memeorandum: Haley Barbour: Contested GOP Convention ‘Not Necessarily Bad’ (ABCNEWS)

3:00 PM ET, March 18, 2012

Top Items:

Executive Order — National Defense Resources Preparedness — NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et seq.) …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Wake up America, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Israpundit, Israel Matzav, Pirate's Cove, Atlas Shrugs, The Volokh Conspiracy, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Lonely Conservative and iOwnTheWorld.com

Kenneth Schortgen Jr / Examiner:

President Obama signs Executive Order allowing for control over all US resources — On March 16th, President Obama signed a new Executive Order which expands upon a prior order issued in 1950 for Disaster Preparedness, and gives the office of the President complete control over all the resources …

Discussion: protein wisdom

Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:

Sen. McCain: Romney ‘improving dramatically’ as a GOP candidate — Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) defended Mitt Romney on Sunday, amid concerns the GOP frontrunner is failing to rally the party's conservative base and may fall short of the delegates needed to win the nomination outright.

Discussion: CNN and The Hill

ABCNEWS:

Haley Barbour: Contested GOP Convention ‘Not Necessarily Bad’ — While he will not weigh in on who he thinks should get the GOP nomination, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said said on the “This Week” roundtable that it is growing more and more likely that it will be months …

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

McCain says Romney is ‘improving dramatically’ — Arizona Sen. John McCain dismissed concerns about a brokered Republican national convention, saying Mitt Romney is “improving dramatically” as a candidate and will ultimately get the nomination. — Asked by host David Gregory on NBC's …

Discussion: CNN

CNN:

Ed Gillespie: Romney benefits from longer primary season — (CNN) - While a brokered Republican convention in August would be “fractious,” former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie insisted Sunday that the GOP nominating process still works.

Discussion: Politico

Rick Santorum / CNN:
America doesn't need Romney as CEO

Discussion: Politico

Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine:

SAN DIEGO TEA PARTY LEADER ARRESTED FOR KIDNAPPING, RAPE — Lemon Grove resident Michael John Kobulnicky, 50, a leader in the San Diego Tea Party and former regional director of the Southern California Conservative Party, is under arrest for allegedly kidnapping and raping a local woman on Fiesta Island.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Crooks and Liars

Lauren Steussy / KNSD-TV:
Sex Assault Suspect a Tea Party Leader

Discussion: Conservative Hideout 2.0, Jammie Wearing Fools, Joe. My. God. and The Raw Story

BREITBART.COM:

PELOSI'S DAUGHTER: HBO UNCOMFORTABLE WITH ‘FREELOADING WELFARE QUEEN’ VIDEO — Alexandra Pelosi debuted a video she made for HBO's “Real Time with Bill Maher” last night. The video shows multiple welfare recipients in New York City proclaiming they were at the welfare office to get their …

Discussion: Power Line

Victor Davis Hanson / National Review:

Will Maher Go the Way of Olbermann? — David Axelrod's moral-equivalence argument that Limbaugh's smear is worse than Maher's because the former is both more influential and more identifiable with Republican circles is a sad sort of sophistry. Limbaugh may have a larger audience …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Other McCain

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Mitt Romney calls on Obama to fire ‘gas hike trio’ over rising prices — Mitt Romney is ramping up attacks on President Obama over rising gasoline prices by calling for the firing of Obama's Interior and Energy secretaries and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, CNN, Los Angeles Times and Mediaite

Sahil Kapur / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPM2012 — Santorum Charges Ahead With Anti-Porn Crusade — Rick Santorum has garnered quite a bit of attention recently for his animated remarks against pornography, and on two separate Sunday shows the Republican presidential candidate refused to cede an inch, doubling down on his crusade against “hard-core pornography.”

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, Change of Subject and Washington Post

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Is Elvis a Mormon? — TRUST Mitt Romney to be on top of the latest trend of the superrich: the trophy basement. — On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported on the new fashion to look low-key on the outside while digging deep for opulence — carving out subterranean spaces for Turkish baths …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly and Daily Kos

Chris Good / ABCNEWS:

Police Intervene, Arrest Ron Paul Backers at Missouri Caucus — Police and organizers shut down proceedings at one of Missouri's largest caucuses today, as Ron Paul supporters feuded with local GOP leaders. — “It's like the Hatfields and the McCoys around here,” St. Charles County's …

Discussion: Kansas City Star, Wake up America and Weasel Zippers