2010 SENATE CAMPAIGN: Polls show potential GOP challengers would beat Harry Reid  —  Tarkanian claims early GOP lead  —  It's the highest stakes ever for a Nevada election, and former boxer Sen. Harry Reid is on the ropes early.  Either Republican Danny Tarkanian or Sue Lowden would knock …

The Beltway consensus: the Left is to blame for health care battle  —  (update below)  —  The prevailing Beltway wisdom has now ossified that the problem with the health care debate is that those hardened Leftist ideologues cling childishly and petulantly to their little “public option” …

Lieberman: 'There's No Reason' To Deal With The Uninsured Until After The Recession  —  Last week, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), the most conservative member of the so-called bipartisan “Gang of Six” working on the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill, stated that he preferred that Congress deal with reform incrementally.

Video: Marine goes nuclear on Democrat over ObamaCare  —  Via, er, HotAirPundit, red meat courtesy of the good folks who hijacked our last thread.  The Democrat in question is Brian “Brown Shirts” Baird, thus the pounding he takes here is extra gratifying.  Not sure I follow the Marine's point …

How Conservatives Got The Facts Wrong On Their Latest Obsession: The “Death Book” For Veterans  —  The latest conservative obsession - dutifully spread via Sarah Palin's Facebook page - is marked by the same alarmism and factual inaccuracy as the hysteria over “death panels.”

Garofalo: Tea Party Protesters ‘Functionally Retarded Adults’; Says ‘I Want My Country Back’ Code for ‘I Want My White Guy Back’  —  You probably already knew Jeanane Garofalo was no fan of conservatives, Republicans or just about anything that could be described as right of center.

The Guns of August  —  “IT is time to water the tree of liberty” said the sign carried by a gun-toting protester milling outside President Obama's town-hall meeting in New Hampshire two weeks ago.  The Thomas Jefferson quote that inspired this message, of course, said nothing about water …

Releasing Al-Megrahi Bodes Ill  —  It's bad news for future relations between Libya and the West.  —  At every turn, Libya has probed the weakness of the West.  On Dec. 21, 1988, the Libyan state intelligence service blew a Pan Am jet out of the sky, scattering bodies and wreckage over the countryside of Lockerbie, Scotland.

‘Clunkers’ Program Benefits Foreign Automakers More, Data Shows  —  Smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles like the Toyota Corolla are top sellers, while buyers are trading in SUV's like the Ford Explorer to be scrapped, turning the already dwindling number of American car owners into the growing ranks of foreign car drivers.

The Uninsured  —  One of the major goals of health care reform is to cover the vast numbers of uninsured.  But how vast, really, is that pool of people?  Who are they?  And how important is it to cover all or most of them?  —  Critics play down the seriousness of the problem by pointing …

Could Afghanistan Become Obama's Vietnam?  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama had not even taken office before supporters were etching his likeness onto Mount Rushmore as another Abraham Lincoln or the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  —  Yet what if they got the wrong predecessor?

Israel hits back over Swedish organ harvesting article  —  JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israel on Sunday withheld the press credentials of a Swedish newspaper in retaliation for a controversial piece that suggested the Israeli army kidnapped and killed young Palestinians to harvest their organs.

Time to Get in the Ring  —  Though Obama's natural instinct is toward compromise, now's the time to fight on health-care reform. … The first duty of a political party in retreat is to find something its people can rally around, and saying no to Obamacare is working nicely for the Republicans.

SO THE KNOXVILLE TEA PARTY CROWD HAD A RECESS RALLY at the Federal Courthouse, where Rep. Jimmy Duncan and Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker have offices.  They had 100-15 people (I heard that about half that many counterprotesters were there at the beginning, but they were marching off …