Top Items:
Randy E. Barnett / Wall Street Journal:
The Seinfeld Hearings — How Senators could, but probably won't, make the Sotomayor confirmation a show about something. — Printer — Friendly — If you suspect this week's Senate confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor will be, like “Seinfeld,” a show about nothing, you are probably right.
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Morning Fix: Five Senators to Watch on Sotomayor — The confirmation hearings for judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court begin today at 10 a.m. and, although the drama has largely been drained from the question of whether she will be confirmed (barring some disaster she will be on the Court) …
Discussion:
Roll Call, Scorecard's Blog, The Note, Swing State Project, Taylor Marsh, New York Times and Washington Post
Kate Phillips / The Caucus:
Live Blogging the Sotomayor Hearings — ‘A Truly American Story’ | 10:03 a.m. Senator Leahy now begins talking about the story we'll all hear throughout the Democrats' opening remarks — the success, or rags-to-riches if you will — tale of the judge's upbringing and career.
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Schedule, Day by Day — The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to open a weeklong hearing on whether to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court at 10 a.m. Monday. The hearing will be broadcast live on C-Span and will be streamed online at the committee's Web site.
Discussion:
The Swamp, Bench Memos, Balkinization, Think Progress, Politics Daily, Firedoglake and Top of the Ticket
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
At hearing, GOP-ers surprisingly tough — Senate Republicans mounted a surprisingly tough attack to open Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing Monday, with Sen. Jeff Sessions calling her belief in the importance of a judge's personal background “shocking and offensive to me.”
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Sotomayor hearing: All Senators' opening statement texts: Leahy, Sessions, et al
Sotomayor hearing: All Senators' opening statement texts: Leahy, Sessions, et al
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
People for the Chicago Way — The widespread criticism …
People for the Chicago Way — The widespread criticism …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The Caucus, Flopping Aces, Hot Air, Power Line, No More Mister Nice Blog, Pundit & Pundette and Real Clear Politics
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Liz Cheney: Investigating My Dad Would Prove Americans 'Can't Trust' Democrats With National Security — On Saturday, the New York Times reported that former Vice President Dick Cheney gave “direct orders” to the CIA, compelling the agency to withhold “information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years.”
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Liz Cheney / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Rewrites the Cold War — The President has a duty to stand up to the lies of our enemies. — Printer — Friendly — There are two different versions of the story of the end of the Cold War: the Russian version, and the truth. President Barack Obama endorsed the Russian version in Moscow last week.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, RealClearWorld, JustOneMinute, Commentary, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Gateway Pundit and Wake up America
New York Times:
Palin's Long March to a Short-Notice Resignation — This article was reported by Jim Rutenberg from New York and Serge F. Kovaleski from Wasilla and Anchorage, Alaska. Jo Becker reported from New York and Kim Severson and William Yardley from Wasilla and Anchorage.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Spot-On, The Moderate Voice, Michael Calderone's Blog, Pajamas Media, Top of the Ticket, PostPartisan, Gawker, DownWithTyranny!, Washington Monthly, Obsidian Wings, PoliBlog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, MoJo Blog Posts, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View and American Thinker
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Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times:
Republican pundits open fire on Sarah Palin — Their harsh views conflict with those of grass-roots GOP voters, revealing a serious split within the party. — Since announcing her resignation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pummeled by critics who have called her incoherent, a quitter, a joke and a “political train wreck.”
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Boiling the Frog — Is America on its way to becoming a boiled frog? — I'm referring, of course, to the proverbial frog that, placed in a pot of cold water that is gradually heated, never realizes the danger it's in and is boiled alive. Real frogs will, in fact, jump out of the pot — but never mind.
Foster Kamer / Gawker:
Hate Speech Against Malia Obama On Conservative Blogs Reported By Hate Speech Planting Journalist — We should've seen this coming: conservative blog Free Republic fired hate speech off at Malia Obama after this photo of her appeared, letting their commenters go to town.
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BBC:
Sudan women ‘lashed for trousers’ — Several Sudanese women have been flogged as a punishment for dressing “indecently”, according to a local journalist who was arrested with them. — Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who says she is facing 40 lashes, said she and 12 other women wearing trousers …
Discussion:
Tim Blair
Tina Brown / Blogs and Stories:
Obama's Other Wife — Blogs and Stories — Left behind on major presidential trips, overruled in choosing her own staff—Hillary Clinton is the invisible woman at State. But Obama's brilliant foreign policy spouse may not stay silent forever. — It's time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa.
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Richard Deitsch / Sports Illustrated:
Obama to join Fox broadcast booth for All-Star Game … Barack Obama will be adding baseball broadcaster to his résumé. SI.com learned Sunday that the President will join Fox Sports announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver during Tuesday's All-Star Game.
Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Frenetic Pace, Packed Agenda Put West Wing Staffers Through Wringer — The White House mess — the military-inspired term for the West Wing cafeteria — opens at 7 a.m. each day. And each day, there is a long line of hungry staffers who have already been at the office for well over an hour.
Discussion:
democracyarsenal.org, Commentary, Right Wing News, This ain't Hell …, msnbc.com and Pundit & Pundette
Rasmussen Reports:
49% Oppose Health Care Reform Plan, 46% Favor It — Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters now at least somewhat oppose the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, while 46% at least somewhat favor it, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Web Traffic (or Lack of) May Be a Reason for a Columnist's Dismissal — The political columnist Dan Froomkin was hired by The Huffington Post last week, two short weeks after being fired by a more traditional Post, the venerable newspaper in Washington. — In his departure from The Washington Post …
Washington Post:
Iran's Rumored Nicaraguan ‘Mega-Embassy’ Set Off Alarms in U.S. — MANAGUA, Nicaragua — For months, the reports percolated in Washington and other capitals. Iran was constructing a major beachhead in Nicaragua as part of a diplomatic push into Latin America, featuring huge investment deals …