memeorandum: Jeb Bush slashes costs as campaign gasps (Eli Stokols/Politico)

7:30 PM ET, October 23, 2015

Top Items:

Jeb Bush Orders Across-the-Board Pay Cuts for Struggling Campaign — Bush's advisers, under pressure from their donors and from falling and stagnant poll numbers, came to the conclusion that a course correction was essential. — michaelcbender — MarkHalperin

Jennifer Jacobs / Des Moines Register:

Iowa Poll: Carson surges to 9-point lead; Trump slides — Donald Trump is the biggest loser in the new Iowa Poll. — The pious Ben Carson has plowed past the braggadocious New York businessman to take the front-runner crown, unseating Trump as the most popular choice for president among …

Discussion: NBC News, addictinginfo.org, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LifeNews.com, Mediaite, The Week, The Daily Caller and Independent Journal

Eli Stokols / Politico:

Jeb Bush slashes costs as campaign gasps — Jeb Bush's campaign insists the wholesale restructuring announced Friday is a merely a course correction, a reallocation of resources and heightened focus on New Hampshire. But for a growing number of Bush's supporters, frustrated …

Discussion: The Federalist, Washington Post, Bloomberg.com news, The Daily Banter, Washington Monthly, Conservative Intelligence … and Althouse

Katie Glueck / Politico:

Insiders: Trump nomination looking more likely — The odds that Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination are going up.Eighty- one percent of Republican insiders say the likelihood that Trump becomes their party's nominee is more today than it was a month ago, and 79 percent of Democrats said the same.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Hot Air, Truth Revolt and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Lawrence Brinton / National Review:
Jeb Bush Is Toast

Discussion: RedState, The Week, The American Conservative, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air and Real Clear Politics

Eliza Collins / Politico:
Megyn Kelly to Jeb Bush: Will you drop out?

Discussion: Bloomberg.com news, RedState and The Week

Bloomberg.com news:
Ben Carson Reacts to His Lead in Iowa Polls

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico

John McCormick / Bloomberg Business:
Carson Surges Past Trump in Latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Washington Post, Politico, Business Insider, RedState, Bloomberg View, Trail Blazers Blog, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys, Outside the Beltway and Bloomberg.com news

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
Democrats' Iowa Dinner Will Have the Sizzle of a Convention

Discussion: Des Moines Register and Political Wire

Jason Millman / Politico:
Dr. Ben Carson's prescription: Abolish Medicare

Discussion: Independent Journal, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice and Allen B. West

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:

State Can't Verify Clinton Email Claim Made At Benghazi Hearing — The State Department said it can't confirm one of the assertions Hillary Clinton made at Thursday's House Benghazi Committee hearing from her tenure as Secretary of State. — One of the sticking points in Mrs. Clinton's testimony …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Long Twilight Struggle — The reviews appear to be unanimous. For Republican committee members, yesterday's aggressively-billed, epic, hinge-of-history interrogation of Hillary Clinton was something ranging from a catastrophe to, as The Washington Examiner's Byron York put it, “a bust.”

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Conservative pundits were not impressed with the GOP's disastrous Benghazi hearing

Discussion: Salon, PoliticusUSA, Associated Press, Hullabaloo, The Week, Politico, Washington Examiner, Erick on the Radio and ThinkProgress

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
She Knew All Along — The House hearing on Benghazi reveals …

Discussion: neo-neocon and The Federalist

New York Times:
Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi Gang

Discussion: The Slot, Washington Post, Democracy in America, addictinginfo.org, Daily Kos, Boing Boing and Outside the Beltway

Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
Trey Gowdy Says His 11-Hour Benghazi Hearing Didn't Reveal Anything New

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Ethics Alarms, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, addictinginfo.org and Washington Post

Taryn Luna / BostonGlobe.com:

Staples founder Thomas Stemberg dies at 66 — Thomas G. Stemberg, who cofounded Staples Inc. and invented the office superstore, died Friday at his home in Chestnut Hill, two years after he was diagnosed with gastric cancer. He was 66. — His death was confirmed by his son, Will Stemberg.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo, NPR, OnPolitics, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Daily Wire, Daily Kos, Business Insider, Weekly Standard, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, The Week, National Review and bradford-delong.com

Mitt Romney / Facebook:
Getting people health insurance is a good thing, and that's what Tom Stemberg fought for.

Discussion: Washington Post, Associated Press and Mediaite

Evan Perez / CNN:

First on CNN: DOJ closes IRS investigation with no charges — The Justice Department is closing its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted tea party groups — The IRS mishandled the processing of tax-exempt applications in a manner that disproportionately …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, MichelleMalkin.com, RedState, Rush Limbaugh, Hit & Run, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Independent Journal, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Federalist, The PJ Tatler and Washington Free Beacon

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Lois Lerner will not face charges in Department of Justice investigation — The IRS did mishandle tea party and conservative groups' nonprofit applications, but their behavior didn't break any laws, the Justice Department said in a letter to Congress Friday that cleared the tax agency …

Discussion: Liberty Unyielding, The Jawa Report, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Allen B. West and National Review

The Weather Channel:

Catastrophic Landfall Expected in Mexico Friday; Patricia Becomes Strongest Hurricane Ever Recorded — {{wxnodeVideo.video.current.description + " “}} — A potentially catastrophic landfall is expected Friday evening as a very powerful and dangerous Hurricane Patricia moves towards Mexico's Pacific coast.

Discussion: Mashable, Vox, New York Times, Outside the Beltway, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, EcoWatch, Mother Jones, KFOR-TV and All Ablog Austin

Greg Botelho / CNN:
Patricia, strongest hurricane ever recorded, menaces Mexico

Discussion: Washington Post, KTLA, NPR, Independent Journal, CBS San Francisco, ThinkProgress, WTKR-TV, Towleroad, NBC News, Mashable, Hollywood Life, WHNT-TV, FOX5 San Diego and WGN-TV

NBC News:
Hurricane Patricia: Strongest Storm Ever Measured to Hit Mexico

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The San Diego Union …, KFOR-TV, Mashable, Climate Desk, Common Dreams, EcoWatch, TVNewser, Slantpoint, KTLA, Towleroad, CityLab, Telegraph, Refinery29 and Shakesville

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Lincoln Chafee ends quixotic presidential bid — Democratic presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee, always a long shot, dropped out of the race for his party's nomination on Friday morning. "As you know I have been campaigning on a platform of Prosperity Through Peace," …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Daily Kos, Bloomberg Business, Power Line, Bloomberg.com news, ABC News, The Week, Balloon Juice and VICE

Molly Ball / The Atlantic:
Why Did Lincoln Chafee Even Run?

Discussion: Daily Wire

CNN:
Lincoln Chafee drops out of Democratic primary race

Discussion: Lincoln Chafee …, Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Towleroad, Forbes and Ben Swann's Truth In Media

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Lincoln Chafee ends Democratic bid for president

Discussion: Front Page Magazine, Outside the Beltway and American Spectator

Ben Gittleson / ABC News:

Philadelphia 76ers Throw Shade at Presidential Candidate John Kasich After Insult

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

John Fund / National Review:

Anatomy Of A Political Suicide: Lessons for the Right from Canada — Conservatives should pay attention to this week's defeat of Stephen Harper's government in Canada after a decade in power. Despite presiding over genuinely solid economic performance - it weathered the 2008 recession far better …

Discussion: American Spectator and National Post

Zack Ford / ThinkProgress:

Texans Owner Demands Houston's LGBT Opponents Refund His $10,000 Contribution — Earlier this month, billionaire Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans NFL team, donated $10,000 to the Campaign for Houston, a coalition working to defeat the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO).

Discussion: Human Rights Campaign Blog and Towleroad

New York Times:

Conservative PACs Attack Republicans, Including Paul Ryan, and It Pays — WASHINGTON — The petitions that started surfacing online over a year ago were as incendiary as they were urgent, begging recipients to sign up to “Boot Boehner,” “Dump McConnell,” “Drop a Truth-Bomb on Kevin McCarthy” and “Fire Paul Ryan.”

Discussion: Jay Bookman and Althouse

Jon Burkett / WTVR-TV:

Teen faces assault charges for throwing baby carrot at middle school teacher — HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A 14-year old girl could be charged with assault and battery after she threw a baby carrot at one of her former teachers. School disciplinary documents allege a baby carrot was used …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Boing Boing, Slantpoint, EAGnews.org, Independent Journal and The San Diego Union …