Top Items:
Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
Too Bad — President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder. — What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting …
Discussion:
Tapscott's Copy Desk, Firedoglake, The Strata-Sphere, Central Sanity, Riehl World View, The Mahablog, Silflay Hraka, The Moderate Voice, Heading Right, Tammy Bruce, TBogg, La Shawn Barber's Corner, Six Meat Buffet, Multi Medium, The Populist, The Radio Equalizer, The Impolitic, The Carpetbagger Report, Neptunus Lex, Middle Earth Journal, DownWithTyranny!, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Rising Hegemon, Nitpicker, Vox Popoli, rubber hose, Shakesville, Cliff Schecter, Sadly, No!, Think Progress and Hot Air
RELATED:
Mary Katharine Ham / Townhall.com:
RNC Outsources Phone Solicitation to DNC, Apparently — Well, either that, or the WSJ editorial board is manning the phones. — You heard yesterday that the RNC canned its in-house phone bank employees, partly due to an estimated 40% drop in small donations.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Right Wing Nut House, IMAO, BLACKFIVE, Washington Times and Right Wing News
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
The End Of The Bushes? — Peggy Noonan, one of my favorite columnists and always a great read, today turns her substantial rhetorical guns on what she sees as the biggest threat to the Republican Party — George Bush. Accusing him of following his father in squandering a great political inheritance …
Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:
RNC faces donor falloff, fires solicitors — The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors' rebellion over President Bush's immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, The Washington Times has learned. — Faced with an estimated 40 percent falloff …
Discussion:
Blog of the Moderate Left, Shakesville, The American Mind, Wonkette, MSNBC, Tammy Bruce and Outside The Beltway
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Firing The Collectors: Desperation Or Efficiency?
Firing The Collectors: Desperation Or Efficiency?
Discussion:
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Paul Mirengoff / News Bloggers Blog:
Buyer's remorse — Yesterday, Cenk Uygur wrote this line …
Buyer's remorse — Yesterday, Cenk Uygur wrote this line …
Discussion:
Power Line
Michael A. Fletcher / Washington Post:
Senior Bush Aide Dan Bartlett to Resign — White House Counselor Among President's Longest Serving Advisers — White House counselor Dan Bartlett, one of President Bush's top aides and among his longest serving, said today he will resign in July,becoming the latest administration official …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Newshoggers, Shakesville, Wonkette, The Next Hurrah, TalkLeft, PoliBlog (TM) and The Heretik
RELATED:
Terence Hunt / Associated Press:
Top Bush aide leaving White House — WASHINGTON - Dan Bartlett, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and his longest-serving aide, said Friday he is resigning to begin a career outside of government. — The move was announced on Bartlett's 36th birthday.
Discussion:
TIME
Karen Tumulty / Time:
Obama's Inconvenient Truths — Presidential-primary politics tends to be played like a game of connect the dots, with all the would-be nominees running from interest group to interest group, knowing and delivering precisely what each constituency is expecting to hear.
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Jodi Kantor / New York Times:
One Place Where Obama Goes Elbow to Elbow — Last Christmas, Senator Barack Obama flew to Hawaii to contemplate a presidential bid in the peace of his childhood home. But there, on a humid playground near Waikiki Beach, he found himself being roughed up by some of his best friends.
Scott Shane / New York Times:
Senate Panel Questions C.I.A. Detentions — The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday questioned the continuing value of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects, suggesting that international condemnation and the obstacles it has created …
Discussion:
Salon, Washington Post, The Huffington Post …, Los Angeles Times, Firedoglake, The Agonist and Air America Radio
RELATED:
New York Times:
Aide Says Edwards Misspoke on Reading Classified Iraq Report — Former Senator John Edwards, a Democratic presidential candidate, told an interviewer on Wednesday that he had read the classified October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate before voting to authorize force in Iraq, but his campaign retracted the statement yesterday.
RELATED:
Tony Paterson / The Independent:
German brain drain at highest level since 1940s — For a nation that invented the term "guest worker" for its immigrant labourers, Germany is facing the sobering fact that record numbers of its own often highly-qualified citizens are fleeing the country to work abroad in the biggest mass exodus for 60 years.
Jonah Goldberg / National Review Online:
Better Off Fred? — Here are just a few little-known facts about Fred Thompson: — Every night before going to sleep, Osama bin Laden checks under his bed for Fred Thompson. — Though Fred Thompson left the Senate in 2003, Harry Reid still hasn't stopped wetting his pants.
Thomas B. Edsall / Huffington Post:
Conservative Catholics Organize To Sink Rudy — The early success of Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid has provoked a groundswell of opposition from disparate forces including conservative Catholics, remnants of Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigns and regional political operatives seeking to break into the Republican firmament.
Dan Gilgoff / US News:
Fired McCain Religion-Outreach Aides Say They Were Ignored — Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes …
Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
Bring back the nightmare of peace and prosperity — A few days before Bush was inaugurated in January 2001, The Onion ran one of the greatest satirical pieces of the decade: "Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured …
Susan Beck / LAW.com:
Lone Star — Bracewell partners got a big name when they hired Rudolph Giuliani. But has this brief marriage already outlived its usefulness? — The American Lawyer — It was a beautiful wedding. When Houston's Bracewell & Patterson called a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel …
Discussion:
Facing South
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Boehner Leads Effort to Polish GOP 'Brand' — Their president's approval ratings are at historic lows. The war in Iraq is grinding down their political prospects, and their party is showing deep divisions on issues such as education and immigration. — But to House Minority Leader John A. Boehner …