Top Items:
James Kimberly / Chicago Tribune:
Foster takes seat from GOP — Democrat to succeed Hastert in Republican stronghold — In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a sign of trouble for Republicans this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a far west suburban congressional seat long held by former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
Feith at war; Bush in song (and hat) — BREAKING NEWS - “AP Exclusive: U.S. troops may have become sick in Iraq from contaminated water” - The Pentagon inspector general says dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using “unmonitored and potentially unsafe” water supplied by contractor KBR …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Various items — (updated below) — (1) A special election was held in Illinois yesterday for the Congressional seat occupied forever by retiring GOP former House Speaker Denny Hastert. The district is bright red, having re-elected Hastert in 2006 with 60% and having voted for Bush's 2004 re-election by a 55-45% margin.
Washington Post:
Ex-Defense Official Assails Colleagues Over Run-Up to War — In the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making on Iraq, one of the key architects of the war blasts former secretary of state Colin Powell, the CIA, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Big Brass Blog, PrairiePundit, Prairie Weather, abu muqawama, LewRockwell.com Blog, First Draft and American Street
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Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
The Monster Mash — I was covered in barbecue sauce, somewhere over Texas, when Barack Obama loped down the aisle of the plane to chat with reporters. — I felt guilty, because I had been covering his speeches urging parents to make their kids give up chips and Popeyes.
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Zachary A. Goldfarb / The Talk:
Mich., Fla. Dilemma Consumes Democrats — Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, warned today that a divisive nomination battle could cost Democrats the presidency in November. — “[T]he only thing that can beat us is that we're divided,” Dean said on ABC's “This Week.”
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Olivia Ward / Toronto Star:
Ten worst countries for women — In spite of real progress around the globe, the bedrock problems that have dogged women for centuries remain — The image of the 21st century woman is confident, prosperous, glowing with health and beauty. — But for many of the 3.3 billion female occupants …
Times of London:
Hamas wages Iran's proxy war on Israel — A Hamas leader admits hundreds of his fighters have travelled to Tehran — The Hamas commander was in a hurry. Hunched forward in a navy-blue parka, with the wind-chapped skin and drawn eyes of someone who had been outdoors all night, he had just returned from the front line with Israel.
Discussion:
Commentary, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Solomonia, Soccer Dad, A Blog For All and PrairiePundit
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L. Brent Bozell / Washington Post:
From the Right, He Looks Too Blue — Think real conservatives will vote for John McCain? Don't count on it. — The conservative talk-show community? Don't mind them — they're irrelevant. — This message from John McCain surrogates and other members of the political class is filling the airwaves and op-ed pages.
Jeff Jacoby / Boston Globe:
How government makes things worse — WHAT DO ethanol and the subprime mortgage meltdown have in common? Each is a good reminder of that most powerful of unwritten decrees, the Law of Unintended Consequences - and of the all-too-frequent tendency of solutions imposed by the state to exacerbate the harms they were meant to solve.
Discussion:
Solomonia
Gwynnie / Maggie's Farm:
Major Brian Shul: “I loved that jet” — This piece by Major Shul came in over the transom: — In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya …
Dallas Morning News:
Many Obama voters ignored other Texas primary races — wslater@dallasnews.com; gjeffers@dallasnews.com — Backers of both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned out with passionate support for their candidate in last week's Texas primary. But once they got in the voting booth, they did something different.
Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Influential Democrats Waiting to Choose Sides — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's trio of victories over Sen. Barack Obama last week appears to have convinced a sizable number of uncommitted Democratic superdelegates to wait until the end of the primaries and caucuses before picking a candidate …
Tina Brown / Newsweek:
Hillary and the Invisible Women — Up Against the Wall: Clinton is at her best when things look grim, as they did before the Texas vote, when her traveling press corps was stashed in a men's room … Hillary Clinton's run-up to the Texas and Ohio primaries was the political equivalent of Hell Week for a Navy SEAL.