memeorandum: Insane Clown Posse Defends Fans, With F.B.I. Lawsuit (Dave Itzkoffjan/New York Times)

6:10 PM ET, January 8, 2014

Top Items:

Emails link top Christie aide to GWB lane-closing controversy — Private messages between Governor's Christie's deputy chief of staff and two of his top executives at the Port Authority reveal a vindictive effort to create “traffic problems in Fort Lee” by shutting lanes to the George Washington Bridge …

Kate Zernike / New York Times:

Top Christie Staff Sought to Disrupt Traffic as Revenge — Newly released emails and text messages show that Gov. Chris Christie's office was closely involved with lane closings on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge in September, and that officials closed the lanes as retribution …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, NorthJersey.com, American Spectator, Spectator, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, The Dish, Outside the Beltway, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Reality-Based Community

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Big Trouble — As I've written several times, this Christie Bridge Scandal is far more potentially damaging for Christie that it might seem on its face because its fits so perfectly with the negative view (as opposed to the positive view) of Chris Christie. That is, that he and his crew are thugs and bullies.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Impolitic

Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:

N.J. Senate Majority Leader Says Criminal Charges May Come In Bridge Scandal — New Jersey State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D) said Wednesday she thinks criminal charges may come in the growing scandal over last September's lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

Discussion: National Review and Riehl World News

Politico:
Emails tie Chris Christie staff to bridge flap

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Power Line, The Raw Story, Business Insider, Hit & Run, Mediaite, Riehl World News, Daily Kos and Liberaland

Wall Street Journal:
CONNECT — A top aide to Gov. Chris Christie told an executive …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and CNN

Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:
Christie Aide: ‘Time For Some Traffic Problems In Fort Lee’

Discussion: American Prospect, The Fix, Liberal Values, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News, Balloon Juice and National Review

Rush Limbaugh:
Media Gloms On to Christie Traffic Story

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, Politico, The Star-Ledger Editorial Page and Ed Driscoll

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Record-High 42% of Americans Identify as Independents — Republican identification lowest in at least 25 years — PRINCETON, NJ — Forty-two percent of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago.

Joan Walsh / Salon:
GOP is losing on unemployment insurance — and running scared

Discussion: The Mahablog and Post Politics

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Heritage Scholar Slams Marco Rubio's Anti-Poverty Speech — Will Rubio's push into welfare reform make him a pariah on the right all over again? — Toby Melville / Reuters — WASHINGTON — A senior scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation was quick to criticize Sen. Marco Rubio's …

Dave Boyer / Washington Times:
That's rich: Poverty level under Obama breaks 50-year record

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Robert Rector / Wall Street Journal:
Robert Rector: How the War on Poverty Was Lost

Discussion: Wonkblog and Hot Air

Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:

Strict Obstructionist — MITCH MCCONNELL IS A MASTER MANIPULATOR AND STRATEGIST—THE UNHERALDED ARCHITECT OF THE REPUBLICAN RESURGENCE. NOW THAT HIS RELENTLESS TACTICS HAVE MADE HIS PARTY VICTORIOUS, HE IS POISED TO TAKE DOWN THE PRESIDENT AND WIN THE SENATE MAJORITY HE COVETS …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Impolitic

New York Times:
Bridging the Compassion Gap

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Talking Points Memo

Politico:

Carolyn McCarthy, Mike McIntyre to retire — North Carolina Rep. Mike McIntyre and New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy will not seek reelection this year, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with their plans - marking a blow to Democratic efforts to win control of the House.

Discussion: CNN, Business Insider and Daily Kos

Emily Cahn / Roll Call:
Longtime Dems McIntyre, McCarthy to Retire (Updated) (Video)

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Tom Brune / Newsday:
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy: I won't run again

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo

Noah Berlatsky / The Atlantic Online:

What It Means to Be a Public Intellectual — Last night my wife and I went out for dinner. Our server was French, a fact that allowed us to spend a few moments practicing the language. When the server left, my wife said, “It's everywhere.” Indeed. Some years ago I decided to learn French.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and This Is Brad DeLong's …

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Democrats downbeat on paying for unemployment — There is waning appetite among Democrats to find a way to cover the cost of an emergency three-month extension of unemployment benefits, raising the prospects of an impasse in the Senate. — Senate Republicans have spent the last 24 hours floating …

Discussion: CNN

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
It's Obamacare all the time for Republicans

Discussion: VodkaPundit, Hullabaloo, The Plum Line, The Fix and Balloon Juice

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:

In Defense of Obama on the Gates Memoir — The president questioned the generals? Good. That's his job. — Robert Gates (left) and President Barack Obama cover their hearts during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner during Gates' Armed Forces Farewell Tribute on the River Parade Field …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, NBCNews, Walter Russell Mead, The Fix, PostPartisan and Liberal Values

ThinkProgress:

West Virginia Lawmaker Wants To Make It A Felony To Enforce Obamacare — Nullificationist Senator John C. Calhoun — CREDIT: (AP Photo/National Portrait Gallery) — At least 82,000 West Virginia residents are signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion alone.

Discussion: Martinsburg Journa and Liberaland

Lisa Demer / Anchorage Daily News:
GOP targets Begich over Affordable Care Act - with ad that airs just once

Discussion: The Fix and Talking Points Memo

Gabrielle Giffords / New York Times:

The Lessons of Physical Therapy — TODAY, the anniversary of the shooting in Tucson that put a bullet through my head and killed six of my constituents, is when I make my annual resolutions. — Many may look at me and see mostly what I have lost. I struggle to speak, my eyesight's not great …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Today, Los Angeles Times, Daily Kos, Political Capital, Politico, CNN, Business Insider and Talking Points Memo

Jenn Taylor / Twitchy:

‘Oh COME ON’: The Guardian's description of pro-abort Wendy Davis is beyond absurd; Update: Guardian issues correction — Here's how the sane see abortion booster Wendy Davis: … And here's The Guardian's description of the Texas Dem, courtesy of National Review fellow Betsy Woodruff:

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, The Daily Caller and Weasel Zippers

Jamie Stiehm / US News:

The Catholic Supreme Court's War on Women — Et tu, Justice Sonia Sotomayor? Really, we can't trust you on women's health and human rights? The lady from the Bronx just dropped the ball on American women and girls as surely as she did the sparkling ball at midnight on New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Discussion: Hot Air, Mirror of Justice, ProfessorBainbridge.com and National Review

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Utah Governor Says State Will Not Recognize 1300+ Same-Sex Marriages — Utah's governor says the Constitution does not apply to these two men — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's (R) office announced Wednesday that his state will not recognize the over 1,300 same sex marriages performed between …

Discussion: Utah Office …, Liberaland, Advocate and SCOTUSblog

Paul Krugman:

On Fighting the Last War (On Poverty) — Sorry about radio silence — I've been on the road, and busy. And I still am. — I wanted, however, to say something about the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. — By 1980 or so, as the linked CBPP piece says, there was widespread consensus that the WoP had failed.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos and Taylor Marsh