Top Items:
Olympia Snowe / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion:
Instapundit, Think Progress, The Corner, Washington Post, CBS News, Political Punch, MSNBC, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, The Politico, Hot Air, About.com US Liberal Politics, Balloon Juice, Commentary, Wall Street Journal, Taegan Goddard's …, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, progressiverepublican.info, Raw Story, Riehl World View, Newshoggers.com, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Daily Kos, TPMDC, Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Democratic Strategist, Pam's House Blend, Washington Monthly, The Washington Independent, Salon, Taylor Marsh and The Hill
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Peter Hamby / CNN:
Specter defection highlights GOP divide in South Carolina — WASHINGTON (CNN) - In the wake of Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic caucus, Republicans are primed for yet another round of soul-searching and intra-party sniping about the GOP's future.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
DeMint: Republicans Losing Because of “Forced Unionization” — When a party does badly in a couple of elections in a row and winds up losing a ton of seats, the natural consequence is to end up more concentrated in its regional base of support. The Republicans did poorly in 2006 …
Discussion:
The New Republic
Lee Fang / Think Progress:
VIDEO REPORT: Conservatives' 100 Days Of Opposition — In the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, the conservative movement has undergone a period of radicalization. From knee-jerk opposition to the President's policies, to petty insults and conspiracy theories aimed at smearing Obama …
Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Obama targets tea bags at town hall — At his 100th-day town hall meeting in St. Louis, Mo., President 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 FOX News Channel, at the cable news network closely associated with the protests.
Jack Healy / New York Times:
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.
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Tabassum Zakaria / Reuters:
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.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, CNN, JONATHAN TURLEY, At-Largely, MoJo Blog Posts, Fausta's Blog, protein wisdom, Outside The Beltway and Fox News
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Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:
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.
Discussion:
The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Politics Daily, Ben Smith's Blog, pandagon.net, AMERICAblog News and Library Grape
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CNN:
House approves $3.44 trillion budget resolution — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The House of Representatives passed a $3.44 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2010 Wednesday, approving most of President Obama's key spending priorities and setting the federal government in a new direction …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
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Byron York / www.washingtonexaminer.com:
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 …
New York Times:
Early Resolve: Obama Stand in Auto Crisis — WASHINGTON — By the time he sat down in the Oval Office to brief Michigan's Congressional delegation, President Obama had made up his mind. Days earlier, he had decided to oust the head of General Motors and give it and Chrysler weeks to fix themselves.
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Laura Rozen / The Cable:
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 …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Talking Points Memo, Calitics, TPMMuckraker, Capital J | JTA and TPMCafe
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
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 …
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Official Defends Signing Interrogation Memos — WASHINGTON — Judge Jay S. Bybee broke his silence on Tuesday and defended the conclusions of legal memorandums he had signed as a Bush administration lawyer that allowed use of several coercive interrogation practices on suspected terrorists.
Bloomberg:
Fed Is Said to Seek Capital for at Least Six Banks — At least six of the 19 largest U.S. banks require additional capital, according to preliminary results of government stress tests, people briefed on the matter said. — While some of the lenders may need extra cash injections from the government …
Discussion:
Dealbreaker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Big Picture, Reason, Clusterstock, Hot Air and The Corner
Dexter Filkins / New York Times:
Poppies a Target in Fight Against Taliban — ZANGABAD, Afghanistan — American commanders are planning to cut off the Taliban's main source of money, the country's multimillion-dollar opium crop, by pouring thousands of troops into the three provinces that bankroll much of the group's operations.
Discussion:
abu muqawama, Weekly Standard, The Impolitic, Chris Floyd Online, Cato @ Liberty, Get Afghanistan Right and Wonk Room
Michael Ledeen / Pajamas Media:
“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 …
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