memeorandum: End the Gaza blockade to achieve peace (Keith Ellison/Washington Post)

4:05 PM ET, July 29, 2014

Top Items:

GOP internal debate: Is party repeating mistakes of 1998? — BARACK OBAMA BILL CLINTON JOHN BOEHNER 2014 ELECTIONS — For anyone who was around, it's hard to compare 1998 — the year of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Starr Report, and Bill Clinton's impeachment — with any other year.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, his vorpal sword, BuzzFeed, RedState and Booman Tribune

Politico:

Politicking off impeachment chatter — Something very strange is happening on Capitol Hill. Democrats can't talk enough about impeaching a president of their own party. And Republicans keep saying that there isn't a chance they'll give it a try. — With just three days left until Congress recesses …

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Trail Blazers Blog, Daily Signal, No More Mister Nice Blog, alicublog, Business Insider, Liberaland, Mediaite and The Raw Story

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Boehner: Impeachment Talk Is A ‘Scam’ By Democrats To Raise Money — House Speaker John Boehner torched Democrats on Tuesday over talk of impeaching President Barack Obama, insisting that Republicans have no such plans and that Democrats are using the issue to gin up their base.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Mediaite and BuzzFeed

Erica Werner / Associated Press:

Obama Mulls Massive Move on Immigration — WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as they grapple with an immigration crisis at the border, White House officials are making plans to act before November's mid-term elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants who are in this country illegally …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Patterico's Pontifications, Washington Monthly and Shakesville

Juan Williams / The Hill:
Shame of the GOP on border

Discussion: Politico

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:
Boehner: Impeachment a Dem ‘scam’

Discussion: Firedoglake and Washington Post

Alexandra Jaffe / The Hill:
DCCC chairman: GOP impeachment talk ‘moving our base’

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo and Taegan Goddard's …

Patricia Murphy / The Daily Beast:
Red State Democrats Ditch Obama

Discussion: Politico, National Review and OnPolitics

Wesley Lowery / Washington Post:
Speculation on a House GOP bid to impeach Obama boosts Democrats' fundraising

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider, Hinterland Gazette, Hot Air, Mediaite, The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, Fox News and The Daily Beast

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
One of the most anti-Obama ads of the election is being run by a Democrat in West Virginia

Discussion: Mediaite, Truth Revolt, Washington Free Beacon, CNN and Fox News

Associated Press:

LAWMAKERS TRY TO SEAL $225M AID PACKAGE FOR ISRAEL — WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic and Republican members of Congress scrambled Tuesday to seal a $225 million boost to Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system before they break this week for a month-long recess.

Discussion: RedState, Twitchy, NewsBusters, The PJ Tatler, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Caller

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:

Inside the Kerry-Israel Meltdown — The secretary of state has been furiously working on a Mideast ceasefire, but his ad hoc efforts were dealt another blow Monday when Israel rejected his latest peacemaking plan. — On Monday, Secretary of State Kerry took to the podium at the State Department …

Discussion: Washington Post, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Guardian, Foreign Policy, The Dish, Washington Free Beacon, The Times of Israel, Truth Revolt and Israel Matzav

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:

Seriously, What Is John Kerry Doing? — Let's concede for a moment that most of us don't believe the United States should be taking sides in conflicts abroad. Even so, most Americans would probably agree that at a minimum our diplomatic efforts should not cause unnecessary harm.

Discussion: Power Line, The Lonely Conservative, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The Times of Israel, Associated Press and The Dish

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

John Kerry's big blunder in seeking an Israel-Gaza cease-fire — Secretary of State John Kerry has made a significant mistake in how he's pursuing a Gaza cease-fire — and it's not surprising that he has upset both the Israelis and some moderate Palestinians.

Discussion: CNN, Rush Limbaugh, Adam Garfinkle, National Review, Hot Air and VodkaPundit

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Hackers Plundered Israeli Defense Firms that Built ‘Iron Dome’ Missile Defense System

Discussion: Guardian, The Times of Israel, Business Insider and RT

Associated Press:
Obama administration officials were fuming Monday over a torrent …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and The PJ Tatler

Jerusalem Post:
Hamas denies agreeing to 72-hour cease-fire

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Times of Israel, Elder Of Ziyon, Truth Revolt, Israel Matzav, Hot Air and Algemeiner.com

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill: White House: Israel has ‘no stronger defender’ than John Kerry

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

Downscale — I recently had a conversation with an intensely conservative businessman whose first foray into politics was fighting for a tax hike on his business and others like it. The little town where he lived as a young man had no paved roads, waterworks, or sewage facilities …

Michael Lind / Salon:

Break up the states! The case for the United Statelets of America — Here's how Wyoming, Vermont and North Dakota are exercising tyranny over the rest of us — and how to stop them — A ballot initiative that would support breaking California into six smaller and more coherent states …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Keith Ellison / Washington Post:

End the Gaza blockade to achieve peace — Smoke and fire from the explosion of an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City, Tuesday, July 29, 2014. Israel escalated its military campaign against Hamas on Tuesday, striking symbols of the group's control in Gaza and firing tank shells that shut …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Financial Times and New York Times

clickorlando.com:

George Zimmerman ‘patrolling’ Central Florida shop after gun theft — Owner of Pompano Pat's in DeLand says Zimmerman not working for him — DeLAND, Fla. - — Although he's not a hired security officer, George Zimmerman has been “patrolling” outside a Volusia County gun shop …

Discussion: Mashable, Mediaite and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Simon Maloy / Salon:

No Labels, no respect: The bipartisan “solutions” group embodies the worst of D.C. — No Labels is raising money largely for itself, and its attempts to break gridlock are silly and self-defeating — No Labels was once the embodiment of a dream. It was the dream of a bunch of wealthy …

Discussion: Campaign for America's Future, Hullabaloo, Yahoo! News, Moe Lane and Balloon Juice

Anna Mulrine / Christian Science Monitor:

US is no safer after 13 years of war, a top Pentagon official says — The nation is no safer after 13 years of war, warns a top US military official who leads one of the nation's largest intelligence organizations. — “We have a whole gang of new actors out there that are far more extreme than Al Qaeda …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Weekly Standard and The Long War Journal

Julian E. Barnes / Wall Street Journal: The Iraq Enigma: Urgency Subsides, But Danger Persists

James R. Carroll / Courier-Journal:

Rand Paul planning 2015 book. Mean anything? — WASHINGTON - Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is working on a new book that will come out early next year - about the same time he will decide whether to run for president. — “Just coincidence, probably just coincidence, yeah,” the Republican said …

Discussion: Politico, CNN, TheBlaze.com and Washington Post

Ray Stern / Valley Fever:

Peter Nathan Steinmetz, Barrow Brain Scientist, Arrested at Airport With AR-15 — Dr. Peter Nathan Steinmetz, a brain scientist with Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, was arrested on Friday for mishandling his AR-15 in Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Discussion: KPHO-TV, Arizona Republic, Liberaland, Talking Points Memo and The Raw Story