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 …

Joe the Plumber: I would never let gay people ‘anywhere near my children.’  —  In an interview with Christianity Today, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that calling gay people “queer” “is not like a slur” because homosexuality is “strange and unusual.”  He also declared that he would never …

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.

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 …

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.

When Reporters Rise For The President  —  Some people noticed that many reporters rose from their seats last Friday when President Obama unexpectedly entered the White House briefing room, but the same courtesy was not always extended in the past when President Bush would make an appearance.

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 …

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 …

James Carville: If GOP Abandoned Christian Right, “Their Party Would Crumble”  —  Democratic strategist James Carville warned on Monday that if the Republican Party were to abandon its decades-old alliance with the Christian Right, it would only cement major losses in party identification and vote totals for the GOP.

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 …

Amazon Plans Kindle for Textbooks  —  Amazon.comInc. on Wednesday plans to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader with a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to periodical and academic textbook publishers, according to people familiar with the matter.

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.

Chace Crawford to Attend White House Correspondents Dinner  —  Mr. Crawford is going to Washington!  —  Usmagazine.com has exclusively learned that Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford has been invited to be the guest of the Fox News Channel at Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C.

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.

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.

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 …

Dodd Likens Bush Administration To Nazis  —  Just.  Wow.  —  Are you kidding me?  Water boarding is the same as incinerating 6 million Jews and being responsible for 55 million lives lost.  Really?  —  Well, I'll say this for the Democrats, they know how to pander to their base even when in 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.”

Someone needs to give Jane Harman an award for this  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about one of the most shameless and absurd spectacles to appear in Washington in some time: the self-righteous, self-obsessed rage expressed by Blue Dog Rep. Jane Harman …

Emanuel: Thwarting Iran hinges on Israeli-Palestinian talks  —  Article's topics: Rahm Emanuel, Iran, AIPAC  —  Thwarting Iran's nuclear program is conditional on progress in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

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% …

Obama celebrates Cinco de Mayo a day early  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is celebrating Cinco de Mayo a little early.  —  On the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East Room of the White House with Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan (sahr-oo-KHAN').