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- President Obama is in Moscow today and reached a tentative deal with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev -- fulfilling a vow made during the G20 summit earlier this year -- to begin serious reductions of nuclear weapons stockpiles held by the two countries.
- A Congressional Quarterly analysis of the voting patterns of House members reaches the conclusion that vulnerable first-term incumbents are building a record of voting against their party in order to establish independence as they attempt to win re-election in districts that would normally vote the opposite way: "Of the 20 lowest-scoring Democrats in the party unity study, 16 are serving either their first or second terms, and the same number represent districts that voted for McCain over Obama for president in 2008." Regardless whether this strategy will be successful, it's important to keep in mind that the 2010 midterm elections will not be about "Democratic hegemony" or the "Republican comeback" but about basic partisan realignment after voters registered their disgust at the GOP in 2006 and 2008.
- There was no way in hell I was going to let the governor of Alaska ruin my holiday weekend, but now that that's passed we can say the following about the latest victim of the iron triangle of the liberal media elite: 1) The FBI is not investigating the governor; 2) the governor's defenders are insane; and 3) the governor has all of Nixon's resentments, none of his political shrewdness.
- I can only assume National Review's Andy McCarthy has been stuck in some sort of amnesia-inducing time loop since last fall, because he keeps writing posts which seem to earnestly believe that Obama's candidacy for president is still just one well-timed revelation away from being permanently derailed, as in today's entry, "Obama: Student Radical." Meanwhile, the magazine's editors give the green light to another embarrassing cover illustration which plays to everyone's universal fear of "Dr. Obama" slipping a latex-gloved finger ... well, you get the idea. Oh, and this might be a good time to remind America's premiere conservative magazine that there is no such thing as "ObamaCare." There are three real proposals in Congress to bash. Try choosing one, guys.
- The indispensable Dave Weigel did some pre-reporting on July 4th's tea parties and concludes that the "movement" has "lost steam." On-the-ground reporting confirms that the teabaggers have finally been distilled down to their pure, irrelevant essence.
- Weekend Remainders: 60 votes for climate change, by the numbers; is Wal-Mart backing an employer mandate only so long as EFCA is dead and buried?; the five health-care reform issues that are more important than the public plan; things get a little rowdy down in Nebraska; and apparently Sonia Sotomayor is the Angel of Death.
--Mori Dinauer
