memeorandum: Obama's Most Important Achievement in the Middle East (Jeffrey Goldberg/The Atlantic Online)

10:30 AM ET, September 10, 2014

Top Items:

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Obama tells leaders he doesn't need their vote for ISIS campaign — President Obama told congressional leaders at a White House meeting on Tuesday he doesn't need their authorization to expand his military campaign against Islamic terrorists. — The president offered the assurance …

Discussion: Politico, BillMoyers.com, Taylor Marsh, Scared Monkeys and The Gateway Pundit

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Jay Carney joins CNN — Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney will join CNN as a political commentator, the network announced Wednesday. — He will start Wednesday night as President Barack Obama makes a primetime statement about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant , Sam Feist …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Business Insider, Mediaite and Poynter

New York Times:

Obama Ready to Authorize Airstrikes on ISIS in Syria — WASHINGTON — President Obama is prepared to authorize airstrikes in Syria, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, taking the military campaign against the Sunni militant group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, into new and unpredictable terrain.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Hit & Run, emptywheel, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, The Other McCain, Business Insider and Washington Post

Kendall Breitman / Politico:
Report: Golf courses snub President Obama

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard and Mediaite

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Ted Cruz pushes for vote on Obama orders

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Roll Call, The Raw Story, Washington Post and Hot Air

CNN:
Could Cruz's immigration move lead to shutdown fight?

Discussion: ImmigrationProf Blog

Julie Pace / Associated Press:
Obama Says He Has Authority for Campaign Against ISIS

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

Washington Post:
Obama ready to strike at Islamic State militants in Syria, he tells policy experts

Discussion: The Hill, Informed Comment, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Caller, Guardian and The Huffington Post

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:
GOP cuts funding request to fight Ebola

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos and The Raw Story

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Cruz: Stop deferred deportations with CR

Discussion: Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and Washington Monthly

Jonathan Strong / BREITBART.COM:

LETTER: HOLDER AIDE ACCIDENTALLY CALLS ISSA STAFF FOR HELP SPINNING IRS SCANDAL — A senior communications aide to Attorney General Eric Holder seemingly called House oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa's staff by accident and asked for their help spinning new revelations about the IRS scandal …

Discussion: Fox News, Betsy's Page, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

Issa: Holder spokesman caught red-handed — The administration official calling House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) office last week had an odd request. — Could the Justice Department get some help leaking information about the IRS's scrutiny of conservative groups? …

Discussion: Politico and Patterico's Pontifications

James Carville / The Hill:

GOP's Benghazi meter does not read victory — Just a tiny bit over a year ago I wrote a column for this publication indicating that the Republicans had not been right about a single thing so far this century. Sports gamblers have a name for when you don't win a single bet over a weekend …

Benjamin Domenech / Politico:

Beware GOP: Millennials Don't Like What We're Hearing — The Republican establishment seems unaware of the power of young libertarians. — Depending on which Republicans you listen to, the rise of libertarian views among millennial Americans is either nonexistent, a great threat to the country or both.

Aaron Blake / Washington Post: People hate the Republican Party. But not really.

Steve LeBlanc / Associated Press:

US Rep. Tierney Concedes Defeat in Dem Primary — In a stunning defeat, nine-term incumbent U.S. Rep. John Tierney on Tuesday lost a bitter Democratic primary contest to political newcomer Seth Moulton in the state's 6th Congressional District. — Tierney is the first sitting Massachusetts congressman …

Discussion: WBUR and BuzzFeed

Jessica Taylor / The Hill:
Tierney — fourth incumbent to go down

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

Obama's Most Important Achievement in the Middle East — The president is a superior terrorist hunter. He has also neutralized a profound existential threat to U.S. allies in the Middle East, and denied ISIS access to vast storehouses of deadly chemical weapons. So why does he get no credit?

Discussion: The Week, Hot Air and New York Times

Olga Khazan / The Atlantic Online:

8 a.m. Is the Most Anxious Hour — Crisis Text Line's data troves reveal the times of day and days of the week when we feel bullied, depressed, or alone. — Select a condition from the menu box above to see the hourly breakdown of texts to Crisis Text Line for that issue.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Ben Jacobs / The Daily Beast:

Behind Closed Doors, Cheney Tells Republicans That Obama Supported Muslim Brotherhood — The former vice president tries to sell reluctant House Republicans on “comprehensive” action against ISIS by blaming the president, of course. — Dick Cheney spoke to House Republicans on Tuesday about the need for military action in Iraq.

Discussion: alicublog, The Gateway Pundit, The New Republic, his vorpal sword, Prairie Weather, Washington Post, Mediaite, RedState, No More Mister Nice Blog and New York Times

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:
Cheney Urges House G.O.P. to Abandon Isolationism

Discussion: Mediaite

The Huffington Post:
Dick Cheney Tells GOP It's Time To Restart The Iraq War Machine

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Bloomberg, Guardian, The Hill, Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

Patrick Marley / JSOnline:

Federal judges question why John Doe issue is before them — By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel — Chicago — A panel of three federal appeals judges on Tuesday questioned why they had been brought into a stalled criminal investigation into campaign activity by Gov. Scott Walker …

Discussion: Associated Press and Althouse

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:

Ted Cruz: Amendment threatens SNL — Sen. Ted Cruz says the comedy of NBC's “Saturday Night Live” is at risk and creator Lorne Michaels could be thrown in jail if a proposed Constitutional amendment on campaign finance is passed. — “Congress would have the power to make it a criminal offense …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Raw Story and Mediaite

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:

'Real Time"s Maher ‘could’ vote for Paul — Longtime viewers of Bill Maher on HBO's “Real Time” may be surprised to learn the liberal-leaning host, who makes a habit of skewering Republicans on a weekly basis, is “considering” casting a vote for one come 2016. — “Rand Paul is an interesting candidate to me.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Julie Wolfe / WXIA-TV:

Exclusive poll shows race for Governor tied — ATLANTA — A new exclusive scientific poll shows the race for Georgia's governor is statistically tied. The poll was commissioned by 11Alive and conducted by Survey USA. — Over the past three weeks, since an identical poll was conducted …

Discussion: Washington Post and Taegan Goddard's …

Politico:

2014 primary election: Gina Raimondo, Allan Fung win Rhode Island primaries — Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo won the state's Democratic gubernatorial nomination on Tuesday, defeating two fierce rivals in a race that topped $10 million in spending.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Mark Murray / NBC News:

America on Edge: Fear of Terror Attack at 9/11 High, Poll Finds — “A very war-weary country ... seems to have woken up to the real threat that ISIS may present,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his colleagues at Hart Research.

Discussion: Hot Air, National Review and Politico

Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:

Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers and the End of Political Transparency — Tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations, the new political weapons of choice, are widening the gap between the rich people who control campaign financing and the economically anxious voters targeted by their ads.