memeorandum: Obama's Unbelievable Winning Streak (Peter Beinart/The Daily Beast)

6:20 PM ET, June 28, 2010

Top Items:

Robert Byrd, Respected Voice of the Senate, Dies at 92 — Robert C. Byrd, who used his record tenure as a United States senator to fight for the primacy of the legislative branch of government and to build a modern West Virginia with vast amounts of federal money, died early on Monday. He was 92.

David Broder / The Fix:

Byrd's death triggers special election...but when? — Sen. Robert Byrd's death will trigger a special election. But, when? AP Photo. — The death of West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd (D) will trigger a fierce battle to replace him, although the timing of that race remains an open question.

Discussion: Hotline On Call, Coal Tattoo, Wall Street Journal, Grist, Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, The Confluence, neo-neocon, The Atlantic Online and Salon

Associated Press:

Manchin says he won't appoint himself to fill Byrd's seat — CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Gov. Joe Manchin says he will not appoint himself to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy created by the death of West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd. — Manchin told The Associated Press there is no timetable …

Discussion: Ballot Box, The Washington Independent, Washington Wire and The Hill

Joe Holley / Washington Post:

West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd dead at 92 — Robert C. Byrd, a conservative West Virginia Democrat who became the longest-serving member of Congress in history and used his masterful knowledge of the institution to shape the federal budget, protect the procedural rules of the Senate and …

Discussion: Charleston Daily Mail, CNN, About.com US Liberal Politics, Ezra Klein, Wall Street Journal, Big Journalism, The Corner on National …, Wonk Room, Taylor Marsh, Fausta's Blog, Think Progress, msnbc.com, The Greenroom, NewsBusters.org and The Washington Note

Nick Gillespie / Hit & Run:

Let's Not Forget Sen. Byrd's Negative Legacy — As the encomia mount like rotting, fly-buzzed piles of the pork-barrel spending he so systematically shoveled back to his West Virginia home, let's not forget the late Sen. Robert Byrd's most undeniable legacy: Undermining belief in politicians …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, msnbc.com, The Politico and The Sundries Shack

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Filling Sen. Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat

Discussion: sos.wv.gov, Swing State Project, newsfeed.time.com, FiveThirtyEight and Daily Kos

Jonathan Allen / The Politico:
Law murky on succession

Discussion: Politics Daily, MyDD, Associated Press, Salon, The Nation, msnbc.com, Runnin' Scared, ABCNEWS, The Note and Michelle Malkin

Matt DeLong / Washington Post:
Robert Byrd dies: Reaction in Washington

Discussion: Think Progress, Don Surber, NPR, The Atlantic Online, Blue Wave News, Ezra Klein, Wonkette and The Page

Martin Kady II / The Politico:
Senate loses ‘venerable institution’

Discussion: Hot Air, Taegan Goddard's …, The Note, NewsReal Blog, Open Left, Ben Smith's Blog, ABCNEWS, Questions and Observations, msnbc.com and Weekly Standard

Mark Sherman / Associated Press:

Gun rights extended by Supreme Court — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitution's Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit “the right to keep and bear arms,” advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.

Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit:

OKAY, having quickly skimmed the McDonald opinion, a few thoughts. — First, it's 5-4. Though a pro-gun-rights opinion may pacify the gun-rights crowd to a degree, the closeness of these decisions is likely to keep them active in upcoming elections. — Second, it shows how little influence legal academics have.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Cato @ Liberty, Don Surber, Vox Popoli and The TrogloPundit

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court Rules That Gun Rights Apply to Local Laws — WASHINGTON — The Second Amendment's guarantee of an individual right to bear arms applies to state and local gun control laws, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-to-4 decision. — The ruling came almost exactly two years …

Discussion: Room for Debate, Politics Daily, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Israpundit, ACS Blog and TalkLeft

Associated Press:
Court: Christian Group Can't Bar Gays, Get Funding

Discussion: Cato @ Liberty, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, CBS News, Washington Monthly and Althouse

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Study Finds Questioning of Nominees to Be Useful

Discussion: The Note, CNN, The Politico, Washington Post, www.thetakeaway.org, ABCNEWS, The Caucus, PrawfsBlawg, A plain blog about politics, New York Times and The Volokh Conspiracy

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog: NRA prepares lawsuits in wake of Chicago verdict

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Breaking: Court strikes Chicago handgun ban

Discussion: Dean's World

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Third Depression — Recessions are common; depressions are rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment …

Discussion: Money & Company, Firedoglake, The Confluence, The Glittering Eye, Outside the Beltway, Vox Popoli, The Agonist, RedState, The New Republic, Corrente, Daily Kos, The Volokh Conspiracy and Don Surber

Paul Krugman:
The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein

Ian M. / Think Progress:

After Slamming ‘Activist’ Judges, Sessions Criticizes Kagan As Insufficiently Activist — Confirmation hearings are set to begin today on the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court. Yesterday, appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, Senate Judiciary …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Daily Kos and The Swamp

The Politico:
GOP plans attack on Kagan

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, The Note, Michelle Malkin, CNN, American Prospect, Hot Air, OpenSecrets.org, Washington Wire, Politics Daily, The Atlantic Online, And So it Goes in Shreveport and American Power

Noah Feldman / New York Times:
The Triumphant Decline of the WASP

Discussion: Washington Post, TigerHawk, The Edge of the American West, Shakesville, National Post, Mondoweiss and Tablet Magazine

Washington Post:
As Kagan confirmation hearings begin, Republicans struggle for line of attack

Discussion: Weekly Standard, msnbc.com, The Fix, NewsBusters.org, Washington Monthly, Law Blog, Beltway Confidential, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The BLT and Townhall.com

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Sex complaint against Gore is detailed, credible; Could this be Gore's real ‘Inconvenient Truth’? — The allegation that Al Gore sexually assaulted a woman in a Portland, Ore., hotel room nearly four years ago has dealt a serious blow to the former vice president's story that he and wife Tipper simply …

David Weigel / Big Government:

Hubris and Humility: David Weigel Comes Clean on Washington Post, the D.C. Bubble, & the ‘Journolist’ — In the first (and still best) “Austin Powers” film, a United Nations representative makes a faux pas and calls the film's villain “Mr. Evil.” — “It's Dr. Evil,” he huffs.

Discussion: The Politico, NewsBusters.org, AmSpecBlog, Riehl World View, Right Wing News, Ross Douthat, Wonkette, The Other McCain, Hit & Run, alicublog, The Daily Dish, Politics Daily, Patterico's Pontifications and FrumForum

John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
Why I Denied David Frum's Website A Spot In The Blogads Conservative Hive

Discussion: Cold Fury, Althouse and Confederate Yankee

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

A little message to Jeffrey Goldberg's anonymous Post sources — Now that the smoke has cleared from the Dave Weigel mess, here's a response to the anonymous sources inside the Post who used Jeffrey Goldberg's blog to urinate on the type of opinionated journalism that Weigel, Ezra Klein and others (myself included) practice.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Democracy in America and Grasping Reality …

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Post fallout — Jeffrey Goldberg last week quoted an anonymous friend …

Discussion: Ezra Klein

The White House:

Presidential Memorandum: Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution — MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES — America's future competitiveness and global technology leadership depend, in part, upon the availability of additional spectrum.

Discussion: CNN, Politics Daily, New York Times and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Kim Hart / The Politico: Obama moves toward wireless auction

Media Czech / Barefoot and Progressive:

Rand Paul refuses to say how old the earth is — I attended a fancy Christian Homeschool Educators of Kentucky (CHEK) conference on Friday, where Liberty Christ himself showed up to give a sermon and answer (and dodge) a few questions. — Here is the question and answer session:

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Hullabaloo

Boston Globe:

Brown outpolls Kerry, Obama — US Senator Scott Brown, who only months ago was a little-known figure even within the tiny band of Republicans in the state Senate, not only catapulted to national stature with his upset US Senate victory, but is today the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe poll.

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, The Hill, Wonk Room, Weasel Zippers, Stop The ACLU, CNN, Scared Monkeys, Washington Monthly, Weekly Standard, Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool and neo-neocon

John Monk / The State:

U.S. Sen. race: Greene's finances subject of SLED investigation — State agency wants to know how U.S. Senate candidate could afford filing fee — SLED and the 5th Circuit solicitor's office are investigating the finances of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene to see whether …

Discussion: CNN, TPMMuckraker, iOwnTheWorld.com and Wonkette

The Atlantic Online:

An Invitation for Glenn Greenwald — It turns out that the left-wing commentator Glenn Greenwald doesn't like me (who knew?). In a rather long posting, he accuses me of many different sins, mainly, though not exclusively, having to do with my early support for the Iraq war, and for my reporting from pre-invasion Iraqi Kuridstan.

Discussion: Commentary

Peter Beinart / The Daily Beast:

Obama's Unbelievable Winning Streak — Blogs and Stories — So he hasn't plugged the leak, and his poll numbers are sagging. Truth is, Obama has exceeded in 18 months what Clinton and Carter achieved in a combined 12 years. — I know this is supposed to be Barack Obama's summer of discontent.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Rick Plumlee / Wichitopekington:

Moran leads Tiahrt in SurveyUSA poll — A poll conducted for KWCH shows Jerry Moran holds a 20-point lead over Todd Tiahrt in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in Kansas, according to results released today. — With a little more than five weeks before the Aug. 3 primary …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics