The Case Against Sotomayor  —  Indictments of Obama's front-runner to replace Souter.  —  This is the first in a series of reports by TNR legal affairs editor Jeffrey Rosen about the strengths and weaknesses of the leading candidates on Barack Obama's Supreme Court shortlist.  —  RELATED CONTENT

Ridge Trails Pennsylvania's Specter By 3 Points, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; New Democratic Senator Tops Toomey By 20 Points  —  Newly-minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter would whip old Republican rival Pat Toomey 53 - 33 percent if the 2010 Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race were held today …

Sessions to take over top GOP slot on Judiciary  —  Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend, sources confirm to The Hill.  —  Sessions and Sen. Chuck Grassley …

GOP turns to Bush aides for advice  —  Republicans looking to recover from Bush-era defeats are turning to an unlikely source for advice: top aides to former President George W. Bush.  —  Former White House press secretary Dana Perino, former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie …

Obama criticism shuts down conversation  —  Parties were more fun when George W. Bush was president.  You could debate, argue even, praise and condemn, throw darts and laurels and solve the world's problems over a bottle of wine.  —  No more.  At least not in my circles.

Criminal charges filed against ACORN, two employees  —  Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller announced Monday that voter registration fraud charges have been filed against an organization that works with low-income people and two of its employees in its Las Vegas office.

‘OUTSIDE’ THE BELTWAY.... As part of the Republican Party's rebranding effort, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) hosted a National Council for a New America event at a pizza shop over the weekend.  Roll Call reported, “Cantor said the idea of the road show is to gather ideas from outside the Beltway to shape the Republican agenda.”

Q & A: ‘Joe the Plumber’  —  Samuel Wurzelbacher was launched into the public arena after Senator John McCain used him as an example of an average American during a presidential debate last fall.  “Joe the Plumber” quickly became a celebrity because he questioned then-candidate Barack Obama …

5/4: Paterson Approval Rating: Scraping Bottom?  —  How low can New York Governor David Paterson's job approval rating go?  Based on the latest Marist Poll numbers, it can still go lower, but not by much!  Not quite one-fifth of New York registered voters statewide — 19% …

RE: Resurgent Republic: Stan Greenberg's Open Letter to Ed Gillespie, Founder of Resurgent Republic, on Their Initial National Survey  —  To: Ed Gillespie Founder, Resurgent Republic  —  From: Stan Greenberg Greenberg Quinlan Rosner  —  RE: RESURGENT REPUBLIC

Palin will work with Nat'l Council  —  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin plans to work with a new Republican group, the National Council for a New America, a spokeswoman said.  —  Palin “looks forward to doing all she can to bring about positive change many desire and deserve, across Alaska and our great nation …

US Soldiers in Afghanistan Told to “Hunt People for Jesus... So We Get Them into the Kingdom” (Video)  —  Military officials at Bagram are caught on tape urging US soldiers to evangelize in the Muslim country.  —  New video evidence has surfaced showing that US military forces in Afghanistan …

Bush's Lawyers Strike Back  —  Blogs and Stories  —  In a brutally frank and at times contentious interview, former Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales sat down with Dan Abrams to talk about:  —  •their definition of torture ("Were the interrogations harsh?  Yes.

N.Y. Times to File Notice It Will Close Boston Globe  —  The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England's most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks.

Sarah Palin's “Revelation”  —  This is unfinished business - a news event that got swallowed up by the release of the ICRC report, the OLC Memos and the Senate Armed Services report.  But given this blog's coverage of governor Palin's various strange stories about Trig …

A VERY WEIRD FORM OF CONSISTENCY.  —  Not to fill the blog with Arlen Specter related content this morning, but this bit from Meet the Press deserves to be quoted. … The thing about the Wyden-Bennett plan — the aspect that actually makes it different from virtually every other plan on offer …

MONSTERS, INC.  —  Amid the blizzard of economic data that the government puts out every week, last Tuesday's report analyzing G.D.P. industry by industry got little notice.  But it contained one very interesting piece of data: in 2008, for the first time in sixteen years, the finance and insurance industry shrank.

Michele Bachmann: Obama Led Spending “Orgy,” Government “Spent Its Wad” (VIDEO)  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann is on a roll.  Less than a week after suggesting a link between the swine flu outbreak and Democratic control of the U.S. government, the Minnesota Republican penetrated a heretofore unseen zone …

Pam Karlan and Souter's Seat—Stuntz  —  If Obama wants to appoint a Scalia for the left, he should choose Pam Karlan, a longtime colleague of mine at Virginia who now teaches at Stanford.  Pam is (1) brilliant, (2) broadly knowledgeable — Cass Sunstein aside, I can't think of anyone who knows …

As Foreclosures Surge ...  The Obama administration sat by last week as 12 Senate Democrats joined 39 Senate Republicans to block a vote on an amendment that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages.  —  Senator Obama campaigned on the provision.

Supreme Court Rules Against Government in Identity-Theft Case  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that the federal government has been going too far in using identity-theft laws to prosecute undocumented workers who use fake identification to get and hold jobs.

Worries Rise on the Size of U.S. Debt  —  The nation's debt clock is ticking faster than ever — and Wall Street is getting worried.  —  As the Obama administration racks up an unprecedented spending bill for bank bailouts, Detroit rescues, health care overhauls and stimulus plans …

Looking to Big-Screen E-Readers to Help Save the Daily Press  —  The iPod stemmed losses in the music industry.  The Kindle gave beleaguered book publishers a reason for optimism.  —  Now the recession-ravaged newspaper and magazine industries are hoping for their own knight in shining digital armor …

What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP  —  George Will's latest column on the sagging economy of California and the upcoming slate of massive tax-hike initiatives on the ballot only scratches the surface of what's rotten in the formerly Golden State.  —  The state GOP is a basket case.