Top Items:
Rick Hasen / Election Law:
BREAKING SUPREME COURT ELECTION LAW NEWS: SUPREME COURT UNANIMOUSLY REVERSES WISCONSIN CAMPAIGN FINANCE CASE, DENIES CERT IN KEY JUDICIAL ELECTIONS CASE, AND SETS ARGUMENT TIMES IN REMAINING CAMPAIGN FINANCE CASES — WRTL: Lyle Denniston reports on SCOTUSBlog: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday …
RELATED ITEMS:
Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Court allows campaign finance challenges — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday, without dissent, that it has not barred all challenges to actual operation in practice of federal campaign finance restrictions. It ordered a lower court to reconsider an "as-applied" challenge by an anti-abortion group …
Discussion:
How Appealing
New York Times:
Judge Alito's Radical Views — If Judge Samuel Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearings lacked drama, apart from his wife's bizarrely over-covered crying jag, it is because they confirmed the obvious. Judge Alito is exactly the kind of legal thinker President Bush wants on the Supreme Court.
David Stout / New York Times:
Justices Ask Court to Reconsider Campaign Finance Case
Justices Ask Court to Reconsider Campaign Finance Case
Discussion:
ACSBlog
Washington Post:
The President's End Run — THE MOST detailed legal justification to date for the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic surveillance has emerged from the Bush administration, but the 42-page version isn't any more convincing than its shorter predecessors.
RELATED ITEMS:
John O'Neil / New York Times:
Intelligence Deputy Defends Surveillance Program — Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who led the National Security Agency when it began a program of warrantless wiretaps, vigorously defended the program today, but acknowledged that it depends on a lower standard of evidence than required by courts.
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly
Anthony Phillips / This Is London:
George sinks to new low — First he shocked TV viewers and his colleagues by pretending to be a cat and lapping milk from Rula Lenska's hand. — Now George Galloway is set to attract further derision after performing a dance routine on Celebrity Big Brother - in a tight-fitting, red leotard.
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
'Cheap Suitcase' Watch — Chris Matthews drew fire for "comparing" Michael Moore to Osama Bin Laden, and many on the left our howling for an apology. Will Mr. Matthews fold up like a cheap suitcase? We assume so, since, as a reliable Bush-basher, he long ago lost his audience on the right.
Discussion:
Done With Mirrors
RELATED ITEM:
austinbay.net:
Oh, Canada/with some thoughts on the Canadian military — Over the weekend wire and blog reports I read said the race between the Conservatives and Liberals had tightened. Apparently voters in the Maritimes are particularly vulnerable to allegations that those "Conservatives out West" are dangerous folks, almost Americans.
RELATED ITEM:
Shelby Steele / Opinion Journal:
Hillary's Plantation — Hillary Clinton reveals her fear of Condi Rice. — Of course Hillary Clinton's recent claim that Republicans run the House of Representatives like a "plantation" was old-fashioned political and racial pandering. After all, she uttered this remark at what certainly …
John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired 2008 Republican Nominee (2006 Edition) — Right Wing News emailed more than 230 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a ranked list 1-5 of the candidates that they would most like to take the Republican nomination for President …
Mr. Right / The Right Place:
Sunspot Activity Causes Brief Interruption of Karl Rove's "Mind-Ray" - Democrats Claim Rare Moment of Sanity — For several odd minutes on Sunday afternoon, nearly every Democrat and prominent liberal celebrity or newsmaker in America was making a mad dash to find a camera and/or a microphone.
RELATED ITEM:
Time:
When George Met Jack — White House aides deny the President knew lobbyist Abramoff, but unpublished photos shown to TIME suggest there's more to the story — As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought …
Greg Myre / New York Times:
A Man Called Hitler Runs for a Seat He May Not Fill — JENIN, West Bank, Jan. 18 - The candidate's name is Jamal Abu Roub, but everyone here calls him Hitler because, well, that is the name he has answered to quite comfortably since he was a teenager. — Mr. Roub, 40, is a leader …
RELATED ITEM:
Ezra Klein / TAPPED:
A PRE-STATE OF THE UNION PRIMER. Another day, another detailed preview of George W. Bush's State of the Union health care proposals. This morning's iteration comes from the LA Times' Peter Gosselin, one of the best social policy reporters in the country. But even the best reporters …
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly, Angry Bear, Shakespeare's Sister, Talking Points Memo, Interesting Times and Ezra Klein
David Carr / New York Times:
Soothe the Blog and Reap the Whirlwind — LAST Thursday, Deborah Howell, the ombudsman for The Washington Post, posted a clarification on the newspaper's Web site after suggesting in her Sunday column that the lobbyist Jack Abramoff had made "substantial campaign contributions to both major parties."
Doug Struck / Washington Post:
Professionals Fleeing Iraq As Violence, Threats Persist — Exodus of Educated Elite Puts Rebuilding at Risk — BAGHDAD — The office of Iraq's most eminent cardiologist is padlocked. A handwritten sign is taped on his wooden door in the private clinic in Baghdad: Patients of Dr. Omar Kubasi should call him in Amman, Jordan.
John Fund / Opinion Journal:
How to Cure Pork — And how big government produced the Abramoff scandal. — In the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, It seems everyone has discovered the excesses of pork-barrel spending. Voters may now be disgusted enough to make the political costs to a member seeking pork greater than the benefits.
Washington Post:
The Wallet-to-Wallet Chasm — Despite a lackluster showing in 2005 elections for the GOP, the Republican National Committee raked in better than $100 million last year and enjoys its largest cash-on-hand lead over its Democratic counterpart in more than a decade.
Kevin Russell / SCOTUSblog:
News and Analysis on Today's Decision in Katz — Today, the Court issued a 5-4 decision in Central Virginia Community College v. Katz, holding that States do not have sovereign immunity to suits by bankruptcy trustees seeking the return of preferential transfers under the federal bankruptcy act.