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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
GOP lawmaker demands Barton step down from top committee spot — A Republican lawmaker from a district affected by the oil spill called on Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) to step down as the ranking member of his committee. — Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), whose Pensacola district is among …
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The Politico:
‘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.
Melanie Mason / Dallas Morning News:
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton apologizes to BP CEO for ‘$20 billion shakedown’ — mmason@dallasnews.com — WASHINGTON - Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday morning for the “political pressure” his company is facing. — Barton condemned the White House's handling …
Discussion:
The Foundry, The Hill, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, Minnesota Independent, Real Clear Politics, msnbc.com and Joe. My. God.
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Top Corporate Donor to Barton Is Partner of BP on Deepwater Horizon — Ordinarily, it's not that shocking to see a Republican from Texas defend the petroleum industry. But Rep. Joe Barton's comments to BP CEO Tony Hayward today, in which he described it as a “tragedy” that a …
Discussion:
The Hill, Crooks and Liars, Telegraph, The Confluence, Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, Minnesota Independent and TPMMuckraker
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Say What? GOPers Slam White House Over BP Gulf Spill Fund — BP is ponying up $20 billion for Gulf Spill oil damages. And quite a few Republicans don't like it one bit. — The Obama administration and BP seem to have come to a solution on paying for damages from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Boehner distances himself from Barton's ‘shakedown’ comment — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) broke with a top Republican on Thursday who suggested BP had suffered a “shakedown” by being forced to set up a $20 billion fund to pay out damages. — Asked at his weekly press conference …
David Weigel / Right Now:
Joe Barton's apology and a potential GOP trap — Giving the opening statement for Republicans at today's BP hearing, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, vigorously defended the company in the wake of Wednesday's compromise on an escrow fund …
Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes to BP's Tony Hayward for White House “Shakedown” (Video)
Discussion:
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
To Barton's Defense — Cornyn says he “shares [Barton's] concerns.”
Keith Olbermann / Daily Kos:
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” …
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Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:
Keith Olbermann Checks Out Of Daily Kos After Criticism From Left — After taking heat from some of his liberal fans on Twitter over his strong criticism of Pres. Barack Obama's Oval Office speech Tuesday, Keith Olbermann stopped into another of his new media stomping grounds to find more of the same.
The Right Scoop:
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 …
Discussion:
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Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
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.
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CNN:
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 …
Hilary Stout / New York Times:
A Best Friend? You Must Be Kidding — FROM the time they met in kindergarten until they were 15, Robin Shreeves and her friend Penny were inseparable. They rode bikes, played kickball in the street, swam all summer long and listened to Andy Gibb, the Bay City Rollers and Shaun Cassidy on the stereo.
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The Huffington Post, The Enterprise Blog, The Anchoress, Dr. Helen, The Agonist and The Corner on National …
David Weigel / Right Now:
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 …
Discussion:
BuzzFlash.org, The Moderate Voice, Wake up America, The Political Carnival, The Impolitic and Macsmind
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Wall Street Journal:
End Is Seen to Free Checking — Bank of America Corp. and other banks are preparing new fees on basic banking services as they try to replace revenue lost to regulatory rules, in a push that is expected to spell an end to free checking accounts for many Americans.
Discussion:
CBS News, Rortybomb, Felix Salmon, Hit & Run, The Corner on National …, Lifehacker and PointOfLaw Forum
Jay Cost / HorseRaceBlog:
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.
Scott Gordon / nbcdfw.com:
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.
Rasmussen Reports:
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.
Discussion:
Ballot Box, Politics Daily, Aaron Gardner's …, Commentary, Wake up America, AmSpecBlog, Real Clear Politics and RedState
WTVD-TV:
Poll shows Etheridge trailing after video — RALEIGH (WTVD) — Days after North Carolina Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) was seen in a video confrontation with a man with a camera on a Washington street, a new poll seems to indicate the incident has damaged him with voters.
David Hammer / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
BP acknowledges it never followed blowout preventer law, blames MMS — In response to a U.S. senator's questions — in a letter, BP said it never follows a federal law requiring it to certify that a blowout preventer device would be able to block a well in case of an emergency.
Discussion:
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
Mpiccorossi / Pew Global Attitudes Project:
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.
Discussion:
The Politico, ABCNEWS, Weekly Standard, Washington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, RealClearWorld, Swampland and The Washington Note
Jason Horowitz / Washington Post:
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.
Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:
Vogue Publisher Florio Leaving Conde Nast — Tom Florio, the long-time publisher of Vogue, is leaving Conde Nast at the end of the month, Mr. Florio said Thursday. — Mr. Florio said in an interview that he's been talking to Conde Nast Chief Executive Chuck Townsend for some time about leaving …
Washington Times:
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.
John Cole / Balloon Juice:
This … And when you point that out, you are hippie-punching or just an O-bot and not a critical thinker. And he managed to do all this without ANY help from the Republicans and minimal help from the Blue Dogs, all while dealing with a childish media (Is he smoking?
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