Top Items:
David Brooks / New York Times:
Liberal Suicide March — It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America. You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts. — They brought in pollsters to their party conferences …
Discussion:
Clive Crook, Firedoglake, The New Republic, The Moderate Voice, Althouse, National Review, Right Wing News, Riehl World View, The Treatment, Bloomberg, The Mahablog, Wake up America, Politics Daily, Commentary, Balloon Juice, AMERICAN DIGEST, D-Day, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The TrogloPundit, Shakesville, Political Byline, The Reaction, Taylor Marsh, No More Mister Nice Blog and Macsmind
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The Huffington Post:
Internal RNC Memo: “Engage In Every Activity” To Slow Down Health Care Reform — A private memo distributed by the Republican National Committee calls for like-minded advocates to help defeat President Barack Obama's health care proposals by delaying its consideration.
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Poll: Public losing trust in Obama — Trust in President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies to identify the right solutions to problems facing the country has dropped off significantly since March, according to a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll.
Gloria Borger / CNN:
Borger: Democrats messing up on health care — CNN Senior Political Analyst — Editor's note: Gloria Borger is a senior political analyst for CNN, appearing regularly on CNN's “The Situation Room,” “Campbell Brown,” “AC360°” and “State of the Union With John King,” as well as special event coverage.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Washington Sketch: GOP's Steele Couldn't Have Said It Better Himself — “We need to bring new language to this debate,” Republican message man Alex Castellanos wrote in a memo to fellow GOP strategists this month. “If we paint the house the same color, no one will notice anything has changed …
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Sampling The Sausage: A Health Reform Politics Explainer
Sampling The Sausage: A Health Reform Politics Explainer
Discussion:
Guardian, The Daily Dish, The Awl, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press and The Treatment
Christopher Drew / New York Times:
Bowing to Veto Threat, Senate Blocks Money for Warplanes — WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 58-40 on Tuesday to strip $1.75 billion for seven more F-22 fighters from a military spending bill, handing President Obama a crucial victory in his efforts to reshape the military's priorities.
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Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Senate Strips F-22 Funding
Senate Strips F-22 Funding
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Political Punch, Danger Room, Cato @ Liberty, Washington Post, Washington Monthly and Taylor Marsh
Rachel D'Oro / Associated Press:
AP NewsBreak: Palin implicated in ethics probe — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts. — The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin …
Krissah Thompson / Washington Post:
Gates Says He Is Outraged by Arrest at Cambridge Home — Prominent Black Professor Says He Will Use Experience to Further Academic Work — Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent scholars of African-American history, cast his recent arrest in his home in Cambridge …
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Susan Donaldson James / ABCNEWS:
Benjamin: Too Heavy to Be Nation's Top Doc? — Leading Experts Say Dr. Benjamin, Though Stellar Nominee, Gives Wrong Message — Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, Obama's pick for the next surgeon general, was hailed as a MacArthur Grant genius who had championed the poor at a medical clinic she set up in Katrina-ravaged Alabama.
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Should The GOP Take The Birther Threat Seriously? Rush Does.... That's the thesis of the First Readers of NBC News, after viewing this astonishing clip from a town hall meeting that Rep. Mike Castle held in Delaware for his constituents. What's most notable, to me, at least …
Discussion:
WorldNetDaily, Think Progress, Zandar Versus The Stupid, No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice
Anill / Think Progress:
Dobbs wonders whether President Obama is undocumented. — Today, Political Wire posted a clip of an episode of Lou Dobbs' radio show in which he not only questions President Obama's citizenship and promotes the bizarre right-wing “birther” theory, but also insinuates that Obama might be undocumented:
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
More Disapprove Than Approve of Obama on Healthcare — President is rated higher on international than on domestic issues — PRINCETON, NJ — As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies, the latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds that more Americans disapprove (50%) than approve (44%) …
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere, Brendan Nyhan, HotAirPundit, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and The Campaign Spot
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The Black Sphere:
DEMOCRAT CARNAHAN DISMISSES BLACK MAN AT TOWNHALL — Yesterday, I attended a townhall meeting on healthcare with Representative Russ Carnahan, where he dissed this black constituent. For those of you unfamiliar with Missouri politics, the new breed of Carnahans are those who are riding …
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah
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Simon Johnson / The Baseline Scenario:
Three Myths about the Consumer Financial Product Agency — This guest post was contributed by Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel and the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University. (Update: more on the case for a CFPA in her YouTube video, released yesterday.)
Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Health-Care Firms Have Supported Lawmakers Debating Reform — Key Senator Baucus Is a Leading Recipient — As liberal protesters marched outside, Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation …
Jeff Sharlet / Salon:
Sex and power inside “the C Street House” — Sanford, Ensign, and other regulars receive guidance from the invisible fundamentalist group known as the Family — Editor's note: Sharlet is the author of the bestselling “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.”
Shlomo Shamir / Haaretz:
‘Huckabee to air Fox News show from disputed East Jerusalem site’ — Former U.S. presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee plans to broadcast his weekend show on Fox News from the site of a disputed Israeli construction project in East Jerusalem, a New York politician has told Haaretz.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
VPOTUS, overheard: ‘Many beautiful women’ — From Peter Spiegel's pool report from Kiev: — VPOTUS and Yushchenko were seated a table in the back of the pub with their two translators, the mayor and vice mayor of Kiev, and the head of the presidential secretariat.... Yushchenko was talking about Ukrainian churches.
Discussion:
Hot Air
Kaiser Health News:
Blue Dog Ross's Conundrum: Should He Battle Health Bill That Could Benefit His Depressed Town? — PRESCOTT, Ark. - Rep. Mike Ross, who grew up in this tiny town of 3,600, represents residents like 62-year-old Sandy Barham, a restaurant owner with a heart ailment who can't afford health insurance for herself or her employees.
NY Daily News:
President Barack Obama authorizes extended Secret Service guard for former VP Dick Cheney — WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Dick Cheney's Secret Service protection has been extended for at least another six months, beginning Tuesday. — Normally, ex-veeps only get six months of protection at taxpayer expense.
Discussion:
Emptywheel
Ellen E. Schultz / Wall Street Journal:
Top Earners' Pay Erodes Social Security — Fund Expected to Be Exhausted in 2037 — The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world. — Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S. …
Aaron Blake / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Huckabee event left candidate in the red — One of the most curious fundraising reports of the second quarter came from Republican Les Phillip, who is looking to challenge Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) in a top national race. — If you've heard of Phillip, it's probably …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Wall Street Journal:
The Fed's Exit Strategy — The depth and breadth of the global recession has required a highly accommodative monetary policy. Since the onset of the financial crisis nearly two years ago, the Federal Reserve has reduced the interest-rate target for overnight lending between banks (the federal-funds rate) nearly to zero.
The Live Feed:
Most will carry Obama press conference; time shifted after NBC balked — UPDATED: After some hesitation and a time shift, three major broadcast networks have agreed to carry Barack Obama's latest primetime news conference. — The event was announced Friday afternoon as Obama battles …
Discussion:
Salon, TIME.com, AMERICAN DIGEST, Don Surber, NewsBusters.org, Media Matters for America, On Deadline and FishBowlDC
Dr. Helen:
“Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the pain killer..” — He didn't really say that, did he? I must say I was appalled when watching this ABC news clip of Obama making this ludicrous statement to the daughter of a now 105-year-old woman who needed a pacemaker (she needed the surgery at 99).
Discussion:
Hot Air
Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Scarborough And Steele Spar In Heated Debate Over Health Care: Steele Tells MSNBC Host, ‘Spare Me’ — Fresh off his comedic performance at the National Press Club yesterday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele again demonstrated this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe that he doesn't “do policy.”
Associated Press:
Senior Democrat says no consensus on health bill … WASHINGTON (AP) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says House Democrats are struggling to reach consensus on overhauling health care, a divide that could delay House approval of a plan beyond lawmakers' scheduled vacation in August.
Discussion:
RedState
Tom Vanderbilt / Slate:
Why American drivers should learn to love the roundabout. — Here is a narrative that has been playing out over the last several years in any number of American towns: Traffic engineers notice that a particular intersection has a crash problem or is moving traffic inefficiently.