Top Items:
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
EXCLUSIVE: White House asked Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about Senate run — Senior White House advisers asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about whether he was serious about running for Senate, and to feel out whether he'd be open to other alternatives, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Discussion:
The Fix, Hot Air, Townhall.com, Maggie Haberman's Blog, Top of the Ticket, Don Surber, msnbc.com, Right Now, The Volokh Conspiracy, Taylor Marsh, Wizbang, Hullabaloo, RedState, Weasel Zippers, Swampland, NO QUARTER, Ben Smith's Blog, Liberty Pundits Blog, MyFox Philadelphia, Taegan Goddard's …, Washington Post, The Corner on National …, Flopping Aces, Mother Jones, The Washington Independent, Verum Serum, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and The Eye
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Peter Baker / The Caucus:
White House Used Bill Clinton to Ask Sestak to Drop Out of Race — President Obama's chief of staff used former President Bill Clinton as an intermediary to see if Representative Joe Sestak would drop out of a Senate primary if given a prominent, but unpaid, advisory position, people briefed on the matter said Friday.
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Sestak says his brother, White House met about alleged job offer — Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) said Thursday his brother has spoken with White House officials about the congressman's allegation that he was offered an Obama administration job if he would stay out of a Democratic Senate primary.
Discussion:
Commentary, Michelle Malkin, Roll Call, American Spectator, JustOneMinute, Left Coast Rebel, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Fix, YID With LID, Right Now, Associated Press, Top of the Ticket, Liberty Pundits Blog, The New Republic, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Political Punch, Pundit & Pundette, The Plum Line, FrumForum, NewsBusters.org, USS Neverdock and Outside the Beltway
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Online:
Here's The Sestak Memo From The White House — Basically: the notion that the White House offered Rep. Joe Sestak the job of Secretary of the Navy is false. The President had already nominated Ray Mabus for the job BEFORE Arlen Specter switched parties. — The White House …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, The Strata-Sphere, OpenSecrets.org, NewsBusters.org, PointOfLaw Forum and Right Now
Wall Street Journal:
He Was Supposed to Be Competent — The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy. — I don't see how the president's position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office.
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New York Times:
Oil Flow Is Stemmed, but Could Resume, Official Says — HOUSTON — By injecting solid objects as well as heavy drilling fluid into the stricken well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico overnight, engineers appeared to have stemmed the flow of oil, Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard …
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Yvonne Wenger / postandcourier.com:
Folks' data shows 600 Haley calls — Colleagues' talks prove nothing, candidate's manager says — COLUMBIA — In 2007, the year political blogger Will Folks claims he had an affair with state Rep. Nikki Haley, the two spoke by phone at least 600 times. — Some of those calls came late at night …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, Charleston City Paper, Erick's blog, TPMMuckraker, New York Magazine and RedState
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Erick Erickson / RedState:
Naming Names — Without a guilty plea for beating a woman, but with a Devil May Care attitude, RedState.com's fearless editor, Erick Erickson, endeavoring to write about himself in the third person, though omniscient or limited is still up for grabs, will now proceed to dish out the dough …
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Laura Myers / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
OPINION POLL: U.S. SENATE RACE: Survey shows Lowden gives GOP best chance of winning in fall — Lowden would attract more independent voters than Reid — Republican Sue Lowden has the best chance of defeating U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, according to a new poll for the Review-Journal that also suggests …
Discussion:
Washington Wire, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Wonkette, Hot Air, TPMDC, Taegan Goddard's …, National Review, Real Clear Politics and The Eye
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Jillian Rayfield / TPM LiveWire:
Rand Paul Suggests Children Of Illegal Immigrants Should Not Be U.S. Citizens (VIDEO) — Here's another one for the list of out-there Rand Paul statements... Paul recently suggested to a Russian TV station that the U.S. should abandon its policy of granting citizenship to the children …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Left Coast Rebel, BuzzFlash.org, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos and TPMDC
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William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
The Atlantic Has A Mess On Its Hands — The Atlantic Magazine thought it would be able to speak poetic historical justice, by splashing the headline that the original reviled one, Kenneth Starr of Monica and Bill and Blue Dress and Impeachment fame, had been arrested for running a Ponzi Scheme.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Althouse, Outside the Beltway, Rough Sketch, Pajamas Media and FT Alphaville
New York Times:
House Votes to Allow Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Law — WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to let the Defense Department repeal the ban on gay and bisexual people from serving openly in the military, a major step toward dismantling the 1993 law widely known as “don't ask, don't tell.”
Discussion:
CNN, The Swamp, The Hill, Democracy in America, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Cassy Fiano, Wonk Room, Towleroad News #gay, AmSpecBlog, The Daily Dish, Washington Post, TPMDC, Human Rights Campaign, Shakesville, The Political Carnival, Outside the Beltway, MyDD, Liberty Central, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Joe. My. God., The Note, TalkLeft, The Volokh Conspiracy and Weekly Standard
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Daniel Lamothe / Battle Rattle:
Marine's cheeky Sarah Palin tattoo the butt of jokes — Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin Lepping, an explosive ordnance disposal technician currently deployed to Afghanistan, says former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is “the hottest cougar in the Republican Party.” (Left photo by the AP.
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
GOP moves to repeal healthcare law — House Republican leaders introduced a bill Thursday to repeal and replace the sweeping healthcare law adopted in late March. — According to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the measure would repeal the current law and replace it with the alternative …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Chinese Economic Model — Something that emerges quite quickly and a bit unexpectedly from being taken around on an economics-focused tour of China is that the Chinese economic miracle is really a great deal less of a “free market” miracle than the conventional understanding in the United States would suggest.
Discussion:
Ezra Klein
Michael Whitney / Firedoglake:
Louisiana Fishermen: “How Are We Going to Live?” — I spent a heartbreaking three hours with Louisiana fishermen Jim and Angel. They work and live on a mid-size shrimping boat docked on Grand Isle, Louisiana. They've been through Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, and Ike.
Boston Globe:
Mass. Senate passes crackdown on illegal immigrants — With one lawmaker citing President Lincoln's respect for the rule of law, the Massachusetts Senate passed a far-reaching crackdown this afternoon on illegal immigrants and those who would hire them, going further, senators said …
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool, NewsBusters.org, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Don Surber, Questions and Observations, sisu and Weasel Zippers
Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll finds anger over country's leaders — WASHINGTON — Americans are increasingly optimistic about the economy, but that brightening outlook hasn't softened their outrage over the country's direction and its political leadership, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.
John Kennedy / Palm Beach Post:
Crist switches on 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy on gays in the military — TALLAHASEE — Gov. Charlie Crist's switch on the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy Thursday left the no-party Senate contender caught in a crossfire of criticism from his Democratic and Republican opponents.