Top Items:
Kevin Landrigan / Nashuatelegraph.com:
McCain launches direct mail attack — CONCORD - Republican hopeful Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, launched an attack - a direct mail campaign labeling New Hampshire primary front-runner Mitt Romney as a serial flip-flopper that "voters can't trust." — The mailing is believed to be the first …
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William Douglas / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Giuliani's once-leading campaign is slipping in key early states — WASHINGTON — These are tough times for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. — He's still the leading Republican presidential candidate in national polls, but only by two percentage points over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee …
Nicholas Wapshott / New York Sun:
Giuliani Begins Retreat From New Hampshire
Giuliani Begins Retreat From New Hampshire
Discussion:
New York Post, Gothamist, PoliBlog (TM), race42008.com, Oliver Willis and The Campaign Spot
Opinion Journal:
McCain's Surge — Why he's making a primary comeback.
McCain's Surge — Why he's making a primary comeback.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Obama-Clinton Issue — Hillary Clinton has been a much better senator than Barack Obama. She has been a serious, substantive lawmaker who has worked effectively across party lines. Obama has some accomplishments under his belt, but many of his colleagues believe that he has not bothered …
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Ron Fournier / Associated Press:
ON DEADLINE: Clinton '92 Vs. Obama '08 — SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Bill Clinton says Sen. Barack Obama is a callow, highly ambitious political prodigy who is asking voters to "roll the dice" and elect him president. — He should know — that's a fair description of Clinton when he sought the presidency in 1992.
USA Today:
Poll: Electability key among Democrats
Poll: Electability key among Democrats
Discussion:
New York Times, MSNBC, Quad City Times, Los Angeles Times, NY Daily News, Des Moines Register and Pollster.com
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Dems consider ousting Byrd as appropriations chair — A group of Senate Democrats has begun quietly exploring ways to replace the venerable Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, believing he's no longer physically up to the job …
Michelle Malkin:
House guts border fence — Update 10:20am Eastern. The fence gets robbed, but the spending bill gives $10 million in "emergency" funding for attorneys of illegal immigrants?!!?! … Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I've warned several times that the border fence expansion was gesture politics.
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Associated Press:
Border Patrol fights back — After hundreds of attacks in a year, agency responds with tear gas — SAN DIEGO - The Border Patrol says its agents were attacked nearly 1,000 times during a one-year period along the Mexican border, typically by assailants hurling rocks, bottles and bricks.
RushLimbaugh.com:
Does Our Looks-Obsessed Culture Want to Stare at an Aging Woman? — BEGIN TRANSCRIPT — RUSH: Now, this theory of mine based on this Drudge picture of Mrs. Clinton, with the headline: "The Toll of a Campaign." Now, it could well be that that's a sympathy photo, too, to make people feel sorry for how tough the campaign trail is.
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Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
A Beauty Contest? Have You Seen These Beauties? — Could this image derail a presidential campaign? Have political campaigns become the equivalent of beauty contests for both men and women, and if so, can women get a fair shake at an age where candidates have the requisite experience?
Discussion:
The Glittering Eye
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Why Did Reid Pull the Telecom Bill? — I'd like to believe that Harry Reid pulled the telecom bill yesterday because members of the Senate actually did realize how shameless and horrifying their soliloquies on behalf of the poor beleaguered telecos made them sound, but I'm skeptical.
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Washington Post:
Telecom Immunity Issue Derails Spy Law Overhaul
Telecom Immunity Issue Derails Spy Law Overhaul
Discussion:
The Newshoggers, The Huffington Post, Chris Dodd National Blog, New York Times, The Raw Story, The Carpetbagger Report, Emptywheel, Pacific Views, Democrats.senate.gov, The Heretik, Lance Mannion, Think Progress, Washington Monthly, Discourse.net, Overlawyered, Prairie Weather and DownWithTyranny!
Washington Post:
FBI, CIA Debate Significance of Terror Suspect — Agencies Also Disagree On Interrogation Methods — Al-Qaeda captive Abu Zubaida, whose interrogation videotapes were destroyed by the CIA, remains the subject of a dispute between FBI and CIA officials over his significance as a terrorism suspect …
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker, The Raw Story, Brian Beutler, Prairie Weather, Make Them Accountable and The Blotter
Marni Soupcoff / National Post:
Ezra Levant: Censorship in the name of 'human rights' — 'Drug dealers get the benefit of the Charter, but not pastors accused of homophobia' — The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) is taking Maclean's magazine to a human rights commission. Their crime?
Discussion:
Wise Law Blog
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Matthew Yglesias:
Stay Classy, Bob Kerrey — It's hard to express how odious I find Bob Kerrey. His behavior as a Senator was entirely discreditable, and it's hard to see that he's done anything good in his life in non-Senator roles. Keeping it up, he's now following up on his "Barack Hussein Obama" …
Bill Mears / CNN:
Judge: White House visitor logs are public — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House must release its visitor logs and cannot hide behind a shield of privilege, a federal judge ruled Monday. The Bush administration has resisted public disclosure while it fights a lawsuit over alleged political influence …
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Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:
Secret Service Logs of White House Visitors Are Public Records, Judge Rules
Secret Service Logs of White House Visitors Are Public Records, Judge Rules
Lorelei Kelly / democracyarsenal.org:
How High is Up? The Defense Budget gets even crazier — For those of you concerned about the state of US security—levees that don't collapse, for example, or bridges that don't fall into the Mississippi river, sit down before you see these numbers. — Last week, both houses …
Marc Kaufman / Washington Post:
Jet From Supermassive Black Hole Seen Blasting Neighboring Galaxy — A jet of highly charged radiation from a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy is blasting another galaxy nearby — an act of galactic violence that astronomers said yesterday they have never seen before.
Discussion:
Suburban Guerrilla