Top Items:
New York Times:
Specter Defeat Signals a Wave Against Incumbents — WASHINGTON — Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who left the Republican Party a year ago in hopes of salvaging a 30-year career, was rejected on Tuesday by Democratic primary voters, with Representative Joe Sestak winning the party's nomination …
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Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Sestak, Paul score wins as Lincoln faces runoff — Upstart Senate candidates claimed two stunning victories in primary elections Tuesday night as Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak denied incumbent Democrat Arlen Specter renomination to a sixth term and Kentucky insurgent Rand Paul easily bested …
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Online:
Is Rand Ron's Son? Or The Most Powerful Republican In The Woooorld? — Rand Paul is in the spotlight tonight. He's enjoying Scott Brown-like status as the Most Powerful Republican In The World. And look: he says he represents the Tea Party movement. So that must be the end of it, right?
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Arlen Specter warns of tea party ‘take over’ — As voters considered his fate throughout Pennsylvania, Sen. Arlen Specter warned on Tuesday that without him Democrats may not be able to fend off a tea party “takeover.” — “What you see happening across the country is that the tea party organization …
Reuters:
Activists seize control of politics — For any politician with the usual instincts for self-protection, the lessons of Tuesday's primaries could not be more clear: This could happen to you. — Arlen Specter lost in Pennsylvania even though the party-switching Democrat was recruited and backed by a sitting president.
Washington Post:
Sen. Arlen Specter loses Pennsylvania primary; Rand Paul wins in Kentucky — Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (D), a Senate fixture who switched parties a year ago, lost his bid for reelection Tuesday, while in Kentucky, ophthalmologist Rand Paul rode the anti-Washington energy of the “tea party” movement to an easy victory.
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Thomas M. Defrank / NY Daily News:
Sen. Arlen Specter's primary loss continues bad 2010 for President Obama, Democrats — WASHINGTON - Tuesday's balloting is a fresh reminder of what all the combatants have understood for months: It's a lousy year to be a Democrat, an incumbent or President Obama.
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Washington Monthly
NBC Philadelphia:
Sestak Knocks Out Specter
Sestak Knocks Out Specter
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Shakesville, Taegan Goddard's …, Pam's House Blend, skippy the bush kangaroo and Joe. My. God.
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
After 30 Years and Party Switch, Career Curtain for Specter
After 30 Years and Party Switch, Career Curtain for Specter
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Politico:
The GOP's special failure — All the evidence pointing to monster Republican House gains this fall—the Scott Brown upset win in Massachusetts, the scary polling numbers in once-safely Democratic districts, the ever-rising number of Democratic seats thought to be in jeopardy—was contradicted Tuesday.
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
‘WHERE IS THE WAVE?’.... Arguably the most important election yesterday wasn't a primary race, but rather, the congressional special election in Pennsylvania's 12th — a contest to fill the vacancy left by the late Rep. Jack Murtha (D). — Observers in both parties considered the race something of a bellwether.
David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Shays Watched as Blumenthal's War Claims Evolved — HARTFORD — Former Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, a Republican who says he is a good friend of Richard Blumenthal's, said in an interview Tuesday that he had watched with worry as Mr. Blumenthal gradually embellished his military record over the years.
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Scandals in the House Republican Class of 1994 — When was it, exactly, that the Republican revolution merged with the sexual revolution? — With each passing year, the class notes for the famous House Republicans Class of '94 get more lurid. The latest entry was submitted Tuesday morning by Rep. Mark Souder (Ind.).
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The Eye
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Chris Bowers / Open Left:
Crotchety Progressive Rant — I am outraged by this, because this is outrageous. — And yet, where are the street protests in response to this outrage? No, not those protests—we need bigger ones. There should be hundreds of thousands of people out there protesting this. Every day.
Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:
PA-12 LIVE Election Results; UPDATE: Democrat Wins; Burns Concedes — Election results online here. — 11:30 p.m. ET: Well, everybody else has gone to drown their sorrows, but I've still got to hit a late deadline for The American Spectator. A defeat is always harder to report than a victory.
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Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
HOUSE PASSES BEER RESOLUTION — While most of Washington was focused on Tuesday's election results, the House was busy doing something else: Passing a resolution about beer. — House Resolution 1297, sponsored by Rep. Betsy Markey, supports “the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week.”
Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:
Campbell Brown Leaving CNN After Network Grants Release From Contract (UPDATE) — Mediaite has learned CNN has granted anchor Campbell Brown's request to be let out early from her contract. — She has agreed to stay on and anchor the 8pmET hour until a replacement is found. Updated with statements.
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Sean J. Miller / Ballot Box:
Lincoln and Halter head to runoff in Arkansas — Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) forced Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) into a June 8 runoff after both failed to win a majority of the vote in Tuesday's Senate primary. — Lincoln led Halter 44 to 42 percent with more than half the state's precincts reporting.
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Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:
EpicFail: Blanche Lincoln Turned Away From Home Polling Place This Morning
EpicFail: Blanche Lincoln Turned Away From Home Polling Place This Morning
Discussion:
theblogprof, Blue Arkansas, Wonkette, Gateway Pundit, The Swamp, Swing State Project, Newsweek Blogs and Taylor Marsh
Bloomberg:
Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash — A telephone call between a financial adviser in Beverly Hills and a trader in New York was all it took to fleece taxpayers on a water-and-sewer financing deal in West Virginia. The secret conversation was part of a conspiracy stretching across …
J.P. Freire / Beltway Confidential:
DOJ Voting Rights attorney resigns over Black Panthers stonewalling — A trial attorney with the Department of Justice's Voting Rights Section has resigned, citing concerns about the government's refusal to prosecute a case involving voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party.
New York Times:
Clients Worried About Goldman's Dueling Goals — “Questions have been raised that go to the heart of this institution's most fundamental value: how we treat our clients.” — Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs's C.E.O., at the firm's annual meeting in May — As the housing crisis mounted …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Election Night Homethread (5/18/10) — 9:45 PM [Nate]. Sestak officially takes the lead. And 2/3 of Philly has been counted. How can Specter win? He probably can't. — 9:44 PM [Nate]. The Democrat Critz leads big — 58 to 39 — in PA-12 special election so far. — 9:40 PM.
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Swing State Project, The Atlantic Online, The Politico, Daily Kos, Guardian and The Mahablog
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