Daniel Strauss looks at the latest in tea partyism: The John Boehner Litmus Test.

Ed Kilgore ponders if Duck Dynasty is really Bobby Jindal’s ticket into the club of GOP presidential contenders.

Why GOP absolutism on the Affordable Care Act is hamstringing their effort to make Obamacare the defining issue of 2014.

Gazillionaire former hedge fund manager funding political org to push for action on climate change is a yawner, but doing it via attack ads in 2014 races is notable.

Town awakens to vast tide of liquid cow manure hidden under the snow.

The filibuster reformers who got Reid to pull the nuclear trigger want more.

Sahil Kapur reports that filibuster reformers haven’t thrown in the towel, even after monumental changes last year: “Next on the wish-list of the Fix The Senate Now coalition: scrapping mandatory delays for confirming judges and requiring a ‘talking filibuster’ for senators seeking to block nominations or legislation.”

George Zimmerman reveals that he’s the ‘victim’ and it’s because President Obama is making a scapegoat out of him.

Robert Houle and Bruce Peabody look at presidential legacies at home and abroad, from George Washington to Nelson Mandela: “But citizens need to grapple with a more complex legacy of these political icons. We should recognize the limits of their examples, and the dilemmas they leave for us today.”

I turn 45 today. So I’m trying out this phrase. Think it will start coming in handy more and more.

In other news, for your reading pleasure today, we explain that weird medieval senate maneuver at the heart of the new House of Cards and consider what Downton Abbey tells us about the future of abortion.