Top Items:
Ben Smith / The Politico:
2 arrests in Obama appointee's office — Federal agents this morning are searching the office Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer. — The search of the office at 1 Judiciary Square is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI's D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said.
Discussion:
MSNBC, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Commentary, RedState, Little Green Footballs, TPMMuckraker, JammieWearingFool and Alarming News
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WTOP.com:
2 arrested in FBI raid at Obama appointee's office — WASHINGTON - Two officials in the D.C.'s Office of the Chief Technology Officer have been arrested in a federal bribery sting, sources tell WTOP. — D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employees Sushil Bansal and 40-year-old Yusuf Acar …
Del Quentin Wilber / Washington Post:
D.C. Official Arrested in Federal Bribery Sting
D.C. Official Arrested in Federal Bribery Sting
Discussion:
DCist
David A Nakamura / D.C. Wire:
Breaking: D.C. Tech Official Busted in Federal Bribery Sting
Breaking: D.C. Tech Official Busted in Federal Bribery Sting
Discussion:
DCist
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Steele backs off abortion remarks — RNC Chairman Michael Steele said today that despite telling an interviewer he supports “individual choice” and state-level decisions on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban. — Steele said in a statement through an RNC spokesman:
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Think Progress, Villainous Company, Hotline On Call, Daily Kos, The Daily Dish, Gates of Vienna, Open Left, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, TPMDC, Political Machine, Liberal Values, CBS News, Right Wing Watch, Wonkette, AMERICAblog News, Riehl World View, Liz Mair and Salon
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Matt Lewis / Townhall.com:
Blackwell: Steele Needs to Re-Read Bible, Constitution... I just spoke with Ken Blackwell, a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and a former Ohio Secretary of State, about Michael Steele's comments to GQ. — According to Blackwell: … Blackwell ran against Steele …
Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
FIRST THOUGHTS: IS THIS WAR? — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
FIRST THOUGHTS: IS THIS WAR? — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Bloomberg, Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Corner and George's Bottom Line
Jimmy Orr / Christian Science Monitor:
New Limbaugh billboard slogan announced - creativity was not considered — E-mail a friend - Print this - Letter to the Editor - Republish - - Get e-mail alerts - RSS — Setting a world record today for beating a dead horse, the Democratic National Committee will announce they've selected …
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John / Power Line:
THE WINNING BILLBOARD IS... We ridiculed here the Democratic Party's lame contest for an anti-Rush Limbaugh slogan to be put on a billboard near his home. The five “finalists” were, we thought, rather pathetic. Just this morning, the Democrats announced the winner; click to enlarge:
Discussion:
The Corner
Michelle Malkin:
Lamest billboard ever — I said last week that Democrat donors ought to question whether the DNC was using its money wisely by indugling in an anti-Rush Limbaugh billboard. — See, I told you so. The Christian Science Monitor skewers the results: … FAIL.
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
The Country's Loss — The Obama administration has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place, and their friends on Capitol Hill. The country has lost an able public servant in an area where President Obama has few personal credentials …
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Fred Kaplan / Slate:
Winners and losers in the knock-down fight over Charles Freeman's aborted appointment. — Discomfiting as it is to say so, President Barack Obama was right to cut Charles Freeman loose—but not for the reasons that Freeman's foes might think. — It's always discomfiting when nominees …
Discussion:
Snarksmith
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The distorting effect of anonymity
The distorting effect of anonymity
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Ben Smith's Blog, The Huffington Post, Wake up America, NPR, Washington Post and Brian Beutler
David Rothkopf:
Why Freeman himself was wrong about what his defeat signified... There was a lot I didn't like about the Chas Freeman debacle, but the thing I did not like most was the degree to which it offered apparent support to the “theories” of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.
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John Podhoretz / Commentary:
Allow Me to Twirl My Evil Moustache (or Payess, If You Know What I Mean)
Allow Me to Twirl My Evil Moustache (or Payess, If You Know What I Mean)
Discussion:
Hot Air
New York Times:
Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty — Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to all the charges against him and expressed remorse for a vast Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars. — Standing before Judge Denny Chin in United States District Court in Manhattan …
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George F. Will / Washington Post:
Paved With Magnificent Intentions — Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, described Washington as a “city of magnificent intentions” because of the incongruity between the city's grand aspirations and muddy, swampy actuality. Today Washington's discrepancy is not architectural but political.
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Maria Recio / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration — WASHINGTON — President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.
Discussion:
New York Times, CBS News, The Moderate Voice, Fox News, The Reaction, PoliPundit.com and QandO
Christine / FishBowlDC:
Pres. Obama Will Not Attend Annual Gridiron Dinner, First President Since Cleveland to Miss — A Gridiron Club member tells FBDC first that President Obama will not attend this year's dinner next Saturday, March 21st. He will be the first president since Grover Cleveland not to attend the first Gridiron Club Dinner of his presidency.
Andrew C. Revkin / Dot Earth:
No Skepticism on the Energy Gap — On Tuesday, the final day of the Heartland Institute's conference examining whether global warming was ever a crisis, there was a fascinating moment in one session when the discussion shifted from questioning warming to assessing humanity's limited energy choices.
Wall Street Journal:
Obama Makes Use of Signing Statements — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed a $410 billion spending bill Wednesday that includes thousands of pet projects inserted by lawmakers, even as he unveiled new rules to restrict such so-called earmarks. — At the same time …
Discussion:
New York Times, The Opinionator, Flopping Aces, The Next Right, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Chicago Tribune, QandO and NO QUARTER
TBogg:
The Galt's of Gullible Gulch — Galt Gulch seemed so much bigger in the book — Threatened by “Obama's Thugs” which slims her pickin's mightily, Dr. Mrs Ole Perfesser assembles a crack panel of quarter millionaires (plus one dollar) who describe how they are going to Go John Galt.
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Obama's honeymoon bliss fading — President Obama's honeymoon is beginning to fade. — Members of Congress and old political hands say he needs to show substantial progress reviving the economy soon. — Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don't and won't understand …
MsJoanne / TheZoo:
How DARE you say 9/11 happened on Bush's watch! — Oh boy...popcorn all around! This from the Bush Legacy Revisionism Tour ™. — Chris Matthews asks Ari Fleischer about how Bush left the economy. Fleischer answers 9/11! 9/11! Then the money shot... Priceless!
Quinnipiac University:
Christie Opens 9-Point Lead Over Corzine In NJ Gov Race, Quinnipiac University New Jersey Poll Finds; Prosecutor's Experience Helps Challenger — Christopher Christie, the Republican challenger in this year's New Jersey Governor's race, leads Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine 46 …
ABCNEWS:
Pelosi Travel Abuse? Case Not Proved — Watchdog Group Criticizes House Speaker for Travel Perks, but Records Don't Agree — The treasure trove of documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Department of Defense regarding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's use of military aircraft …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Political Machine, Top of the Ticket, Swampland, News Hounds, Firedoglake and NewsBusters.org