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, The Moderate Voice, Central Sanity, The Mahablog, Silflay Hraka, TBogg, The Impolitic, Heading Right, La Shawn Barber's Corner, Tammy Bruce, Multi Medium, Six Meat Buffet, The Populist, Neptunus Lex, The Carpetbagger Report, Middle Earth Journal, DownWithTyranny!, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Rising Hegemon, Nitpicker, Vox Popoli, rubber hose, Think Progress, Cliff Schecter, Sadly, No! and Hot Air
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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 …
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
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, PoliBlog (TM), TalkLeft and The Heretik
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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
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.
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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.
Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
The Candor of Obama — You want to know why I can't stop myself being impressed? Because the man isn't pandering - even in primary season, as the clear underdog: … We need this guy. We're lucky to have him. — (Photo: Scott Morgan/Getty.)
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Firing The Collectors: Desperation Or Efficiency? — The Republican National Committee no longer has operators standing by to take your call — reportedly because you haven't been calling. Their staff of call-center employees got pink slips yesterday, and while the RNC denies it …
Discussion:
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
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Politics / Washington Post:
Separation of Church and State and Tax Exemptions — Florida evangelist Bill Keller says he was making a spiritual — not political — statement when he warned the 2.4 million subscribers to his Internet prayer ministry that "if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!"
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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.
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.
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
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 …
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 …
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.