Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41%  —  Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is - virtually dead even.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote.

Sen. Mark Warner: Mitch McConnell 'either doesn't understand or chooses not to understand'  —  When Sen. Mitch McConnell said that the Senate financial-regulation bill meant “endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks,” he was, knowingly or not, taking aim at a policy …

Source: State Dems scrambling to deploy tea party ‘crashers’  —  New Hampshire Democrats are engaged in a statewide search for liberal activists willing to attend so-called tea parties on Thursday and carry signs expressing racist or fringe sentiments, a Democratic source with knowledge of the effort tells NowHampshire.com.

Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes.  Look Closer.  —  Forty-seven percent.  —  That's the portion of American households that owe no income tax for 2009.  The number is up from 38 percent in 2007, and it has become a popular talking point on cable television and talk radio.

Anthony Weiner Goes Viral  —  Congressman Anthony Weiner bounded into a DJ booth at a fashionable Lower East Side bar one recent Wednesday night, grabbed the microphone with his left hand and unleashed his inner Borscht Belt.  —  “Every single moment that we are stroking our beards and gazing …

Joe Lieberman thanks “GOD” that Republicans have the momentum in the upcoming election  —  Good old Joe.  He's doing what he does best.  Throw as much dirt as he can on the left.  While giving an interview with the conspiracy theory-wingnut site known as Newsmax, he says he's really happy …

Arianna huffs about overbooked celebs at WHCD  —  Like a Real Housewife of New Jersey, Arianna Huffington was flipping tables, well, at least metaphorically.  —  Because like most media organizations that placed a bid for White House Correspondents dinner tables, the Huffington Post founder didn't get her way.

Our Fill-in-the-Blank Constitution  —  AS the Senate awaits the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, a frank discussion is needed on the proper role of judges in our constitutional system.  For 30 years, conservative commentators have persuaded the public that conservative judges apply the law …

Crist: A Path to Running as an Independent?  —  Florida Gov. Charlie Crist dodged another question Wednesday about whether he would run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, the Associated Press reports.  The question referenced this story in today's Wall Street Journal on how some of his advisers …

Bernanke to Unemployed: Drop Dead  —  Ben Bernanke's economic forecast indicates a dire future for the currently unemployed and also for young Americans who'll be graduating from school this spring and next: … That sounds right to me.  And if Congress asked me to give my forecast, that's what I would give.

The Curious Cook: Why Cilantro Tastes Like Soap, for Some  —  FOOD partisanship doesn't usually reach the same heights of animosity as the political variety, except in the case of the anti-cilantro party.  The green parts of the plant that gives us coriander seeds seem to inspire …

Eliot Spitzer's flameout  —  (Fortune) — It was one of America's most shocking political sex scandals, instantly transforming New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer — who had terrified Wall Street during his political climb — into the infamous “Client 9.”  —  In Rough Justice, his new book out April 20 …

Corrupt K Street Lobbyists Set Up A New Blue Dog Think Tank To Undermine Working Families  —  Blue Dogs are often most reviled for crossing the aisle and voting with Republicans on key issues like healthcare reform and financial reform.  Last November, when 39 Democrats voted against healthcare reform, for example, 25 were Blue Dogs.

Terry Gross: What I Read  —  How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all?  Do they have some secret?  Perhaps.  We are asking various journalists who seem well-informed to describe their media diets.  This is from an exchange with Terry Gross …

Mike Huckabee Blasts Student Newspaper for ‘Sensationalizing’ Comments on Gay Marriage  —  ABC News' Huma Khan reports: In an unusual battlefront, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is embroiled in a heated war of words with a college newspaper after telling a student reporter that it is …

Why FL-19 isn't a health care referendum  —  In the immediate wake of soon-to-be Rep. Ted Deutch's (D) victory in a special election in Florida's 19th district on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee released a statement casting it as a rejection of Republican claims that health care …

Arizona Clears Strict Immigration Bill  —  Arizona lawmakers on Tuesday passed one of the toughest pieces of immigration-enforcement legislation in the country, which would make it a violation of state law to be in the U.S. without proper documentation.  —  It would also grant police the power …