RNC: We’re investigating how we ended up paying for staffer to visit bondage-themed club.

The initial portrait emerging of the man charged with threatening to kill Eric Cantor and his family suggests he’s made similar, if not criminally actionable, threats on dozens of occasions against an ideologically diverse array of public figures. Read More

Feds charge man who posted YouTube video in which he threatened to kill Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his family.

Stuffed down in the expense reports for one of RNC sachem Michael Steele’s recent trips is almost two grand spent at a trendy West Hollywood club known for topless dancers simulating lesbian sex (and also just topless dancers simulating women with exposed breasts). The RNC notes that it wasn’t Steele but a staffer who stopped by the club. An RNC spokesman says Steele was never there, knew nothing about it, etc.

In case you missed it this morning, a kind of awkward moment on C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning at around 7:30 AM when “Bill” called in on the Republican line from St. Pauls, North Carolina …

“You have black folks calling in on the Republican line, independents. And you have so many of ’em I can’t believe this is just an accident. If you keep on with the way you’ve been programming, you should change your name from C-Span to black-span. I know they have an opinion but I wish that they would be honest and call in on the right line.”

See the video here.

The Michigan ‘Hutaree’ militia, which was busted over the weekend by the FBI and the local Joint Terrorism Task Force, wasn’t settling for battling the US government.

They were holding out for the battle with Anti-Christ. But, according to the DOJ indictments just released, they seemed to have gotten antsy waiting for him to show up and decided to start by killing a bunch of cops — with a plan seemingly inspired by Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

Minuteman group leader: When I said to come to the border “locked, loaded and ready,” I didn’t mean armed and dangerous!

Charlie Savage reports on the divisions within the administration over counter-terrorism tactics and detention policies. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Scott Ashjian is the top ‘Tea Party’ candidate in the Nevada senate election. And since polls show Harry Reid consistently behind in his reelection campaign, Ashjian could provide his only real path to reelection. Because of that, state Republicans and even rival Tea Party factions have claimed that Ashjian is in fact a Democratic plant.

Now comes word that Ashjian is being charged with felony theft and bad check charges for allegedly bouncing a $5000 check in Las Vegas last year.

But here’s the kicker. Who’s bringing the charges? That would be Bernie Zadrowski, chief of the Clark County DA’s bad checks unit. And who’s he? Well he used to be head of the Clark County GOP. He’s also on the ballot himself this year. He’s running for Justice of the Peace.

Late Update: TPM talked to Zadrowski, and he says the charge was standard practice for his office and had nothing to do with politics.