Romney: “Marco Rubio Is Being Thoroughly Vetted”  —  Goes on record after ABC report.  —  (Getty Images / Win McNamee)  —  Mitt Romney makes it official: “Marco Rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process,” he said today, hours after an ABC report said he was not being considered as Romney's running-mate.

Elizabeth Warren loses it, lashes out at “right wing extremist” (me)  —  As you know, Elizabeth Warren has been caught in a series of at best misleading and at worst false responses since The Boston Herald first broke the story in late April that Harvard Law promoted her as Native American in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Rep. Issa ‘disappointed,’ says contempt vote against Holder will move forward  —  A House panel is expected to vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress after a last-ditch effort to reach a deal over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious appeared to fail.

Obama Leads In Poll As Voters View Romney As Out Of Touch  —  Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll that reflects the presumed Republican nominee's weaknesses more than the president's strengths.  —  Obama leads Romney 53 percent …

Conflicting reports over Mubarak's health  —  Military denies earlier reports that Mubarak was “clinically dead”, saying deposed president is on life-support machine.  —  Hosni Mubarak, the deposed Egyptian leader, has been revived and is on an artificial respirator after he suffered stroke …

U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say  —  The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran's ability …

'Joe The Plumber's' Spokesman Explains His Holocaust Theories: ‘Joe Is A Student Of History’  —  Ohio congressional candidate and living 2008 campaign artifact Samuel “Joe The Plumber” Wurzelbacher released a video yesterday in which he cited gun control as a contributing cause for the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide.

The 2012 campaign is the smallest ever  —  For years, operatives, reporters and potential nominees envisioned the 2012 presidential campaign as a titanic clash of media-swarmed combatants with big ideas about the future.  In the Republican primaries, this was almost a mantra: this is the most important campaign in a generation.

Grover Norquist's pledge to increase spending, deficits  —  Over in Bloomberg View, Ramesh Ponnuru passes the mic to Grover Norquist: … You hear this often from Republicans: The reason you can't make a deal that balances both spending cuts and tax increases is that the tax increases happen and the spending cuts don't.

Alec Baldwin punches Daily News photographer after obtaining marriage license in New York with fiancee Hilaria Thomas  —  ‘I knew he was going to attack me.  I stepped back, and he kept coming,’ says News lensman  —  Alec Baldwin shoves Daily News photographer Marcus Santos after leaving the Marriage Bureau Tuesday morning.

Anti-Romney Protesters Say They're Paid To Heckle  —  Two protesters and an Obama official say “Good Jobs Now” protesters are compensated for their time.  A protest leader denies it.  —  A few of the protesters outside Romney's rally, shortly before filing on to a charter bus parked down the street.

Obama's grandfather tortured by the British?  A fantasy (like most of the President's own memoir)  —  A new biography of Barack Obama has established that his grandfather was not, as is related in the President's own memoir, detained by the British in Kenya and found that claims that he was tortured were a fabrication.

Change.org Drops Michelle Rhee Group Under Pressure From Progressives … REACT:  —  FOLLOW:  —  Michelle Rhee, éducation, Michelle Rhee, Video, Politics News, Change, Change.Org, Changeorg, Michelle Rhee Dc, Politics News  —  WASHINGTON — In a surprising reversal, Change.org …

National Review's New Contributor: White Nationalist David Yerushalmi  —  Back in April, National Review finally parted ways with longtime contributor John Derbyshire after Derbyshire penned an especially racist piece advising non-black American parents on how to talk to their kids about black people.

Lawrence O'Donnell Mocks Ann Romney for Riding Horses to Combat Multiple Sclerosis  —  With each passing day, the Obama-loving media stoop to new lows in attacking the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his family.  —  On MSNBC's The Last Word Monday, host Lawrence O'Donnell mocked Ann Romney …

Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy!  —  What service is Neal Rauhauser providing to his clients, including Brett Kimberlin's tax-exempt 501(c) Velvet Revolution?  Is Rauhauser paid to sit around all day playing with his Twitter sockpuppets, plotting revenge against Greg Howard …

At a glance: Purdue's past presidents  —  France A. Córdova, 2007-12  —  Enhanced academic quality of student body through higher SAT and GPAs  —  Córdova also focused on student leadership and increasing retention rates.  In 2010, Purdue climbed to 18th among public national universities …

Koch Brothers, Cato to Settle Control of Think Tank  —  CORRECTION: A prior version of this story was incorrect.  Freedomworks is not funded by the Koch brothers.  —  The gang at National Journal reports:  —  The Cato Institute and famed Republican donors Charles and David Koch are set …

Andrea Mitchell airs full Romney remarks  —  On her show today, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell responded to criticism of the network's decision to run an edited tape of Mitt Romney's remarks about the Wawa convenience store chain, but the network has not clarified why it ran the edited version of the tape.

Dem activist slugs GOP congressman's wife with campaign sign  —  It's all fun and games until somebody gets slugged with a campaign sign — at least in Montana, where following the first U.S. Senate campaign debate this cycle, a Democratic activist hit one candidate's wife with a rolled up sign.

Why I Love Surface  —  The company's new tablet could be the iPad rival the tech world desperately needs.  —  I love the Surface.  And that's true even though I know very little about it.  At a top-secret press event in Los Angeles on Monday, I was allowed to spend only about 90 seconds with Microsoft's new tablet device.

Obama: EU crisis could ‘have impact’ on reelection chances  —  President Obama said Tuesday that the economic crisis in Europe could “have some impact” on his reelection chances in November.  —  “I think it's fair to say that all these issues, economic issues, will potentially have some impact …