Top Items:
Rasmussen Reports:
Election 2010: Pennsylvania Republican Senate Primary — Pennsylvania Senate Primary: Toomey 51% Specter 30% — Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey by 21 points in an early look at Pennsylvania's 2010 Republican Primary. Fifty-one percent (51%) …
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Washington Post:
In Obama's Inner Circle, Debate Over Memos' Release Was Intense — Some Feared That a Partisan Outcry Could Obstruct Larger Agenda — As President Obama met with top advisers on the evening of April 15, he faced one of the sharpest policy divides of his young administration.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Key Dem Senator Likely To Vote Against Top Obama Legal Nominee — Uh oh. This could signal real trouble for a key Obama nominee under assault by the right: Office of Legal Counsel chief Dawn Johnsen, a fierce Bush critic who would be at the center of the war over whether Obama …
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Ben Smith's Blog, DownWithTyranny! and The Anonymous Liberal
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
White House Worried About Johnsen Nomination
White House Worried About Johnsen Nomination
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
Reconciliation Now Has a Date: October 15 — It's been in the works for a while and now, according to senior Captiol Hill staffers, it's a done deal: The final budget resolution will include a “reconciliation instruction” for health care. That means the Democrats can pass health care reform …
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Walter Alarkon / The Hill:
Budget deal includes fast-track for health reform — Democrats in Congress and the White House have struck a tentative budget deal that includes reconciliation instructions that will make it easier to push through healthcare reform this year. — The deal, which still needs approval …
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Gingrich vs. Gore in global warming showdown — It's Gingrich vs. Gore at Friday's global warming hearing. — The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee has added former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to the roster of witnesses for its hearing on a climate bill Friday.
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Lee Fang / Think Progress:
After Appearing In Gore Ads Last Year, Gingrich Now Decries Green Economy Bill As ‘Path Of Destruction’ — Last year, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared in a “We Campaign” advertisement for former Vice President Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Obtained: Cheney's Request Form Detailing The Two CIA Torture Docs He Wants — I've just obtained from the National Archives the actual request form that Dick Cheney submitted for CIA documents he claims will prove that torture worked. — Cheney requested all of two CIA documents, a total of 21 pages.
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David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
A Glimpse of the Dark Side — Dick Cheney apparently kept a file in his office marked “Detainees” (.pdf). — The document in question, obtained by Greg Sargent, is Cheney's request to the National Archives to declassify and release certain documents that he says “proves” that U.S. torture produced actionable intelligence.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Video: Frank in 2005 — Bubble? What bubble? — Barney Frank argued this week that he had always warned about the excesses of pushing home ownership and had advocated for rentals instead. Our friends at Verum Serum couldn't believe their ears, because Frank has long been one of the loudest …
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway
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Morgen / Verum Serum:
Exclusive Video: Barney Frank Impales Self Using Own Words
Exclusive Video: Barney Frank Impales Self Using Own Words
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit
Bob Von Sternberg / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Minnesotans won't know second Senator until at least June — The state Supreme Court set the schedule today for the legal showdown between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman over the Senate seat that has been vacant since January. — Minnesotans won't know who will be their second U.S. Senator until at least June.
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USA Today:
Poll: Public thinks highly of Obama — WASHINGTON — President Obama's opening months in the Oval Office have fortified his standing with the American public, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, giving him political capital for battles ahead. — As his 100th day as president approaches next Wednesday …
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Reclaiming America's Soul — “Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.” So declared President Obama, after his commendable decision to release the legal memos that his predecessor used to justify torture. Some people in the political and media establishments have echoed his position.
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, normblog, LewRockwell.com Blog, Guardian, TalkLeft, Economist's View, neo-neocon, The Impolitic and Corrente
John Cook / Gawker:
Ambushing Bill O'Reilly's Ambusher — Gawker has some questions for Jesse B. Watters, the Fox News producer that Bill O'Reilly likes to send out to ambush his enemies. So we're outside his building in Long Island. Right now. (Hi, Jesse!) — This apartment building is the last known address …
Ewen MacAskill / Guardian:
US to release prisoner abuse pictures — Official says up to 2,000 pictures taken between 2001 and 2006 are not as bad as Abu Ghraib but ‘not good’ either — The Obama administration is set to intensify the torture debate by releasing scores of new pictures showing abuse of prisoners held by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Robert Mackey / The Lede:
Taliban Spokesman Blames American Women — Update | 1:25 p.m. Britain's Channel 4 News aired a video report on Thursday night showing Taliban forces on the streets of the strategically important Pakistani town of Buner, just 70 miles from the country's capital, Islamabad.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Palin, Fundraising Firm Part Ways — Campaign Solutions, a Republican consulting firm advising Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee, has parted ways with the former Republican vice presidential nominee. — The group had been working with the Palin operation to raise money …
Discussion:
The Politico, The Swamp, Ben Smith's Blog, Political Machine and Conservatives4Palin.com
Ryan Avent / Portfolio:
The Stress Test Blind Alley — Today, the government will begin discussing the results of its stress tests with heads of the nation's 19 larger banks in meetings in Washington and will release the methodology of the tests to the public. Then, of course, we'll all sit around twiddling …
Discussion:
Felix Salmon, The Daily Dish, Financial Times, Wonk Room, New York Times and MoJo Blog Posts
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Why Don't We All Focus On “Looking Forward” — There's a bar in the East Village that offers five shots of anything for ten bucks. I'm going there tonight, and taking 10 shots of anything the crowd reccommends. Then I'm going to stand on the street soliciting random women for sex.
Discussion:
ATTACKERMAN
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
BANANA REPUBLICS.... To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, Republicans keep using this phrase, but I don't think it means what they think it means. — On Tuesday, Karl Rove argued on Fox News that accountability for Bush administration officials who broke the law would make United States …
www.washingtonexaminer.com:
Chris Matthews changes book title Jon Stewart mocked — Could the interview Chris Matthews called “the worst he's ever had” have something to do with his decision to change the title of his most recent book before its paperback edition is released? — In 2007, the “Hardball” host went on …
Washington Post:
Getting Real on Wind and Solar — Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn't always shine and that the wind doesn't always blow. That means that solar cells and wind energy systems don't always provide electric power. Nevertheless, solar and wind energy seem …
Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel Gives Credit to Tea Partiers — In a shocking turn of events, The Nation magazine's liberal editor has joined nefarious corporate backers and Fox News' dishonest trumpeters in giving credence to the utterly inauthentic, “Astroturf” Tax Day Tea Parties …