Iran protest cancelled as leaked election results show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came third  —  Iran's reformist presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has called off a major rally to protest last Friday's election results, amid claims police had been cleared to open fire on protesters.

Why is Dennis Ross being ousted as Obama envoy to Iran?  —  Dennis Ross, who most recently served as a special State Department envoy to Iran, will abruptly be relieved of his duties, sources in Washington told Haaretz.  An official announcement is expected in the coming days.

“Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group  —  Percentage of “liberals” higher this decade than in early '90s  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.

Cheney: I Hope Panetta Was ‘Misquoted’ in Claiming My Wish for Attack  —  After the CIA director apparently told The New Yorker that he thinks the former vice president is crossing his fingers for another attack on America, Dick Cheney says he hopes his “old friend” didn't really say those words.

Obama rejects single payer  —  An effective rhetorical tack on Obama's campaign was casting his health care plan as a middle ground between private sector greed and a government takeover, and in an address to the American Medical Association today, he took a version of that tack in selling his public plan to that tough crowd:

Kristol: Memo to Conservatives  —  There have been very good grounds to criticize President Obama's foreign policy so far.  There will be much more to criticize over the next three and a half years.  —  But he is our president.  We could be at an historical inflection point in Iran.

The Case for Financial Regulatory Reform  —  Over the past two years, we have faced the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.  The financial system failed to perform its function as a reducer and distributor of risk.  Instead, it magnified risks, precipitating …

Pol: Gorilla is ‘related’ to First Lady … A prominent South Carolina Republican killed his Facebook page Sunday after being caught likening the First Lady to an escaped gorilla.  —  Commenting on a report posted to Facebook about a gorilla escape at a zoo in Columbia, S.C., Friday …

Exclusive: House Dems Planning Major Changes To Secret CIA Briefings Of Congress  —  In a move that could spark another fight with the GOP over CIA intelligence and secrecy, House Dems are quietly preparing to make major changes to the ways the CIA briefs Congress on covert actions …

Fareed Zakaria GPS Redeems CNN's Iran Coverage  —  A couple of years ago, I was at a party, locked deep in conversation with a former producer at CNN.  And I recall that one of the things we had talked about was the media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina.  I remember telling …

Pundit Glenn Beck on ‘Common Sense,’ More  —  Radio and television personality Glenn Beck was online Monday, June 15 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his new book, “Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine.”  —  Chicago: Glenn, On June 6 you said" …

Realism and Iran  —  The brutal apparent fraud taking place in Iran puts the Obama Administration, and anyone who cares about both American security and human rights, in an extremely difficult position.  For eight years, George W. Bush maintained that there was no tension, let alone contradiction …

A Letter to the President from Joe Solmonese  —  Ed. Note: This morning HRC President Joe Solmonese sent a letter to President Barack Obama responding to the administration's brief that argues for the Defense of Marriage Act to be upheld in court.  The letter follows and is available in PDF:

Is Sonia Sotomayor Mean?  —  · The White House is fond of pointing out that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has more years on the bench, as a trial court and appellate judge, than any previous Supreme Court nominee.  —  With that record comes not just hundreds of written opinions, but thousands of oral arguments.