memeorandum: Coats Not Running for Re-Election (Abdul Hakim-Shabazz/IndyPolitics.Org)

1:40 PM ET, March 24, 2015

Top Items:

Israel Spied on Iran Talks — Ally's snooping upset White House because information was used to lobby Congress to try to sink a deal — Soon after the U.S. and other major powers entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran's nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks.

Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:

The Orwellian Obama Presidency — Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory. — The humiliating denouement to America's involvement in Yemen came over the weekend, when U.S. Special Forces were forced to evacuate a base from which they had operated against the local branch of al Qaeda.

Discussion: Jewish World Review, Jerusalem Post, Power Line and Washington Free Beacon

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:

James Baker blasts Benjamin Netanyahu — “His actions have not matched his rhetoric,” says the former secretary of state. — It's not just Democrats and White House officials who've got problems with Benjamin Netanyahu. — Blasting “diplomatic missteps and political gamesmanship,” …

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and Jerusalem Post

Scott Wong / The Hill:
Boehner ‘baffled’ by Israeli spying report

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Hot Air and The Times of Israel

Mike Levine / ABC News:
Video of White House Incident Released

Discussion: Politico

Washington Post:
Report: Israel spied on Iran-U.S. talks and shared information with lawmakers

Discussion: CNN, US News, JP Updates and The Gateway Pundit

Avi Issacharoff / The Times of Israel:
Official: White House was part of bid to oust Netanyahu

Discussion: Elder Of Ziyon, Israel Matzav, Gatestone Institute, Algemeiner.com, Balloon Juice, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Free Beacon

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Barack Obama's top aide says Israeli ‘occupation’ must end

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Israel Matzav, Associated Press, Mediaite, New York Magazine and Jerusalem Post

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:

Rep. Peter King Threatens to Jump Off a Bridge if Cruz Gets GOP Nomination — Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on CNN's The Situation Room Monday afternoon and when Wolf Blitzer asked him to explain his statement that compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a “carnival barker,” …

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, American Spectator, Washington Monthly, Des Moines Register, US News, New York Times, Progress Pond, Bloomberg Business, The Huffington Post and The Week

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:

Ted Cruz: I Started Listening To Country Music Because Of 9/11 (VIDEO) — Leaving no political stone unturned, newly-declared presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had a very particular answer on Tuesday when asked about his taste in music. — “You know, music is interesting,” he said on CBS “This Morning.”

Discussion: Mediaite

Danny Vinik / The New Republic:

Ted Cruz Cannot Be Serious — The big news of the day is that Senator Ted Cruz is officially running for president. Not setting up an exploratory committee or any of that perfunctory foreplay, but actually running. “It is a time for truth. It is a time for liberty,” he said in a 30-minute speech at, yeah, Liberty University.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, New York Times and Slate

Niall Stanage / The Hill:
Democrats cheer: Run, Ted, run

Discussion: New York Times, PoliticusUSA, Politico, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Vox, ABC News and Washington Post

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
What Ted Cruz Would Need to Do to Win

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, The Moderate Voice, First Reading, Christian Science Monitor and The Reaction

Angelina Jolie Pitt / New York Times:

Diary of a Surgery — LOS ANGELES — TWO years ago I wrote about my choice to have a preventive double mastectomy. A simple blood test had revealed that I carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. It gave me an estimated 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, KFOR-TV, US News, Fox News Insider, FOX31 Denver, Reuters, NBC News, CBS New York, Associated Press, Althouse, Mashable, Mediaite, WRIC-TV, Gawker, WGN-TV, NPR, CBS Los Angeles and abc30.com

Helena Andrews / Washington Post:

The White House head florist is gone and rumors are flying about why — When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of “the crust master's” mysteriously addictive pies. And when the first family's personal chef and pal …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, Business Insider, CBS DC, The Daily Caller and Politico

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Ferguson and Benghazi's troubling parallels — Ferguson has become the liberal Benghazi. It is more of a cause than a place, more of an ideological statement than an incident. Ferguson was not the racist murder it was thought to be, and Benghazi was not an incident in which the Obama …

Discussion: Raw Story and Booman Tribune

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Washington Post Columnist Declares Ferguson Is The ‘Liberal Benghazi’ — Liberals have found an ideological bugaboo on par with Benghazi in the Michael Brown shooting, according to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. — “Ferguson has become the liberal Benghazi,” Cohen wrote in a column published Monday night.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Zeke J Miller / TIME:

Clinton Jokes About Private Email and ‘Complicated’ Press Relationship — At a dinner honoring the winner of the Robin Toner Prize — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joked on Monday about her famously contentious relationship with the press and her private email account.

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, National Journal, FishbowlDC and The Gateway Pundit

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Hillary Clinton seeks clean slate with press

Discussion: Washington Post and Political Wire

Abdul Hakim-Shabazz / IndyPolitics.Org:

Coats Not Running for Re-Election — U.S. Senator Dan Coats has just informed Indy Politics that he will NOT run for another term in the U.S. Senate. — Coats said he deliberated for months before making his decision. He says he informed leadership this morning today of his decision.

Discussion: RSS Feed howeypolitics.com, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway and Political Wire

Craig Giammona / Bloomberg Business:

Taco Bell Introduces Breakfast Biscuits in Bid for Morning Sales — (Bloomberg) — Taco Bell is sticking with the playbook that helped it muscle into the breakfast business last year: Take a breakfast sandwich, and put it in a taco. — The fast-food chain will introduce a new line of Biscuit Tacos …

Discussion: FOX31 Denver, KFOR-TV and USA Today

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Hillary Clinton Caught Between Dueling Forces on Education: Teachers and Wealthy Donors — The last time she ran for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton did not have to take a position on the Common Core, teacher evaluations or Race to the Top. — She won the endorsement …

Discussion: Political Wire and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Jake Sherman / Politico:

House GOP weighs votes on 2 budgets, winner takes all — House Republican leaders are exploring a procedure that would allow for votes on two budgets — and whichever gets the most votes would be adopted as the party's fiscal blueprint. — Under the plan, House Budget Chairman Tom Price's …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Daily Kos

cbpp.org:
Congressional Budget Plans Get Two-Thirds of Cuts From Programs for People With Low or Moderate Incomes

Discussion: RH Reality Check and Off the Charts Blog

Tom Randall / Bloomberg Business:

Here's How $20 Oil Could Become a Reality If Storage Runs Out — The looming storage crisis explained … There's the makings of a crisis swirling in America's oil-storage tanks, and the next few months will determine whether it's a minor annoyance, or a major blow, to U.S. oil.

Discussion: KFOR-TV

Beka Economopoulos / The Natural History Museum:

An Open Letter to Museums from Members of the Scientific Community — To Museums of Science and Natural History: — As members of the scientific community we devote our lives to understanding the world, and sharing this understanding with the public. We are deeply concerned …

Discussion: InsideClimate News, Washington Post, New York Times and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Nicole Flatow / ThinkProgress:

Supreme Court Justices Blast The Corrections System — Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy during a congressional hearing Monday, March 23. — CREDIT: Screenshot from C-SPAN — The prisons are one of the most misunderstood institutions of government. Solitary confinement drives individuals insane.

Discussion: Eschaton

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:

MSNBC Pundit Speculates Jet Crashed In France Because Of ‘Hacking’ (VIDEO) — With yet another mysterious tragedy surrounding a downed airliner making headlines on Tuesday, one MSNBC analyst reconized an opportunity to break out an on-air theory. — Jay Rollins, a former commercial pilot …

Discussion: Mediaite

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:

Obama picks Shailagh Murray to replace Pfeiffer — Shailagh Murray is currently Vice President Joe Biden's deputy chief of staff and communications director; Jason Goldman will take over and expand the White House's digital outreach. — President Barack Obama will name Shailagh Murray …

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Jean-Francois Rosnoblet / Reuters:

Germanwings plane crashes in France, up to 150 feared dead — (Reuters) - An Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed in southern France on Tuesday en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, police and aviation officials said. — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls …

Discussion: Associated Press, Telegraph, Shakesville, The Atlantic Online, Scared Monkeys and The Week