We Didn't Have to Lose Arlen Specter  —  IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican …

Obama targets tea bags at town hall  —  At his 100th-day town hall meeting in St. Louis Wednesday, President Barack Obama took direct aim at the anti-tax “tea party” demonstrations that have cropped up over the last month and took a veiled shot at the Fox News Channel, the cable news network closely associated with the protests.

The black-white divide in Obama's popularity  —  On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult.  But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular …

EXCLUSIVE: Steele may lose purse strings  —  A battle over control of the party's purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to “embarrass and neuter” the party's new leader.

U.S. officials want ‘swine’ out of flu name  —  Source: Reuters  —  What's in a name?  U.S. pork producers are finding that the name of the virus spreading from Mexico is affecting their business, prompting U.S. officials to argue for changing the name from swine flu.

House Passes Budget With No GOP Votes  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the House have passed a $3.4 trillion budget outline that will help him pass health care reform later in the year.  —  Not a single Republican backed the plan, which passed by a 233-193 vote.

U.S. Economy in 2nd Straight Quarter of Steep Decline  —  The American economy shrank rapidly in the first three months of the year, the government reported on Wednesday, a signal that the economy is likely to remain a dominant issue as the Obama administration looks beyond its first 100 days.

State of play in the Harman case  —  Rep. Jane Harman has hired lawyer Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky affair, as a media advisor, The Cable has learned.  —  The enlisting of the heavyweight help is the latest sign that the California Democrat intends …

After the Great Recession  —  On April 14, President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, trying to explain why he was taking on so many economic issues so early in his administration.  He argued that the country needed to break its bubble-and-bust cycle and cited the New Testament …

Rep. Virginia Foxx Called Matthew Shepard Hate Crime “A Hoax” … Matthew Shepard's Death Was A Hate Crime, Not Simply A Robbery  —  Rep. Foxx: “The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of robbery.

Exclusive: Utah's Republican Governor Warns GOP Leaders, “You Can't Just Say No”  —  It's Time for Party to Advance Workable Alternatives Rather Than Block the Door, Gov. Says  —  With the party reeling from Sen. Arlen Specter's defection, a prominent moderate Republican governor is warning …

New Hampshire Senate Votes to Legalize Gay Marriage  —  The Democratic controlled New Hampshire Senate passed an amended version of the controversial measure to legalize gay marriage today.  The vote was 13-11 in favor of the measure.  —  The House passed a similar measure last month by a 186-179 vote.

At Airport in Murtha's District, Wartime Upgrades  —  JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — At the behest of House Defense Appropriations Chairman John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the Pentagon has spent about $30 million equipping a little-used airport named for the congressman so that it can handle behemoth military aircraft …

“Never Again,” Obama Style  —  No president in modern times has managed to conceal so much of his biography as this one.  The journalists assigned to the Obama beat seem to have lost their traditional avidity for digging out the missing details.  We do not have a medical report …

HUNDREDS OF TEA PARTY PROTESTERS GREET OBAMA IN ST. LOUIS!  —  Local 97.1 FM radio host Dana Loesch fires up the crowd outside Fox High School in St. Louis.  —  There were about 15 Obama union supporters outside the school and a van with a Teamster's sticker selling Obama T-shirts and pins.

Obama's Vision Deficit  —  So here we are, 100 days into the great eight-year triumph of Hope over Change, a new Era of Really Good Feelings in which only one thing has become increasingly, even irrefutably, clear: President Barack Obama is about as visionary as the guy who invented Dippin' Dots, Ice Cream of the Future.

Historian Michele Bachmann Blames FDR's “Hoot-Smalley” Tariffs For Great Depression  —  Make no mistake: When it comes to economics, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) knows her history — even if that history is from another planet.  —  On Monday night, our friends at Dump Bachmann reported …

Against Waterboarding  —  I do not believe that the United States should have a policy of using waterboarding to extract information from captured combatants in the Global War on Terror (GWOT).  Let me explain why.  Any decent society needs to defend itself from armed aggression without becoming a society not worth defending.

Bank Lobby On Course To Gut Bankruptcy Bill  —  The bankruptcy reform bill that passed the House weeks ago amid much fanfare is on course to be gutted by the Senate Thursday.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the Huffington Post Wednesday that he wasn't sure the bill …