Top Items:
Dana Milbank / Rough Sketch:
Etch-a-Sketch: Limbaugh Edition — Good morning. — Today, let us try a new game in which I, the Sketchwriter, get you, the Sketchreader, to do my work for me while I go to the gym, eat lunch and listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I call this Etch-a-Sketch.
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Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Meghan McCain at WHCD: “Does he even know who the f*** I am?” — Sadly obligatory. I've been monitoring her Twitter feed all day in hopes of an angry denial, but no dice. What are the odds that the daughter of a senator and a millionaire heiress would turn out to be a brat?
Caitlin Taylor / Political Punch:
WH Dings Comedian for Joke at WH Correspondents' Dinner — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs this afternoon expressed displeasure with the comedy stylings of Wanda Sykes, who at the White House Correspondents' Dinner referred to Rush Limbaugh as the “20th hijacker” so “strung-out on Oxycontin” …
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
White House distances itself from Wanda Sykes's joke about Rush Limbaugh.
White House distances itself from Wanda Sykes's joke about Rush Limbaugh.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
U.S. Replaces Commander in Afghanistan in War Overhaul — WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is replacing the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, less than a year after he took over, marking a major overhaul in military leadership of a war that has presented President Obama with a worsening national security challenge.
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Fred Kaplan / Slate:
The ouster of Afghanistan commander David McKiernan could make—or break—the Obama presidency. — Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced this afternoon that he has “asked for the resignation” of Gen. David McKiernan, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, and that he plans to replace him with Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
Gates Recommends Replacement for Top Command in Afghanistan
Gates Recommends Replacement for Top Command in Afghanistan
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Note, The Daily Dish, Associated Press, FP Passport, ThreatsWatch and Outside The Beltway
Kbh / KeithHennessey.com:
The President's silly health care announcement — The President spoke about health care in the cross-hall today, flanked by the heads of several major health lobbying groups ("trade associations," in Washington vernacular): — hospitals — the American Hospital Association ("AHA");
Discussion:
EconLog
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Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
IS THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY ON OBAMA'S SIDE? …
IS THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY ON OBAMA'S SIDE? …
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Democracy in America, TPMCafe, Open Left, The Foundry, NOW! Blog and AlterNet.org
Jerusalem Post:
Sheikh attacks Israel, pope walks out — Article's topics: Sheikh Tamimi, Benedict XVI — Chief Islamic Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, launched a poisonous verbal attack at Israel at a Monday night gathering attended by Pope Benedict XVI.
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The Politico:
Pelosi: Torture protest improper in '03 — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned in early 2003 that the Bush administration was waterboarding terror detainees but didn't protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels, a confidant of the San Francisco Democrat said Monday.
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Bob Graham: I Wasn't Told About Waterboarding Or EITs In My Briefing — Former Senator Bob Graham, who received a classified briefing on terror detainees during the same month in the fall of 2002 as Nancy Pelosi, was not briefed about the use of either waterboarding or enhanced interrogation techniques during …
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Romney camp hits back at Steele for Mormonism comments — WASHINGTON (CNN) - In an unusual move for the person tasked with being his party's top cheerleader, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is shining a light on the political vulnerabilities of one of the GOP's top figures …
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Jay Cost / HorseRaceBlog:
It's Time for Michael Steele To Resign — On Friday, Michael Steele guest hosted Bill Bennett's radio show - and he got into a conversation with a caller on the subject of Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy. This caller - “Jay” (not me!) - had suggested that Mitt Romney could have won …
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Forced Chrysler's Creditors to Blink — President Barack Obama's auto task force heard a blunt message early this spring from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the largest lender to Chrysler LLC. In any deal to remake the troubled auto maker, Chrysler would have to repay its lenders all $6.9 billion it owed.
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Steve Bainbridge / ProfessorBainbridge.com:
“You don't need banks and bondholders to make cars”?
“You don't need banks and bondholders to make cars”?
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal
Greg Hengler / Townhall.com:
Gay Miss CA Director Goes Nuclear On ‘Henchman’ Carrie Prejean & Traditional Marriage Advocates — Openly gay director of the Miss California pageant, Keith Lewis, held a presser today and shamed the heck out of traditional marriage supporters; mark that 7 times.
Discussion:
GayPatriot
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney — There's a big piece of news about Dick Cheney and torture buried toward the end of this big Washington Post piece about the torture wars. — Specifically: The White House has decided to declassify and release …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Think Progress, The Caucus, ACS Blog, American Footprints, Raw Story and Taylor Marsh
Marisa Guthrie / Broadcasting & Cable:
Jon Stewart to Make History Special — ‘The Naturalized’ highlights the network's most ambitious programming slate — Jon Stewart, who knows a thing or two about irony, will create a two-hour special on a perfect target—the U.S. naturalization process—for History Channel, to air in the fourth quarter.
Discussion:
Media Blog
Jorr / Christian Science Monitor:
Biden insults President Obama's dog at Syracuse — It was as though Vice President Biden time-warped back to last fall. Because on Sunday he was in full campaign attack mode. — Oh, it was an idyllic setting. Nobody saw it coming. The vice president had just finished delivering …
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Room for Debate:
Why Iran Freed Roxana Saberi — An Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, who was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison in April on charges of spying for Washington, was released Monday after an appeals court reduced the sentence. — Iran has detained several Western journalists …
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Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Limbaugh agrees with Sessions: Obama's ‘objective is unemployment.’ — Earlier today, ThinkProgress highlighted NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions' (R-TX) claim that President Obama is intentionally trying to “'diminish employment and diminish stock prices' as part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to consolidate power.”
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Lieberman knocks Cheney — Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on Monday defended President Barack Obama against former Vice President Dick Cheney's claims that the Obama administration has made the country less safe. — “We're not less safe,” said Lieberman, who was one of Obama's leading critics …
Mary Flood / Houston Chronicle:
Kent sentenced to 33 months behind bars — Federal judge headed to prison for trying to hinder inquiry into sex offenses — Samuel Kent, who wielded power as a federal judge for 18 years, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison today for obstructing justice.