Just out from The Forward …

The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and is now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging.

Papers filed in the civil lawsuit of former lobbyist Steve Rosen against his previous employers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee include mutual accusations of using pornographic material at the lobby headquarters, among other allegations. The papers, based on depositions taken from Rosen and from AIPAC principles, dig into the private lives of the involved parties. They also reveal in detail the close ties AIPAC officials held with Israeli diplomats based in Washington.

Read the rest here.

Virginia, we’re told, is one of those states that went blue in 2010 but has now bounced back to its reddish norm. But the first poll looking at 2012 presidential matchups shows President Obama beating all four Republican frontrunners — two by 11 points.

We’ll see a lot of polls over the next couple years. And certainly Obama can’t take Virginia for granted, to put it mildly. But it’s an instructive example of how you can easily read too much into a low turnout midterm election.

The Politico has a story up tonight about how and why the bipartisan, everybody-get-along summit between President Obama and congressional Republicans ended up getting postponed. And a key part of it, according to Hill Republicans, is the GOP’s distrust of Obama after he “crashed” their caucus retreat last January. You’ll remember, this is when President Obama went and spoke at the House GOP retreat in Maryland and actually took pretty free-ranging questions from House Republicans — somewhat akin to ‘Question Time’ in the UK parliament. (See video of the event here.)

Now, because I think it’s essential to understand the point, I’m going to quote the first three grafs of the piece in full. Read More

How can Congressional Republicans trust President Obama when he comes off better than they do at their own media events? That’s not the sort of thing trust is built on.

The full House Ethics Committee will decide in a hearing set to begin at noon tomorrow on what punishment it will recommend for Charlie Rangel.

Jon Stewart to Charlie Rangel: “You’ve been under investigation for two years. How do you not have a lawyer?” Watch.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s lead over Republican nominee Joe Miller is now up to 10,400 votes. In response to his vanishing chances of pulling out a win, Miller is demanding a recount of all the ballots statewide — not just the write-in ballots for Murkowski that have been the focus of his legal efforts. Looks like it’s just a matter of time now before this race can be called for Murkowski.

Fox News has just had I think the third guest on recycling the discredited House GOP “Obama ambushed us” storyline. We’ll have video shortly.

Health insurers funneled $86.2 million through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its campaign opposing health care reform, Bloomberg reports. The money went to the Chamber through an intermediary, AHIP, which was the leading industry group opposing reform.