Top Items:
Washington Post:
Obama's Budget Knife Yields Modest Trims — Plan Likely to Face Tough Fight on the Hill — President Obama has said for weeks that his staff is scouring the federal budget, “line by line,” for savings. Today, they will release the results: a plan to trim 121 programs by $17 billion …
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The Atlantic Business Channel, CBS News, Associated Press, USA Today, Matthew Yglesias, New York Times, Think Progress, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Caucus, Law Blog, Betsy's Page, Political Punch, Wake up America, Jules Crittenden and Cafe Hayek
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The White House:
Determining What Works, Line by Line — OMB Director Peter Orszag tells us about the budget being released today, in particular the volume on Terminations, Reductions, and Savings. — We in the Administration have spoken often about the President's Budget heralding a new era of responsibility …
Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:
White House: Obama seeks hike in domestic spending
White House: Obama seeks hike in domestic spending
Discussion:
Politics Daily
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
New Deal: Specter Gets a Subcommittee Chairmanship — Senate Democratic leaders have reached agreement with Sen. Arlen Specter to partially restore the party switcher's status on the Judiciary Committee, by granting Specter the chairmanship of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee.
Discussion:
Salon, Newsweek Blogs, Congress Matters, The Washington Independent, TPMDC, Wonkette and Power Line
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Conservatives Prep Dossiers, Polls for Court Fight — Clockwise from top left: Curt Levey, Gary Marx and Kellyanne Conway (YouTube, Judicial Confirmation Network) — Curt Levey sometimes wears a lapel pin with the faces of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito and the legend “Thanks, W.”
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Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
Republicans and Obama's Court Nominees — Senators can use the hearings to talk about judicial restraint. — Printer — Friendly — Few events mobilize as many interest groups and set Washington atwitter as much as a Supreme Court vacancy. In the Bush White House …
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
National Security Adviser Jones Says He's ‘Outsider’ in Frenetic White House — President Obama's national security adviser, James L. Jones, looks for rare opportunities to ride his bike from his McLean home to work at the White House. On occasion, he has pedaled back across the Potomac River for lunch.
Discussion:
New York Times, Weekly Standard, RedState, Ben Smith's Blog, MSNBC, marbury and ATTACKERMAN
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Michael Grunwald / Time:
Republicans in the Wilderness: Is the Party Over? — These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species. They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Talking Points Memo, D-Day, Wonkette, The Atlantic Politics Channel, TPMDC and Swampland
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Is Anyone Reading the News? — This remark, from David Simon as reported by Adam Serwer, seems to me to have the correct focus for fretting about the future of journalism: “The day I run into a Huffington Post reporter at a Baltimore zoning board hearing is the day I will no longer be worried about journalism.”
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George S. McGovern / Wall Street Journal:
The ‘Free Choice’ Act Is Anything But — George Meany and binding arbitration. — Printer — Friendly — The recent news that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has become a member of the Democratic caucus has given new life to legislation that many thought had been put to rest for this Congress …
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Timothy Geithner / New York Times:
How We Tested the Big Banks — THIS afternoon, Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve will announce the results of an unprecedented review of the capital position of the nation's largest banks.
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The Hill:
Band of centrists forming for Senate GOP in 2010 — For those writing Republican centrism's obituary after Arlen Specter's party switch, holster your quills. — In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party.
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Dem centrists press Pelosi to shelve climate bill — Democratic centrists are pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set aside a flagging climate change bill to focus on what they think is a more achievable goal: overhauling the nation's healthcare system. — But those close to Pelosi …
Anne Schroeder Mullins / Anne Schroeder's Blog:
Franken schools heckler — Politicians and stand-up comedians both get plenty of hecklers. And it looks like Al Franken, as both a comedian and the still-disputed senator from Minnesota, is getting his fair share these days. — On Tuesday night, at Bobby Van's on 15th Street near the White House …
CNN:
Limbaugh to Powell: ‘Become a Democrat’ — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Rush Limbaugh fired back at Colin Powell for his critical comments earlier this week, saying Wednesday that the former secretary of state should join the Democratic Party. — “What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop …
Washington Post:
Obama Offers Compromise on D.C. Tuition Vouchers — Tuition Grants Would Continue for Private School Students Already in Program — President Obama will propose setting aside enough money for all 1,716 students in the District's voucher program to continue receiving grants …
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Wall Street Journal:
Should the GOP Forget Reagan? — The Republican Party's unending tale of woe sounds like a friend's account of sitting through the New York Yankees' 22-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians at the new Yankee Stadium April 18. — In the 14-run second inning, three Indians hit home runs into the right-field seats, including a grand-slam.
Discussion:
Political Byline, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, The Huffington Post and The New Republic
a Baltimore Sun / Baltimore Sun:
Police goof in raid, city stalls on damages — Man stymied in pursuit of door repair compensation — Andrew Leonard, a 33-year-old chemist who has no criminal record, said he and his wife were frightened and humiliated by a mistaken no-knock raid at their Medfield home.
Discussion:
Reason