Top Items:
Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Poll Finds Lack of Passion for Republican Candidates — With less than a year to go before the Iowa caucuses, Republican voters have yet to form strong opinions about most of their potential candidates for president in 2012, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Business Week, Salon, Unqualified Offerings, msnbc.com, Swampland, FiveThirtyEight, No More Mister Nice Blog, GayPatriot, Real Clear Politics, Washington Post, The Daily Dish, Mediaite, CNN, The Monkey Cage, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Wonkette, Ben Smith's Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Moderate Voice, Booman Tribune, Firedoglake, The Reaction, Hotline On Call, Outside the Beltway, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Althouse, Little Green Footballs, ECHIDNE of the snakes, Truthdig, TPMDC and FrumForum
RELATED:
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Trump says he'll reveal ‘interesting things’ on Obama — (CNN) - Possibly-serious Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is giving few details about the investigation he claims to have launched in Hawaii to get to the bottom of where President Obama was born, but the business mogul …
Discussion:
This Just In, Wonkette, Connecting.the.Dots, No More Mister Nice Blog and Pew Research Center …
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Poll: 45 percent of Republicans think Obama born out of US
Poll: 45 percent of Republicans think Obama born out of US
Discussion:
Wake up America and FrumForum
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
WHEN POLITIFACT BECOMES POLITIFALSE.... Independent fact-checking outlets play an important part of the political discourse, or at least have the potential to. With a lot of figures making all kinds of claims, voters should have reliable sources they can turn to in order to help separate fact from fiction.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
RELATED:
Politifact.com Truth-O-Meter rulings from National:
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: “Seniors will have to find $12,500 for health care because Republicans voted to end Medicare.” — The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire! Democrats say Republicans voted to end Medicare and charge seniors $12,000
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The New Republic, Washington Post, The Raw Story, The Politico and Minnesota Public Radio
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
PolitiFact Insists Republicans Don't Want To End Medicare (VIDEO)
PolitiFact Insists Republicans Don't Want To End Medicare (VIDEO)
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and Seeing the Forest
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Knowledge Counts — There's always a bit of a problem …
Knowledge Counts — There's always a bit of a problem …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
Mike Huckabee / Huck PAC:
Response to Glenn Beck — This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a “cancer” and a “Nazi.” What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews?
Discussion:
Salon, CNN, Mediaite, The Raw Story, GOP 12, TVNewser, USA Today, The Daily Caller, TPMDC and Wonkette
Karoun Demirjian / Las Vegas Sun:
JOHN ENSIGN TO RESIGN FRIDAY, HELLER LIKELY REPLACEMENT — WASHINGTON — Sources confirmed this afternoon that embattled U.S. Sen. John Ensign will resign from office on Friday, opening the door for Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to appoint Rep. Dean Heller to finish out the term.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Hot Air and msnbc.com
RELATED:
Shira Toeplitz / Roll Call:
Ensign to Resign, Heller Likely Successor — Sen. John Ensign will announce within the next 24 hours that he plans to resign from the Senate, according to a well-placed source. — The Nevada Republican announced March 7 that he would not run for re-election in 2012, saying …
Ballot Box:
Sen. Ensign to resign — Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) will resign his seat, a source confirmed to The Hill. — The resignation could come as soon as Friday, according to Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston, who first reported the news. — Ensign is under a Senate Ethics Committee investigation …
Discussion:
The Politico and The Political Carnival
Sabato's Crystal Ball:
The Map — The Crystal Ball's First 2011 Take on 2012's Electoral College — Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics — With 18 months to go until November 2012, there is exactly one use for a current projection of the 2012 Electoral College results.
Discussion:
protein wisdom, AmSpecBlog, Newsalert, Mediaite, James Pethokoukis and Questions and Observations
Wall Street Journal:
The Death of Right to Work — After 17 months and $2 billion, the NLRB sandbags Boeing. — We knew that Big Labor had political pull at the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board, but yesterday's complaint against Boeing is one for the (dark) ages. By challenging Boeing's right …
Discussion:
Hot Air, NLRB, RedState, Sister Toldjah, The Other McCain, The Lonely Conservative, Marathon Pundit, Pajamas Media, PoliPundit.com and Betsy's Page
RELATED:
Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:
Labor Board Tells Boeing New Factory Breaks Law
Labor Board Tells Boeing New Factory Breaks Law
Discussion:
Questions and Observations, Weasel Zippers and Pajamas Media
Colby Itkowitz / Pennsylvania Ave.:
Barletta town hall gets heated over Medicare — Reminiscent of the August 2009 town halls when members of Congress faced angry constituents over health care reforms, a public forum in Carbon County with Rep. Lou Barletta Wednesday night provided a glimpse of the strong emotions stirred by a Republican plan to alter Medicare benefits.
Discussion:
Wonk Room, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit and ThinkProgress
RELATED:
Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:
Paul Ryan, Rand Paul Clash Privately Over Budget
Paul Ryan, Rand Paul Clash Privately Over Budget
Discussion:
FrumForum
Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Paul Ryan's Plan To End Medicare Stirs Anger At Pennsylvania Town Hall Event
Paul Ryan's Plan To End Medicare Stirs Anger At Pennsylvania Town Hall Event
Discussion:
The Caucus, The Reaction and Hullabaloo
Matt Miller / Washington Post:
‘The Shining’ — national debt edition — Remember that great scene in the 1980 film classic, “The Shining,” when the wife comes upon the typewriter of the Jack Nicholson character, who's supposed to have been working night and day for months on his novel? To her horror, she finds thousands …
RELATED:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
GOP DEMANDING RESTRICTIONS THAT WOULD BLOCK ITS OWN AGENDA. …
GOP DEMANDING RESTRICTIONS THAT WOULD BLOCK ITS OWN AGENDA. …
Discussion:
Ross Douthat, Washington Post and No More Mister Nice Blog
Office Of The Governor:
[Proclamation] Gov. Perry Issues Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas — Gov. Perry Issues Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas — Gov. Rick Perry has proclaimed the three-day period from Friday, April 22, to Sunday, April 24, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas …
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
The Annoying Hypocrisy Trope — Gregg Easterbrook: … This is one of the most annoying tropes in existence, on both the left and the right. The point of laws is to provide a level playing field, and no one is a hypocrite for following existing law even if they think it should be changed.
Discussion:
Modeled Behavior
RELATED:
Ben Geman / The Hill:
Obama jabs ‘climate change deniers’ — President Obama called out Capitol Hill's “climate change deniers” Wednesday night at a Democratic fundraiser in California. — Obama, speaking at a San Francisco event for donors, called rising gasoline prices an economic drain on drivers …
RELATED:
New York Post:
Trump blasts Seinfeld pullout — Donald Trump wasn't laughing when funnyman Jerry Seinfeld canceled an upcoming appearance at a benefit for his son's Eric Trump Foundation. — Seinfeld pulled out of the Sept. 13 event benefiting the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital because he disagrees …
Discussion:
Washington Wire, ThinkProgress, Don Surber, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Daily Caller, Gothamist and National Review
Michael Muskal / Los Angeles Times:
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson announces he'll seek GOP presidential nomination — The libertarian-leaning Gary Johnson has climbed Mt. Everest so he knows about uphill fights: In a Gallup poll released last week, he ranked last in name recognition among 14 potential Republican candidates for president.
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, Daily Kos and AmSpecBlog
RELATED:
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Invitation to Israeli Leader Puts Obama on the Spot — WASHINGTON — A Republican invitation for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address Congress next month is highlighting the tensions between President Obama and Mr. Netanyahu and has kicked off a bizarre diplomatic race …
RELATED:
Abdullah Gul / New York Times:
The Revolution's Missing Peace
The Revolution's Missing Peace
Discussion:
Power Line, Israel Matzav and Daily Kos
Steven Ertelt / LifeNews.com:
More Companies Pull Ads From Wonkette After Trig Palin Post — More companies have joined Papa Johns, Huggies and Vanguard in dropping ads from the liberal, pro-abortion blog Wonkette after it ran a crass post mocking Sarah Palin and her son trig, who has Down Syndrome.
James Pethokoukis:
Budget group: New Obama budget plan would fail, could cause tax trigger to be pulled — The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has taken a crack at deciphering President Barack Obama's murky new budget plan, called the “Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility.”
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
President predicts Pelosi will again be Speaker of the House — President Obama this week predicted that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hasn't seen her last stint as House Speaker - an indication Democrats remain confident they can win back control of the House sometime in the not-too-distant future.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
The Onion:
Mitt Romney Haunted By Past Of Trying To Help Uninsured Sick People — BELMONT, MA—Though Mitt Romney is considered to be a frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the national spotlight has forced him to repeatedly confront a major skeleton in his political closet …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Boston Globe
ij.org:
Nashville's Sedan Drivers Fight City Effort To Run Them Off the Road — Can government force transportation businesses to charge a minimum price to protect politically connected companies from competition? — That is the question the Institute for Justice (IJ) and its clients seek to answer …
John Bolton / bostonherlad.com:
Obama wobbly on Libya — Opponents of the Vietnam War — that seemingly endless, inconclusive, increasingly unpopular and ever-more-deadly and costly conflict — called it a “quagmire.” They said it was unwinnable and should never have been fought, and that America must avoid similar future wars.
Discussion:
Cubachi, Top of the Ticket and National Review