Justin Elliott notes that almost all the most incendiary quotes in the now famous McChrystal/Rolling Stone article come from unnamed aides.

Steve Clemons says Obama has no choice but to fire Gen. McChrystal.

The McChrystal situation places President Obama in an incredibly difficult situation. By almost any measure, public insubordination of this level demands he be fired. A president just loses too much face if something like that isn’t clearly punished. And if he’s not it will legitimize what amounts to a culture of insubordination. At the same time, firing McChrystal now would completely upset the president’s Afghanistan policy at a critical moment — and it’s a policy the White House seems to believe is going well.

(Steve Clemons says he should be fired, period.)

Behind this though, remember, there’s a major policy division over the direction of our policy in Afghanistan. And this blow up is only a manifestation of that deeper fight.

Look for a key tell in how Secretary Gates responds to these developments. More shortly.

Yesterday we told you about former Rep. JD Hayworth’s stint as a pitch man for a late-night scam informercial program promising free government money for anyone who wanted it. Now his campaign is saying that the whole thing is a result of a bum steer he got from fellow ex-GOP Congressman JC Watts.

Hayworth’s spokesman Mark Sanders told us, “J.C. Watts is a former Congressman. He and Hayworth knew each other when they were in Congress. Watts had done an infomercial for this company, and he recommended to Hayworth that he do with them, as well. So Hayworth just took it on his friend’s advice that it would be a good thing to do, and he did it.” You can see more here on Watts’ involvement with the group.

I think the last thing the White House wants to deal with right now is an insubordinate commander in Afghanistan. But it looks like they’ve got it anyway.

Late Update: Now Gen. McChrystal’s top press aide, the guy who arranged the Rolling Stone interview, has resigned. MSNBC says he was “asked to resign.” I’ll bet.

The DNC says Rep. Joe Barton’s apology has done wonders for fundraising and energy, so they are keeping the gaffe alive with a second national television ad, this time linking the Texas GOPer to Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).

Watch it here.

Bob Reich explains why more deficit spending is necessary for the nation’s longterm fiscal health and why Alan Greenspan is the guy who’s actually as or more responsible for the federal debt as anyone else alive today.

We’re very eager to find out more about this ‘Florida Tea Party’ mystery and any possible connection with Rep. Alan Grayson. So if you’ve got any inside knowledge of what’s going on, please drop us a line. As always, your anonymity is guaranteed.

White House budget director Peter Orszag to leave in July.

Earlier today our Christina Bellantoni wrote a post about the controversy surrounding the ‘Florida Tea Party’. Now, I use the single quotes because I’m not just referring to generic Tea Partiers in Florida. As Zack Roth explained back in January, it’s an officially registered party in the state of Florida. And the folks who put it together actually claim and have asserted the exclusive use of the phrase in Florida, which has driven various Tea Partiers in the state completely nuts.

Now, as Christina explained today, Republicans are claiming that the whole Florida Tea Party (FTP) operation is actually a plot by Democrats to field a lot of potemkin candidates who show up on the ballot with the “Tea Party” label so that right-wing Republicans split their votes (between the GOP candidate and the ‘Tea Party’ candidate) and thus make it possible for a lot of vulnerable Democrats to slip through. Read More