memeorandum: Will Mitt Romney now run for seat being vacated by Orrin Hatch? (Thomas Burr/Salt Lake Tribune)

9:40 AM ET, January 3, 2018

Top Items:

The Republicans' Fake Investigations — A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Power Line, The Guardian, The Last Refuge, Raw Story, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Politicus USA, Shareblue Media, The Week, Politico and CANNONFIRE

Grant Stern / Washington Press:

Trump-Russia dossier firm just told all in bombshell NY Times op-ed — The opposition research firm that prepared the Trump-Russia dossier just broke its silence in a revealing New York Times op-editorial story which debunks the Republican spin machine desperate to prop up Donald Trump's sinking presidency.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Fox News, Raw Story, Political Wire, Shareblue Media and National Review

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Fusion GPS founders say they were ‘shocked’ by contents of ‘Steele dossier’

Discussion: RedState

David Smith / The Guardian:

Trump Tower meeting with Russians ‘treasonous’, Bannon says in explosive book … Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president's son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” …

Discussion: Politico, IJR, Raw Story, Political Wire and Balloon Juice

Mike Allen / Axios:

Some White House officials fear accidental war — President Trump's boast last night that he has a “bigger & more powerful” Nuclear Button (caps, Trump's) than North Korea has some administration insiders worried that we could blunder into war. — What they're saying …

Discussion: Associated Press, Shakesville, Raw Story, Mediaite, New York Times, The Daily Beast and JustOneMinute

CNN:

North Korea calls hotline to South Korea in diplomatic breakthrough — Seoul (CNN)North Korea and South Korea established contact for 20 minutes on a hotline that's been dormant for almost two years Wednesday, a major diplomatic breakthrough following a year of escalating hostility that could pave the way for future talks.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Axios, Washington Post, CBS News, The Daily Caller, Just Security, Reuters, New York Magazine, North Korea Leadership Watch, Washington Press, KTLA, The Week, Mashable, Mediaite and New York Times

Eli Watkins / CNN:

Trump taunts North Korea: My nuclear button is ‘much bigger,’ ‘more powerful’ — Trump: My nuclear button is bigger than Un's — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — It came after Kim Jong UN delivered a New Year's Day address offering an olive branch to South Korea and continuing to threaten the US

New York Times:
Trump Says His ‘Nuclear Button’ Is ‘Much Bigger’ Than North Korea's

Jake Sherman / Politico: STAKES IN THE GOV'T SHUTDOWN FIGHT …

Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
North Korea Reopens Border Hotline With South

Discussion: The Daily Caller, RedState, Axios and IJR

Robin Wright / New Yorker:

Iran in Turmoil—to Trump's Delight — In the early days of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini famously dismissed an aide's concerns about rising inflation. Economics, the Supreme Leader quipped, was “for donkeys. The 1979 revolution was not about the price of watermelons.”

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, CNN, NPR, Breitbart, Washington Free Beacon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and IJR

Reuel Marc Gerecht / New York Times:
The Worst Thing for Iran's Protesters? U.S. Silence

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Bloomberg, Patterico's Pontifications and Washington Free Beacon

Thomas Erdbrink / New York Times:
Hard-Liners and Reformers Tapped Iranians' Ire. Now, Both Are Protest Targets.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Week and The Gateway Pundit

The Hill:
Trump ratchets up support for demonstrators in Iran

Discussion: Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera English

Terry Glavin / Macleans.ca:
The uprising in Iran: ‘This is what revolution looks like’

Discussion: Politico and The Federalist

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
5 Worst Echo Chamber Talking Points About The Iranian Uprising

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Reason and New Republic

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
The Iran Nuclear Deal Could Be Dead in 11 Days

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air, CNN, Associated Press, ThinkProgress, Politico and Breitbart

Eliana Johnson / Politico: Iran protests could move Trump to kill nuclear deal

Mandy Mayfield / Washington Examiner:

Roy Moore's Jewish lawyer voted for Doug Jones, raised money for his campaign — The Jewish attorney who Roy Moore's wife touted employing in an attempt to fight off claims of anti-Semitism is actually a longtime friend and supporter of Senator-elect Doug Jones, who defeated Moore last month.

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, Weekly Standard, The Stranger …, Washington Monthly, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite and The Week

Maegan Vazquez / CNN:
Michele Bachmann eyeing run for Franken's Senate seat

Discussion: Fox News Insider, Breitbart, Washington Blade, Right Wing Watch, Daily Kos, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, TheBlaze, AOL, The Week, Axios and Washington Times

Associated Press:
2 Democrats to be sworn in as senators, narrow GOP majority

Discussion: NBC News

Richard Johnson / Page Six:

Russia probe grand jury looks like ‘a Black Lives Matter rally,’ says witness — The federal grand jury handing down indictments for special counsel Robert Mueller doesn't appear to include any supporters of President Donald Trump, according to one witness who recently testified before the panel.

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, ThinkProgress and Politicus USA

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg:

Romney Changes Location on Twitter as Utah Senate Seat Opens — Mitt Romney was mum on whether he plans to run for Senate after Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah announced he'll retire after 2018. But Romney's Twitter profile may give a hint about his thinking.

Discussion: Politico, Axios, The Week and The Daily Caller

Thomas Burr / Salt Lake Tribune:
Will Mitt Romney now run for seat being vacated by Orrin Hatch?

Discussion: National Review and Political Wire

Callum Borchers / Washington Post:
Utah could be Steve Bannon's next battleground, especially if Mitt Romney runs

Discussion: Axios, New York Magazine and Roll Call

Jason Samenow / Washington Post:

Monster storm to blast East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week — Unforgiving cold has punished the eastern third of the United States for the past 10 days. But the most severe winter weather conditions will assault the area late this week.

Discussion: The Weather Channel, The Daily Beast, Althouse, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Raw Story, NPR, Mother Jones, Mashable and thecut

Washington Post:

The NSA's top talent is leaving because of low pay and flagging morale … The National Security Agency is losing its top talent at a worrisome rate as highly skilled personnel, some disillusioned with the spy service's leadership and an unpopular reorganization, take higher-paying, more flexible jobs in the private sector.

Discussion: Axios

James Risen / The Intercept:

My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror … I was sitting in the nearly empty restaurant of the Westin Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, getting ready for a showdown with the federal government that I had been trying to avoid for more than seven years.

New York Times:

Florida's 1.5 Million Missing Voters — Everyone remembers that the 2000 presidential election was decided by 537 votes in Florida. Far fewer remember another important number from the state that year — 620,000, the Floridians who were barred from voting because state records showed …

John Solomon / The Hill:

Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI's handling of Clinton email case — Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI's probe of Hillary Clinton — 's email server.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, RedState, JustOneMinute and Mediaite

Stephanie Saul / New York Times:

As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting — At Wright State University in Ohio, the French horn and tuba professors are out. So is the accomplished swimming team. — At Kansas State, Italian classes are going the way of the Roman Empire.

The Register:

‘Kernel memory leaking’ Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign — Other OSes will need an update, performance hits loom — A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.

Discussion: The Verge, BGR, Gizmodo and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Tim Lockette / Anniston Star:

Star's former publisher acknowledges assault on reporter — H. Brandt Ayers, former publisher of The Anniston Star and current chairman of the board of the company that owns the newspaper, acknowledged Tuesday that he assaulted a reporter in her Anniston home in the 1970s.

Discussion: The Week

Emily Chang / Vanity Fair:

“Oh My God, This Is So F—ed Up”: Inside Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side — Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties—gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice.

Discussion: Althouse, naked capitalism and Longreads, more at Techmeme »