memeorandum: Scenes from the GOP Civil War (Eleanor Clift/The Daily Beast)

7:15 AM ET, February 4, 2014

Top Items:

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

As the Latest Christie Story Evolved, The Times Should Have Noted a Change — In the digital age, news evolves before our very eyes. A story breaks and goes online with perhaps a few rough paragraphs. Soon after, more details are added, new angles explored and writing is tuned up.

Discussion: Guardian, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Poynter, Talking Points Memo, Erik Wemple, Politico and Capital New York, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:
Exclusive: Christie hammers New York Times for ‘sloppy,’ ‘misleading’ report

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Gothamist, Business Insider and Erik Wemple

CNN:
Christie's office to try to keep focus on the NYT, not him

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Politico

Joseph Curl / Washington Times:
What has happened to the New York Times?

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Rebecca Leber / ThinkProgress:

Trick Websites Dupe Democrats Into Donating To Republicans — The National Republican Congressional Committee has set up a number of websites that look like they could be a Democratic candidate's campaign page, unless you read the fine print. They may even violate a Federal Election Commission regulation …

Tampa Bay Times:

Campaign site misleads man into donating money against Sink — “It looked legitimate and had a smiling face of Sink and all the trappings of a legitimate site,” Bellamy, a doctor from Tallahassee who follows Florida politics, wrote in an email to the Buzz. (Here's Sink's actual site, which uses a similar color scheme.

Discussion: The Fix, The Raw Story, Daily Kos and First Read

CNN:

CNN/ORC Poll: Christie's loss appears to be Clinton's gain — Washington (CNN) - What a difference two months makes. — In late November and early December, in the wake of Chris Christie's landslide re-election victory, the Republican governor from New Jersey was riding high in the polls.

Discussion: The Week, Politico, Hot Air, Post Politics, Taylor Marsh and The Hill

John Wagner / Washington Post:

Not waiting for Clinton, Md. Gov. O'Malley prepares for possible presidential bid — Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is moving ahead with preparations for a possible presidential bid and said in an interview that if he's going to lay the groundwork for a national campaign …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Booman Tribune, OnPolitics and Guardian

NorthJersey.com:

Bridget Kelly invokes Fifth Amendment, declines to produce subpoenaed documents — Governor Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, will not turn over documents in response to a legislative subpoena, her lawyer said Monday, making her the second person to invoke constitutional protections against self-incrimination.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, New York Times, Politico and Post Politics

David Edwards / The Raw Story:

California man points gun at Girl Scout at his door to sell cookies — A California man was taken into custody over the weekend after he allegedly pulled a gun on a young Girl Scout who was selling cookies. — A press release from the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's office that the father of the girl …

Discussion: Sheriff-Coroner and Hullabaloo

Emilie Lamb / New York Post:

Betrayed by the President and ObamaCare — ObamaCare was supposed to help me. — That's all I could think as I sat in the House of Representatives last Tuesday night as the guest of my congresswoman, only a few hundred feet away from President Obama as he gave his State of the Union address.

Discussion: National Republican …

Patrick Hynes / New Hampshire Journal:
Shaheen: “Pay more' to keep your doc,' won't say if she'd vote for O-Care again

Discussion: Power Line, The PJ Tatler and Washington Free Beacon

Evan McMorris-Santoro / BuzzFeed:
Inside The Plan To Get More Young Americans To Enroll In Obamacare

Discussion: Hit & Run and Democratic Strategist

ThinkProgress:

Missouri Senate Committee Votes To Jail Federal Agents Who Enforce Gun Laws — Nullificationist Senator John C. Calhoun — now a role model to Missouri lawmakers — CREDIT: (AP Photo/National Portrait Gallery) — The Missouri Senate's General Laws Committee voted 5-1 last week in favor …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Rebecca Wind / New from the Guttmacher Institute:
U.S. Abortion Rate Hits Lowest Level Since 1973

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, GovBeat, The National Memo, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Shakesville

Sandhya Somashekhar / Washington Post:
Study: Abortion rate at lowest point since 1973

Discussion: Reuters, Liberal Values, The Daily Banter, Al Jazeera America, The Week, ThinkProgress, Gawker, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, The Dish, The PJ Tatler, New York Times and BillMoyers.com

Eleanor Clift / The Daily Beast:

Scenes from the GOP Civil War — Republicans are supporting Democratic colleagues' Senate candidacies, while others, like Barry Goldwater, Jr., are embracing subsidies for clean energy—all small steps across old battle lines. — The U.S. Senate is a clubby place, so it shouldn't be all that surprising …

Mary Clare Jalonick / Associated Press:

Senate Set to Send Farm Bill to Obama — Congress is poised to send a massive, five-year farm bill that provides food for the needy and subsidies for the nation's farmers to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature. — The Senate was expected to pass the almost $100 billion …

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Senate Democrats break from Obama

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air and ABC News

Manu Raju / Politico:

Ted Cruz makes nice — At a GOP lunch last week, Sen. John McCain noted that “some crazy guy from Texas” stormed out during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. — “Hey,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz chimed in, “I didn't walk out of the State of the Union.” — The packed room erupted in laughter.

Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:

The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World. — In Manhattan, the upscale clothing retailer Barneys will replace the bankrupt discounter Loehmann's, whose Chelsea store closes in a few weeks. Across the country, Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants are struggling …

Discussion: AEIdeas, Washington Monthly, Shakesville, Business Insider and ParaPundit

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:
A STARTLING DISCOVERY … American “business,” a concept …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE and Eschaton

Niraj Chokshi / GovBeat:

Eight U.S. states have policies similar to Russia's ban on gay ‘propaganda’ — Eight states limit speech about homosexuality in ways similar to, though not as far-reaching as, the Russian ban that has received international criticism ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Discussion: Washington Post

Associated Press:

Joan Mondale dies at 83 — ST. PAUL, Minn. — Joan Mondale, who burnished a reputation as “Joan of Art” for her passionate advocacy for the arts while her husband was vice president and a U.S. ambassador, died Monday. She was 83. — Walter Mondale, sons Ted and William and other family members …

Discussion: CNN and The Moderate Voice

Damon Root / Hit & Run:

“Paranoid Libertarianism” Is Just As Mainstream As Modern Liberalism — The specter of “paranoid libertarianism” continues to haunt American liberals. Hot on the heels of Sean Wilentz's recent fretting in The New Republic that Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, and Julian Assange have undermined …

Discussion: LewRockwell

Rasmussen Reports:

Kentucky Senate: McConnell (R) 42%, Grimes (D) 42% — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell runs dead even with Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes in Rasmussen Reports' first look at the 2014 U.S. Senate race in Kentucky. But McConnell's GOP primary rival Matt Bevin leads Grimes by six points.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard and National Review