Top Items:
Marty / Martin Eisenstadt's Blog:
Paris Hilton's family fuming at McCain campaign — I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that the new McCain ad criticizing Obama for being a celebrity has ruffled some unintended feathers. I, for one, quite liked the ad, but I hear whispers from the inner campaign staff …
Discussion:
michellemalkin.com, Gun Toting Liberal Blog, Blue Girl, Red State, The Anonymous Liberal and Wonkette
RELATED:
Ross Douthat:
Barack Hitler Obama — It's remarkable what those fiendish GOP operatives can squeeze into thirty seconds: Not only does McCain's “celeb” ad have “Barack Obama will rape yo daughters overtones,” says Rick Perlstein (who's apparently under the impression that most Americans think of Paris Hilton …
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction — Barack Obama's critics laid down the foundations of the strategy months ago: The Republican National Committee started the “Audacity Watch” back in April, and Karl Rove later fueled the attack by describing the first-term Illinois senator as “coolly arrogant.”
Mark Murray / MSNBC:
GRAHAM AND LIEBERMAN DEFEND AD — From NBC's Ken Strickland and Andrea Mitchell — Responding to criticism of McCain's recent TV ad depicting Obama as celebrity without substance, two of McCain's key Senate allies fired back in an unrelated news conference.
Discussion:
Wake up America, PoliticalBase.com Blog, The Carpetbagger Report and TPM Election Central
Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
The McCain Ad in South Florida — Contemplating Eve's (and Rick Perlstein's) analogy between the McCain “Celeb” ad and Leni Riefenstahl's greatest hits, it occurs to me that the similarities won't be lost on many elderly Jews in South Florida. My late grandfather, a member of this species …
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Where did Barack Obama's mojo go? — Something's going on. Or some things. — A new CNN/Opinion Research poll out Wednesday shows that despite nine solid days of blanket media coverage from overseas with Barack Obama cheered by adoring throngs of Germans and parlez-vousing with the French …
Dean Barnett / Weekly Standard Blog: About that Ad — As you know, I haven't exactly established myself …
John Riley / Spin Cycle:
Sex celebs: Why Britney and Paris?
Sex celebs: Why Britney and Paris?
Discussion:
Ross Douthat, The Trail, The Carpetbagger Report, The New Republic, Political Punch and MSNBC
Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
JOHN McCAIN'S “PALPABLE PAIN”....From Todd Purdum's profile …
JOHN McCAIN'S “PALPABLE PAIN”....From Todd Purdum's profile …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
Washington Post:
As Aides Map Aggressive Race, McCain Often Steers Off Course
As Aides Map Aggressive Race, McCain Often Steers Off Course
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Politico, Firedoglake, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Carpetbagger Report and TIME.com
Glenn Reynolds / Pajamas Media:
GAFFE-O-MATIC: … Isn't there just one President on the dollar bill?
GAFFE-O-MATIC: … Isn't there just one President on the dollar bill?
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Ben Smith's Blogs, www.redstate.com, Hot Air, The Carpetbagger Report and Political Punch
David Stout / New York Times:
White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed — WASHINGTON — President Bush's top advisers cannot ignore subpoenas issued by Congress, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in a case that involves the firings of several United States attorneys but has much wider constitutional implications for all three branches of government.
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Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
This is Really Pretty Amazing — In a 93-page opinion in the Miers/Bolten contempt case, Judge Bates not only rejects all of the various Administration arguments against justiciability, but goes so far as to reach the merits and hold that there is no basis for the DOJ argument …
Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:
US Judge: White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed — US judge sides with Congress, says Bush aides can be subpoenaed. — President Bush's top advisers are not immune from congressional subpoenas, a federal judge ruled Thursday in an unprecedented dispute between the two political branches.
Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:
Federal judge rules Bush's aides can be subpoenaed — WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Bush's contention that senior White House advisers are immune from subpoenas, siding with Congress' power to investigate the executive branch and handing a victory to Democrats probing …
Jared Allen / The Hill:
Pelosi says Rove contempt citation is possible — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that a federal judge's ruling that former White House counsel Harriet Miers has to appear before a congressional committee could pave the way for Congress approving a contempt citation against Karl Rove.
Discussion:
Think Progress
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
McCain says ‘race card’ charges are fair — (CNN) — John McCain told CNN Thursday it is fair for his campaign manager to claim Barack Obama is playing ‘the race card.’ — “I'm sorry to say that it is. It's legitimate,” McCain told CNN's John King. “And there's no place in this campaign for that.
RELATED:
Marc Ambinder:
Bluffing 'Bout Bias? — CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — Really, the press corps should pay attention to Barack Obama's sustained defense of his energy policies, which includes new language on John McCain's ties to the oil industry. But we're not: we're writing about the flashpoint of the day …
Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama 45%, McCain 44% — PRINCETON, NJ — The race for the presidency has moved back into a statistical tie in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update of national registered voters, with Barack Obama now ahead of John McCain by just one percentage point, 45% to 44%.
Jane Kay / San Francisco Chronicle:
51% of Californians back offshore drilling — (07-30) 22:28 PDT San Francisco — A majority of Californians favor more oil drilling off the coast, according to a statewide survey released Wednesday, for the first time since oil prices spiked nearly three decades ago.
RELATED:
Faiz / Think Progress:
EXCLUSIVE: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them — Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker — revealed that Bush administration officials held …
Julia Werdigier / New York Times:
Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell — Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company. — Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion …
RELATED:
Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:
PFC LaVena Johnson Was Raped, Beaten, Set On Fire And Worse - Army Calls It Suicide — Nicole and I have both written posts about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of PFC LaVena Johnson, and Democracy Now! had a heartbreaking interview with her family last week.
Jennifer Parker / Political Radar:
Clinton Supporter Angered By ‘Other Women’ Obama VP Talk — ABC News' Jennifer Parker reports: A longtime friend of Sen. Hillary Clinton said it's “incomprehensible” that Sen. Barack Obama would choose another woman to be his vice-presidential candidate over Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Michael Scherer / Swampland:
Inside the New Battleground Poll — In the grand cosmos of political polling organizations, Quinnipiac is one of the better ones. So it's worth taking a look at its new summer snapshot of three battleground states—Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The poll was conducted over a full week …