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Recap from It's a Free Country.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, Jane Mayer, New Yorker staff writer, discussed the career of Larry McCarthy, one of the most successful negative-ad makers in history, who is now working for the pro-Romney SuperPAC Restore Our Future.

The landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has changed the political landscape in battleground states. Jane Mayer takes a look at how Art Pope, an arch conservative billionaire, is reshaping North Carolina politics heading into the 2012 presidential race with the help of the ruling. Mayer’s article “State for Sale” appears in the October 10, 2011, issue of the New Yorker.

A former National Security Agency employee who was charged with leaking classified information has brokered a plea deal just days before his trial was set to begin. Thomas Drake pleaded guilty to a minor misdemeanor charge, and will face no jail time. Had he been convicted of the ten felony counts he was indicted for in April under the 1917 Espionage Act, he could have served over 30 years in prison. Drake pleaded guilty to misusing a government computer to share classified information with someone not authorized to receive that information. 

New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer describes how the Obama Administration is cracking down on leaks by prosecuting whistle-blowers. Her article, The Secret Sharer, appears in the May 23 issue of The New Yorker.  

New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer discusses Charles and David Koch, billionaire brothers who are waging a war against President Barack Obama. They have donated more than $100 million to right-wing causes; including the Tea Party. Her article “Covert Operations” appears in the August 30 issue of the New Yorker.

New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer discusses Attorney General Eric Holder and the battle over the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Her article "The Trial" appeared in the February 15 & 22 issue of The New Yorker.

Jane Mayer, staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (Anchor; Reprint edition, 2009), revisits her reporting of the Bush administration's use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques, ...

Yesterday, the White House released the so-called "torture memos" of the Bush administration. These memos detail the directives for what the Bush administration calls enhanced interrogation techniques. The release marked the most comprehensive public accounting to date of a program that some senior administration officials, and human rights groups, say included illegal torture. In advance of the publication of the memos, President Obama absolved the CIA from prosecution for the harsh tactics used in the interrogation of terror suspects. To explore these memos and their fallout, The Takeaway is joined by Jane Mayer, New Yorker writer and author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals.

2008 has been a remarkably rich year for political reporters. Leonard talks to Jane Mayer of the New Yorker, John Heilemann of New York Magazine, and Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair. All are included in the new collection Best American Political Writing 2008.

Jane Mayer, staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday, 2008), returns with the latest from the war crimes trial of Salim Hamdan, underway in Guantanamo Bay.

Jane Mayer, staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday, 2008), is following the war crimes trial of Salim Hamdan, underway in Guantanamo Bay.

Executive decisions made by the White House after 9/11 constituted "a war on American ideals," according to Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. In her new book, The Dark Side, she explains how those decisions were made, and why they’ll be the lasting legacy of the George ...