Top Items:
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
FIRST THOUGHTS: THE GOP'S VOID — The GOP's leadership void... The hits keep on coming for Steele, though the RNC reported raising $11.4 million in March... But that is less than the $13 million-plus the DNC is reporting... Is Bart Stupak going to call it quits?... Obama heads to Prague this evening …
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Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
On the edge: Clues to Steele's future — A week after revelations that the Republican National Committee reimbursed a fundraiser for expenses incurred at a sex-themed nightclub, the reverberations continue to shake the GOP. — The committee's chief of staff has been pushed …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, CNN, Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, Riehl World View, Swampland, Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Note, The Page, Washington Monthly and Daily Kos
Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:
Former RNC official: Steele struck a deal with Michigan GOP to increase fundraising numbers, possibly to circumvent federal funding limits — Into the RNC coffers, and back out again. — The Republican National Committee at the end of last year struck a deal with the Michigan Republican Party …
Discussion:
TPMDC, The Note, Ben Smith's Blog, Liberty Pundits dot net, Hot Air, TPM LiveWire and MyDD
Anne Schroeder Mullins / The Politico:
STORMY DANIELS SWITCHES TEAMS
STORMY DANIELS SWITCHES TEAMS
Discussion:
The Note, CNN, Another Black Conservative, Mediaite, Big Government, The Gun Toting Liberal, Below The Beltway, Hot Air and Hotline On Call
Byron York / Beltway Confidential:
Fear and loathing in the RNC
Fear and loathing in the RNC
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog
Washington Post:
McDonnell's Confederate History Month proclamation irks civil rights leaders — RICHMOND — Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, reviving a controversy that had been dormant for eight years, has declared that April will be Confederate History Month in Virginia, a move that angered civil rights leaders Tuesday …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Note, DownWithTyranny!, Washington Monthly, Obsidian Wings, Balkinization, Guardian, Hit & Run, Achenblog, This Just In, PoliBlog, Outside The Beltway, Feministing, AMERICAblog News, Cato @ Liberty, NPR Topics, Below The Beltway, Matthew Yglesias, Lawyers, Guns & Money, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Reality-Based Community, Wonkette, Little Green Footballs, Think Progress, Virginia Politics Blog and The Rachel Maddow Show
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Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:
Proud Of Being Ignorant — A lot of you have e-mailed me to note that Virginia governor Bob McDonnell has decided to honor those who fought to preserve, and extend, white supremacy. I don't really have much to say. The GOP is, effectively, the party of willfully unlettered Utopians.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Paul / Power Line:
The wrong proclamation in Virginia — Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell has declared April to be Confederate History Month in Virginia. He will thus issue a proclamation honoring soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. — So far, so good. McDonnell's two Democratic predecessors refused …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
CNN:
Reporter's notebook: What really happens at Tea Party rallies — (CNN) — When it comes to the Tea Party movement, the stereotypes don't tell the whole story. — Here's what you often see in the coverage of Tea Party rallies: offensive posters blasting President Obama and Democratic leaders …
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Valerie Bauman / Associated Press:
Black conservative tea party backers take heat — ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Big Journalism, Wake up America, NewsBusters.org, Questions and Observations, theblogprof, Shot in the Dark, Nice Deb, No More Mister Nice Blog, Pundit & Pundette, Another Black Conservative, Liberty Pundits dot net, Left Coast Rebel, Instapundit, The Rhetorican, The American Pundit and The Lonely Conservative
Fox News:
Obama Bans Islam, Jihad From National Security Strategy Document — The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war.
Discussion:
The Corner on National …, Michelle Malkin, Maggie's Notebook, Cold Fury, The Jawa Report and Jihad Watch
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks …
Nina Totenberg / NPR:
Supreme Court May Soon Lack Protestant Justices — text sizeAAA — With U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens talking openly about retirement, attention has focused on the “who” — as in who is on President Obama's short list of potential nominees.
Discussion:
The Confluence, SCOTUSblog, Bench Memos …, Slate, msnbc.com, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Online, The Hill and Prairie Weather
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Specter claims Reid deal for Judiciary chair
Margaret Talev / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public — WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them. — Questions reflecting confusion …
Richard Wolf / USA Today:
Upper-income people would lose tax cuts in Obama plan — WASHINGTON — Fresh from raising taxes on upper-income Americans to help expand health insurance coverage, President Obama and Democratic lawmakers are targeting them again. — When Congress takes up Obama's proposed $3.8 trillion budget this year …
Discussion:
WILLisms.com
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Rubio's path — Marco Rubio's remarkable fundraising haul — $3.6 million this quarter, he just announced — is a reminder of the scale of his stardom inside the Republican Party, all of whose core constituencies seem to like the guy. — He's already hearing every day (and brushing it off) …
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Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:
Rudy Giuliani and Joe Scarborough Humiliate Arianna Huffington
Rudy Giuliani and Joe Scarborough Humiliate Arianna Huffington
Discussion:
Wake up America, theblogprof, Liberty Pundits dot net, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys and The Daily Caller
Ali Akbar Dareini / Associated Press:
Iran ridicules Obama's “cowboy” nuclear strategy — TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president on Wednesday ridiculed President Barack Obama's new nuclear strategy, which turns the U.S. focus away from the Cold War threats and instead aims to stop the spread of atomic weapons to rogue states or terrorists.
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David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Obama weighs new peace plan for the Middle East — Despite recent turbulence in U.S. relations with Israel, President Obama is “seriously considering” proposing an American peace plan to resolve the Palestinian conflict, according to two top administration officials.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Commentary, The Majlis, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Wonk Room, The Washington Independent and Yourish.com
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Parties Even in Congressional Midterm Preferences — Rise in voter enthusiasm after passage of healthcare has since steadied — PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Daily tracking for the week ending April 4 finds the two major parties tied at 46% in the congressional voting preferences of registered voters nationally.
JSOnline:
Juneau County DA warns districts on sex ed law — Teaching curriculum could lead to criminal charges against teachers, he writes — By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel — Madison — A district attorney is telling Juneau County schools to abandon their sex education courses …
Reuters:
Volcker: Taxes likely to rise eventually to tame deficit — (Reuters) - The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Economic Scene: To Cut Health Costs, U.S. Needs to Learn to Say No — How can we learn to say no? — The federal government is now starting to build the institutions that will try to reduce the soaring growth of health care costs. There will be a group to compare the effectiveness …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Post, Questions and Observations, Beat the Press and Riehl World View
James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
‘Riot Is the Voice of the Unheard’ — Tea-party foe Maxine Waters once made excuses for real political violence. — “The Tea Party emerges as not only outrageous, but they have turned up the volume in ways that even Code Pink have not been able to do,” Rep. Maxine Waters said the other day on MSNBC.
David Boaz / Reason:
Up from Slavery — There's no such thing as a golden age of lost liberty — For many libertarians, “the road to serfdom” is not just the title of a great book but also the window through which they see the world. We're losing our freedom, year after year, they think.