Going Rogue: GOP Field Shifting on Afghanistan

Some Republican presidential candidates are charting a different course than their GOP counterparts on the war in Afghanistan, which has raised the question of ideological rifts before a crucial election cycle.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=06b84f7638d3e29f8c56ca102960b7f6

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Congressional freshmen include dozens of millionaires, financial disclosures show

The members of this year's freshman class in Congress are far wealthier than the people they represent, with dozens of millionaires joining the ranks of the House and Senate, according to an analysis released Wednesday.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030902631.html?wprss=rss_politics

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Watch: Bristol Palin Spills Big Secrets in New Book

Sarah Palin's eldest daughter reveals true feelings about 2008 election.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=3209ba278eb415229d554ae467af621a

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Jon Huntsman: Can a Nice Guy Finish First?

The setting of Jon Huntsman's announcement was designed to evoke the launch of Ronald Reagan's general election campaign in 1980. But Huntsman's speech couldn't have been more different.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=32badbce040fc6729c287a846879d276

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Manchin: Faster withdrawal needed

In reaction to Obama's plan to drawdown troops, the lawmaker urges for more drastic reductions.

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57448.html

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Visual Source: Newseum

From Netroots Nation, via Roll Call:

Despite their grousing about the administration during the Netroots Nation conference, liberal activists and bloggers are relatively happy with President Barack Obama's performance.

A straw poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed that 80 percent either approve or strongly approve of the president more than a year before voters head to the polls to decide whether he deserves a second term. The results broke down to 27 percent strongly approving of Obama and 53 percent approving ?somewhat.? Thirteen percent said they ?somewhat disapprove,? and 7 percent strongly disapprove of the president.

The poll of 519 people was conducted via iPad in the Minneapolis Convention Center on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

For context, here's 2010 and 2009.

NY Times, no doubt urged by the conversation with Dan Pfeiffer at NN, explores Obama's views on gay marriage.

Many gay leaders say because the president has a strong record on issues they care about ? prodding Congress to repeal the ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy, which barred openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military, and withdrawing legal support for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman ? he is not under intense pressure to announce a change in his position before the 2012 election.

But with the political climate around gay rights changing drastically ? a handful of recent polls show that Americans, by a slim majority, now support same-sex marriage ? some strategists see little political cost to a shift in position. And a review of Mr. Obama?s record, dating to when he first ran for public office, suggests that he may have been for same-sex marriage before he was against it.

EJ Dionne:

An attack on the right to vote is underway across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot. If this were happening in an emerging democracy, we?d condemn it as election-rigging. But it?s happening here, so there?s barely a whimper.

The laws are being passed in the name of preventing ?voter fraud.? But study after study has shown that fraud by voters is not a major problem ? and is less of a problem than how hard many states make it for people to vote in the first place. Some of the new laws, notably those limiting the number of days for early voting, have little plausible connection to battling fraud.

Republicans are doing this because they can. Or they think they can. There is no other reason.

Variety:

As recent events involving lewd photos being Tweeted and elected officials being shamed have reminded us, it's never a good idea to get on the wrong side of comedians.

"I think politicians are scared of us," says Bill Maher. "One thing a politician doesn't want to be is a latenight joke. That's a morbid death knell more than anything I can think of. Look at (Donald) Trump. He was riding high, and then he was a joke. That happened in the space of a week."

And it happened partly because programs such as "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report" and Maher's own "Real Time" slice up high-profile miscreants like a sushi chef.

Watchdog.org:

COMMENTARY: Is a new left rising, or is it wishful thinking?

One would have to be completely ignorant of our times to NOT declare Wisconsin the center of the political universe these days. This is where the Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan both call home. Every major political news story out of Madison seems to go national within minutes of it breaking.

ABC:

The candidates' views contrast with those of prominent Republicans Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who spoke out against a rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"I wish that candidate Romney and all the others would sit down with General Petraeus and understand how this counterinsurgency is working and succeeding," McCain said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week."

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/31PdMbh7648/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Round-up

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Justices Rebuff States on Utilities? Gas Emissions

The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that had sought to force major electric utilities to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions without waiting for federal regulators to act.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ca607528f5c97ae884b0264ddaaaa031

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