memeorandum: Republicans have destroyed their party; will they take America with them? (Leonard Pitts Jr/Baltimore Sun)

8:10 PM ET, March 6, 2016

Top Items:

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:

Cruz: Media is sitting on bombshells about Donald Trump — Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz — (Texas) said on Sunday that the media is sitting on explosive negative information about front-runner Donald Trump — with plans to run it later in the year to tear the candidate apart.

CBS News:

Battleground Tracker poll: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton lead in Michigan — Donald Trump holds the lead heading into the final days before the Michigan primary, looking to extend his overall delegate lead after a string of Super Tuesday wins. Trump is at 39 percent, Ted Cruz is in second place …

Discussion: Guardian, YouGov US Opinion Center News, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Politico and Outside the Beltway

David Remnick / New Yorker:

American Demagogue — Nearly three decades ago, Howard Kaminsky, of Random House, called on the real-estate developer and self-marketing master Donald Trump at his office on Fifth Avenue. Kaminsky brought along a cover design for “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” its author's literary début.

Discussion: Althouse

The Daily Caller:

Glenn Beck Warns That Trump Is Adolf Hitler [VIDEO] — Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler during an interview Sunday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's “This Week.” — Beck said the GOP is “stirring things up because they are more afraid of Ted Cruz than they are of Donald Trump.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Colin Campbell / Business Insider:
‘I want Ted one-on-one’: Donald Trump calls on Marco Rubio to drop out of race

Discussion: Hot Air, Althouse and Washington Post

Lou Cannon / New York Times:

Nancy Reagan, an Influential and Stylish First Lady, Dies at 94 — Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish wife of the 40th president of the United States who unabashedly put Ronald Reagan at the center of her life but who became a political figure in her own right, died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, The Atlantic, Outside the Beltway, Vox, New York Magazine and Washington Monthly

TMZ.com:
Nancy Reagan — Dead at 94

Discussion: Slantpoint, Patterico's Pontifications, Mediaite and Just Jared

Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News:
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan Dead at 94

Discussion: Hot Air, Hit & Run, Associated Press, American Spectator, Fox News Insider and The Week

Lois Romano / Washington Post:
Nancy Reagan dies at 94; first lady was a defining figure of the 1980s

Discussion: Mediaite

Fox News:
Nancy Reagan, widow of Ronald Reagan, dead at 94

Discussion: The Last Tradition

Leon H. Wolf / RedState:

Rubio Sacrificed His Campaign to Save America — Marco Rubio's campaign ended yesterday. He won't acknowledge it and neither will his hardcore supporters for some days, but he is done. It was one thing when he was running more or less even with Cruz across the South, like he did on Super Tuesday …

Discussion: Washington Post and JustOneMinute

Steven Shepard / Politico:

Rubio wins Puerto Rico primary — Marco Rubio easily won Puerto Rico's Republican primary on Sunday and is on pace to capture a majority of the vote and all of the island's 23 delegates. — With 44 percent of precincts reporting, Rubio was at 71 percent, well ahead of Donald Trump, who was a distant second with just 12 percent.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway and The Week

Yoni Appelbaum / The Atlantic:
Live Coverage of Elections in Puerto Rico and Maine

Discussion: New York Magazine, Associated Press, RedState, Hot Air, CBS Los Angeles, Marco Rubio, ABC News and FiveThirtyEight

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Marco Rubio wins Puerto Rico primary, CNN projects

Discussion: Towleroad and The Last Tradition

Alexandra Jaffe / NBC News:
Rubio on Losses: ‘The Map Only Gets Better for Us’

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Politico and The Hill

Leonard Pitts Jr / Baltimore Sun:

Republicans have destroyed their party; will they take America with them? — “If he was for it, we had to be against it.” — The “he” is President Barack Obama. The “we” is the Republican Party. And it is not coincidental that as the former pushes toward the end of his second term, the latter is coming apart.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:
Don't panic, GOP — Donald Trump can beat Hillary

Discussion: Infowars

Mark Murray / NBC News:
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Hold Big Leads in Michigan: Poll

Discussion: Political Wire

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Joe Biden just told a very good joke, at Ted Cruz's expense … The Gridiron Dinner is a Washington institution — politicians making fun of one another. — But few jokes at the expense of one's colleagues are this good. From Vice President Biden's appearance Saturday night, on Ted Cruz and his lack of likability:

Politico:
Excerpts from Biden's Gridiron Dinner speech

Discussion: BuzzFeed, addictinginfo.org and The Week

Douglas Rivers / YouGov US Opinion Center News:

Civil War in the G.O.P. — Mitt Romney has some sway in the Republican Party - but not with Trump voters … On Thursday, Mitt Romney fired the first shot in the Republican civil war. In a speech at the University of Utah, Romney denounced Donald Trump as a “phony” and a “fraud” with …

S.A. Miller / Washington Times:
Mitt Romney won't rule out accepting GOP nomination at contested convention

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Louis Nelson / Politico: Kasich: Contested convention would be ‘exciting’

National Journal:

The Odds of a Contested Convention Have Never Been Higher — With Cruz picking up momentum over the weekend, Rubio is battling furiously to deal Trump a blow in Florida. — Donald Trump's not-so-magic number in the Republican primaries is 34 percent.

Conrad Black / National Post:

Don't underestimate Donald. He will win — It is with great regret that I take public issue with my colleague John Robson, a columnist and editorial writer for the National Post, in this case over his comments on Donald Trump in this newspaper on Monday. John completely missed the point of the Trump candidacy.