The Maddow Blog

Reuters

Polling the Nevada caucuses is notoriously difficult, but this week, the survey results tended to be pretty accurate. With most of the precincts reporting, Mitt Romney, as expected, cruised to an easy, double-digit win in the Silver State, beating Newt Gingrich by 25 points, 47.6% to 22.7%.

Gingrich tried to assign an asterisk to the results, reminding reporters that Nevada is a "very heavily Mormon state," but exit polls showed Romney would have won by 17 points even excluding LDS voters.

Speaking of Gingrich, his campaign announced earlier in the day that the former Speaker would host a press conference after the caucus -- rather than delivering a speech -- which led to speculation that he might end his campaign. "All of you can relax," Gingrich told reporters. "I'm not going to withdraw. I'm actually pretty happy where we are." He added that he still fully expects to take the race all the way to the Republican convention in August.

Ron Paul, meanwhile, put quite a bit of effort into competing in Nevada, and suggested yesterday he could come in second. Though his 18% showing yesterday was quite good given Paul's relative standing in the party, the Texas congressman nevertheless finished four point behind Gingrich, and 29 points behind Romney.

What happens now? The Gingrich campaign will have a few opportunities to get back on track in February, but in general, he doesn't have a whole lot to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Feb. 7: Minnesota caucuses: A recent Public Policy Polling survey showed Gingrich with a big lead over Romney, suggesting it's the next contest that can help the former Speaker keep pace with the frontrunner.

Feb. 7: Colorado caucuses: Romney easily won this state four years ago, and is generally expected to do so again.

Feb. 7: Missouri nonbinding primary: As Nate Silver explained recently, Missouri "will hold a primary on Feb. 7, but it has no direct or indirect effect on delegate allocation, which will instead be determined in its March caucuses." Romney shouldn't have too much trouble -- Gingrich didn't qualify for the ballot.

Feb. 11: Maine caucuses: Maine holds a week-long process, and while Ron Paul has been making an effort in the state, Romney's regional advantage is expected to give him the edge.

Feb. 28: Arizona primary: At least some polling suggests the state will be competitive, but at this point, it's hard to predict.

Feb. 28: Michigan primary: Arguably the most interesting contest in February, Michigan should be an easy one for Romney -- he's from the state and his father was governor -- but there's ample evidence that he struggles with the kind of working-class voters who will dominate the primary.

As for upcoming debates, which Gingrich would love to use to put himself back in contention, there are no debates scheduled again until Feb. 22.

The result is a landscape that appears to favor the frontrunner.

Economic News Release - Employment Situation Summary

U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent in January

Romney vs. Romney vs. Reality

Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney - Face to Face with Jon Ralston

Santorum Unlikely To Make Indiana Ballot

Rick Santorum Fails To Qualify For Indiana Ballot

Walker takes broad swipe at public employee unions

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signs tax cut bill into law

Exemptions for police, fire fighters in Walker budget bill sparks questions of political payback

In Scott Walker recall, Wisconsin Dems tout 1 million signatures

Ohio Repeals Union Law as U.S. Voters Reject Leaders' Policies

Mitch Daniels signs Indiana right-to-work law

State Republicans launch right-to-work amendment drive

Ohio group's 'right-to-work' measure clears hurdle

Snyder remains mum on right-to-work after Indiana makes it the law

Does 'Right-to-WoRk' CReate Jobs? (pdf)

How Scott Walker and ALEC Plotted the Attack on Arizona's Unions

Arizona targets public worker unions

Komen backs off decision on funding cuts

Komen backs down, apologizes

Jobless rate at 3-year low as payrolls surge

Obama seeks $6B to hire thousands of vets for public service jobs

Marcy Kaptur: "Don't leave your home."

New York Sues 3 Big Banks Over Mortgage Database

New Housing Task Force Will Zero In on Wall St.

Jobs Report, First Impressions

More cities consider parades for Iraq War vets

If the Giants or Pats get a parade, shouldn't Iraq vets?

If the Giants or Pats Get a Parade, Shouldn't Iraq Vets?

Re: Iraq War Veterans celebration, Speaker Christine C. Quinn said:

Auctioneer: Stop All The Sales Right Now!

Organizing for Occupation

Tonight's guests include:

Jon Ralston, columnist for the Las Vegas Sun and host of “Face to Face with Jon Ralston”

Jared Bernstein, former member of President Obama's economic team and former economic adviser to Vice President Biden, currently a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and MSNBC contributor

While watching tonight's video preview, take a listen to tonight's soundtrack. (Just be sure to let the ad below finish playing before starting the song).

Executive producer Bill Wolff shares a preview of tonight's show:

Today's edition of quick hits:

Associated Press

* It begins: "Democratic New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed suit against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo for deceptive and fraudulent use of a private database used to register mortgages."

* Obama must be the least-effective socialist in human history: "A surge in hiring in the world's largest economy last month drove the Nasdaq to an 11-year high on Friday."

* In the wake of the Komen for the Cure controversy, Planned Parenthood they've raised over $3 million in three days. That's a stunning figure.

* Saber rattling in Tehran: "Iran's supreme leader lashed out at the United States in a defiant speech on Friday, vowing to retaliate against oil sanctions and threats of war over Iran's nuclear program."

* On to the House: "The Senate passed a sweeping new ethics bill on Thursday that would ban insider trading by members of Congress and require prompt disclosure of stock transactions by lawmakers and by thousands of officials in the executive branch of government." The final vote was 96 to 3.

* Obama's message to Congress today: "Do not slow down the recovery ... don't muck it up!"

* For some reason, Fox News didn't consider the new job numbers important. It must have slipped their minds.

* On a related note, the encouraging jobs report, at least for a little while, left Republican leaders speechless.

* At one event in Nevada today, Mitt Romney argued the economy is recovering under Obama, and that Obama made the recession worse. He may want to give this some additional thought.

* That's a lot of money: "At a private three-day retreat in California last weekend, conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch and about 250 to 300 other individuals pledged approximately $100 million to defeat President Obama in the 2012 elections."

Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.

Only one part of the White House's American Jobs Act actually passed Congress: a measure intended to boost employment among U.S. military veterans. With new evidence that vets' jobless rate is improving, President Obama is launching an effort to keep the progress going.

In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, President Barack Obama is calling for a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands.

The president also will seek more grant money for programs that allow local communities to hire more police officers and firefighters.

Obama's announcement comes as new job numbers for January showed promising signs for improving veteran unemployment. According to the report released Friday, unemployment among veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fell more than six percent, from 15.2 percent to 9.1 percent, over the last year. The overall rate for veterans fell from 9.9 percent to 7.5 percent over the same period, which now places them below the national rate of 8.3 percent.

At an event in Virginia today, Obama argued, "Let's get more cops on the beat, let's get more rangers in the parks, let's get more firefighters on call, and in the process, we're going to put more veterans back to work.... They've already risked their lives defending America. They should have the opportunity to rebuild America."

It's smart policy -- the nation has (a) pressing needs that require trained, trusted professionals, and (b) veterans ready to serve here at home. There's no reason not to put these men and women back to work doing jobs that need to be done.

It also happens to be smart politics -- Republicans generally find it easy to reflexively reject any and all Democratic ideas related to improving the economy, especially when it comes to infrastructure. But the GOP will likely find it a little more difficult, especially in an election year, to balk at Obama's plan to help get veterans back to work.

Politico had more today on the White House's proposal for a "Veterans Jobs Corps," which intends to create jobs for as many as 20,000 veterans.

I'm afraid Michael Crichton knows something we don't.

Excavated giant ant colony will BLOW YOUR MIND. Who else is now afraid that ants might take over the world? (Full documentary here.)

Neuroscientists can HEAR what word you're thinking of.

Pythons lurking in the Everglades. Snakes gone wild indeed.

Male spiders will literally give up their junk to procreate.

Boy in China born with NIGHT VISON.

If any/all of that scared the bleep out of you, listening to these whale songs will make it all better.

What do coral reefs, crochet, and hyperbolic geometry have in common? A LOT.

5th grader invents new molecule in class and gets co-author credit. What were you doing when you were 10?

Ever wanted to go to SpaceCamp? Now you can, from the comfort of your cubicle.

SuperEarth discovered only 22 light years away and in the habitable zone of its star. Any bets on when Newt proposes a mission there?

Twinkle, twinkle, little star. WTF?

Go forth and geek.

Almost exactly six years ago, inspired by "The Daily Show," I started a weekly feature called "This Week in God," covering news related to religion, politics, and government. Today, the feature moves to Friday afternoons.

Tea Party Jesus

The God Machine has plenty to offer this week (one might say the cup runneth over). First up, while the National Prayer Breakfast is supposed to be non-partisan, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) wasn't bashful about his decision to walk out of the event yesterday in protest of President Obama. A spokesperson for the Republican lawmaker said Gingrey "enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker and found the breakfast to be inspiring until President Obama began politicking."

For the record, the president wasn't politicking, so much as reflecting on the ways in which his faith influences his priorities in office.

Also from the God Machine:

* Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is running far to the right on immigration policy, but his approach is clearly at odds with the position taken by the former governor's church.

* In Rhode Island, a 16-year-old atheist named Jessica Ahlquist is facing intense community pressure -- and even personal threats -- after moving to remove a prayer on the wall of her high school auditorium.

* In Alabama, a Republican state House member, Shadrack McGill, argued this week that keeping salaries low for public school teachers is a "Biblical principle." He did not appear to be kidding.

* And 2012 has apparently been designated the "Year of the Bible" in the state of Pennsylvania.

Several weeks ago, I launched a Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney falsehoods of the week. I was off last week, but let's get it started again.

Associated Press

1. Romney claimed President Obama "went before the United Nations" and "said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip."

True or false? The claim isn't even close to being right.

2. Romney said Democrats "passed Dodd-Frank," which "has made it almost impossible for community banks."

True or false? He's has said this before, and it's still completely untrue.

3. Romney continues to insist, "Our Navy is now smaller than any time since 1917."

True or false? It's one of his favorite talking points, but it's wildly misleading.

4. Romney boasted, "I did not inherit what my wife and I have, nor did she. What I was able to build, I built the old-fashioned way, by earning it, by working hard."

True or false? In reality, he inherited quite a bit from his wealthy, powerful parents.

5. Attacking Newt Gingrich, Romney said of House Republicans, "They also took a vote, and 88 percent of Republicans voted to reprimand the speaker, and he did resign in disgrace after that."

True or false? That's not really what happened.

6. Romney said, "We have $15 trillion of debt. We're headed to a Greece- type collapse, and he adds another trillion [dollars] on top for Obamacare and for his stimulus plan that didn't create private-sector jobs."

True or false? Our debt problem has no resemblance to Greece's; the Affordable Care Act reduces the debt; and the stimulus added millions of private-sector jobs.

7. Describing his state-based health-care law, Romney said, "At the time we crafted it, I was asked time and again, 'Is this something that you would have the federal government do?' I said absolutely not. I do not support a federal mandate."

True or false? Reality shows the exact opposite is true.

8. Going after Obama, Romney said, "[W]e shouldn't forget that for two years, this President had a Congress that could do everything he wanted."

True or false? Republicans love this, but it's plainly false.

9. Again commenting on Obama's record, Romney argued, "If you want to get the economy going, lower corporate tax rates. He's raised them."

True or false? It's one of the more transparent lies Romney has told.

10. Asked about his investments in Freddie Mac, Romney told Fox News, "My investments, of course, are managed not by me. For the last 10 years they've been guided and managed by a trustee, they're in a blind trust. And the trustee invested in mutual funds and so forth and apparently one of the funds had Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bonds."

True or false? He's lying again.

11. Romney argued, "I didn't get involved in politics early in my life," adding he didn't "politically involved" until after he ran the 2002 Olympics.

True or false? Romney ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994. He might remember spending $7 million of his own money on the race.

12. Asked to explain his 1992 vote in a Democratic primary, Romney said, "I've never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot."

True or false? That's not only untrue, it's a story Romney has changed literally five times.

13. After winning the Florida primary, Romney argued, "On one of the most personal matters of our lives, our health care, President Obama would turn decision making over to government bureaucrats."

True or false? Even for Romney, this is kind of dishonesty is just brazen.

14. After receiving Donald Trump's endorsement yesterday, Romney, commenting on President Obama and the economy, said, "He's frequently telling us that he did not cause the recession, and that's true. But he made it worse."

True or false? Not only is the economy much stronger than it was, even Mitt Romney himself has repeatedly said the economy has improved since Obama took office.

Jon Chait noted last week that Romney appears to be "an audacious liar," adding, "Even by the standards of politicians, Romney seems unusually prone to dishonesty."

Given recent events, I'm hard pressed to disagree.

@pupski/Flickr

@synergy3k sends a story from Virginia, where Republicans now control both chambers of the Legislature and abortion is at the top of the agenda. Yesterday, one woman's public testimony seems to have turned back a bill that would have taken away abortion rights. Tara Schleifer told a Virginia Senate committee about the agony of deciding to end a pregnancy once tests found severe and ultimately fatal deformities.

"Each family has the right to follow their own conscience in making this most profoundly personal family decision," Schleifer said. "There is no black and white, right and wrong decision. All of it is awful."

The committee was locked seven to seven on the bill. An eighth vote belonged to Republican Senator Harry Blevins of Chesapeake. Just the day before, he backed a bill that requires women to undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound before they can have an abortion (the bill that prompted an amendment requiring cardiac and rectal prostate exams before getting Viagra).

And then Blevins heard Schleifer describe her experience. He decided not to cast a vote at all. His abstention left the vote tied, which meant the bill did not pass. He explained:

"I don't feel like I have the ability to make a decision as difficult as the one that young woman made."

And with that, very big government got just a little smaller. I still think one of the hardest things about defending reproductive rights is that it forces people to take public stands on the most private of issues. How brave of anyone to do it, and how powerful even when anonymous.

(Image: @pupski/Flickr)

Remember the "triggers" in the debt-ceiling agreement? At this point, congressional Republicans would like to forget them, at least the parts they came up with.

Let's take a moment to review. GOP lawmakers, in a move without precedent in American history, held the full faith and credit of the United States hostage. Democrats, fearful that the GOP wasn't bluffing, were willing to cut an unpleasant deal: $900 billion in debt reduction, on top of another $1.2 trillion agreement to be worked out by a so-called super-committee.

At the time, Dems weren't completely willing to roll over -- they wanted to create an incentive for Republicans to work in good faith on the $1.2 trillion in savings. Democrats proposed the threat of automatic tax increases to push GOP officials to be responsible, but Republicans refused and offered an alternative: if the committee failed, the GOP would accept $600 billion in defense cuts and Dems would accept $600 billion in non-defense domestic cuts.

Remember, the point was to create an incentive that the parties would be desperate to avoid. Pentagon cuts were Republicans' contribution to the process. The cuts were their idea.

Six months later, the GOP has decided it doesn't like its idea anymore.

Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer rather than reconsider their unwavering stance against new tax revenue. [...]

"I've got concerns about the sequester," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Thursday. "I've made that pretty clear. And replacing the sequester certainly has value. The defense portion of the sequester, in my view, would clearly hollow our military. The Secretary of Defense has said that, members of Congress have said it. But the question I would pose is, where's the White House? Where's the leadership that should be there to ensure that this sequester does not go into effect."

"Sequester" is budget-speak for across-the-board cuts. But the cuts he's talking about were part of a deal he recently claimed he'd honor.

Republicans still want the debt reduction; they just don't want to live up to their end of the bargain. As recently as November, the House Speaker was asked about the agreement he helped strike and he told reporters he would "feel bound" to honor it. That no longer appears to be the case.

What's more, Senate Republicans are getting specific about their preferred alternative.

Several Republican senators said Thursday that they had crafted legislation that would replace large planned cuts to defense programs with reductions in other areas. The proposed cuts resulted from last year's failure of a bipartisan panel to determine ways to reduce the deficit.

Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Marco Rubio of Florida propose replacing $110 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts for 2013 with a freeze in federal employee pay through 2014, all toward avoiding approximately $500 billion in cuts the Pentagon means to spread over 10 years.

The bill also seeks to restrict federal hiring to only two employees for every three leaving, until the size of the federal government workforce is reduced by 5 percent.

It's a curious approach to negotiating. As Republican lawmakers see it, the debt-reduction "compromise" should include $2 trillion in savings, without any tax increases on anyone, and without cutting priorities the GOP likes.

Time will tell if Democrats are amenable to GOP demands -- it seems unlikely they will be -- but in the bigger picture, this is quite a reversal. In effect, Republicans said in August, "If we fail, we'll accept these cuts we don't want." The same Republicans are now effectively saying, "It turns out, we don't like our idea anymore."

Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Going into the Nevada caucuses, Public Policy Polling shows Mitt Romney cruising to an easy win, leading Newt Gingrich by a whopping 25 points.

* Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), one of Congress' higher-profile Blue Dogs, will retire at the end of the year. Shuler has also passed on the North Carolina gubernatorial race.

* In Massachusetts, Sen. Scott Brown (R) has used nearly $10,000 in donor money to pay his daughter to sing at three campaign events. (Candidates' family members usually go to rallies for free.)

* In Missouri, PPP shows Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) struggling in her re-election bid, generating just 43% support in match-ups against her Republican challengers.

* On a related note, President Obama narrowly lost Missouri in 2008, but PPP shows him tied with Romney in a hypothetical race, with each getting 45% support.

* In Hawaii's U.S. Senate race, Democrat Maizie Hirono is using criticism of George W. Bush in her television ads.

* In Montana's closely-watched Senate race, Public Opinion Strategies shows Rep. Denny Rehberg (R) leading incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D) by three, 46% to 43%.

* And in Michigan, the latest EPIC/MRA poll former Rep. Pete Hoekstra with a big lead in the Republicans' U.S. Senate primary. The winner will face Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in November.

In a stunning reversal, just three days after announcing it was ending Planned Parenthood grants, and one day after giving contradictory explanations for the decision, Komen for the Cure has apparently reversed course, apologized, and abandoned its controversial decision.

The Dallas Morning News published this statement from Nancy Brinker and the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors:

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives.

"The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

"Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

"Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities."

Komen's statement goes on to say it would like those involved in the debate to "pause" and "move past this issue."

To roughly translate, "Please stop calling us and telling us how big a mistake we made."

Komen's credibility, stature, and reputation took a severe tumble this week, but apologizing and reversing course is the first step towards rehabilitating its tarnished image.

Update: It's worth clarifying that Komen's reversal, while welcome, leaves some questions unanswered. While Planned Parenthood will apparently be eligible for "future" grants, it's unclear what grants Planned Parenthood can expect to receive in the short term.

While accepting Donald Trump's endorsement yesterday, Mitt Romney repeated one of the central arguments of his entire candidacy: "[President Obama is] frequently telling us that he did not cause the recession, and that's true. But he made it worse."

Part of the problem with the claim is that Mitt Romney strongly disagrees with Mitt Romney. The likely Republican presidential nominee has said, consistently and frequently in recent weeks, that the U.S. economy is improving under President Obama. To be sure, the former governor doesn't believe Obama deserves credit for these developments, but Romney has nevertheless said, over and over again, that the economy is "getting better."

He can argue that the economy is better, or he can argue the economy is worse. Even Romney should realize, however, he can't argue both at the same time.

The more glaring issue is how wrong Romney -- at least yesterday's version -- has the facts wrong.

Here's a chart, for example, showing the change in private-sector job totals by month since the start of the Great Recession, with red columns showing the months when George W. Bush was president and the blue columns showing the Obama era.

And here's a chart showing private-sector job totals by year over the last two decades.

And here's a chart showing economic growth by quarter since the start of the recession.

And here's a chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average since Obama took office.

The question reporters might want to pose to Romney is simple; in what universe did Obama make the recession "worse"?

Mitt Romney caused some trouble for himself this week when he told a national television audience, "I'm not concerned about the very poor." He added there's already a "safety net" for those struggling most, so he'll focus his attention elsewhere.

Associated Press

Yesterday in Nevada, the Republican frontrunner walked it back, telling a reporter, "When you do I don't know how many thousands of interviews, now and then you may get it wrong, and I misspoke."

Expressions of regret are always welcome, but in this case, Romney had it right the first time -- he didn't misspeak on Wednesday morning; he engaged in accidental candor.

For one thing, Romney's original comments were not the first time he'd expressed this sentiment. For another, Paul Krugman explained today that Romney's agenda helps prove just how unconcerned about the very poor he really is.

[W]e do need to strengthen our safety net. Mr. Romney, however, wants to make the safety net weaker instead.

Specifically, the candidate has endorsed Representative Paul Ryan's plan for drastic cuts in federal spending -- with almost two-thirds of the proposed spending cuts coming at the expense of low-income Americans. To the extent that Mr. Romney has differentiated his position from the Ryan plan, it is in the direction of even harsher cuts for the poor; his Medicaid proposal appears to involve a 40 percent reduction in financing compared with current law.

So Mr. Romney's position seems to be that we need not worry about the poor thanks to programs that he insists, falsely, don't actually help the needy, and which he intends, in any case, to destroy.

As a political matter, it makes sense that Romney would walk back his remarks -- multi-millionaire candidates who got rich firing people generally don't win by running on a I-don't-care-about-the-poor platform.

But as a policy matter, it's too late. Romney accidentally told the truth, disgusting both the left and the right simultaneously. His claims about "misspeaking" aren't persuasive, and won't make this problem go away.

Expectations for today's new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were modest, at best. The most optimistic forecasts projected growth of about 155,000.

The nation did much better than that, adding 243,000 jobs in January, as the overall unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%. The job totals are the best we've seen in two years, and the jobless rate has reached its lowest level in three years.

As is always the case, there was a gap between the private and public sectors. Businesses added 257,000 jobs last month, while budget cuts forced the public sector to shed another 14,000 jobs.

Nevertheless, it's hard not to feel good about the surprising strength of this new report. After years of jobs reports that were only considered encouraging when compared to where we've been, January's total is objectively good news. Indeed, this is one of the best -- if not the very best -- jobs reports since the recession began four years ago.

In terms of revisions, the job numbers for November and December were better than previously reported. Today, the BLS also released revised totals for every month in the previous calendar year, and those revisions are reflected below.

We now know, in 2011, the economy added 1.8 million jobs, which obviously isn't good enough, but it was still the strongest year for job creation since 2006. We've also seen the economy add over 900,000 jobs in just the last five months.

And with that, here's the homemade chart I run on the first Friday of every month, showing monthly job losses since the start of the Great Recession. The image makes a distinction -- red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration.

Update: Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. Note: these reflect the revised BLS data for all of 2011.

If Komen for the Cure hoped its Planned Parenthood controversy would be a one-day story, it has to be terribly disappointed. If anything, the furor is intensifying.

One of yesterday's more striking developments came when Komen officials changed their story when explaining why they cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.

Komen had said the decision was the result of newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations under investigation -- affecting Planned Parenthood because of an inquiry by a Republican congressman.

On Thursday, Komen President Elizabeth Thompson told reporters that the funding decision was unrelated to the investigation into whether Planned Parenthood was illegally using federal funds to pay for abortions.

Komen founder Nancy Brinker said the organization wants to support groups that directly provide breast health services, such as mammograms. She noted that Planned Parenthood was providing only mammogram referrals.

As a rule, when an organization is struggling to keep its story straight, it's not a good sign.

In the case of Komen's shifting rationales, critics weren't exactly persuaded. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), said the new explanation was tantamount to "revisionist history," adding, "This new reason is so obviously fake that you'd have to be born today to believe it."

Incoherence, however, is only part of Komen's troubles at this point.

The Planned Parenthood decision has caused widespread dissension within the organization, causing all seven Komen Race for the Cure Foundation affiliates in California to denounce the national group's move. Some additional foundation officials are also resigning in protest.

The controversy has also captured the attention of the Senate Democratic caucus, with 26 senators, led by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) co-authoring a letter to the foundation, urging Komen to reconsider. The caucus has been surprisingly aggressive on this -- Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) even tweeted Komen's phone number, urging allies to "call Komen" and ask the foundation "to reverse their damaging and misguided decision."

The New York Times added a strong editorial on the issue today, calling Komen's move "a painful betrayal."

This is a mistake from which Komen will not soon recover.

Mitt Romney: "I misspoke" about the poor. Apparently he also "misspoke" about a symbol of patriotism.

Newt Gingrich doesn't connect with Las Vegans.

A look at the Gingrich campaign's edits to Callista Gingrich's wikipedia page.

Blue-Dog Democrat and C-Street House resident Rep. Heath Shuler to retire.

Susan G. Komen website is hacked.

2 American tourists kidnapped in Egypt.

On Wednesday night, Rachel featured Buzzfeed's delineation of Florida's giraffeishness, thus presenting a challenge to us all to look deeply at the Sunshine State and share our innermost impressions (no penises allowed).

Behold what really lurks in the mind of the MaddowBlog reader!

Mike Ling

Steve Gale

Marc Handel

Ken Forst

John LeFrancois

Kelsey Kanavel

Brent Adrian

President Obama at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast

Rick Santorum Tells Sick Kid Market Should Should Set Drug Prices

Santorum Defends Drug Companies - Candidate Promotes Profit-Driven Health Care

Tax Status Of Lawmakers' Religious Refuge Disputed

Sex and power inside “the C Street House”

At prayer breakfast, Obama says Christian faith guides his policies

At the intersection of faith and policy

SENATOR SANTORUM LAUNCHES THE “FAITH,FAMILY AND FREEDOM TOUR”

Mitt Romney relying heavily on small group of super-rich donors

How the Trump endorsement helps Romney

I’m pro-life and I support Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood saved me

@amaeryllis - amaeryllis - Every woman who loses a shot at early cancer detection is a big deal. Every woman who can't obtain birth control is a big f***ing deal. 

@MikeBloomberg - Mike Bloomberg - I'm supporting #PlannedParenthood's lifesaving breast cancer screenings by matching $250,000 in donations bit.ly/ylZqbs #standwithPP

The story behind Komen's cut-off

2/18/11 - House votes to defund Planned Parenthood

April 11, 2011 - House Republicans Seek to Remove Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood

4/27/11 - Indiana votes to defund Planned Parenthood

6/15/11 - North Carolina GOP Overrides Veto, Axes Planned Parenthood Funding

JUNE 28, 2011 - Kansas Cuts Planned Parenthood Funds; Alternate Providers Uncertain

Rural poor caught in budget war over clinics

Stearns investigates Planned Parenthood

Cancer Group Halts Financing to Planned Parenthood

Susan G. Komen Planned Parenthood funding decision sparks donation spike, strong reactions

Senators' letter to Nancy Brinker (pdf)

If the Giants and Patriots Deserve a Super Bowl Parade, Don't Iraq Vets?

Ahead of Super Bowl, IAVA Calls on the President, New York and Boston Mayors to Hold Ticker Tape Parades Honoring Iraq Veterans