There are few people in Washington who better understand the inner machinations of government than Scott Lilly, the former staff director of the House Appropriations Committee (among many posts he has held on Capitol Hill) and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Today, he writes about the back story behind the …

Jeff “Call Me Trooper” Garrity has taken a leave of absence, the campaign has confirmed, pending the resolution of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire complaints.

Obama’s stab at ethics reform in the Senate had its rough spots, but today he announced a whole suite of initiatives aimed at government reform in the executive branch (including, I’m told, the Office of the Vice President).

More important: You can now get Obama ringtones! Pretty pretty shiny! Sleep now byebye.

Or at least the “cop” part…

State Police are investigating one of Mitt Romney’s top campaign aides for allegedly impersonating a trooper by calling a Wilmington company and threatening to cite the driver of a company van for erratic driving, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the probe.

Jay Garrity, who is

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Over at the New Republic, “Sick” author Jonathan Cohn takes a look at Michael Moore’s similarly titled new movie on the same subject, and finds it wrong on a lot of little things, but right on the big one. By the way, Cohn’s own book, which is a lively read that provides both a history of and an indictment of the U.S. health care …

This would be totally funny if it weren’t, you know, happening:

Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies.

Also, he is not bound by the laws of …

Hey, remember that exciting YouTube/Google/CNN debate? It’s happening soon! Participatory democracy! The internets! It’s gonna be HUGE!!!

Or, uhm, not. 10 Zen Monkeys has the scoop on the five worst submissions… of 120:

Interestingly, the question comes from England, and YouTube also received questions from Spain, Canada, Australia,

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Elizabeth Edwards writes that the whole “Sisters Before Misters” controversy yesterday is the result of her pre-teen’s playfulness:

“It was Emma Claire, who pointed to a Hillary pin slyly and then, smiling pointed to her father. A nine-year [old] sense of humor — you would have thought Matt Drudge would have been able to pick up on

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Will there be hyperventilating? Oh, there will be hyperventilating.

I find it difficult to get worked up over the fact that some journalists materially support specific political causes. At least by giving money to candidates, they’re being transparent about it. Though apparently sometimes unintentionally so. A number of journalists …

A Gallup Poll out today finds that public confidence in Congress is at an all-time low. As an institution, lawmakers are lagging behind the presidency, television news and even HMOs (though that one’s within the margin of error). Gallup’s explanation:

Confidence ratings for Congress are not only at the bottom of this year’s list, but

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Lois Romano with a fascinating piece on the women at the top of the HRC campaign:

Once seen as a tight little sorority, today the group — happily self-described as “Hillaryland”– is at the center of a front-running presidential campaign. Never have so many women operated at such a high level in one campaign, working with a discipline

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Mark Leibovich’s profile of Mitt Romney this week is worthwhile reading as it is, but today’s response from the Romney campaign makes it all the more entertaining. In the piece, Leibovich illustrates the Gov’s tight-assedness with this anecdote:

He (Romney) travels with an entourage that includes two or three “operations” guys who

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Politico Straw Poll everyone!!!!! Ultra meaningful! Some 700+ whole folks who attended the Take Back America thingee have spoken and they say: BARACK.

Barack Obama: 29%

John Edwards: 26%

Hillary Clinton: 17%.

Says Ben Smith: “The poll results also indicated intense concern about the Iraq war.”

WHERE IS MY SIREN?????

UPDATE: I …