Top Items:
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.
Discussion:
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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 …
Discussion:
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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.
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 …
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 …
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” …
Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
The June 8 elections: A verdict on incumbents, unions, and Democrats
The June 8 elections: A verdict on incumbents, unions, and Democrats
Lee Smith / Tablet Magazine:
Indispensable — Michael Oren, a 55-year-old U.S.-born historian of the modern Middle East and the author of two best-selling books, one on the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and another on the United States' 200-year-old experience in the Middle East, renounced his U.S. citizenship at an emotional ceremony …
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Eli Lake / Washington Times:
American Jewish community ends support of Turkish interests on Hill — In October 2000, the government of Turkey had a problem. — House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert had promised to bring a resolution commemorating the Armenian genocide to the floor for a vote, a move that Ankara said would be a slap in the face to a NATO ally.
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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Jae C. Hong / Newsweek:
Sex Change — In an election season marked by voters' desire …
Sex Change — In an election season marked by voters' desire …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Harry Reid's battle plan against Sharron Angle: Paint her as whackjob
Harry Reid's battle plan against Sharron Angle: Paint her as whackjob
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Corner on National …, Washington Post, ABCNEWS, Don Surber and Daily Kos
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
This is the Sound of Hope Dying — Yesterday afternoon, Lindsay Graham confirmed that he's bailing from efforts to pass a climate change bill. The odds weren't looking good for this legislation, but now they're hard to distinguish from zero. And the news gets worse after the midterms.
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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.
Dorothy Rabinowitz / Wall Street Journal:
The Alien in the White House — The distance between the president and the people is beginning to be revealed. — The deepening notes of disenchantment with Barack Obama now issuing from commentators across the political spectrum were predictable. So, too, were the charges …
Discussion:
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David Weigel / Right Now:
Jim DeMint gets the kind of opponent candidates dream about — In 2008, the South Carolina Democratic establishment supported attorney Michael Cone for the thankless task of taking on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). He raised almost no money and lost, in a massive upset …
Discussion:
National Review
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James Craven / The New Britain Herald:
‘Lying face to face’ — NEW BRITAIN — A member of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's staff, himself a former major and judge advocate in the U.S. Marines, is calling Blumenthal a liar and disgrace to the Marine Corps for representing himself repeatedly as having served in Vietnam.
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.
Jesse McKinley / New York Times:
California Voters Back Election Overhaul — SAN FRANCISCO — Hoping to fix a system many Californians view as fundamentally broken, voters Tuesday moved to radically alter the way they pick their candidates for state and Congressional offices by eliminating traditional primaries in favor of a new, and largely untested, system.
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Jon A. Krosnick / New York Times:
The Climate Majority — ON Thursday, the Senate will vote on a resolution proposed by Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, that would scuttle the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to limit emissions of greenhouse gases by American businesses. — Passing the resolution might seem to be exactly what Americans want.
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 …
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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.
Discussion:
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Issa asks Office of Special Counsel to investigate WH on Sestak-Romanoff — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) submitted a formal referral for two top White House officials to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for allegedly having violated a law prohibiting federal officials from using official resources for political purposes.
New York Times:
Keeping Politics Safe for the Rich — In a burst of judicial activism, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upended the gubernatorial race in Arizona, cutting off matching funds to candidates participating in the state's public campaign finance system. Suddenly, three candidates, including Gov. Jan Brewer …