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 …
Discussion:
Gawker, Dallas Morning News, National Review Online, Gateway Pundit, The Political Carnival and JammieWearingFool
RELATED:
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:
The Moderate Voice, Wall Street Journal, Swampland, Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Note, The Page and Washington Monthly
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 …
Anne Schroeder Mullins / The Politico:
STORMY DANIELS SWITCHES TEAMS — Stormy Daniels, the former porn star who has been debating whether to run for Senate in Louisiana for what seems like decades, says she'll make her decision April 15. More important, she announced Tuesday that if she does run — because apparently …
Discussion:
The Note, CNN, Mediaite, Another Black Conservative, Big Government, The Gun Toting Liberal, Hotline On Call, Below The Beltway and Hot Air
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 Huffington Post, Matthew Yglesias, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Think Progress, The Note, Washington Monthly, Obsidian Wings, Guardian, Balkinization, Outside The Beltway, Achenblog, This Just In, Feministing, AMERICAblog News, PoliBlog, Cato @ Liberty, NPR Topics, Virginia Politics Blog, Below The Beltway, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Wonkette, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Reality-Based Community, Little Green Footballs and The Rachel Maddow Show
RELATED:
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
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 …
RELATED:
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, Liberty Pundits dot net, Nice Deb, No More Mister Nice Blog, Another Black Conservative, Pundit & Pundette, 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.
RELATED:
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 …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …, Vanity Fair, Salon, BBC, For The Record, Opinio Juris, American Prospect, The Washington Independent, Guardian, ATTACKERMAN, Commentary, Slate, Reuters and ABCNEWS
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
RELATED:
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Specter claims Reid deal for Judiciary chair
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 …
RELATED:
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 …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, The Mahablog, Washington Post, Beltway Confidential, JammieWearingFool and The Lonely Conservative
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.
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:
Commentary, The Majlis, Wonk Room, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Washington Independent and Yourish.com
New York Times:
Obama's Nuclear Strategy Intended as a Message — WASHINGTON — At the heart of President Obama's new nuclear strategy lies a central gamble: that an aging, oversize, increasingly outmoded nuclear arsenal can be turned to the new purpose of adding leverage to the faltering effort to force Iran …
Discussion:
The Duck of Minerva, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Mediaite and Washington Examiner
RELATED:
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 …
Peter Whoriskey / Washington Post:
General Motors posts $4.3B loss — General Motors posted a $4.3 billion loss for the second half of 2009 but could be profitable this year, the company announced Wednesday. — “As the results for 2009 show, there is still significant work to be done,” said Chris Liddell, vice chairman and chief financial officer.
Discussion:
Politics Daily
Joseph N. DiStefano / Philly.com:
NJ pols grabbed Springsteen, U2 seats as public waited — “Former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's office got U2 and Bruce Springsteen seats the public couldn't buy last year, at the same time the state was suing brokers over ticketing practices, according to documents showing 22 elected …
Discussion:
skippy the bush kangaroo
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.
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) …
Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Updated with Video - Gibbs Calls CNN's Erick Erickson's Comments ‘Remarkably Crazy’ — At today's White House press briefing, liberal radio host Bill Press asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about recent comments by CNN's Erick Erickson. Specifically, he asked if Erickson's threat to “pull …
Geoff Dornan / Carson City Nevada:
Reid likes his chances for re-election — Senator stops in Carson City on statewide bus tour — Sen. Harry Reid made it clear Tuesday he believes he can and will win in November despite polls showing him trailing his major Republican competitors. — “If the election were held today …