Top Items:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
TOXIC — For the last week it's seemed that Sens. Clinton and Obama were adhering to their tacit truce, continuing the primary campaign but avoiding the harsh exchanges that make later party unity a dimmer and dimmer prospect. Clinton particularly had deescalated her rhetoric.
RELATED:
Avi Zenilman / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Ickes: We want the Michigan uncommitted to stay uncommitted — In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Senior Adviser Harold Ickes clarified their position on Michigan — they don't want the 55 “uncommitted” delegates to go to Obama (his name did not appear on the ballot in Michigan).
Elizabeth Benjamin / The Daily Politics:
Paterson Sees ‘Desperation’ By Clinton, Disagrees On Florida And Michigan — Gov. David Paterson, who is right now being interviewed by WAMC's Alan Chartock and taking calls from listeners on “Vox Pop,” just disagreed sharply with his presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton …
The Huffington Post:
Clinton Compares Florida, Michigan Situation To Zimbabwe Elections
Clinton Compares Florida, Michigan Situation To Zimbabwe Elections
Discussion:
Comments from Left Field, New York Times, The Carpetbagger Report, TBogg, PunditGuy, Commentary, Ben Smith's Blogs and MoJoBlog
CNN:
McCain officially rejects Hagee endorsement — From CNN Correspondent Brian Todd, CNN's Dugald McConnell, CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand — (CNN) — In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain …
RELATED:
Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Unapologetic Hagee Says Hitler Statement Was “Mischaracterized” — Pastor John Hagee said on Thursday that his controversial sermon, in which he said Hitler was fulfilling God's will for a state of Israel, had been “intentionally mischaracterized” and constituted a “gross example of bias.”
Discussion:
Political Punch, The Caucus, Spin Cycle, The Raw Story, PERRspectives Blog, Boston Globe and The Huffington Post
Mark Murray / MSNBC:
MCCAIN REJECTS AND DENOUNCES HAGEE
MCCAIN REJECTS AND DENOUNCES HAGEE
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Washington Wire, MoJoBlog, Talking Points Memo, Think Progress, Fox News, FOX Embeds and LewRockwell.com Blog
Marc Ambinder:
McCain To Obama: Don't Demagogue The GI Bill — I don't usually print entire press statements from campaigns, but they're usually not this acidic. The casus belli is today's vote on Sen. Jim Webb's GI bill; McCain opposes it because he worries about military retention and/but has offered …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, MSNBC, Ben Smith's Blogs, Daily Kos, Obsidian Wings and Salon
RELATED:
Ian Bishop / NY Daily News:
I'd like wife to take my seat: Kennedy — Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki. — Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long …
Discussion:
New York Times, The Politico, The Moderate Voice, Scared Monkeys, Jules Crittenden, Hot Air and The New Republic
Emily Gould / New York Times:
Exposed — Back in 2006, when I was 24, my life was cozy and safe. I had just been promoted to associate editor at the publishing house where I'd been working since I graduated from college, and I was living with my boyfriend, Henry, and two cats in a grubby but spacious two-bedroom apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Discussion:
Ross Douthat
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Ellen DeGeneres weds: McCain walks me? — Ellen DeGeneres, who hosts a popular daytime television talk show and has announced on-air that she will marry her girlfriend, broached the question of gay marriage today with Republican John McCain, the party's presumptive presidential nominee.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Appeals Court Rules Against Texas in Polygamy Case — A Texas state court of appeals ruled Thursday afternoon that the state of Texas had no right to seize more than 400 children from a polygamist ranch in Eldorado, in the western part of the state, because there was not sufficient proof that they were in immediate danger.
RELATED:
Rick Santorum / Philly.com:
The Elephant in the Room: A wake-up call on gay marriage after '03 alarm went unheeded — Bigot! Hate-monger! Homophobe! — Those were just a few of the terms hurled my way in 2003 when I said that the Supreme Court's Texas sodomy decision opened the door to the redefinition of marriage.
RELATED:
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Conservatives And The Wrong Problems — Ezra Klein: … I think this gets things the wrong way round. In fact, the argumnent is framed in such a way as to violate conservatism's core insight - and that was also the case with Packer's article (and a lot of what my friends, David Brooks, Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat said in it).
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Powerful Iraqi cleric flirting with Shiite militant message — BAGHDAD - Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.
Brad Friedman / The BRAD BLOG:
KARL ROVE SUBPOENAED BY HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE IN SIEGELMAN CASE — Just sent to The BRAD BLOG by John Conyers' office... For Immediate Release: May 22, 2008 — Conyers Subpoenas Karl Rove — (Washington, DC)-Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) …
Discussion:
Newshoggers.com
RELATED:
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Petraeus: Diplomacy, Not Force, With Iran — Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, President Bush's nominee to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, supports continued U.S. engagement with international and regional partners to find the right mix of diplomatic, economic and military leverage …
RELATED:
The Politico:
Viral e-mails attack Obama's life story — The main obstacle standing between Barack Obama and the White House was distilled into five words by a local television correspondent in South Charleston, W.Va., earlier this month. — Prefacing a question about the challenges of winning over white …
Discussion:
PrestoPundit
Daily Mail:
Muslim convert held after nail bomb blast in restaurant — A Muslim convert with a history of mental illness was being held tonight after two bombs were found in a family restaurant toilet following an explosion at lunchtime. — Police and bomb disposal teams were called in after Nicky Reilly …
Justin Ewers / US News:
New Poll Finds Big Shift Toward Obama — Californians give Obama a significant edge over Clinton and McCain — SAN FRANCISCO—A new poll released today in California finds political momentum shifting dramatically toward Barack Obama—and away from both Hillary Clinton and John McCain—in the nation's most populous state.
Discussion:
TIME.com
New York Times:
Kennedy Talked, Khrushchev Triumphed — IN his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy expressed in two eloquent sentences, often invoked by Barack Obama, a policy that turned out to be one of his presidency's — indeed one of the cold war's — most consequential: “Let us never negotiate out of fear.
Discussion:
The Belmont Club, MSNBC, neo-neocon, Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Swamp, Winds of Change.NET, Commentary and Sweetness & Light