memeorandum: Full text: Clegg reform speech (BBC)

12:10 PM ET, May 19, 2010

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: Townhall.com, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Balloon Juice, Think Progress, PostPartisan, Jules Crittenden, First Draft, Sister Toldjah, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, Riehl World View, Ballot Box, Maggie's Farm, The Corner on National …, AMERICAblog News and Real Clear Politics

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.

Discussion: American Thinker, Hot Air, American Power, The Impolitic, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CBS News, Discourse.net, The Note and Eschaton

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 …

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Resultsblogging II: PA-12 — Former John Murtha staffer Mark Critz's win in the PA-12 House election is just straight-up embarrassing for Republicans. The Democratic strategy was straight out of the 2006/2008 playbook. Find a moderately conservative House district and run a somewhat heterodox Democrat.

Discussion: TalkLeft and Dennis the Peasant

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.

Discussion: The Swamp, Guardian, Washington Post, The Politico, Commentary, Associated Press and Taegan Goddard's …

Daniel Larison / Eunomia:
PA-12 and The Single Greatest Pushback in American History

Discussion: Beltway Confidential, American Spectator, Weekly Standard and Balloon Juice

Thomas M. Defrank / NY Daily News:
Sen. Arlen Specter's primary loss continues bad 2010 for President Obama, Democrats

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:
PA-12 LIVE Election Results; UPDATE: Democrat Wins; Burns Concedes

Discussion: National Review, Right Now, Big Government, Gateway Pundit, alicublog, Conservatives4Palin.com and American Spectator

Adam Nagourney / The Caucus:
Blogging the Primaries — Primary elections in three states today …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and The Atlantic Online

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 …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Swamp, CNN, RedState, Ballot Box, Outside The Beltway, Questions and Observations, Another Black Conservative, Taylor Marsh, Associated Press, FiveThirtyEight, Scared Monkeys, Democratic Strategist, LewRockwell.com Blog, Hit & Run and Philly.com

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?

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Talking Points Memo, FrumForum, Connecting.the.Dots, The Impolitic, Outside The Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, PostPartisan and Hot Air

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

What Tuesday Really Meant — There were five races that we were tracking closely over the course of the evening — and I've already seen analysts drawing flimsy conclusions from each of them. — Pennsylvania — Democratic Senate primary — The results: Joe Sestak defeats Arlen Specter, 54-46.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Dish, FrumForum, Daily Kos and Ben Smith's Blog

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Arlen Specter warns of tea party ‘take over’

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Another Black Conservative, CNN, The Corner on National …, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin, Tammy Bruce and Pundit & Pundette

David Weigel / Right Now:
Rand Paul wins, and libertarians rejoice

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and FrumForum

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
How (and why) Arlen Specter lost

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Gawker and Opinion L.A.

Washington Post:
Sen. Arlen Specter loses Pennsylvania primary; Rand Paul wins in Kentucky

Discussion: msnbc.com, Ezra Klein, PostPartisan, Washington Monthly, The Hill, What's New, The Plum Line, USA Today, Courier-Journal, The Faster Times and Wall Street Journal

ABCNEWS:
Tea Party Supporter Rand Paul Defeats GOP Favorite in Kentucky

Discussion: Townhall.com, Associated Press, The Politico, Another Black Conservative and CNN

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
After 30 Years and Party Switch, Career Curtain for Specter

Discussion: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

New York Times:

Blumenthal's Vietnam Claims Grew in Time, Colleague Says — Former Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut found it puzzling: over time, his friend Attorney General Richard Blumenthal kept revising how he talked about his military service during the Vietnam War. At first, in the 1980s, he was humble.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Wonkette, Outside The Beltway, Hartford Courant, Capitol Watch, Wall Street Journal, The Plum Line, Vanity Fair, The Eye, PostPartisan, Hot Air, Newsweek Blogs, Commentary and Daily Kos

David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Shays Watched as Blumenthal's War Claims Evolved

Discussion: Politics Daily, Hot Air, The Atlantic Online, Unfogged, Balloon Juice, The Daily Caller, The Eye, Newsweek Blogs, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Democratic Strategist, The Fix and The Swamp

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
I Believe Richard Blumenthal

Discussion: RedState, Liberty Pundits Blog and Betsy's Page

New York Times:
Mr. Blumenthal's Misdirection — There are few sins less forgivable …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Politico, Jules Crittenden, NewsReal Blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Real Clear Politics, Associated Press, Scared Monkeys, Right Pundits, Law Blog and PostPartisan

Larry Pressler / New York Times:
The Technicality Generation

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Questions and Observations, Newsweek Blogs, Vox Popoli, The Daily Beast and NPR

Jim Oliphant / The Swamp:

Elena Kagan: Money in the bank? — White House staffers deliver Elena Kagan's questionnaire responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. (AP/Harry Hamburg) — by David G. Savage — Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan says she has $1.76 million in assets …

Discussion: CNN and SCOTUSblog

New York Times:
Thesis Is Window on Roots of Kagan's Legal Creed

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, JustOneMinute, The Politico, CNN, Law Blog, Main Justice, Liveshots, ABCNEWS, Political Punch, Lynn Sweet, Balkinization and The BLT

Jane Horwitz / Washington Post:

Theater J pulls Madoff play after objections from activist Elie Wiesel — Bowing to objections from Elie Wiesel, the author, human rights activist and Holocaust survivor, Theater J has canceled its first production of the coming season — a play in which Wiesel is a character.

Alex Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:

Pakistan arrests army officer linked to Times Square bomb suspect — The major's involvement with Faisal Shahzad remains unclear, but authorities say the two met in Islamabad and were in cellphone contact. — Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Investigators have arrested …

Discussion: Hot Air, Gothamist, Weasel Zippers, New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Dina Temple-Raston / NPR:
Jamaican Imam Said To Inspire Times Square Suspect

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Counterterrorism Blog

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.”

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY and Don Surber

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.

Discussion: Dennis the Peasant and TalkLeft

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 …

Discussion: naked capitalism, Booman Tribune, Balloon Juice, Clusterstock, The Glittering Eye, Suburban Guerrilla and DealBook

Michael Barone / Beltway Confidential:

Republican lesson from Pennsylvania 12 special — In Pennsylvania 12, so far the state shows 77,410 votes cast in the Democratic primary for Congress and 43,614 in the Republican primary—43% of them for 2008 Republican nominee William Russell, who pointedly did not endorse special election Republican candidate Tim Burns.

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin.com and Riehl World View

Nick Gillespie / Hit & Run:

Why We're Having an Everybody Draw Mohammed Contest on Thursday May 20 — The deadline for submitting work to Reason's Everybody Draw Mohammed contest has passed; winners will be shown on Thursday, May 20. — All that remains is anticipation, both of the artwork that will be displayed …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Ben Raines / Breaking News from the Press-Register:

BP told feds it could handle oil spill 60 times larger than Deepwater Horizon … In its 2009 exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, BP PLC states that the company could handle a spill involving as much as 12.6 million gallons of oil per day, a number 60 times higher than its current estimate of the ongoing Gulf disaster.

Discussion: Associated Press and Obsidian Wings

Reuters:

Obama rebukes Republicans for trying to block him — (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday accused Republicans of trying to score political points by attempting to block his economic policies but insisted that his agenda was working. — With public anxiety over high unemployment …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Beltway Confidential