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1.) Is Judd a political dud? — Potential Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate and Hollywood star Ashley Judd doesn’t shy away from using graphic language, reports TheDC’s Alex Pappas:
“Using graphic language in an opinion piece about ‘conflict minerals,’ potential U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Judd in 2010 accused those who buy Apple products of ‘financing mass rape.’ ‘Apple is known for the clean lines of their products, the alluring simplicity of their designs’ Judd wrote in the article. ‘Dare I….go so far….as to suggest…this signature cleanness is stained by the shit and urine of raped women’s leaking fistulas?'”
We’ll see how that plays in the Bluegrass State.
2.) On Obamacare, reality bites — For everything there is a season. And the season to fight for Obamacare’s repeal, at least legislatively, has passed. The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Betsi Fores reports:
“A former budget director for President George W. Bush says the House Republican budget proposal is unrealistic because it assumes the repeal of Obamacare. ‘Chairman [Paul] Ryan coming out saying one of the marquee issues in the budget is going to be the repeal of Obamacare. ‘I think we fought that battle,’ Jim Nussle, said in a ‘Squawk Box’ interview on CNBC Monday. ‘I think it’s over and it’s been over for some time. Good luck with that one. That doesn’t make it any more realistic.'”
Let’s review the history. There was an election. America was supposed to rush to the polls to vote President Obama out of office and sweep Republicans into control of the Senate. The Republican-controlled Congress and president were then supposed to save America from Obamacare by repealing it — which was necessary after the Supreme Court upheld it. But something happened on the way to Obamacare’s obliteration. President Obama won last November. And instead of taking the Senate, the GOP actually lost seats. This means Obamacare is probably here to stay, at least in some form. Republican efforts would be better spent on making Obamacare slightly more efficient and palatable. It’s hard to see how getting rid of it legislatively is a realistic option at this point.
3.) Showdown in the Palmetto State — The GOP congressional primary in South Carolina’s First District is quite an extravaganza. TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:
“’You are my first telephone interview of this whole process,’ one would-be next congressman of South Carolina’s First District told me a few weeks ago. It was a surprising statement at first. The race to fill now-Sen. Tim Scott’s congressional seat in South Carolina’s First District has hardly been low profile. But that attention has been largely devoted to one Republican contender: former governor Mark Sanford, making his return to politics in the wake of the scandal at the end of his gubernatorial term. The storyline has proven too good to resist – numerous national media outlets have written about the special election, and Sanford even appeared on the ‘Today Show’ several weeks ago to discuss his run. That high name recognition and the financial advantages that it affords him are expected to propel him into one of the top two spots in the sixteen-person Republican primary, securing him a slot in the expected run-off, which will occur if no one candidate wins a majority of the vote. But there are 15 Republicans vying with Sanford for the nomination, all less well-known than he is, and each trying to carve out a unique path into the voters’ hearts and onto their ballots in the overcrowded primary. The Daily Caller spoke to 14 of them, as well as Sanford. Only one, Curtis Bostic, did not respond to TheDC’s interview requests.”
Read the whole thing to acquaint yourself with all the candidates.
4.) Fooling them subtly — A new satirical news site has embarrassed some news organizations — and a lot of ideological warriors. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein reports:
“If you were fooled by false reports Monday that Nobel Prize winning economist and liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has gone bankrupt, you can thank Daniel Barkeley, the 28-year-old founder and managing editor of the satirical online news site, The Daily Currant. The Krugman story appeared as fact on the Boston Globe’s website, supposedly through an unedited newsfeed, and later on Breitbart.com. Another satirical Daily Currant story about Sarah Palin being hired by Al Jazeera was picked up by the Washington Post in February. Other false tales dreamed up at The Daily Currant have been covered sincerely by other news outlets and spread as gospel on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But Barkeley says that’s not his goal. ‘It’s not a big score, you know, for us to have a news organization pick it up as real,’ he told The Daily Caller. ‘It’s not what we’re going for. I mean, what we’re going for is laughs and good comedy. And the reason why we write the articles so close to truth is because that’s what we think is funny.'”
5.) Tweet of Yesterday —Jim Antle: I don’t always drink soda, but when I do, I drink in whatever size I want. Stay thirsty, my friends.
6.) Today in North Korean News –BREAKING: “Kim Jong Il’s Work Posted on Internet by Swiss Organization”
VIDEO: Krauthammer downplays Obama outreach to congressional Republicans