memeorandum: As tax plan gained steam, GOP lost focus on the middle class (Damian Paletta/Washington Post)

2:50 PM ET, December 10, 2017

Top Items:

Amy Davidson Sorkin / New Yorker:

Donald Trump, Roy Moore, and the Degradation of the G.O.P. — In less than a year, the President, with help from the Alabama Senate candidate, has so damaged the Party that it may never recover. — When Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, was explaining last week …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Maegan Vazquez / CNN:

Alabama Sen. Shelby: 'I couldn't vote for Roy Moore' — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Washington (CNN)Sen. Richard Shelby says he wants a Republican elected to the Senate on Tuesday to represent Alabama, but that he didn't vote for GOP candidate Roy Moore in the special election.

Discussion: New York Times, The Guardian, Daily Kos and The Week

Louis Nelson / Politico:

Shelby: My state of Alabama ‘deserves better’ than Moore — Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said Sunday that his home state “deserves better” than to be represented by Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of sexual misconduct against teenage girls, including one as young as 14, when he was in his 30s.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Washington Post

Kim Chandler / Associated Press:
Most Alabama GOP leaders say they are voting for Roy Moore

Discussion: New York Magazine

New York Times:
Alabama, Despite History of Unruly Politics, Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico and Washington Free Beacon

Alex:
Doug Jones is a Terrible Candidate

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Free Beacon and NBC News

Brian Lyman / The Montgomery Advertiser:
Days before election, Roy Moore disappears from campaign trail

Discussion: Raw Story

The Guardian:

A battle for public opinion: Trump goes to war over Mueller and Russia — In recent days, the rightwing media and Trump loyalists have been scrambling to discredit the special counsel and smear his Russia inquiry as a liberal plot … llegitimate and corrupt. Using the FBI as a political weapon and America's secret police.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Sputnik International, TVNewser, Outside the Beltway and Shareblue Media

Doyle McManus / Los Angeles Times:

Op-Ed The campaign to delegitimize the Russia probe is well under way — Sean Hannity interviews Former White House strategist Steve Bannon on the set of Fox News Channel's Hannity in New York on Oct. 9. (Craig Ruttle / Associated Press) — Some of President Trump's biggest fans …

Gregg Jarrett / Fox News:

Robert Mueller and his politically biased team of prosecutors need to go — Special Counsel Robert Mueller has sabotaged his own investigation of Russian meddling into the 2016 election. He has only himself to blame for ruining what could have been a credible probe.

Fox News:

Lindsey Vonn suffers back injury in World Cup race after Trump comments — American skiing star Lindsey Vonn has withdrawn from her Sunday events at the World Cup in Switzerland after suffering a back injury during a super-G race on Saturday. — The injury occurred two days …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, IJR, USA Today, Raw Story and Althouse

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:

As tax plan gained steam, GOP lost focus on the middle class — The GOP tax plan on the cusp of becoming law diverges wildly from the promises President Trump and top advisers said they would deliver for the middle class — an evolution that shows how traditional Republican orthodoxy swamped …

Discussion: Eschaton and AOL

Emily Yoffe / Politico:

Why the #MeToo Moment Should Be Ready for a Backlash — In the final five years of his presidency, Barack Obama's administration undertook a worthy and bold challenge: the elimination of sexual assault on campuses. In fact, Obama's team had a much more ambitious goal in mind.

Discussion: Refinery29

New York Times:

Protests in Lebanon Near U.S. Embassy After Trump's Jerusalem Decision — BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese Army forces on Sunday fired tear gas and water cannons into crowds that had gathered near the United States Embassy to protest President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Discussion: CNN and The Daily Caller

Taryn Tarrant-Cornish / Daily Express: Horror as ‘20 masked men attack synagogue with petrol bombs’

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:
Burning objects thrown at synagogue in Sweden: reports

Discussion: Fox News, Voice of Europe, The Week, Raw Story and CNN

Haley Britzky / Axios:

More women plan to run for Congress than ever before — As of December 7 there were 369 women running or planning to run for Congress in 2018, according to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics, which would biggest group of women House candidates ever.

CBS News:

Transcript: Nikki Haley on “Face the Nation,” Dec. 10, 2017 — President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has sparked protests across the Middle East. The move made good on one of Mr. Trump's campaign promises, but also reversed decades of policy …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Splinter and NBC News

Peter Wehner / New York Times:

Why I Can No Longer Call Myself an Evangelical Republican — There are times in life when the institutional ground underneath you begins to crumble — and with it, longstanding attachments. Such is the case for me when it comes to the Republican Party and evangelicalism.