approve of it.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Politico, Business Insider, Scared Monkeys, Mediaite, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, CBS DC, Talking Points Memo, The PJ Tatler, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Washington Free Beacon

John Parkinson / ABC News:

Hagel Made Final Call on Bergdahl Swap, Congress Told — Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel - not President Obama - executed the administration's final call to proceed with the prisoner exchange of five ranking Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, administration officials told Congress today in a classified briefing today.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, “The Lid”, Questions and Observations, Independent Journal Review and The PJ Tatler

Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:
Obama Administration: Bergdahl Was Chuck Hagel's Call

Discussion: Hot Air, Betsy's Page, Power Line and Washington Post

Philip Ewing / Politico:
Pentagon: No ransom for Bergdahl

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Washington Free Beacon

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:
4 of ‘Taliban 5’ Will Likely Fight Again, U.S. Spies Say

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Hot Air, Wall Street Journal and National Review

Washington Post:

Insurgents seize Iraqi city of Mosul as troops flee — BEIRUT — Insurgents seized control early Tuesday of most of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, including the provincial government headquarters, offering a powerful demonstration of the mounting threat posed by extremists to Iraq's teetering stability.

Discussion: CBS News, Hit & Run, CNN, National Review, Hot Air, Gawker, Business Insider, WAMC, The PJ Tatler, The Other McCain and Associated Press

Hayes Brown / ThinkProgress:

One Of The World's Scariest Terrorist Groups Now Controls Major City In Iraq — ISIS fighters in Fallujah, the first city the group captured — A terrorist group that al Qaeda has deemed too radical and unpredictable now controls the second largest city in Iraq as of Tuesday …

Discussion: Full, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville, Booman Tribune and National Review

BBC:
Iraq militants seize second city of Mosul

Discussion: New York Times, The Long War Journal, BBC and Mashable

KOIN-TV:

Student, shooter dead at Reynolds High School — TROUTDALE, Ore. (KOIN 6) — A gunman and one Reynolds High School student are confirmed dead following a shooting inside the Troutdale school. — Law enforcement officials offered few other details concerning the shooting during a 10 a.m. media update …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Pat Dollard and The Raw Story

CNN:
Student, suspect killed at school

Discussion: The Daily Banter, WTVR-TV and Mashable

Brian Beutler / The New Republic:

Why Is the American Far Right More Violent Than the American Far Left? — Between September 11, 2001 and March 2014, right-wing extremists killed 34 people in America. If you count the three Jewish community members Frazier Glenn Cross killed in Kansas City before screaming “Heil Hitler” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and CNN

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
How much does right-wing rhetoric contribute to right-wing terrorism?

Discussion: The Federalist, emptywheel, American Prospect, Shakesville, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, Prairie Weather and Hullabaloo

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

How The Worst Political State In The Country Ruined The Republican Party's Best Hope — Nikki Haley was once seen as the GOP's brightest rising star — then she got sucked into her home state's notorious political cesspool. Can she escape before 2016? — Chris Ritter

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Politico:

New poll gives McDaniel 6-point lead in runoff — Rangel touts Bill Clinton endorsement on new mailer — Ernst up 5 in post-primary Vox Populi poll — Graham debates GOP challengers in S.C. — With help from Elizabeth Titus, Alex Isenstadt, James Hohmann and Tarini Parti

Discussion: Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

Patricia Murphy / The Daily Beast:
Lindsey Graham's Tea Party Teflon

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Washington Monthly:

The Big Lobotomy — Last September, as they scrambled to decide on one final ultimatum before shutting down the federal government, Republican House leaders came up with what seemed like an odd demand: to strip their own staff of health care benefits. — At the time, staffers reacted …

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

The Latest Tea Party Piñata — About three weeks ago, Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, gave a speech to the Heritage Foundation. Hensarling is a Tea Party favorite. His core view is that better government …

Discussion: National Review and The Mahablog

Michael Paulson / New York Times:

Colleges and Evangelicals Collide on Bias Policy — BRUNSWICK, Me. — For 40 years, evangelicals at Bowdoin College have gathered periodically to study the Bible together, to pray and to worship. They are a tiny minority on the liberal arts college campus, but they have been a part …

Discussion: Hit & Run, Independent Journal Review, The Reality-Based Community and National Association …

David Sirota / PandoDaily:

Gore at Southland: Snowden revealed far bigger violations than the one he committed — One of the most often-asked - and polled - questions in the whole debate about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is about his status. Is he a traitor or a hero? In the era of mass surveillance …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

McCain: No Republican Can Win In 2016 If We Block Immigration Reform — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) warned Tuesday that if Republicans block immigration reform they'll lose the presidency in 2016 no matter who they nominate. — “I agree with Mr. [Tom] Donohue, the head of the Chamber of Commerce.