A Farewell to Harms  —  Palin was bad for the Republicans—and the republic.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Sarah Palin's resignation gives Republicans a new opportunity to see her plain—to review the bidding, see her strengths, acknowledge her limits, and let go of her drama.

David Brooks: A Republican senator put ‘his hand on my inner thigh’ for a ‘whole’ dinner party.  —  Earlier this week, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about how “the dignity code” has been “completely obliterated” in Washington, DC.  Discussing the concept on MSNBC today …

White House Kept Justice Lawyers in Dark on Warrantless Wiretapping  —  The Bush White House so strictly controlled access to its warrantless eavesdropping program that only three Justice Department lawyers were aware of the plan, which nearly ignited mass resignations and a constitutional crisis …

Conservative Democrats break ranks on health care  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday acknowledged the tough going for his health care overhaul in Congress but rejected the notion the legislation is doomed if lawmakers fail to act by August.  “I never believe anything is do or die,” Obama said.

Kirk Opts Out of Senate Race (Or Maybe He Doesn't)?  —  Rep. Mark Kirk will not run for the Senate from Illinois (or will he?).  Photo by Sabah Arar of AFP/Getty Images  —  Update, 4:17 p.m.: Although Kirk has already told several national Republicans today that he will not run for the Senate …

2 world leaders demonstrate the 2 ways of conspicuously gawking at a woman's ass.  —  I see a distinct difference between these 2 stances.  Yes, there are similarities.  Both are blatant and hilarious.  But the Sarkozy ass-gawking stance says: I admire but I must not act.

Hampton: Religious Buddies Drove Ensign To FedEx To Mail Letter To Cindy  —  We're probably not going out on a limb by saying that Doug Hampton's entire televised interview about John Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife Cindy, and the fallout from it, had to have been pretty embarrassing …

Movin' Out  —  ADVANCE COPY from the July 20, 2009 issue: Sarah Palin on why she resigned and what it means for her future.  —  In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of cheesy parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own.

“Pals Around With Terrorists”: Palin Wasn't That Rogue, After All  —  In the mail this morning was an advanced copy of Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's extremely well-reported history of the 2008 presidential campaign: The Battle for America is what the two veteran Posties have called it.

“Busted?”  Fox News still running with Obama G8 photo story day after Van Susteren debunked it  —  SUMMARY: A day after Fox News host Greta Van Susteren debunked the “lying picture that's going around the Web” of President Obama purportedly “checking out” a young woman at a G8 photo shoot …

CNN Poll: Do Americans want Sotomayor confirmed?  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Just three days before the start of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, a new national poll indicates that by a narrow margin, Americans would like the Senate to confirm her as the next Supreme Court justice.

EXCLUSIVE: Early CBO Score on Public Plan.  It's Good!  —  A lot of conservative Democrats, not to mention Republicans, express two big concerns about health reform.  They're worried that reform will cost too much.  And they don't want a government-run insurance plan.

Political opposition is not a hate crime  —  What's wrong with this picture?  The federal government spends billions on homeland security, but apparently can't stop foreigners from illegally crossing the border or overstaying their visas.  The Obama administration wants …

Christian Believers Would Be Excluded From Government If The Left Liberals Had Their Way  —  I don't know who's behind President Obama's appointment of Dr. Francis S. Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health.  Maybe it was the influence on the president of Nobel Laureate in Medicine …

Rebel With a Cause  —  Margaret Thatcher, revolutionary. Why Margaret Thatcher Matters  —  by Claire Berlinski  —  Basic Books, 400 pp., $27.95  —  A Political Marriage  —  by Nicholas Wapshott  —  Sentinel, 352 pp., $25.95  —  A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl  —  A Memoir

Reporter: ‘We Took Sides, Straight and Simple’ Against Palin  —  On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling …

The Stimulus Trap  —  As soon as the Obama administration-in-waiting announced its stimulus plan — this was before Inauguration Day — some of us worried that the plan would prove inadequate.  And we also worried that it might be hard, as a political matter, to come back for another round.

House overwhelmingly rejects signing statement  —  The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration to abide by its constraints.  —  House members approved an amendment …

Was Obama Checking Out This Girl's Butt?  —  Photo courtesy Jason Reed / Reuters-Landov  —  You may have seen this rather misleading photo doing the rounds this morning.  The photo appears to depict President Obama checking out the rear of 16 year old Brazilian girl Mayora Taveres.

Civil Rights Group Divided Over Gay Marriage  —  LOS ANGELES — The Southern Christian Leadership Conference — the 50-year-old civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others — is seeking to remove the president of its Los Angeles chapter in response …

Specter: Sestak a ‘flagrant hypocrite’  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter called his fellow Democrat, Rep. Joe Sestak, a “flagrant hypocrite” and accused his rival of registering as a Democrat “just in time to run for Congress.”  —  Sestak has said that he will challenge Specter …

Rep. Paul Broun Outrageously Claims The Public Option “Is Gonna Kill People”  —  29 minutes ago by Media Matters Action Network … REP. BROUN: CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN DON'T APPRECIATE LIFE … Besides absurdly stating that the public option will “kill people,” Rep. Broun's ham-handed transition between …

Exclusive: Emmett Till's casket left to waste at Burr Oak  —  Cemetery debacle grows worse with discovery of coffin of civil rights icon  —  Broken.  Rusted.  Battered.  The image of a glass-covered casket with the body of Emmett Till was shown around the world in the 1950s.

High-Priced F-22 Fighter Has Major Shortcomings  —  The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces …

U.S. Said to Have Averted Inquiry Into '01 Afghan Killings  —  WASHINGTON — After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts …