Top Items:
Manu Raju / The Politico:
Obama, McCain clash at GOP lunch — President Barack Obama battled with Senate Republicans in a tense closed-door meeting Tuesday, facing tough criticism from his GOP adversaries — including John McCain — on issues ranging from health care to border security.
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Washington Post:
After closed-door talks, GOP senator calls Obama ‘thin-skinned’ — President Obama traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a rare meeting with Senate Republicans, but the 75-minute session yielded little progress on hot-button topics and left some senators with bruised feelings.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Hot Air, The Plum Line, The Political Carnival, Front Row Washington, Scared Monkeys and TPM LiveWire
Charles Babington / Associated Press:
Obama gets an earful in clash with GOP senators — WASHINGTON (AP) - If President Barack Obama thought having a private lunch with Republican senators would ease partisan tensions in Congress, he grabbed the wrong recipe. — The president walked into a remarkably contentious 80-minute session Tuesday …
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. to Toughen Drill Rules — Obama to Unveil Steps Thursday as Criticism Rises Against Handling of Oil Spill — WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, fighting to stay ahead of the political storm over the Gulf oil spill, is expected to announce on Thursday that the government …
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senator criticizes Obama's ‘audacity’ in using GOP as ‘props’ — A GOP senator ripped into President Barack Obama at a meeting on Capitol Hill Tuesday, telling him he had “audacity” coming in and using Republican lawmakers as “props.” — Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the Democrats' partner …
Ezra Klein / The Plum Line:
The decisive action Obama can take — As I noted this morning, there's been a palpable shift in the tone of media coverage of Obama's handling of the Gulf spill, with newly-aggressive news orgs raising more questions about whether the admistration has ceded too much control to BP.
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David Rogers / The Politico:
W.H. mixed signals muddle funding — Mixed signals from the White House are making life harder for Democrats this week as the party tries to navigate between competing demands to reduce the deficit while also investing in new jobs and a patched-up safety net for the unemployed and the elderly.
Pejman Yousefzadeh / The New Ledger:
The White House And The Oil Spill
The White House And The Oil Spill
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Riehl World View, protein wisdom, RealClearPolitics Video Log and Wake up America
Mike Riggs / The Daily Caller:
Justice Department declines to appoint independent counsel for Sestak case
Justice Department declines to appoint independent counsel for Sestak case
Discussion:
The Other McCain, Big Journalism, Weasel Zippers, Glenn Thrush's Blog and The Corner on National …
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog Gay:
Webb to vote no on DADT compromise, blames WH and Gates statements …
Webb to vote no on DADT compromise, blames WH and Gates statements …
Jon Ward / The Daily Caller:
Top Obama adviser says ‘no evidence’ that Sestak's bribe charge is true
Top Obama adviser says ‘no evidence’ that Sestak's bribe charge is true
Yvonne Wenger / postandcourier.com:
Folks says Haley campaign consulted him on breaking silence about ‘inappropriate sexual relationship’ — Blogger Will Folks said Tuesday that GOP gubernatorial candidate State Rep. Nikki Haley and her campaign asked him for advice on how they should handle the news of their inappropriate relationship when he broke it.
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Randal C. Archibold / New York Times:
National Guard to Help Secure Southwest Border — LOS ANGELES — President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on law enforcement there to combat drug smuggling after demands from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that border security be tightened.
Discussion:
Another Black Conservative, Salon, The Daily Beast, Power Line, Gateway Pundit, Ben Smith's Blog, Balloon Juice and FrumForum
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Jonathan Allen / The Politico:
Guard ordered to Mexican border
Guard ordered to Mexican border
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, 24Ahead, La Shawn Barber's Corner, Reuters, CNN, CampusProgress.org, ChattahBox News Blog and The Swamp
Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border
Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border
Discussion:
TRAIL BLAZERS, Fausta's Blog, Weekly Standard, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Washington Independent
Jimmy Orr / Top of the Ticket:
Mitch McConnell to Rand Paul: Shut your yapper! — The continuing implosion, better known as Rand Paul's post primary campaign, will be taking a break from self-immolation it appears. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is telling fellow Kentuckian Paul to shut his pie hole.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Annals of journalistic enterprise — Sarah Palin, guerilla Facebook warrior, turns the tables a bit on the author Joe McGinniss — best known for his Nixon campaign account, The Selling of the President, and for the murder investigation Fatal Vision — who, she says, has rented the house next door.
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NPR:
Rush Limbaugh's Conservative Charge … In the early 1970s, if you were a resident of McKeesport, Pa., who turned your radio to WIXZ-FM in the morning, you might hear a voice belonging to a DJ named “Bachelor Jeff” Christie giving you the weather report in between Top 40 tunes.
Igor / Think Progress:
GOP Rep. Slams Fox News: 'I Don't Know What They're Doing At Fox News, But They Should Stop Smoking It' — This morning, Fox and Friends characterized Sen. Bob Casey's (D-PA) Create Jobs & Save Benefits Act as a “$165 billion bailout” of union pensions. “It has been decades since you've seen …
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama heckled over 'Don't ask, don't tell' — again — President Barack Obama was heckled by a protester Tuesday night while at a fundraising event for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) in San Francisco. — The protester was upset with the pace of the repeal of the “Don't ask, don't tell” policy barring openly gay military service members.
Andy Borowitz / The Huffington Post:
Experts Propose Plugging Oil Leak with BP Executives — WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - At a conference of oil leak experts in Washington today, attendees proposed plugging the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico with executives of BP, the company responsible for the catastrophic spill.
Chris / AMERICAblog News:
BP CEO walks on oil covered beach, barks orders to media — So who died and made Tony Hayward the king? Yes, that's the BP CEO yelling “get 'em out of there, get 'em out of there” to the media who is filming him as he “works” on the oil slick cleanup. The last time I checked, we don't live in the United States of BP.
New York Times:
U.S. Pledges to Stand With South Korea ‘Always’ — SEOUL — With political and military tension increasing daily on the Korean peninsula, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would stand beside Seoul as it seeks redress at the United Nations Security Council …
Ben Frumin / TPMDC:
Vaughn Ward: Worst Candidate Ever? — Meet Vaughn Ward. He's running in today's Republican primary in Idaho's 1st Congressional District. He's an Iraq War veteran. A former CIA operations officer. A fourth-generation Idaho native. Heck, Sarah Palin supports him.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, skippy the bush kangaroo, Daily Kos, The Fix, Swing State Project, Idaho Statesman and National Review
Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
As Ugly as It Gets — I confess that when I first saw the May 17 picture of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, joining his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with raised arms — after their signing of a putative deal …