A look at the Administration’s Af-Pak team in the White House Situation Room today — sans McChrystal: Read More

Sen. Brown (R-MA) winning the fight to create key loophole in financial reform bill.

Earlier today I said in a couple posts that I wasn’t sure if President Obama had it in him to fire Gen. McChrystal. And then I wrote at the end of my afternoon post …

And yet, as I said a few moments ago, I’m not sure I thought he had it in him. But he did. I’ve learned something.

A number of you have written in to ask what the hell I was saying or what I meant. So I thought I’d expand briefly on what I said. Read More

I’m starting to think that the biggest victim of the Richard Blumenthal scandal was Mark Kirk.

Today is the big day on Wall Street reform. House and Senate conferees are deciding whether robust reforms stay intact or whether a more watered-down version, responding to late Wall Street lobbying, takes its place. Check out this new piece from Brian Beutler on what’s at stake and how the day is likely to play out. And then check back for updates through the day.

Colbert: Glenn Beck bringing Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Movement back to its “conservative, white roots.” Watch.

I had thought of this, how much the civil rights movement has been coopted by black people. The Glenn Beck, Rand Paul types are totally written out of the movement.

Whatever happens on the Gulf is BP’s fault and they’ve got to pay for it, right? But did you know there’s another company that owned 25% of the rig that blew up and is slathering the Gulf with oil?

Rachel Slajda tells us the story of Anadarko Petroleum, how they’ve managed to stay under the radar for the past two months and the brewing battle between BP and Anadarko over whether Anadarko’s got to cover 25% of the bill.

Trying to find the bright side of the Gulf Spill? Check out the BP blog.

No doubt you’ve heard about the sexual assault allegations against former Vice President Al Gore. Our Justin Elliott has reviewed all the documents, spoken to the parties who will talk and filed this story on what you need to know.

David Petraeus’ move from CENTCOM commander to battlefield commander in Afghanistan is akin to a sports team’s general manager taking on the coaching duties. It’s not uncommon in sports, but it may be an unprecedented move for a combatant commander, according to Derek Reveron, who edited the 2004 book America’s Viceroys, a study of the unique combination of political, diplomatic, and military power vested in combatant commanders. (Recall that George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld thought they had become too powerful and sought to rein them in, including changing their title from commander in chief, CINC, to combatant commander.)

In returning to a battlefield command — similar to the one he held in Iraq before being promoted to CENTCOM chief– Petraeus may be the only combatant commander to have made such a move, and certainly the only one in the post-Cold War period when combatant commanders achieved their singular influence, says Reveron, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College. Read More