Barton retracts apology to BP  —  Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is apologizing for his apology.  —  After infuriating Democrats and Republicans alike with his public apology to BP and suggesting that a $20 billion escrow fund was a “shakedown” by the White House, Barton is now “retracting” …

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” …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

Obama Lunches With Progressive Pundits: Maddow, Robinson, Collins  —  What's Your Reaction: … President Obama met for lunch on Thursday with a group of predominantly progressive columnists to discuss a range of topics, chief among them the oil spill in the Gulf.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Palin: Pot is a ‘minimal problem’  —  Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday night that law enforcement should not focus its energy on the “minimal problem” of marijuana.  —  Palin made the comment during an appearance on the Fox Business Network with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …