Elena Kagan White House “Interview” Riles Reporters  —  The White House today posted on its website a video allowing Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to speak “in her own words” about her personal history and perspective.  —  In the interview, conducted by a White House staffer who produces videos …

Arizona gov. signs bill targeting ethnic studies  —  PHOENIX - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.  —  State schools chief Tom Horne …

Broad Approval For New Arizona Immigration Law  —  Democrats Divided, But Support key Provisions  —  The public broadly supports a new Arizona law aimed at dealing with illegal immigration and the law's provisions giving police increased powers to stop and detain people who are suspected of being in the country illegally.

1,000-page climate bill is unveiled  —  Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on Wednesday unveiled their nearly 1,000-page climate change bill, flanked by environmentalists, religious and ex-military leaders and energy industry officials.  —  But the glaring absence …

SC Gov. Sanford saw Argentine lover in Florida  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Wednesday he spent last weekend in Florida with his Argentine lover, hoping to rekindle the affair that wrecked his marriage and his political future and brought a formal rebuke from legislators for embarrassing the state.

Voters Shifting to GOP  —  Republicans have solidified support among voters who had drifted from the party in recent elections, putting the GOP in position for a strong comeback in November's mid-term campaign, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Galbraith: The danger posed by the deficit ‘is zero’  —  James Galbraith is an economist and the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. chair in government and business relations at the University of Texas at Austin.  He's also a skeptic of the prevailing concern over America's long-term deficit.

Suspicions about Specter aid Sestak  —  PITTSBURGH - The first time Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) slipped up here Tuesday night at the Allegheny County Democratic Committee's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, most in the audience pretended not to notice.  —  But at the end of his remarks when Specter again thanked the …

It's official: Charlie Crist won't give campaign refunds  —  Gov. Charlie Crist told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on April 30 that he would “probably” give refunds to donors who don't approve of him leaving the GOP.  Some donors to his U.S. Senate campaign were told before the switch …

The Contrast in Mood Between Today and 1983  —  The most astonishing and surprising thing I find about Washington DC today is the contrast in mood between DC today and what DC was thinking a generation ago, in 1983, the last time the unemployment rate was kissing 10%.

Books of The Times: ‘The Promise: President Obama, Year One’ by Jonathan Alter  —  With relentless 24/7 media coverage of President Obama and a floodlet of books about him, the reader might well ask: Why another study of him and his White House, when his presidency is less than a year and a half old?

DADT statement from Milbloggers  —  There was a recent exchange of letters between Sen. Levin and Sec. Def.  Gates about the study the military is doing about Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  In it Sec. Gates confirmed that the military was looking at how best to implement the policy on the assumption that the rule would be changed.

Backing Off the Tax Pledge?  —  Hungry Beast Giving Beast Women in the World  —  Blogs and Stories  —  White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, grilled about Obama's pledge not to raise middle-class taxes, left the president wiggle room.  Lloyd Grove reports.

Statement by President Obama on Financial Reform  —  Throughout the debate on Wall Street reform, I have urged members of the Senate to fight the efforts of special interests and their lobbyists to weaken consumer protections.  An amendment that the Senate will soon consider would do exactly that …

Stupak: Oil well's blowout preventer had leaks, dead battery, design flaws  —  A senior House Democrat said that the blowout preventer that failed to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico had a dead battery in its control pod, leaks in its hydraulic system, a “useless” test version …

U.S. posts 19th straight monthly budget deficit  —  (Reuters) - The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

RNC Members Blast Barbour Over MA  —  Updated: Check out the furious backpedaling from both IA RNC members, in a statement distributed by the RGA, here.  —  Conservative members of the RNC are upset with RGA chair Haley Barbour for spending party money to attack a right-leaning candidate …

Obama won't golf with Limbaugh  —  When President Obama was asked if he would play a round of golf with his talk-radio nemesis Rush Limbaugh, the response, relayed by a top Democrat, was: “Limbaugh can play with himself.”  —  This is according to Zev Chafets in his new book, “Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One,” due May 25 from Sentinel.

PM Netanyahu's Jerusalem Day speech at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva  —  No other people has the connection the people of Israel have with Jerusalem and Zion.  But there was also no other people that allowed other religions freedom of worship and freedom of access to the holy places other than the people of Israel.