Top Items:
Paul Kane / Capitol Briefing:
Senate Democrats Deny Specter Committee Seniority — The Senate dealt a blow tonight to Sen. Arlen Specter's hold on seniority in several key committees, a week after the Pennsylvanian's party switch placed Democrats on the precipice of a 60-seat majority. — In a unanimous voice vote …
Discussion:
The Hill's Pundits Blog, Hot Air, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Salon, Wizbang, The Politico, Commentary, rubber hose, Riehl World View, pourmecoffee's posterous, PoliGazette, Buck Naked Politics, Jules Crittenden, Raw Story, DISSENTING JUSTICE, American Prospect, Betsy's Page and The Sundries Shack
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Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Party Switch Costs Specter His Seniority on Senate Committees — The Senate last night stripped Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) of his seniority on committees, a week after the 29-year veteran of the chamber quit the Republican Party to join the Democrats. — In announcing his move across the aisle last week …
Discussion:
The Note, Outside The Beltway, The Washington Independent, SENATUS, AmSpecBlog and Taylor Marsh
Bart Jansen / CQ Politics:
Specter Says He 'Misspoke" on Minnesota Senate Race — The political whirlwind that surrounded Sen. Arlen Specter 's switch from the Republican to Democratic party had him forgetting which team he is rooting for in 2010. — But after voicing support for Republican Norm Coleman …
WSB-TV:
College Student Shoots, Kills Home Invader — COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — A group of college students said they are lucky to be alive and they're thanking the quick-thinking of one of their own. Police said a fellow student shot and killed one of two masked me who burst into an apartment.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Confederate Yankee, Pundit & Pundette, Moe Lane, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, QandO, Michelle Malkin and Cold Fury
Eli Lake / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Secret U.S.-Israel nuclear accord in jeopardy — President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say.
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Dan Williams / Reuters:
Israel would inform, not ask U.S. before hitting Iran — TEL AVIV (Reuters) - When he first got word of Israel's sneak attack on the Iraqi atomic reactor in 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan privately shrugged it off, telling his national security adviser: “Boys will be boys!”
Discussion:
Jihad Watch
New York Times:
U.S. Says Bank of America Needs Cushion of $33.9 Billion — The government has told Bank of America it needs $33.9 billion in capital to withstand any worsening of the economic downturn, according to an executive at the bank. — If the bank is unable to raise the capital cushion …
Discussion:
Felix Salmon, Clusterstock, Bronte Capital, Washington Post, MoJo Blog Posts, The Big Picture and Wall Street Journal
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Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
John Edwards's Wife Speaks About His Affair — In often blunt terms, Elizabeth Edwards is going public with her account of how her husband's affair rocked their marriage and left his political career in tatters. — In an interview with Oprah Winfrey and in excerpts from a new book …
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Philip Johnston / Philip Johnston's blog listings:
Should we be banning this US ‘shock jock’? — The Home Office has issued the latest list of people it believes should not come to the country because they hold extremist opinions. — It is a state's prerogative to decide who it wants to come to its country. That is, after all, what a visa system is for.
Discussion:
Don Surber
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Joan Biskupic / USA Today:
Ginsburg: Court needs another woman — WASHINGTON — Three years after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor left the Supreme Court, the impact of having only one woman on the nation's highest bench has become particularly clear to that woman — Ruth Bader Ginsburg. — Her status as the court's lone woman …
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Chris Isidore / CNNMoney.com:
Chrysler won't repay bailout money — An administration official confirms that a $4 billion bridge loan and $3.2 billion in bankruptcy financing won't be paid back by Chrysler following bankruptcy. — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Chrysler LLC will not repay U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion …
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New York Post:
OBAMA'S TAX DODGERS . . . Here's a tip for President Obama: Next time you excoriate tax cheats, try to keep Rep. Charles Rangel's name out of the discussion. — Somehow, it doesn't further your case. — Yet that's precisely what Obama did Monday, singling out the powerful Harlem congressman …
Michael Barone / www.washingtonexaminer.com:
White House puts UAW ahead of property rights — Last Friday, the day after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, I drove past the company's headquarters on Interstate 75 in Auburn Hills, Mich. — As I glanced at the pentagram logo I felt myself tearing up a little bit.
Discussion:
Power Line
David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Corzine Allies Plan Attack in G.O.P. Primary — Allies of New Jersey's Democratic governor, Jon S. Corzine, are so worried about his re-election prospects that they are going to start spending and advertising heavily — in the Republican primary. — Mr. Corzine's allies plan to attack …
New York Times:
Torture Memos: Inquiry Suggests No Prosecutions — WASHINGTON — An internal Justice Department inquiry has concluded that Bush administration lawyers committed serious lapses of judgment in writing secret memorandums authorizing brutal interrogations but that they should not be prosecuted …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, The Washington Independent, Law Blog, The Plum Line, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Stop The ACLU, The Politico, Obsidian Wings, RebelReports, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Congress Matters, The Huffington Post, Prairie Weather, KIKO'S HOUSE, George's Bottom Line, The Page, Balkinization and Hullabaloo
The Center for Public Integrity:
Key Findings — The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or backed by giant banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:
Skeptical Administration Keeping Karzai at Arm's Length — Skepticism of Afghan Leader Shapes Policy — Afghan President Hamid Karzai began talking as soon as his luncheon guests had taken their seats in his wood-paneled dining room at the presidential palace in Kabul …
Discussion:
Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Independent and MSNBC
David Barstow / New York Times:
Inspector at Pentagon Says Report Was Flawed — In a highly unusual reversal, the Defense Department's inspector general's office has withdrawn a report it issued in January exonerating a Pentagon public relations program that made extensive use of retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Who Will “Sister Souljah” Them? — It's time to reclaim conservatism from Coulter and O'Reilly and Limbaugh and Hannity. Reihan: … Take yours truly. I'm not a Democrat and if pushed, I'd have to say right now I'm a libertarian independent. I'm uneasy about Obama's long-term debt …
Discussion:
American Power
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
MSNBC Hides Obama's Dijon Mustard (aka Dijongate) — MSNBC, Obama's favorite network, reported on Obama's trip with Joe Biden to get a burger. Just two wild and crazy guys out for some red meat. Andrea Mitchell (does she have nothing else to do?) reported that Obama ordered a burger and mustard.
Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:
Behind the Judicial Blindfold — Should the judge be an umpire or an empathizer? — Chief Justice John Roberts memorably likened the judge to a baseball umpire, dispassionately applying existing rules to call balls and strikes. — President Obama is more, well, touchy-feely.
The Hill:
Sessions less likely to opt for filibuster — President Obama's judicial nominees are less likely to face a Republican filibuster under Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) than they would have been under Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). — That is because the two men disagree on the “Schumer Rule …
Discussion:
MyDD