Too Close to Call in Delaware  —  It looks like there's a real possibility of a major upset in the Delaware Senate primary on Tuesday night, with insurgent conservative Christine O'Donnell leading longtime Congressman and Governor Mike Castle 47-44.  That 3 point lead is well within the poll's margin of error.

Pelosi has pocketed nearly twice as much lobbyist cash as Boehner  —  If you read this weekend's New York Times' hit job on would-be Speaker John Boehner and his “lobbyist friends,” you might think, as the reporter clearly thinks, that John Boehner is cozier with lobbyists than most powerful politicians are.

Forbes Embraces Birtherism Lite.  —  Sometimes it's best to think of racism as intellectual laziness.  That is, it reflects a failure to evaluate people for who they actually are, because its easier to slip them into a familiar, predetermined category that doesn't upset other related conclusions a person might have come to as a result.

An Apology  —  Nicholas Kristof and I do not see the world—and America's role in it—in the same way.  I have sometimes expressed my disagreements with his opinions vociferously (vociferousness is my business).  But in yesterday's The New York Times, he quotes two sentences that I recently wrote …

Tea party outreach courts Jews  —  Tea partiers have downplayed the lack of diversity in their ranks, but on Monday one of the movement's leading organizers announced a new initiative to reach out to racial, ethnic and religious minorities - and their first target this High Holiday season are Jews.

The public hates almost everything Congress has done  —  Gallup has released a new poll asking respondents to assess the major accomplishments of Congress in the last two years: the national health care bill, the stimulus, the bailout of auto companies, the bailout of major banks and financial institutions …

America Is a Joke  —  The worst of times for politics and media has been the best of times for The Daily Show's host—and unfortunately things are getting even funnier.  —  I  —  t's hard to top a kick in the nuts.  —  Especially when the kicker is Linda McMahon, the Connecticut Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Halperin's Take: Brown Escalates War of Words With Bill Clinton  —  HALPERIN'S TAKE: The Whitman ad is probably the best TV spot by any campaign all cycle.  Clinton and Brown have always had a rough relationship, which probably hit rock bottom...  ... in 1992, when, in the same debate …

The NS Interview: Noam Chomsky  —  “President Obama is involved in war crimes right now”  —  Do you consider yourself to be primarily a scientist or a political activist?  —  If the world would go away, I would be happy to keep to the science, which is much more interesting and challenging.

The Exit Interviews: Sen. Bob Bennett  —  Q: What things do you think are most misunderstood by the public about being a senator or how Congress works?  —  A: They have no understanding of what we do.  They expect that we spend most of our time on the Senate floor debating.

China, Japan, America  —  Last week Japan's minister of finance declared that he and his colleagues wanted a discussion with China about the latter's purchases of Japanese bonds, to “examine its intention” — diplomat-speak for “Stop it right now.”  The news made me want to bang my head against the wall in frustration.

Meghan McCain's Dirty, Sexy Politics  —  On June 20, 2002, the United States Supreme Court decreed, in the case of Atkins v. Virginia, that the mildly mentally retarded were categorically exempt from capital punishment, reasoning that fully functional adults of diminished mental capacity …

Welcome back, Congress  —  Congress is back in session today, and it's got a lot on its agenda.  A food safety bill, for instance.  The Bush tax cuts.  An infrastructure bank.  Ratification of the START treaty.  But as Brookings' Thomas Mann says in this preview, they're not likely to actually do any of it.