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:
Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, Riehl World View, 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 …
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, 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, 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 Huffington Post, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Note, Think Progress, DownWithTyranny!, Obsidian Wings, Balkinization, Guardian, Washington Monthly, Outside The Beltway, Achenblog, This Just In, Feministing, AMERICAblog News, PoliBlog, Cato @ Liberty, NPR Topics, Matthew Yglesias, Below The Beltway, Lawyers, Guns & Money, No More Mister Nice Blog, Wonkette, The Reality-Based Community, Virginia Politics Blog, Little Green Footballs 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
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:
Michelle Malkin, The Corner on National …, 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 …
Discussion:
Salon, The Corner on National …, Vanity Fair, BBC, For The Record, Opinio Juris, The Washington Independent, American Prospect, Guardian, ATTACKERMAN, Commentary, Slate, Reuters and ABCNEWS
Eli Lake / Reason:
The 9/14 Presidency — Barack Obama is operating with the war …
The 9/14 Presidency — Barack Obama is operating with the war …
Discussion:
Left in the West, Newshoggers.com, The New Republic, FrumForum, Hit & Run and AmSpecBlog
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, Liberty Pundits dot net, Another Black Conservative, Pundit & Pundette, Left Coast Rebel, Instapundit, The Rhetorican, The American Pundit and The Lonely Conservative
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
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 …
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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, Washington Post, The Mahablog, Beltway Confidential, The Lonely Conservative and JammieWearingFool
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, The Daily Caller and The Other McCain
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, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Wonk Room, The Washington Independent and Yourish.com
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 …
Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:
New Nuclear Policy Enrages Republicans — Critics Say New Policy Sends Wrong Message to Iran and North Korea — President Obama says his new nuclear policy restricts the use of weapons while continuing to protect the United States and its allies, but some Republican critics argue …
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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
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