memeorandum: U.S. and Colombia Near Trade Pact (Steven Greenhouse/New York Times)

5:35 PM ET, April 6, 2011

Top Items:

With 100% of vote counted, Kloppenburg clings to narrow lead; recount expected — At left, Justice David Prosser speaks to supporters in Hartland. At right, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg speaks to supporters in Madison. — By Patrick Marley, Jason Stein and Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

JSOnline:

Kloppenburg declares victory — By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel — Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory Wednesday, based on results reported by the Associated Press. — The Associated Press shows Kloppenburg received 740,090 votes and incumbent David Prosser received 739,886 votes.

Discussion: Weigel, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, The Political Carnival and Pajamas Media

WTMJ:

Elections: Kloppenburg Declares Victory But Race Still Too Close to Call — By The Associated Press with Jay Sorgi — MADISON, Wis. - Little-known attorney JoAnne Kloppenburg has declared victory over incumbent state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. — According to unofficial results …

Discussion: Hotline On Call, Daily Kos, TPMDC and MyDD

Ericcompas / It's academic:
Kloppenberg/Prosser Supreme Court election results

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, TPMDC, blue cheddar, Swing State Project, Firedoglake, Center for Media and Democracy and Little Green Footballs

Randy Radtke / lakemillsleaderonline.com:
Court Race May Come Down to the Town of Lake Mills (Updated)

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Swing State Project, Daily Kos and WisPolitics Election Blog

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Wisconsin judicial race too close to call

Discussion: Riehl World View, CNN, HillBuzz.org, The Other McCain and Washington Post

Associated Press:
Recount deadline will be no later than April 20

Discussion: Althouse and American Power

Doug Stanglin / USA Today:
On Deadline: Breaking news and must-read stories

Discussion: JSOnline, Ben Smith's Blog, ThinkProgress and Hot Air

Scott Baker / The Blaze:

Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts Announce New Agreement; Beck to ‘Transition Off’ Daily TV Program — Editor's note: After a great deal of speculation about Glenn Beck's future on television, here is the freshly-inked news release. There will be a couple of key headlines out of this …

Discussion: The Raw Story, StopBeck.com, The Politico, CNN, Crooks and Liars, The Lonely Conservative, The Daily Caller, Liberal Values, Blue Gal, YID With LID, Nice Deb, MyDD, News Hounds, Atlas Shrugs and Suburban Guerrilla

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Glenn Beck to End Daily Fox News Program — Updated | Glenn Beck will end his daily Fox News Channel program later this year. — His departure was jointly announced in a statement on Wednesday by Fox and Mr. Beck's company, Mercury Radio Arts. The statement did not specify an end date for the show …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Washington Monthly, Ben Smith's Blog, Runnin' Scared, Hot Air, Jack & Jill Politics, Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, Pat Dollard, The Gateway Pundit, No More Mister Nice Blog, Patterico's Pontifications, JOSHUAPUNDIT and Pundit Press, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Glenn Beck To ‘Transition Off’ Fox News Program … Fox News , Glenn Beck , Glenn Beck Fox News , Cable News , Fox News Glenn Beck , Glenn Beck Leaving Fox News Show , Glenn Beck Transition , Media News — Fox News and Glenn Beck announced Wednesday that Beck will “transition off of his daily program” later this year.

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, more at Mediagazer »

David Weigel / Weigel:

Glenn Beck Will End Fox News Show — His daily show, which began in January 2009, will end at some point this year. Business Insider has the full release while Beck's news site, The Blaze, is offline. … Beck's ratings had been collapsing, even as he remained one of the most popular hosts on TV.

Discussion: Hendrik Hertzberg, Wonkette, Washington Post and AmSpecBlog

Media Matters / Media Matters for America:
Glenn Beck's Fox News Show Ending

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and The Washington Note

George Zornick / ThinkProgress:
Why Beck Is Out At Fox: Poor Ratings And Paranoid Rants

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Jay Yarow / The Wire:
GLENN BECK PULLING SHOW OFF FOX NEWS

Discussion: AlterNet, The Other McCain and Inside TV

Paul Krugman:

Paul Ryan's Multiple Unicorns — Gosh. For a plan that supposedly sets a new standard of seriousness, Paul Ryan's vision (pdf) depends an awful lot on unicorn sightings — belief in the impossible. Let me review the top three unicorns. — First, the plan assumes that tax cuts will set off a literally unprecedented boom.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, TPMDC, The Hill, The Monkey Cage, The Cable, Feministing, National Review, American Prospect, Heritage Foundation, Talking Points Memo, Yglesias, The Confluence, The Big Picture, Washington Monthly, Connecting.the.Dots, The Mahablog and The New Republic

Jacob Weisberg / Slate:

Republican Paul Ryan's budget proposal is brave, radical, and smart. — For the past 30 years, Republicans have been hypocrites about spending. They've raged against big government without ever proposing the kinds of cuts necessary to bring federal expenditures in line with tax revenues.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Pajamas Media, Washington Monthly, The Reality-Based Community, Washington Post, ECHIDNE of the snakes, The New Republic, neo-neocon, National Review, The Daily Dish, Hot Air, Big Journalism, TPMDC and Balloon Juice

CEPR:

Representative Ryan Proposes Medicare Plan Under Which Seniors Would Pay Most of Their Income for Health Care — That is what headlines would look like if the United States had an independent press. After all, this is one of the main take aways of the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, Guardian, Hullabaloo and The Raw Story

CBO's Latest 10 Documents:

LONG-TERM ANALYSIS OF A BUDGET PROPOSAL BY CHAIRMAN RYAN — ABSTRACT — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has conducted a long-term analysis of a budget proposal by Chairman Ryan to substantially change federal payments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, eliminate the subsidies …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, ThinkProgress, Director's Blog, TPMDC, The Political Carnival, Paul Krugman, Swampland, The Daily Dish and The New Republic

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:
The Paul Ryan budget plan

Discussion: Opinionator, Center for American Progress, Washington Post, The Atlantic Online, Wonk Room, The Incidental Economist, Mother Jones and The Glittering Eye

Myglesias / Yglesias: Nancy Pelosi Vows To Party Like It's 2005 With Paul Ryan's Draconian Medicare-Ending Budget Proposal

David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Generational Divide Colors Debate Over Medicare's Future

Discussion: TPMDC, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Online, National Review, Hit & Run, PERRspectives, Firedoglake, Yglesias, The Incidental Economist, Economix and Marginal Revolution

Wall Street Journal:
New Proposal Hits Old Hurdles of Budget Math

Discussion: National Review and Firedoglake

Meredith Shiner / The Politico:
Rivlin: I don't back ‘Ryan-Rivlin’ plan

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, USA Today, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, The New Republic, The Note, TPMDC, Economy & Budget, DCCC and National Review

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post: The Facts — First of all, his fancy presentation stacks the deck a bit.

The Note:

John Boehner Cries Amid Government Shutdown Standoff — ABC's Jonathan Karl reports: — He did it again. — John Boehner was driven to tears again today. This time it happened at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans. — According to sources inside the meeting …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Roll Call, The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Michelle Malkin, TPMDC and Gawker

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Boehner, Obama budget call lasts three minutes — President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a brief phone call Wednesday as a government shutdown loomed, and Boehner told the president he is “hopeful” a spending deal can be reached, the Speaker's office said.

Discussion: The Note, Don Surber, CNN and The Gateway Pundit

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner: House to move one-week stopgap with $12B in cuts

Discussion: The Page

George Stephanopoulos / George's Bottom Line:
Govt. Shutdown: Lawmakers May Get Paid, Soldiers May Not

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Moe_Lane's blog, News Desk and Political Punch

KCCI-TV:

Teen Finds Campaign Worker At Back Door At 3AM — ANKENY, Iowa — A 15-year-old girl found a campaign worker from Alabama banging on her Ankeny family's back door early Wednesday morning. — Chloe Steward told KCCI she heard her dog barking around 3 a.m. and went to investigate.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Michelle Malkin, Ben Smith's Blog, The Blotter, The Daily Caller, Indecision Forever and Wonkette

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Pawlenty staffer arrested in Iowa

Discussion: CNN and The Political Carnival

Christian Heinze / GOP 12:

Bachmann: Why I'm qualified to be president — Michele Bachmann, after Bill O'Reilly asks her if she has the frame of reference to be the leader of the free world.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, CNN and Booman Tribune

Lauraklairmont / CNN:
Bachmann lists her presidential creds

Discussion: Cubachi, Taylor Marsh, Liberty Pundits Blog, GOP 12 and Outside the Beltway

JSOnline:

Abele defeats Stone for Milwaukee County executive — Chris Abele makes his victory speech at the Historic Pabst Brewery after beating Jeff Stone for the Milwaukee County Executive seat. Abele's wife, Miriam, is at right. — By Steve Schultze of the Journal Sentinel

Discussion: Washington Post, Hotline On Call, Firedoglake, The Reality-Based Community, TPMDC, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Cognitive Dissidence and First Draft

First Read / msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: The importance of quitting while you're ahead

Discussion: Quinnipiac University

Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:

West Wing briefing: Obama headed out of D.C. as shutdown looms — A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn't reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.” — “I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added.

Discussion: Clarion Advisory, The Gateway Pundit, YID With LID, Hot Air, Don Surber, Wizbang, The Hill, Fox Nation, Shakesville, Pundit & Pundette and AMERICAblog News

Matthew Lee / Associated Press:

Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes — WASHINGTON - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has appealed directly to President Barack Obama to halt what the Libyan leader called “an unjust war,” and wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Hill and Ben Smith's Blog

Paul Krugman:

Memory Hole Alert — Wow. Yesterday afternoon I downloaded the tables from that Heritage report that's the basis for the Ryan plan. The first page looked like this: — You can see the unemployment forecast, with the amazing 2.8 percent prediction, in the fourth set of figures.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and TPMDC

Myglesias / Yglesias:

What If We Focused On The Long Term Climate Gap? — No matter how hard I try, I can't quite get my head around the combination of Washington's obsession with decades-away projected fiscal shortfalls and it's total lack of interest in decades-away projected climate disaster.

Discussion: Free exchange and Mother Jones