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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
White House official: ‘Organized labor just flushed $10 million down the toilet’ — A senior White House official just called me with a very pointed message for the administration's sometime allies in organized labor, who invested heavily in beating Blanche Lincoln, Obama's candidate, in Arkanas.
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Anti-Incumbent Rage Bypasses Arkansas — WASHINGTON — On a primary election night when the heralded anti-incumbency sentiment was expected to again demonstrate its strength, Senator Blanche Lincoln proved there were clear limits to its power. — Virtually written off as a likely victim …
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Online:
The Meaning Of Arkansas, Regardless Of The Winner — It's a funny habit we political pundits have. If, say, 3,000 votes separate a winner from a loser, we forget that a small shift in some part of a state could have swung those votes the other way, and we tend to massively over-interpret the meaning of the tiniest of margins.
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Whitman and Fiorina Win in California — WASHINGTON — Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, who ascended to the top of the business world before turning to politics, prevailed on Tuesday in their respective battles for the Republican nominations for the United States Senate and governor in California …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
How Blanche Lincoln won — 1. Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln's Democratic runoff victory Tuesday night proved that conventional wisdom is often wrong. — Lincoln's political obituary was written in the days after she narrowly bested Lt. Gov. Bill Halter — 44.5 percent to 42.5 percent …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Blanche Lincoln wins Arkansas Senate race; Nikki Haley in SC runoff — Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln won renomination tonight, beating Lt. Gov. Bill Halter — and the national labor unions that had spent millions on his behalf — in a remarkable result that provided a counter-weight to the anti-incumbent trend nationally.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
AFL to White House: 'Labor isn't an arm of the Democratic Party' — The major labor federation AFL-CIO took sharp objection tonight to a White House official's assessment that they'd “flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet” in the “pointless exercise” …
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Palin's backing pays off for pals
Palin's backing pays off for pals
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TPMDC:
Reid Opponent Embraces Patriot Group That Warns Of ‘Giant Concentration Camps’ — The peculiar ideology of Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada, is perhaps no better illustrated than by her embrace of the patriot group Oath Keepers …
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Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Five ways Harry Reid might go after Sharron Angle — Sharron Angle, meet Rand Paul. — Angle, the staunch conservative in the Nevada Senate primary, went into Tuesday as the front-runner to win the Republican nomination to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D).
kaus.sitebuilder.completecampaigns.com:
Concession Statement — Mickey Kaus claimed a form of victory Tuesday night after he apparently drew more than 5% of the Democratic primary vote against three-term incumbent Barbara Boxer: — STATEMENT OF MICKEY KAUS — I congratulate Senator Boxer on her primary victory.
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New York Times:
Turkey Goes From Pliable Ally to Thorn for U.S. — ANKARA, Turkey — For decades, Turkey was one of the United States' most pliable allies, a strategic border state on the edge of the Middle East that reliably followed American policy. But recently, it has asserted a new approach in the region …
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Ed Barnes / Fox News:
Reuters Admits Cropping Photos of Ship Clash, Denies Political Motive — On the left, the uncropped photo. On the right, Reuters' released photo. (Reuters) — The British-based Reuters news agency has been stung for the second time by charges that it edited politically sensitive photos in a way that casts Israel in a bad light.
The Hill:
Will anyone replace her? — In the end, Helen Thomas got the last laugh. Before anybody could throw her out of the White House briefing room, she denied them the pleasure by walking out on her own. — Thomas herself couldn't defend her latest comments about Israel — and she didn't try.
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CNN:
Incumbent congressman headed for runoff — Inglis must now face a runoff. — (CNN) - Rep. Bob Inglis, R-South Carolina, failed to win Tuesday's primary and now must compete in the June 22nd runoff, the Associated Press projects. — With 96 percent of the precincts reporting …
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The Politico
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Stephanie Simon / Washington Wire:
Halter Complains It Was Hard to Vote in Garland Co., Ark. — Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter who is challenging Sen. Blanche Lincoln in today's Democratic primary runoff has a beef with state election officials. — The Halter campaign complained that Garland County - the county seat is Hot Springs …
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Anne Bayefsky / Weekly Standard:
Syrian Rep Promotes Blood Libel at UN Human Rights Council — Meeting today in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council heard the following statement from the Syrian representative, First Secretary Rania Al Rifaiy: “Israel...is a state that is built on hatred...Let me quote a song that a group …
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Commentary, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Israel Matzav, Soccer Dad, Doug Ross, Weasel Zippers and RubinReports
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Susan Ferriss / Capitol Alert:
Parties talk about lawsuit challenging ‘open’ primary victory — Disgruntled California voters have blown up their election system by approving Proposition 14, which tosses out the current political party-based primary system in all but presidential races. — With 48 percent …
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Torey Van Oot / Capitol Alert:
Bowen: ‘Army of lawyers’ at the ready if Prop 14 passes
Bowen: ‘Army of lawyers’ at the ready if Prop 14 passes
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Ballot Access News
David Seifman / NY Post:
Bill Clinton calls La. senator ‘sinner’ in fundraising letter — Former President Clinton has sent out a fundraising letter on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee under his own name warning that Republicans are trying to “derail' President Obama's agenda. — Not much unexpected there.
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Linda Rogers / PolitiCal:
Carly Fiorina wins GOP Senate nomination [Updated] — Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina will be the Republican Party nominee in the November race against Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. — Fiorina was the top vote-getter in Tuesday's primary election …
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Nancy Pelosi, the liberal House speaker, is heckled by liberals — For 17 months, anger at President Obama and congressional Democrats has been pooling on the left. On Tuesday morning, it spilled onto the floor of an Omni Shoreham ballroom and splashed all over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Bruce Drake / Politics Daily:
Charlie Crist Has Small Lead Over Marco Rubio in Florida Senate Race — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who switched from Republican to independent, holds a small 37 percent to 33 percent lead over Republican Marco Rubio in his bid to win the state's Senate seat, with Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek trailing …
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DISSENTING JUSTICE
Sarah Palin / Facebook:
Less Talkin', More Kickin' — 50 days in, and we've just learned another shocking revelation concerning the Obama administration's response to the Gulf oil spill. In an interview aired this morning, President Obama admitted that he hasn't met with or spoken directly to BP's CEO Tony Hayward.