Reid: Roberts 'didn't tell us the truth'  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that John Roberts misled the Senate during his confirmation hearings by pretending to be a moderate - and that the United States is now “stuck” with him as chief justice.

Obama Sets New Afghan Strategy  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to further bolster American forces in Afghanistan and for the first time set benchmarks for progress in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban there and in Pakistan, officials said Thursday.  —  In imposing conditions …

Grassley: ‘Your Wife Said the Same Thing’  —  Priceless.  Chuck Grassley gets Kent Conrad good at Thursday's Senate Budget Committee markup. … Courtesy of the C-SPAN Video Library.

Bank CEOs Meet at White House  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama met with the leaders of top U.S. banks Friday to focus on the White House's drive to overhaul financial regulations and on thorny issues like executive compensation.  —  Mr. Obama urged the chief executives to deal …

Conservatives embrace the Snuggie  —  “Never let it be said that conservatives and libertarians have no sense of humor,” says Americans for Tax Reform's Derek Hunter, who's been doing his best to photograph fellow conservatives sporting the trend of the moment: the Snuggie.

The Market Mystique  —  On Monday, Lawrence Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, responded to criticisms of the Obama administration's plan to subsidize private purchases of toxic assets.  “I don't know of any economist,” he declared, “who doesn't believe that better functioning capital markets …

As New Lawyer, Senator Was Active in Tobacco's Defense  —  The Philip Morris Company did not like to talk about what went on inside its lab in Cologne, Germany, where researchers secretly conducted experiments exploring the effects of cigarette smoking.  —  So when the Justice Department tried …

GOP Leadership Rivals Throw Mike Pence Under the Bus  —  I've seen a lot of people link to this Glenn Thrush Politico item, but I have a slightly different take on it: … To me the salient point here is that Pence's spokesman is almost certainly telling the truth here …

Sarah Palin Adviser's Secret Scientology Plot to Take Over Washington  —  John Coale, currently advising Sarah Palin on running for president in 2012, is a Scientologist.  And according to a memo obtained by Gawker, Coale once plotted to use friendly politicians to advance the power-hungry cult's agenda.

Bachmann Blasts Obama's “Economic Marxism,” Calls For “Orderly Revolution” To Save Freedom  —  Wow.  Just plain wow.  This past Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Sean Hannity's radio show, and sharply reiterated her calls for revolution in America, warning against the imminent dangers of tyranny under Barack Obama:

Continued: Exec says Coleman donor ordered $100K payments  —  When the allegations first surfaced, Coleman denied that he or his wife ever received money.  He said the reports were an attack against his family engineered by his opponent, Al Franken.  Franken has denied that.

Baghdad in Fragments  —  Many third world cities look better at night than during the day.  Darkness hides shabbiness.  You have to imagine what the city actually looks like.  If you live in a first world city yourself, you might fill in the blanks with what you're familiar with.

A Target-Rich Environment  —  Karl Rove made a habit of employing this strategy in the salad days of the Bush revolution: draw out the more voluble, more controversial, more trigger-happy Democratic voices and use them reductively, cutting off more legitimate debate with more legitimate Democrats.

On Spending and the Deficit, McCain Was Right  —  Barack Obama used to get very upset about federal budget deficits.  Denouncing an “orgy of spending and enormous deficits,” he turned to John McCain during their presidential debates last fall and said, “We have had, over the last eight years …

When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking  —  The rapper 50 Cent is among the legion of stars who have recently embraced Twitter to reach fans who crave near-continuous access to their lives and thoughts.  On March 1, he shared this insight with the more than 200,000 people who follow him …

Welfare for Freed Gitmo Detainees?  —  Here, from the Associated Press, is a partial account of DNI Dennis Blair's first press conference today (emphasis mine): … Four short questions/comments:  —  (1) Does this mean that the Obama administration is planning on giving some freed Guantanamo detainees a stipend?

National Health Preview  —  The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood.  —  Praise Mitt Romney.  Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the “universal” health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country.

Job Losses From Obama Green Stimulus Foreseen in Spanish Study  —  Subsidizing renewable energy in the U.S. may destroy two jobs for every one created if Spain's experience with windmills and solar farms is any guide.  —  For every new position that depends on energy price supports …

Slow Boil Over Egg Roll Tickets on Web  —  Maybe we should go back to standing in line.  —  The White House's Internet distribution of tickets to this year's Easter Egg Roll appears to have begun with a splat.  —  Yesterday's release of tickets online in batches produced …

Obama on Afghanistan: Disappointing  —  27 March 2009  —  President Obama has just spoken on AfPak.  I closed my eyes and listened closely to his words, coming via the BBC from the other side of the world.  —  The President's words were disappointing.  He talked about our goal to reach …

David Horowitz: ‘100% Chance’ of Terror Strike on U.S. Soil  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a “100% chance that there will be . . . an attack on U.S. soil,” conservative author David Horowitz said Thursday.  —  Horowitz made the prediction while speaking to a George Washington University student group …

A Glance Back at Cramer vs. Cuomo  —  Jim Cramer, the stock-investment personality on CNBC, has taken so many hits of late, perhaps this is piling on.  —  Or perhaps not.  —  A recent article in The New York Times reviewing the record of New York's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo …

THE RNC POLLS ITS SUPPORTERS.... The Republican National Committee emailed a survey to its supporters this morning.  The questions are broken up into two categories: “Domestic and Social Issues” and “Homeland Security and Defense Issues.”  —  Of course, the wording a survey uses can have some influence on the results.

What's our gold standard?  —  I've just reread Eichengreen and Temin, The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, which does a great job of showing how the “gold mentality” — what they call mentalite, with an accent — paralyzed policymakers.  (The longer-form version, with more personal color, is Liaquat Ahamad's Lords of Finance.)