memeorandum: Roy H. Beck Quietly Leads a Grass-Roots Army (Julie Hirschfeld Davis/New York Times)

12:35 PM ET, December 3, 2014

Top Items:

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

ObamaCare author: Health law is ‘really complicated’ — Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the coauthors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill. — The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air and Balloon Juice

Susan Page / USA Today:

Kathleen Sebelius: Jonathan Gruber? Who? — WASHINGTON — Former Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, disputing the description of MIT professor Jonathan Gruber as an architect of the Affordable Care Act, says she had never met with him and minimized the significance …

Discussion: Fox News, National Review, Washington Post, Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller and Hot Air

Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:

Is Obamacare Destroying the Democratic Party? — Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, has forced a debate over fundamental party priorities out into the open. Should Democrats focus primarily on the problems of the poor or should they first address the economic struggles of the working and middle classes?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, EconoSpeak and Democratic Strategist

Politico:

Conservatives scoff at Boehner deal — Hardliners are again ready to cause leaders problems. — The “Hell No” caucus is once again causing headaches for Republican leadership. — A cadre of the House's most conservative members will meet Wednesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club …

Discussion: Liberaland, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller and Daily Signal

The Hill:

Reid backs Boehner on deal to avoid government shutdown — After two years of constant fighting, Republicans and Democrats are laying down their arms and working to strike deals in the hopes of leaving town at the end of next week. — While there are voices of dissent in both parties …

Discussion: RedState and Hot Air

Politico:

A Pelosi bailout? — House GOP's deal to keep government open may fall apart without Democratic votes. — The government will shut down in just eight days unless Congress acts, and Republican lawmakers and aides in and around leadership fear their two-step government-funding plan cannot pass without help — from Nancy Pelosi.

Discussion: The Hill, The Atlantic Online, DownWithTyranny!, The Dish, The Daily Caller, Washington Post and New York Times

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:
Paul targets Bush: GOP is ‘conservative’

Discussion: Political Wire

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Mitch McConnell already running the show for the GOP — Sen. Mitch McConnell won't become majority leader until next month, but he's already acting the part. — The Kentucky Republican, who will visit President Obama Wednesday at the White House, has taken the lead on a variety of thorny issues …

Discussion: Political Wire

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Mitch McConnell: We can't repeal Obamacare, but Supreme Court may ‘take it down’ instead

Discussion: Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo and Wall Street Journal

Brian Beutler / The New Republic:
The Latest Challenge to Obamacare Should Embarrass Conservative Judges

Discussion: National Review

Jeffrey Sparshott / Wall Street Journal:
McConnell ‘Perplexed’ by Obama's Reaction to Midterm ‘Butt Kicking’

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, PoliticusUSA, Daily Kos and OnPolitics

Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:

Media in Frenzy Over Hill Staffer's Comments on Obama's Daughters — Five days after Elizabeth Lauten published a Facebook post criticizing the outfits worn by President Barack Obama's daughters, the previously obscure Republican Hill staffer is being inundated with threatening messages …

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications, Fox News and The Federalist

Maureen Hayden / News and Tribune:

Former Congressman Hill mulls run for governor — Baron Hill has calculated the financial commitment for top office run — INDIANANAPOLIS — After losing his bid to return to Congress in 2010, Baron Hill flirted with the idea of running for governor. — There's no flirtation this time.

Discussion: OnPolitics and Political Wire

Julie Hirschfeld Davis / New York Times:

Roy H. Beck Quietly Leads a Grass-Roots Army — He keeps grade cards for every member of Congress, deploys three million activists to blast lawmakers with anti-immigration-reform telephone calls, faxes and emails, and runs a website where his followers have called undocumented immigrants “criminal invaders” and “wolves at the door.”

Blake Ross / Medium:

Uber.gov — It's Time to Let the Government Drive — Flying to Vegas? Look to your left. Now look to your right. Statistically speaking, one of you is about to get ripped off by a cabbie. And it'll probably be you, the imbecile who chose the middle seat and paid $15 for plane wifi.

Discussion: EconLog

Newsroom | AGU Newsroom:

WEST ANTARCTIC MELT RATE HAS TRIPLED — WASHINGTON, D.C. - A comprehensive, 21-year analysis of the fastest-melting region of Antarctica has found that the melt rate of glaciers there has tripled during the last decade. — The glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Slate

Mary Childs / Bloomberg:

Fall of the Bond King: How Gross Lost Empire as Pimco Cracked — Bill Gross, the 70-year-old king of bonds, rushed through the offices of his $2 trillion empire on a Friday morning distributing hand-written notes. He knew his reign was over. — The billionaire co-founder …

Discussion: Bloomberg View

Michael Allen / opposingviews.com/homepage.xml:

Georgia Town Votes To Ban Muslim Mosque, Residents Hate Islam (Video) — While anti-Muslim protesters waved signs outside the Kennesaw City Hall, the City Council voted against allowing an Islamic group the opportunity to rent a retail space in the small Georgia town.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, WXIA-TV, ThinkProgress and Creative Loafing Atlanta

Steve Almasy / CNN:

Charles Barkley: We never talk about race until something bad happens — Watch Brooke Baldwin's full interview with Charles Barkley on CNN on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET — (CNN) — Charles Barkley — who once said he doesn't create controversies, he just brings them to our attention — is at it again.

Discussion: SBNation.com and CBS St. Louis

Keith L. Alexander / Washington Post:

Former Democratic congressional aide pleads guilty to sexual assault — A former Democratic congressional aide pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting two women in 2010. — Donny Ray Williams Jr., 37, who served as a staff director for the Senate Homeland Security …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and JustOneMinute

Steve Benen / msnbc.com:

The right's ‘State of the Union plan’ continues to percolate — Last week, shortly before Thanksgiving, the idea that congressional Republicans might block President Obama from delivering a State of the Union address first crossed the political world's radar.

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos and Balloon Juice

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:

House passes bill to end benefits for Nazis — The House on Tuesday passed legislation to terminate Social Security benefits for suspected Nazi war criminals. — Passed 420-, the bill was approved after an October Associated Press report found that dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals forced …

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics

Peter Hamby / CNN:

The plight of the Southern Democrat — Southern Democrats who lost key races this election cycle — New Orleans (CNN) — The 2014 elections seemed like the final reckoning for Southern Democrats, the culmination of a political metamorphosis that began in the Civil Rights era and concluded under the nation's first black President.

New York Times:

Why Our Memory Fails Us — NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, the astrophysicist and host of the TV series “Cosmos,” regularly speaks to audiences on topics ranging from cosmology to climate change to the appalling state of science literacy in America. One of his staple stories hinges on a line …

Discussion: The Federalist and The Daily Caller

Jane Onyanga-Omara / USA Today:

Wife and suspected son of Islamic State leader arrested — A wife and suspected son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, were arrested in Lebanon. It comes as U.S. military members receive their strongest warning yet that they could be personally targeted by the terrorist group.

Discussion: VodkaPundit and Washington Times

Roger Simon / Politico:

Hillary should stop dithering — The media have moved from Hillary fatigue to Hillary exhaustion — Blessed art they who are ready for Hillary, for they have the patience of saints. — Each day, they gather money and names and deep data to lay at her feet in preparation for her presidential announcement.

Discussion: Mediaite, Bloomberg Politics and CNN