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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 …
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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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Left Coast Rebel, Washington Post, Breitbart.tv, Newsweek Blogs, Firedoglake, No More Mister Nice Blog and Main Justice

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 …

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?
Discussion:
Hot Air


Sestak Knocks Out Specter — Specter concedes race — To view this video you must to have Flash Player 9.0 or later installed. Click to download the most recent version of Flash. — U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak has knocked off five-term U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic Senate primary.

Tea Party Supporter Rand Paul Defeats GOP Favorite in Kentucky — Incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln Couldn't Secure Enough Votes to Avoid Runoff Against Labor-Backed Candidate — In a symbol of the growing anti-Washington sentiment across the country, Rep. Joe Sestak defeated five-term senator Arlen Specter …

Specter rejected by Pa. Dems in bid for 6th term — U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has been defeated in a Pennsylvania primary in his bid for a sixth term after taking the risky step of switching to the Democratic Party. — Voters today picked U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak as the party's nominee and rejected …
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Townhall.com, msnbc.com, Scared Monkeys, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Hot Air, SENATUS, Left Coast Rebel and Weasel Zippers

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, Daily Kos, Guardian, Ballot Box and The Mahablog

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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Dems keep Murtha seat — Democrats held on to former Rep. John Murtha's (D-Pa.) in a special election Tuesday. — Mark Critz (D), a former aide to Murtha, won the race to replace his late boss, defeating businessman Tim Burns (R) 54 percent to 44 percent with 75 percent of precincts reporting.
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The Politico

2010: Anti-Incumbent, Anti-Liberal, or Anti-Democrat?
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Right Now, Wall Street Journal, The Confluence, Questions and Observations and Politics Nation

Confident Dems Goad GOP By Calling PA-12 A ‘Must-Win’ For Republicans Today

Uh oh: Media not rallying to Blumenthal's side after press conference — A bit of candy to chew on while we await Benedict Arlen's fate. I think Blumenthal went out there today figuring that a confrontational, rather than contrite, posture — let no one impugn my service! — was the fastest way to the lefty base's hearts.
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EpicFail: Blanche Lincoln Turned Away From Home Polling Place This Morning — Sen. Blanche Lincoln suffered what might be one of the all-time greatest campaign staff fails this morning. According to her campaign staff, Lincoln was initially turned away when she tried to vote at her home …
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Blue Arkansas, Wonkette, Gateway Pundit, The Swamp, Swing State Project, Newsweek Blogs and Taylor Marsh
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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.


Breaking: 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.
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Wonkette
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Rep. Souder And Mistress Recorded Video Praising Abstinence (WATCH) — Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) had an affair with a part-time staffer named Tracy Jackson, Fox is reporting. Jackson played the role of interviewer for a Souder Web video show on the issues of the day — including one on the value of abstinence.
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Exclusive: Indiana Rep. Mark Souder to Resign Amid Allegations …
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The Journal Gazette, The Caucus, Metro Weekly, Indecision Forever, The Bilerico Project, Liveshots, DownWithTyranny!, The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, The Eye, msnbc.com, Michelle Malkin, Little Green Footballs, AMERICAblog Gay, Right Now, Feministing, TPMMuckraker, National Review, Pam's House Blend, Firedoglake, The Fix, JustOneMinute, Hot Air, Wonkette, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, The Impolitic, Liberty Pundits Blog and Confederate Yankee


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 …

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.


Thesis Is Window on Roots of Kagan's Legal Creed — WASHINGTON — As a young graduate student, Elena Kagan wrote that it was “not necessarily wrong or invalid” for judges to “try to mold and steer the law” to achieve social ends, but warned that such rulings must be rooted in legal principles to be accepted by society and endure.
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The Politico
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Ex-Harvard student accused of living a lie — He crafted an elaborate web of lies to con his way into Harvard University, authorities say, but Adam B. Wheeler wasn't content to graduate quietly and get away with just a degree. — After two years of blending into campus life and racking …


Major Powers Have Deal on Sanctions for Iran — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced an agreement on Tuesday with other major powers, including Russia and China, to impose a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, setting the stage for an intense tug of war …
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AZ utility board member responds to LA boycott over SB1070 — The Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott the state of Arizona over its new immigration-enforcement law, and now the Arizona Corporation Commission has responded. Gary Pierce, one of the commissioners chosen in state-wide elections …