memeorandum: BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal (Derrick Roach/Big Government)

10:05 PM ET, November 23, 2009

Top Items:

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

RNC loses communications director, Castellanos signs on — Update 6:03 p.m.: Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant, will take over as a senior communications adviser to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, according to a source familiar with the move. The announcement of Castellanos' role comes hours …

Discussion: FishBowlDC and TPMDC

Adam Nagourney / The Caucus:

G.O.P. Considers ‘Purity’ Resolution for Candidates — The battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for - and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on key issues - looks like it's going to move from the states to the Republican National Committee when it holds its winter meeting this January in Honolulu.

Discussion: The Politico, MyDD, Daily Kos, Pam's House Blend, Joe. My. God. and Weasel Zippers

Tony Romm / The Hill:
RNC weighing new message strategy in 2010

Discussion: The Politico, Ben Smith's Blog, The Note, Riehl World View and Politics Daily

Hotline On Call:
RNC Revives “Socialist” Debate, To Vote On Principles

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, 24Ahead, The Political Carnival, The Washington Independent, Ben Smith's Blog and The Atlantic Politics Channel

Domenico Montanaro / msnbc.com:
A GOP purity test?

Discussion: Republicans United, Washington Monthly, TPMDC and Talking Points Memo

The Huffington Post:

Dean: Dems ‘In Deep Trouble’ On Health Care, The Only Options Are A Bad Bill Or 2010 Losses — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — One of the leading progressive champions of health care reform is pessimistic about the state of the debate in the Senate, saying he sees virtually no path …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Coop's Corner and Raw Story

Ezra Klein:

Hostage situation in the United States Senate … That's Steve Benen, describing the dynamic in the Senate. As I've said before, I think a lot of folks imagine this as a negotiation, in which both sides want to get to yes, and so everyone is involved in a complex game to signal their comfort …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Wall Street Journal:

Lieberman Digs In on Public Option — Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: “I'm going to be stubborn on this.” — Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a …

Discussion: Truthdig, RedState, Pajamas Media and Weasel Zippers

Derrick Roach / Big Government:

BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal — On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN's activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist …

Discussion: Doug Ross, protein wisdom, YID With LID, RedState, Riehl World View, The Jawa Report, Flopping Aces, Wizbang and Weasel Zippers

Andrew Breitbart / Big Government:
ACORN Scandal, Part 2: The Evidentiary Phase

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Gabor Steingart / Spiegel Online:

Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage — When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.

James Fallows:
Manufactured failure #5: views from China

Discussion: Michael Calderone's Blog, Gawker and The Peking Duck

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:
Chris Matthews Shocker: Obama Making ‘Carteresque’ Mistakes

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Political Byline, The Jawa Report, Newsweek, Scared Monkeys, Commentary, The Foundry, Riehl World View and Weasel Zippers

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama: The approval gap silently shrinks to a few points — Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's obviously a male Democrat genius. — But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. — And President Obama's are sliding.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Greenroom, Des Moines Register, Another Black Conservative, CBS News, Conservatives4Palin.com and Moe_Lane's blog

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Romney's Drop — Mitt Romney is considerably less popular …

Discussion: Hot Air and TPMDC

Tim Funk / The Charlotte Observer:
Matters of faith, politics on table as Palin visits Graham

Discussion: The Washington Independent, Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic, Conservatives4Palin.com, Taegan Goddard's …, The Political Carnival, Mediaite, Newshoggers.com, Washington Post and HotAirPundit

Ross Douthat / New York Times:
They Chose Celebrity

Discussion: The New Republic, Ross Douthat, Washington Monthly, Eunomia, The Plum Line, The Daily Dish, Gawker, alicublog, The Atlantic Politics Channel, USA Today and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Michael Saul / NY Daily News:

Ex-CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is considering running for president in 2012 — Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has never been elected to any government office, but he said Monday he's considering a run for the White House in 2012. — During an interview on WTOP radio in Washington …

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, Mediaite, The Conservatives, TalkLeft and Gawker

Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Dobbs: 2012 presidential run not “crazy” UPDATE

Discussion: Hot Air, Politics Daily and Indecision Forever

Matt Dornic / FishBowlDC:

Fox News Management Fed Up by Mistakes — After a few footage mishaps at Fox News like their recent slip-up: “Fox News Uses Old Palin Footage,” the higher ups at the network have had enough. — In an email obtained by FishbowlDC, FNC management alerted the Newsroom that they were going to a …

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, Gawker, The Political Carnival, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, The TrogloPundit, digg.com, News Hounds, The Hill and Wonkette

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Why I Remain Bullish On Obama — He's taking the usual slew of tactical hits as his opponents try every single line of attack and pound every day, squeezing every ounce of agitprop from the news cycle. His numbers are gliding downward (although not by much), his foreign policy gains …

Discussion: marbury

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Quote of the Day: Are the Old and New Media Missing it on Barack Obama?

Discussion: msnbc.com

Christopher Monckton / Pajamas Media:

Viscount Monckton on Climategate: ‘They Are Criminals’ (PJM Exclusive) — The man who challenged Al Gore to a debate is furious about the content of the leaked CRU emails — and says why you should be, too. — This is what they did — these climate “scientists” on whose unsupported word …

Discussion: Patrick J. Buchanan, Andrew Bolt and HazZzMat

Matthew Moore / Telegraph:
Lord Lawson calls for public inquiry into UEA global warming data ‘manipulation’

Discussion: Daily Mail, Michelle Malkin and Stop The ACLU

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

New documents: White House scrambled to justify AmeriCorps firing after the fact — Just hours after Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report Friday on their investigation into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, the Obama White House gave …

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, The Greenroom, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Sister Toldjah, YID With LID, GayPatriot and The Other McCain

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama WH scrambled for story to smear Walpin

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

John Cook / Gawker:

Katie Couric's Forbidden Dance of Gin — When CBS News anchor Katie Couric isn't asking Sarah Palin gotcha questions, she's doin' Da Butt, or the Lambada, or whatever white ladies do when the Black Eyed Peas are on the sound system. More unbelievable images after the jump.

Discussion: Political Byline, Weasel Zippers, Silicon Alley Insider, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Jim Treacher's Blog … and Joe. My. God.

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Obey Calls for War Tax — Back in October, David Obey floated the radical idea that war spending in Afghanistan should be put in a “normal” budgetary context and put in the same fiscal constraints as health reform. Today he's taken that idea one step further and said an escalation …

Discussion: Ezra Klein and Top of the Ticket

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:
EXCLUSIVE: Top Dem Threatens War Surtax if Obama Commits More Afghan.

Discussion: The Politico, George's Bottom Line, Mudville Gazette, Hot Air, Confederate Yankee, The Washington Note, Taylor Marsh, The Page, Weasel Zippers, Think Progress, The Note and New York Times

James K. Galbraith / The Huffington Post:

Old Mistakes Die Hard — As part of the Roosevelt Institute's 10-part series on the Jobs Crisis, running on the New Deal 2.0 blog from Nov. 12-25, I was asked to reflect on what can be done to get Americans working again. Here's my take. — I'm tempted to say that the United States …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Ezra Klein and Tom Watson

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

An Unsurprising Slide for Obama — WASHINGTON — President Obama returned from his trip to Asia facing some unsettling news: two new public-opinion polls showing that his approval rating has dipped below 50 percent for the first time. To many of his critics, who chafed …

Discussion: The Greenroom, marbury and AMERICAblog News

Kristen McQueary / The SouthtownStar:

Low Tea Party moment symbolic of muddy week — As a journalist covering Chicago politics, verifying information is like climbing a mountain of sand. With each step you take, the deeper you sink. — Last week while researching claims from a local Tea Party activist …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Think Progress, The Political Carnival, MyDD, Raw Story and Crooks and Liars

Marist Poll:

11/23: Gillibrand Approval Rating Stagnates — Ten months after Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor David Paterson, the junior senator from New York has failed to become a household name among registered voters in New York State.

Discussion: Mouth of the Potomac, Glenn Thrush's Blog and Taegan Goddard's …

Jeremy Scahill / The Nation:

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan — At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, ATTACKERMAN and The Washington Independent

Charles Franklin / Pollster.com:

Articles and Analysis — A quick look at Obama trends with independents. There have been several articles in the last week about independents deserting the Dems. A good bit of that was spurred by the huge Rep margins among independents in VA (66-33) and NJ (60-30-9) governors races.

Adam Smith / The Buzz:

Could Crist run for re-election, rather than Senate? — It's a scenario that we hear raised surprisingly often now that Gov. Crist is in a tougher-than-expected Senate race against Marco Rubio. So today we asked Crist about the chances of that happening: “Zero.

Discussion: TPMDC, The Hill, Weekly Standard and The Other McCain