Pa. Democrat admits helping Tea Party candidate  —  A Pennsylvania Democratic House candidate on Tuesday admitted to helping a third candidate get on the ballot in the hopes he would siphon votes away from his Republican opponent.  —  Bryan Lentz, the Democratic nominee running for the seat …

MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election  —  In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups …

Shouts & Murmurs: Three Things to Do When Clarence Thomas's Wife Calls You  —  Like many Americans, over the past several years I have been the recipient of multiple unwelcome voicemails from the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.  These calls have come in the middle of the night …

Making Ignorance Chic  —  Casanova's rule for seduction was to tell a beautiful woman she was intelligent and an intelligent woman she was beautiful.  —  The false choice between intellectualism and sexuality in women has persisted through the ages.  There was no more poignant victim of it than Marilyn Monroe.

Soros Donates $1 Million to Media Matters  —  Media Matters, the liberal activist group that wages a rhetorical war against Fox News Channel and others in the conservative press, will announce on Wednesday the receipt of a $1 million donation from the philanthropist George Soros.

Maddow Falsely Claims Politician Had Advance Warning of Oklahoma City Bombing  —  I'm pretty sure that this was an error, not a knowing misstatement—when you're on a daily news cycle, the sad fact is that you probably won't remember everything you've ever said.  Nonetheless, this demands a retraction:

Sold-Out Crowd Gives Former President Bush Three Standing Ovations During Speech  —  Former President George W. Bush pulled back the curtain of the Oval Office and gave East Texans a picture of what his job was like during the high and low points.  —  With trademark humor and conviction …

Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers  —  A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War — a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking …

Rick Santorum stokes additional speculation on his bid for 2012 GOP presidential nomination  —  Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum on Tuesday stoked additional speculation — while treading lightly around any confirmation — that he would seek the GOP nomination for the 2012 presidential race.

CNN/Time Poll: All tied up in Alaska Senate race  —  (CNN) - A new poll indicates a dead-even race in the Alaska battle between Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who's running for re-election as a write-in candidate.  But a CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation …

Decrees Of Separation  —  First Amendment: A law school audience fell into fits of laughter when a Senate candidate asked, “Where in the Constitution is separation of Church and State?”  In fact, the phrase is nowhere in the document.  —  Tuesday's debate between Delaware's U.S. Senate hopefuls …

Obama requests emergency stay of 'don't ask, don't tell' order  —  Washington (CNN) — Finding itself in a strange legal position, the Obama administration filed an emergency request Wednesday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the military from allowing openly gay troops from serving.

You Knew They'd Hit The Wrong Markey Eventually  —  UPDATE #2: Rep. Ed Markey (the Democrat from Massachusetts — the male Markey) chimes in with his own quote: … UPDATE: We've created this handy-dandy tool that allows you to quickly figure out which Markey you are trying to discuss …

AP-GfK Poll: Likely voters ready to embrace GOP  —  WASHINGTON — All signs point to huge Republican victories in two weeks, with the GOP now leading Democrats on virtually every measure in an Associated Press-GfK poll of people likely to vote in the first major elections of Barack Obama's presidency.

Pelosi's Favorable Rating as Speaker Drops to 29%, a New Low  —  Nearly 6 in 10 independents now view her unfavorably  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's favorable rating is down seven percentage points since May to 29%, a new low for her since assuming the top congressional post.

Spitzer's Harvard Club Application?  Rejected  —  In his emergence from political disgrace, Eliot Spitzer has played multiple roles: political commentator, financial columnist, college professor, and, most recently, CNN host.  —  One role he will not be playing: a member of the Harvard Club of New York City.

A Culture of Poverty  —  In 2008, I was sent out to the Democratic convention to work on a piece for this magazine about Michelle Obama.  I had just been hired on as a contributing editor, and was ecstatic.  There was a community of young bloggers out there—Chris Bodenner, Alyssa Rosenberg, Dayo Olapade etc.

Handoff, or Fumble?  —  How consumer psychology will determine the fate of our economic recovery.  —  In a much-anticipated speech on Friday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke invoked a favorite metaphor of economists to describe the current, critical period in the recovery.

Just Knock It Off  —  Some of Israel's worst critics are fond of saying that Israel behaves like America's spoiled child.  I've always found that analogy excessive.  Say what you want about Israel's obstinacy at times, it remains the only country in the United Nations that another U.N. member …

The case for a foreclosure moratorium  —  John Taylor is president and chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and he's among those calling for a foreclosure moratorium — and not just because the paperwork was awry.  We spoke this afternoon.

Nine stories the press is underreporting — fraud, fraud and more fraud  —  From liars' loans to liars' liens, the financial and foreclosure crisis has been one big story of banks defrauding their customers — a vast criminal enterprise.  You wouldn't know it from a lot of the media coverage, though.

Presidential Material?  —  Three weeks before a pivotal midterm election, Republican Sen. John Thune addressed an energetic conservative crowd in Kalispell, providing a glimpse of what the 2012 presidential race might look like.  —  Thune, who defeated then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004 …