memeorandum: Dianne Feinstein leaving intelligence job amid clash on tactics report (Brian Bennett/Los Angeles Times)

10:25 AM ET, December 9, 2014

Top Items:

Mark Fallon / Politico:

Dick Cheney was lying about torture — The Senate report confirms it doesn't work. As those of us on the inside knew. — It's official: torture doesn't work. Waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, did not in fact “produce the intelligence that allowed us to get Osama bin Laden …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway and Washington Free Beacon

Brian Bennett / Los Angeles Times:

Dianne Feinstein leaving intelligence job amid clash on tactics report — As head of the Senate Intelligence Committee since 2009, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has spent hundreds of hours in secret briefings and seen thousands of pictures from battlefields in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. She keeps two images with her.

Discussion: CNN and Addicting Info

Anthony D. Romero / New York Times:

Pardon Bush and Those Who Tortured — BEFORE President George W. Bush left office, a group of conservatives lobbied the White House to grant pardons to the officials who had planned and authorized the United States torture program. My organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, found the proposal repugnant.

Discussion: emptywheel, Hullabaloo, RedState, The Dish, Daily Signal and Daily Kos

K.T. McFarland / Fox News:
CIA interrogation report: Democrats want to punish America, blame Bush

Discussion: Daily Kos, Hot Air and The PJ Tatler

Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
The insane narrative you are supposed to believe about the torture report

Discussion: The Intercept, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run, Bloomberg View, CBS News, Balloon Juice, Washington Examiner, The Atlantic Online, Techdirt, The Dish, NBC News and The Agonist

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Dismissing Senate Report, Cheney Defends C.I.A. Interrogations

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. / Washington Post:
Today's CIA critics once urged the agency to do anything to fight al-Qaeda

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, Foreign Policy, NO QUARTER USA NET, ABC News and New York Times

Reuters:
Sexual threats, other CIA methods detailed in Senate report

Discussion: New York Magazine

James Kirchick / The Daily Beast:

The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America's Worst Gay Power Couple — Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge have always been entitled brats. And now the media has finally noticed. — Just three years ago, Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge were the toast of the liberal establishment.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, The Federalist, Advocate, Mashable, Washington Post and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Peter Beinart / The Atlantic Online:

How The New Republic Lost Its Place — The strangest thing about the calamity that last week struck my old magazine, The New Republic, is this: It wasn't about politics. When I was coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s, TNR was known for its intramural ideological brawls.

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
The New Republic is dead, thanks to its owner, Chris Hughes

Discussion: Shots in the Dark, Mediaite, Fox News, Balloon Juice and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Tom Howell Jr / Washington Times:

Gruber to face hostile House panel, tea party 'I'm with Stupid' T-shirts — Democrats shun Obamacare architect after ‘stupidity of the American voter’ comments

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics and The Gateway Pundit

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:

Circus set for Gruber at Capitol — The Jonathan Gruber show is coming to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with House Republicans set to grill the former ObamaCare adviser for his controversial remarks about the “stupidity” of voters who let the law pass. — The hearing is likely to be a spectacle …

Discussion: Fox News and Politico

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

MoveOn.org Looks to Nudge Elizabeth Warren Into 2016 Presidential Race — WASHINGTON — Some Democrats are “Ready for Hillary.” MoveOn.org is ready for Elizabeth Warren. — The liberal group is poised to spend $1 million on a campaign to draft Senator Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat …

Discussion: Political Wire and RedState

Kendall Breitman / Politico:

MoveOn.org announces bid to draft Warren — MoveOn.org is urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren to enter the presidential race. — The liberal group plans to spend $1 million a campaign to push the Massachusetts Democrat to run in the 2016 election, according to a report Tuesday in The New York Times.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Republicans clash on reversing nuclear option in Senate — Republicans are split over whether to change the Senate's rules to allow filibusters on executive and judicial nominations. — As they head into a conference meeting on Tuesday, some Republicans say it's time to undo a wrong committed …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Pew Research Center:

Sharp Racial Divisions in Reactions to Brown, Garner Decisions — Many Blacks Expect Police-Minority Relations to Worsen — The public has very different reactions to the recent grand jury decisions in two police-related deaths that have sparked protests in cities across the country.

Discussion: Jezebel and The Gateway Pundit

Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Americans back charges in Eric Garner death

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Margaret Talev / Bloomberg Politics:

Approval Ratings Hit 5-Year High for GOP — Republicans are enjoying a five-year peak in popularity after their wins in the midterm elections, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll, while President Barack Obama struggles with his lowest job approval rating, at 39 percent.

Discussion: Political Wire and Washington Free Beacon

Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:

Lena Dunham's publisher says her alleged rapist “Barry” wasn't actually named Barry — Lena Dunham in a scene from the HBO series “Girls.” (JoJo Whilden/HBO via AP) — As I noted last week, Lena Dunham's memoir describes her having sex with someone named Barry, whom she labels as Oberlin's “resident conservative.”

Discussion: Althouse, Vox Popoli, Betsy's Page, Twitchy and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Tony Maglio / The Wrap:
Lena Dunham's Publisher Fires Back at Breitbart With Clarification of ‘Barry One’ Rape Allegations (Exclusive)

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Hot Air, Jezebel, The PJ Tatler, American Spectator, BREITBART.COM, Power Line and Ed Driscoll

Trevor Hughes / USA Today:

Colorado OKs marijuana credit union — DENVER — Colorado's marijuana businesses have a cash flow problem: Too much cash is flowing in and they've nowhere to put it. — Most banks refuse to work with marijuana businesses, which are legal in Colorado but remain illegal at the federal level.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Truth Revolt

Clare Foran / The Atlantic Online:

The Plan to Get Climate-Change Denial Into Schools — “As the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase, the Earth warms. Scientists warn that climate change, caused by this warming, will pose challenges to society.” — That language—featured in a fifth-grade Texas …

Allen McDuffee / The Atlantic Online:

De Blasio: Giuliani ‘Fundamentally Misunderstands the Reality’ of Race — The New York mayor today addressed the week in protests, and experience with his own son. — New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday admonished former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for his repeated recent comments that …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Applying ‘Broken Windows’ to the Police — In poorer neighborhoods, overly aggressive officers are too often a source of community anxiety. Their misbehavior contributes to disorder. — One of the most influential policing concepts of our era, the broken-windows theory …

Discussion: Washington Post

Jon Hilsenrath / Wall Street Journal:

Fed Aims to Signal Shift on Low Rates — Central Bank Could Drop ‘Considerable Time’ Phrasing in Policy Statement — Federal Reserve officials are seriously considering an important shift in tone at their policy meeting next week: dropping an assurance that short-term interest rates …

Discussion: Business Insider, Tim Duy's Fed Watch, Economist's View and Calculated Risk