Top Items:
Michael Cooper / The Caucus:
Lieberman: Obama Has Not Always Put Country First — YORK, Pa. - One of the McCain campaign's new themes, that Senator John McCain has always put his country first, has been seem by some analysts as a subtle suggestion that his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, has not.
Discussion:
TPM Election Central, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, MSNBC, The Jed Report, Hullabaloo, TIME.com and PoliticalBase.com Blog
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
OY — From the Journal ... It's genuinely hard to know where to start with this sort of nonsense. To say that Randy has a conflict of interest misses the point. And I'd hope that's not the argument the Obama campaign is trying to make. The point is that Randy was running point …
New York Times:
Russia Says It Has Ordered Halt to Georgia Military Action
Russia Says It Has Ordered Halt to Georgia Military Action
Discussion:
Think Progress, Transatlantic Politics, Washington Post, MoJoBlog, Reuters, Associated Press, Outside The Beltway, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Lawyers, Guns and Money, FP Passport, The Washington Independent, Hullabaloo, PERRspectives Blog, Taylor Marsh, EU Referendum, The Lede, Silicon Alley Insider, Blogs of War, International Herald Tribune, TalkLeft, Telegraph and Donklephant
Johanna Neuman / The LA Times President Bush Blog:
With Georgia, Russia at war, where's Condoleezza Rice?
With Georgia, Russia at war, where's Condoleezza Rice?
Star Bulletin:
Some politics, then some fun — Obama urges truce in Georgian conflict
Some politics, then some fun — Obama urges truce in Georgian conflict
Discussion:
Boston Globe
Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Mukasey: No prosecutions in Justice hiring scandal — NEW YORK - No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.
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Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
Mukasey Won't Pursue Charges in Hiring Inquiry — WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Tuesday rejected the idea of criminally prosecuting former Justice Department employees who improperly used political litmus tests in hiring decisions, saying he had already taken strong internal steps in response to a “painful” episode.
Discussion:
The Swamp, United States Department …, ACSBlog, Hullabaloo, On Deadline, Martini Revolution and Sadly, No!
Mark J. Penn / The Politico:
Negative ads: They really do work — Clever negative advertising works. That is reality. — The tactic meets with media and pundit disapproval and spawns accusations of negativity, but the reality is that a clever negative ad can be devastatingly effective.
Discussion:
New York Times, Ben Smith's Blogs, Top of the Ticket, Salon, CNN, Wonkette, Wilshire & Washington, Donklephant and Boston Globe
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Eric Kleefeld / TPM Election Central:
GOP Rep. To Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved The Planet — We like to keep track of the, er, intriguing sayings of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the Christian Right champion from Minnesota. But this latest is really out there — Bachmann says we don't need pesky environmentalists …
Discussion:
Think Progress
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Jim Brown / OneNewsNow.com:
GOP floor revolt over inaction continues
GOP floor revolt over inaction continues
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
James Fallows:
David Brooks from Chengdu: my lord — Some of his pensees: … This is the kind of thing you can say only if you have not the slightest inkling of how completely different a billion-plus people can be from one another. Beijingers from Shanghainese, Guangdong entrepreneurs from farmers in Sichuan …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
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Washington Post:
‘Snake Oil’ — Debunking three ‘truths’ about offshore drilling — THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as “George W. Bush's Gasoline Price Elixir” that is “100% Snake Oil.”
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:
This is only one of John McCain's 8 or 9 (or 10) houses — Hey, nothing wrong with being filthy rich. Just stop playing the regular guy, going after your opponent's supposedly elite life, when you and your wife combined are worth $100 million and you can't even remember how many homes you own.
Natalie Gewargis / Political Punch:
Today's Campaign Contest: Count the Young White Women in McCain's Anti-Obama Video — How many young white women professing adoration for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can you count in this anti-Obama web video that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, was sending out yesterday?
On Politics:
Sen. Hagel won't be endorsing a presidential candidate — Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who is one of John McCain's closest friends — but who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Democrat Barack Obama — is sitting out the presidential contest, according to his spokesman, Jordan Stark.
Discussion:
Jonathan Martin's Blogs
James Pethokoukis / US News:
Two Cheers for Russia's Invasion of Georgia — The thoughts of a former expert on the former Soviet Union—that would be me, to crib a line from geopolitical guru Thomas Barnett—about the Russian invasion of Georgia: — 1) It would be great if clarity came cheap. Sometimes it does, but often it doesn't.
Peter Wehner / Commentary:
Sullivan's Travels — In a post early this morning, Andrew Sullivan concludes with this: … This highlighted statement is an astonishing one. The clear implication is that what America did in going to war with Iraq is the moral equivalent of what Russia has done to Georgia.
Learfield / Radio Iowa:
Jim Leach endorses Obama — “It's been a very difficult thing for me because I've never endorsed a Democrat before...but sometimes in life you come to a juncture where it's very clear the national interest trumps party discipline,” former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach said in a noontime interview with Radio Iowa.
Brent Budowsky / Editor and Publisher:
Target Obama: Why The Press Must Fact-Check Campaign Claims — What is the responsibility of reporters, editors and publishers when a candidate is the target of a campaign of attack and personal destruction employing the systematic use of lies, smears, innuendo and character assassination?
Richard T. Cullen / The Politico:
Enthusiasm gap plagues GOP convention — While excitement is building for a Democratic Party convention capped by Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech before a sold-out, 75,000-seat football stadium, the GOP convention the following week is shaping up to be a considerably more staid affair …