Top Items:

Why I don't back Ryan Medicare plan — As part of the 2012 budget discussions, Congress is dealing with Medicare reform. This debate is long overdue, since its increasing cost must be addressed if we are serious about the nation's growing $14 trillion debt and $1.6 trillion annual deficit.
Discussion:
The Hill, Hit & Run, Weasel Zippers, Washington Times, Boston Globe, CNN, The Lonely Conservative, ThinkProgress, The Caucus, Blue Mass Group, USA Today, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, msnbc.com, The Raw Story, AMERICAblog News, Los Angeles Times, Confederate Yankee, National Review, FrumForum and AmSpecBlog
RELATED:


Republicans ignored warnings on Paul Ryan plan — It might be a political time bomb — that's what GOP pollsters warned as House Republicans prepared for the April 15 vote on Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget, with its plan to dramatically remake Medicare. — No matter how favorably pollsters …

“The Tea Party itch has not been scratched”: How the Ryan plan went down — “The Tea Party Itch Has Not Been Scratched” — Any political observer with even a modicum of sense could see that the Ryan Plan was going to be a complete disaster. And most of us have been wondering ever since what the hell made them go for it.
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Politico, Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, pandagon.net, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Eschaton

Cantor nudges Rep. Ryan to jump into 2012 White House race — Count House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) as one top Republican who'd like to see Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) jump into the presidential race. — Cantor responded immediately when asked Monday whether Ryan …
Discussion:
The Politico, GOP 12 and The Page

Things Done Changed
Discussion:
The Politico, Outside the Beltway and Eschaton


Republicans and Mediscare — Paul Ryan's GOP critics are ObamaCare's best friends.
Discussion:
The New Republic and Betsy's Page

What GOP leaders were thinking on Medicare
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars

The Next President Isn't Currently Running (Updated) — There's no GOP operative for whom I have higher regard than former RNC chair and senior Bush advisor Ed Gillespie. He deserves to be taken seriously when he says (according to Politico): “For all intents and purposes, the field is set.
RELATED:


Tim Pawlenty bets on boldness
Discussion:
Moe Lane, Donklephant and Pajamas Media


The best-protected car in the world... defeated by an Irish ramp: Obama's limo ‘The Beast’ gets stuck at U.S. Embassy — Red faces all round as President and First Lady forced to swap vehicles for trip to ancestral home — It's supposed to protect him from terror attacks but President Barack Obama …
Discussion:
The Other McCain
RELATED:

Biden tells donors: Keep me in mind for 2016 — Vice President Joe Biden surprised a gathering of donors in Cincinnati last week when he floated the prospect of his succeeding President Barack Obama in the White House. — Biden, who started in the Senate young and would be just 70 in 2012 …

Gingrich: 'I'm not a Washington figure' — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) said he doesn't view himself as a “Washington figure,” positioning himself as an anti-D.C. candidate in his campaign for president. — Gingrich railed against the Washington, D.C. establishment …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Washington Monthly, The Note, Outside the Beltway, Politics, The Daily Caller and FrumForum
RELATED:



Newt Gingrich, citing record, says ignore record
Discussion:
Daily Kos

Hochul continues to lead in NY-26 — Democrat Kathy Hochul continues to appear poised for an upset victory in Tuesday's special election for Congress in New York's 26th Congressional District. She is polling at 42% to 36% for Republican nominee Jane Corwin and 13% for Tea Party candidate Jack Davis.
Discussion:
Ballot Box, The Politico, ThinkProgress, Weigel, Firedoglake, The Nation, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, National Review and Blue Mass Group
RELATED:

Endorsements, Robo-calls Fly in New York Special Election
Discussion:
Ballot Box and GOP 12

Bill Clinton, Chris Christie calling NY26 voters
Discussion:
USA Today and The Daily Caller

Obama's achievement: the mouse that roared — I don't know what strategic purpose Obama had in mind for addressing the Middle East impasse when last Thursday he made the first of a series of speeches on the subject. Whatever this may have been, that speech produced one satisfactory result.
Discussion:
Via Meadia, Pajamas Media, CFR.org, Harry's Place, Big Peace, Democracy in America and Left Coast Rebel
RELATED:

Leader Cantor's Remarks to AIPAC
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Weasel Zippers, Capital J | JTA and Talking Points Memo

Cantor at AIPAC — Republican House Majority Leader Eric …
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Ironic Surrealism, Big Peace and Sister Toldjah


Obama digging up dirt on potential opponent Chris Christie — President Obama's re-election campaign is trying to dig up dirt in the Garden State. — Despite New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's repeated pronouncements that he will not seek the GOP presidential nomination …


Supreme Court orders California to release tens of thousands of prison inmates — The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused ‘suffering and death.’ In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns ‘terrible things are sure to happen.’
Discussion:
Blog of Rights, Orange Punch, The Jawa Report, Gawker, The Daily Caller and CNN

Americans Still Split Along “Pro-Choice,” “Pro-Life” Lines — Majorities believe abortion is morally wrong, legal access to it should be restricted — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are closely divided between those calling themselves “pro-choice” and those who are “pro-life,” now 49% and 45% …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Pajamas Media
RELATED:

Gallup Poll: Americans Want All or Most Abortions Illegal
Discussion:
Hot Air


Death Toll Rises to Nearly 100 From Missouri Tornado — JOPLIN, Mo. — Much of this southwestern Missouri city lay in ruins on Monday morning after a massive tornado, the latest storm to ravage the Midwest and South this spring, tore through the area, killing at least 90 people.

Truth outweighs consistency — Jon Huntsman was asked on Friday about his support for the Recovery Act, and the fact that in 2009, he wanted the stimulus to be bigger, not smaller. — Huntsman said his problem with the Recovery Act had to do with taxes. “[M]y take was, let's stimulate business,” he told George Stephanopoulos.
Discussion:
Weigel, GOP 12, Washington Post and Eschaton

‘Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin,’ by former staffer Frank Bailey — By Frank Bailey with Ken Morris & Jeanne Devon — Howard. 383 pp. $26 — Frank Bailey joined Sarah Palin's campaign for governor of Alaska in its earliest days, showing up at her shabby headquarters in Anchorage with a paintbrush …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and Mediaite


Pawlenty Campaign Already Dead? — Tim Pawlenty's hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, ran the story of his presidential campaign announcement on the Obituary page this morning, City Pages reports.
Discussion:
The Blotter, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite


If I Take Down Fox, Is All Forgiven? — David Brock has spent the last decade apologizing to liberals for his role in creating the vast right-wing conspiracy. Now he's trying something more ambitious and hoping it gains him the respect he craves from the White House.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Althouse and Ben Smith's Blog, more at Mediagazer »


Harold Camping ‘flabbergasted’; rapture a no-show — (05-22) 19:18 PDT ALAMEDA — The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda a day later, very much alive but not so well. — “It has been a really tough weekend,” said Harold Camping …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mediaite, Simply Left BehindThe …, newsfeed.time.com, Gothamist, Runnin' Scared and Gawker