Top Items:
Washington Wire:
Sotomayor Surprises Sessions — Jess Bravin reports on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. — Ouch! — Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), seeking to discredit Judge Sonia Sotomayor's judicial philosophy, cited her 2001 “wise Latina” speech, and contrasted the view that ethnicity …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Wonk Room, The Confluence, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly and Zandar Versus The Stupid
RELATED:
Eva Rodriguez / PostPartisan:
Sotomayor's Unconvincing Backpedaling — I'm surprised and disturbed by how many times today Sonia Sotomayor has backed off of or provided less-than-convincing explanations for some of her more controversial speeches about the role of gender and ethnicity in judicial decision-making.
Discussion:
Opinion L.A., YID With LID, Rough Sketch, Macsmind, Gateway Pundit, The Huffington Post and Daily Kos
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Respecting Precedent, or Settled Law, Unless It's Not Settled
Respecting Precedent, or Settled Law, Unless It's Not Settled
Discussion:
The Politico
edlabor.house.gov:
America's Affordable Health Choices Act — The Chairmen of the three Committees with jurisdiction over health policy in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced comprehensive health care reform legislation on July 14 that will reduce out-of-control costs, encourage competition among insurance plans …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, The Gavel, msnbc.com, Blog entry, AMERICAblog News, Matthew Yglesias, AmSpecBlog, Washington Monthly, MoJo Blog Posts, Angry Bear and TPMDC
RELATED:
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
House Democrats' Health Reform Proposal: Preliminary Analysis of Major Provisions Related to Insurance Coverage — CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) worked together to produce a preliminary analysis of the major provisions related to health insurance coverage …
Discussion:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, AmSpecBlog, Michelle Malkin, YID With LID, Hot Air, Politics Daily, TPMDC and Paul Krugman
Ezra Klein:
The House Releases Its Health-Care Reform Bill — On first glance, it looks good. A few thoughts: — The Process Is the Message: Three separate committees — Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor — have come together on one bill. This is an incredible achievement.
Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
BREAKING: House Bill Looks Good (So Far) — The three House committees writing health care legislation have just released the full text of their bill. And my immediate, admittedly tentative reaction is strongly positive. Once fully implemented, this reform plan will accomplish most of the goals on my mental checklist:
Gateway Pundit:
OBAMA BOOED IN ST. LOUIS!... And Throws a Sissy Pitch (Video) — Barack Obama Booed at the All-Star Game in St. Louis On Tuesday! — And, he threw a sissy pitch: — It's going to be a rough 4 years. He's only been in office 5 months and he's already getting booed. — ...And protested.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, Macsmind, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers and Theo Spark
RELATED:
Pilgrim / Say Anything:
Hilarious: HuffPo Says Sarah Palin Had No Authority To Write An Op-Ed In The Washington Post — My, my, my. — In what is without a doubt the best foot stomping, squealing, hold-your-breath-until-you-turn- purple fit I've seen in quite some time, and it's all because Sarah Palin had the gall …
RELATED:
John Kerry / The Huffington Post:
What Gov. Palin Forgot — Writing in this morning's Washington Post, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wrote, “many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges.” — Unfortunately, her promise to roll …
Discussion:
Get Energy Smart!, NO QUARTER, The Fix, BuzzFlash.org, The New Republic and Boston Globe
Dan / Riehl World View:
Meet Political Pundit, Mr. Ricky Hollywood — A reliable source confirms that when you call Levi Johnston's phone number, you're now officially greeted by his new marketing identity in long, loud, boldly-exaggerated phrasing, YOU'VE REACHED R-I-C-K-Y ... H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D!!!
Discussion:
People.com, Conservatives4Palin.com, Redhot, Sister Toldjah, The TrogloPundit, NY Daily News and American Power
The State:
Sanford's office couldn't locate missing governor — E-mails, phone calls outline efforts to contact, cover for AWOL leader — Gov. Mark Sanford's chief of staff, Scott English, called the governor's cell phones 15 times during the governor's secret trip to Argentina to visit his lover last month.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Wonkette, Daily Kos, MoJo Blog Posts, Democracy in America, Michael Calderone's Blog, Raw Story, Gawker, GOP 12 and Hotline On Call
RELATED:
Zachary Roth / TPMMuckraker:
Great Call: In Emails To Sanford's Office, Right-Wing Media …
Great Call: In Emails To Sanford's Office, Right-Wing Media …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Ben Smith's Blog, digg.com, Romenesko and Daily Kos
The New Republic:
Jonah Goldberg Embarrasses Himself — In his Los Angeles Times column today, the man who styles himself the Churchill of opposition to liberal fascism takes aim at a surprising target. … Goldberg was just getting warmed up in these paragraphs, later adding:
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Isaac Chotiner Gets Jonah Goldberg Wrong — So Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently said this in an interview with Emily Bazelon: … Ginsburg is saying that her perception of the situation in 1980 is that there was a lot of concern on the right about Bell Curve-style dysgenics and that, therefore …
Fox News:
Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies — It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie. — A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling …
Bil Browning / The Huffington Post:
Steele: GOP woos blacks with “fried chicken and potato salad” — The Young Republicans convention was held in Indianapolis last weekend and their election of a racist, middle-aged woman as President isn't the only controversial item to come out of the GOP gathering.
Discussion:
HoosierAccess, Shakesville, The Bilerico Project, The Political Carnival, Real Clear Politics and Hotline On Call
RELATED:
Rachel Slajda / Talking Points Memo:
Steele Says He'll Attract Diversity to GOP With “Fried Chicken and Potato Salad”
Steele Says He'll Attract Diversity to GOP With “Fried Chicken and Potato Salad”
Discussion:
Zandar Versus The Stupid
Michael Tracey / The Nation:
The Same-Sex Marriage Switch — Former President Bill Clinton has come out in support of same-sex marriage. — After speaking at the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, DC, on July 8, the former president was asked if he supported same-sex marriage.
M Peretz / The New Republic:
Obama's Chutzpah. Sorry, Only Israelis Have Chutzpah. So It's Obama's Haughty Condescension. — Frankly, I am sick and tired of President Obama's eldering—more accurately, hectoring—Israel's leaders. It is, after all, they whose country is the target of an armed and ideological cyclone …
RELATED:
Agence France Presse:
Hamas says Israel dumping aphrodisiac gum on Gaza — GAZA CITY (AFP) — Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to “corrupt the young,” an official said on Tuesday.
Discussion:
Real Clear Politics, Commentary, Patterico's Pontifications, Jihad Watch and FP Passport
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Another Phony Scandal — With Speaker Pelosi caught in the web of her own deceit over what the CIA told her about “torture,” and the Obama administration in the middle of its latest 180-degree reversal over CIA interrogators (Attorney General Holder is now considering prosecutions despite Obama's promise …
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, The Hill, Macsmind, The Enterprise Blog, Pat Dollard and Cold Fury
RELATED:
Craig Crawford / Craig Crawford's Trail Mix:
Smiling GOPers Ought to be Frowning — Watching Lindsey Graham's gotcha grin as he needled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with disingenuous and rhetorical questions you had to wonder what was so funny. — Does the Republican senator think it is amusing that he and his party's …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Media Matters for America:
Saradise Lost: How Alaska bloggers dethroned Sarah Palin — It turns out that blogger Phil Munger hears all his big, breaking Sarah Palin news in the kitchen of his house, which overlooks Neklason Lake and sits just 10 miles from the center of Wasilla, the Southcentral Alaska town where Palin once served as mayor.