memeorandum: Senate Republicans Call Reform Bill a ‘Takeover’ of Banking Industry (David M. Herszenhorn/New York Times)

12:55 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: PostPartisan, Townhall.com, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Balloon Juice, Think Progress, Jules Crittenden, First Draft, Hot Air, Conservatives4Palin.com, Sister Toldjah, Riehl World View, Taylor Marsh, Ballot Box, CBS News, The Corner on National …, Maggie's Farm, AMERICAblog News and Real Clear Politics

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 …

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: The Daily Dish, blogs.alternet.org, FrumForum, Daily Kos, The New Republic, Firedoglake 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, Townhall.com, The Other McCain, American Power, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Impolitic, Discourse.net and Eschaton

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 Huffington Post, Firedoglake, The Swamp, Guardian, Washington Post, The Politico, Commentary and Confederate Yankee

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

Daniel Larison / Eunomia:

PA-12 and The Single Greatest Pushback in American History … There are many things about the PA-12 special election that are unique to that race and district, but one thing that ties it to many of the other Republican special election losses over the last three years is the party's obsession …

Discussion: Beltway Confidential, Right Now, American Spectator and Balloon Juice

Michael Barone / Beltway Confidential:
Republican lesson from Pennsylvania 12 special

Discussion: Riehl World View

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

More on Rand Paul — So is Rand Paul, on a personal level, just a deeply unlikeable guy? One of the weird things about his acceptance speech last night was that he held it at the local country club — to what looked uncannily like a members only crowd. This morning he defended the venue …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, DownWithTyranny!, George's Bottom Line and The Poor Man Institute

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: Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, FrumForum, The Moderate Voice, Outside The Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, PostPartisan, The Impolitic, Hot Air and Another Black Conservative

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Sestak, Paul score wins as Lincoln faces runoff

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and FrumForum

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

Discussion: Indecision Forever, The Caucus and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly

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

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

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Slow learners at the 9th Circuit — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a stimulus package for the Supreme Court, which would rather not have one. The 9th Circuit, often in error but never in doubt, provides the Supreme Court with steady work: Over the past half-century …

Discussion: Cato @ Liberty and Moonbattery

Jim Oliphant / The Swamp:
Elena Kagan: Money in the bank?

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, Main Justice, Law Blog, ABCNEWS, Liveshots, Political Punch, Lynn Sweet, Balkinization and The BLT

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, The Politico, Hartford Courant, NewsReal Blog, Outside The Beltway, Newsweek Blogs, Hot Air, Mudville Gazette, Capitol Watch, The Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Vanity Fair, The Eye and Right Pundits

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

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politics Daily, Hot Air, The Atlantic Online, Unfogged, Balloon Juice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Scared Monkeys, The Eye, The Daily Caller, Newsweek Blogs and The Plum Line

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
I Believe Richard Blumenthal

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

Simon McGregor-Wood / ABCNEWS:

Rahm's Son's Bar Mitzvah Irks Some in Israel — Israeli Activists Say They Will ‘Blow Up,’ Figuratively, Zach Emanuel's Bar Mitzvah — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's plan to take his son, Zach, to Jerusalem's famous Western Wall for his Jewish coming-of-age ritual appeared to have run into serious trouble.

Gil Hoffman / Jerusalem Post:
W. Wall bar mitzva for Emanuel's son?

Discussion: Think Progress and Gateway Pundit

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.

Chris Johnson / Washington Blade:

Key senator says hold off on 'Don't Ask' repeal — A key U.S. senator has told the Blade that he opposes repealing “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” at this time. — In a brief exchange on Capitol Hill, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Tuesday he would vote against an effort next week to overturn the law.

Discussion: The Hill and Joe. My. God.

Washington Examiner:

Campbell Brown scurries out, Eliot Spitzer jumps in — It's official: Campbell Brown's prime-time show on CNN is toast, sources say. — The ratings are down 6 percent from last year, at 159,000 viewers in the coveted 25-to-54 demographic, CNN says. Mediaite took Brown's spin and reported …

Discussion: Townhall.com, Above the Law, Mediaite and Gawker

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:
Campbell Brown Leaving CNN After Network Grants Release From Contract (UPDATE)

Discussion: New York Times, Don Surber, Media Decoder, Wonkette, Commentary and Romenesko

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

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

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

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.

Discussion: The Corner on National …, National Review, Main Justice and Commentary