‘People are calling for his head’  —  Republicans, particularly Gulf state lawmakers, are furious at Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and may ask him to cede his job as top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the wake of his apology to BP Thursday.  —  “People are calling for his head,” said a GOP member of the committee.

Check, Please  —  I was checking in tonight to see what was new, came across a diary trashing first me and my colleague Rachel, and scrolled through it shaking my head, sadly, until I got to one comment that leaped off the page. … “Can't verify”... “haven't checked” …

Tea partyers push back against ‘The Rise of the New Right’ with boycott  —  Tea party groups are reacting strongly and negatively to MSNBC's documentary “The Rise of the New Right,” hosted by Chris Matthews.  Yesterday, FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey expressed personal disgust with Matthews …

Hillary Clinton: Yes, Obama is filing a lawsuit against the Arizona law  —  Hillary Clinton was interviewed by NTN24 out of Quito, Ecuador on June 8, and was asked about how the Obama administration was handling the Arizona law.  She answered frankly, that the justice department …

Language guru: Obama speech too ‘professorial’  —  (CNN) — President Obama's speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.  —  Tuesday night's speech from the Oval Office of the White House …

Can Republicans Take Back the House?  —  Editor's Note: These days the best D.C. parlor game is guessing November's House results.  We've recently made our own contribution, with a district-by-district analysis that projects—as of early June—a Republican net gain of 32 seats.

The Pulpit of a Bully  —  Mike Allen broke this astounding bit of news yesterday: … The 51st Congress (1889-91) was tagged as the Billion Dollar Congress, a profligate Republican-run legislature that raided the Treasury in an effort to pay off all its supporters.

Southwest Finds Shipment of Heads on a Plane  —  Southwest Airlines employee finds human heads on their way to Fort Worth  —  A Southwest Airlines employee called police after finding human heads in a package set to be transported to a Fort Worth medical research company, the airline said.

Liberal Despair And the Cult Of The Presidency  —  I've been writing for several months about the curious sense of disappointment afflicting liberals  —the belief that they've been let down by a president who is, in fact, racking up historical achievements.

Obama More Popular Abroad Than At Home, Global Image of U.S. Continues to Benefit  —  Overview  —  As the global economy begins to rebound from the great recession, people around the world remain deeply concerned with the way things are going in their countries.

Election 2010: Arkansas Senate  —  Arkansas Senate: Boozman (R) 61%, Lincoln (D) 32%  —  Republican John Boozman now holds a near two-to-one lead over Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas' U.S. Senate race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state.

Crude Politics  —  The drilling experts speak out on the Obama deepwater moratorium.  —  Before the Obama Administration sweeps under the carpet the controversy over the drilling experts it falsely used to justify its moratorium, the incident bears another look.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen's numbers are firing up Republicans and Democrats  —  ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Here is a fun fact for those in the political polling orthodoxy who liken Scott Rasmussen to a conjurer of Republican-friendly numbers: He works above a paranormal bookstore crowded with Ouija boards and psychics on the Jersey Shore.

The Obama Effect  —  Democrats are going to have to think really carefully about how they deploy Barack Obama for campaigning this fall.  Polls we've conducted nationally and in several different states over the last few weeks have found that a candidate being endorsed by Obama is much more likely …

Walpin-gate swings wide open  —  Two big new twists on anniversary of IG firing  —  One year to the day after illegally firing AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin, the Obama administration is scrambling to ward off further embarrassments related to the case.