I'd missed this until now, but apparently the trustworthy folks at Newsmax have been circulating a report claiming that the Obama administration has submitted three separate ambassadorial candidates to the Vatican for approval and each has been rejected for being "insufficiently pro-life."

You'll be shocked to learn this is not true. But oh how perfect it must have sounded to the Newsmax crew when they put out the story. Everyone knows Democrats aren't pro-life. And now Obama can't even get a Vatican ambassador approved--because there's not a single pro-life Catholic in the Democratic Party!

Unfortunately for them, John Thavis at Catholic News Service actually called over to the Vatican to ask about the rumors. Here's what he found:

Vatican sources said not only was the report inaccurate, but that its premise was faulty. The Vatican has not been in the habit of vetting the personal beliefs or ideas of candidates before accepting them as ambassadors, they said.

There have been occasions in the last two years when the Vatican has objected to ambassadorial candidates -- from Argentina, in the case of a divorced Catholic with a live-in partner, and from France, where the candidate was an openly gay Catholic in a union with another man.

"For Catholic ambassadors, there is the question of their matrimonial situation. But outside of that, I don't think there are other criteria," said one Vatican source.

Step aside, Silvio Berlusconi! We have a winner. Whoo boy. Where to start with this?

A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

[snip]

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible. “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it's a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

I think it's the "your citizens" I like best.

The White House is backing away from today's New York Time's front-page story checking in on immigration—the hot button issue in 2006 and 2007. The story pretty much ruined Nick Shapiro's day; Shapiro, one of a bevy of White House spokesmen who divvy up issues, has the up-until-today easy task of dealing with immigration press requests. “This isn't news,” Shapiro lamented to me on the phone. “The President has consistently said that he wants to start the discussion later this year, because our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. But the economy comes first, that's why we're so deeply engaged in that now—we will start an immigration discussion later in the year.”

The story lit a fire under immigration groups who sent out gleeful e-mails. "We applaud the White House, Senator Harry Reid, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi for their vision, leadership, and commitment to passing comprehensive and meaningful immigration reform this year," crowed Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) in a press release. Added Hector Figueroa, Secretary Treasurer of the SEIU's 32BJ union: "The Obama administration's intention to begin addressing immigration reform this year is a solid first step. Hardworking Americans, regardless of their immigration status, deserve jobs with good wages and benefits that can support a family -and we see comprehensive immigration reform as a way toward achieving this goal."

Unfortunately for them, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in the briefing just reiterated Shapiro's laments: “That story could have been written a year ago based off of what he's said on the campaign trail… I don't think [Obama] thinks it could be done this year.”

Though as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has clearly moved on, it seems she is still trying to pay off her campaign debt. Below is a fundraising e-mail just received from James Carville. My favorite is the American Idol option -- wonder how they scored those tickets?

Dear Jay,

I knew it was going to take an extraordinary effort to help pay off Hillary Clinton's campaign debt. But now, I think we can do it and have some fun at the same time!
I won't spend a lot of time trying to convince you to help Hillary. I know what she means to you, and I'm sure you know how important it is for her to have her campaign pay off all its obligations.

So let's get to the fun part -- enter today to win one of three truly once in a lifetime opportunities and you will also be doing something great to help finish off Hillary's debt.

With a contribution today, one of these exclusive prizes could be yours:

• Spend a day with President Clinton. Head to New York City to attend several interesting events with President Clinton followed by your own special New York City weekend.

• Attend the American Idol season finale. You and a guest will watch live as the American Idol judges make their final comments and decisions on this year's most anticipated season finale!

• Want to talk politics with me? How about a spending a weekend in DC. You will have lunch with me and my great friend Paul Begala. We will talk about politics, you will get to tour all the amazing sites DC has to offer and who knows what else could happen!

Rest of the email after the jump

(more...)

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is facing a tough primary in 2010. Remember all those new Democrats Barack Obama's campaign registered in the Keystone State? Well, 160,000 of them were Republicans that switched their registration – a huge chunk of Specter's base. The moderate Republican squeaked through a 2004 primary challenge from former Rep. Pat Toomey – now the head of the fiscal conservative group Club for Growth by just 17,000 votes. Toomey, who is general considered a poor general election candidate in this blue-trending state, is looking for a rematch in 2010. On the Democratic side no front runner has leaped out. MSNBC's Chris Mathews has said he won't run and Gov. Ed Rendell, who'd be a shoe-in, doesn't look to be gearing up for a run. Neither does Rep. Joe Sestak, a popular former Navy admiral. Reps. Allyson Schwartz and Patrick Murphy have been mentioned as potential candidates, amongst others.

Pennsylvania primaries are closed – limited to card-carrying party loyalists – which is why Specter has left the door open to running as an Independent. After his surprising and pivotal break with his party to vote for Obama's stimulus plan, retirement rumors swirled on Capitol Hill. Specter is 79 and last year survived a second bout with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer. But Specter's abrupt announcement that he would not support the union-friendly Employee Free Choice Act and other moves to the right would seem to indicate that he is running for reelection. Odds are low that he'll win the primary, but Specter's political obituary has been written many times and he has always, thus far, prevailed.

Let it not be said that we don't do our part to bring you news large and small from the White House. To wit: this year's souvenir Easter egg has just been made public--and according to the White House press release, it's "the 'greenest' egg in White House Easter Egg Roll history."

Of course the White House could get the greenest egg ever by using, you know, eggs. Sure, they'd eventually start to smell and might not work so well as souvenirs. But what better way to teach kids that saving the earth is hard, smelly work?

There's a fantastic piece over at The New Republic today looking into Silvio Berlusconi's, ahem, colorful turns of phrase and less-than-diplomatic behavior. The Italian prime minister's remark this week telling citizens who lost their homes in the Abruzzo earthquake that they should consider their time in aid camps "a weekend of camping" was not, by a longshot, a one-time gaffe. It's just how he rolls.

With Admiral Mullen and Richard Holbrooke in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This piece, by my colleague Aryn Baker, gives an excellent sense of the frustrations and necessity of the war in one northeast Afghanistani valley.

I might as well just admit that I think it's quite cool that the White House now has a vegetable garden--and beehives!--on the grounds. But what strikes me most about the whole enterprise is that Michelle Obama appears to have adopted a whole class of 5th graders at Bancroft Elementary School in D.C. According to the White House schedule for tomorrow, she's going to host another event in the garden tomorrow with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the kids who helped her break ground on March 20. The schedule also notes that "students from the school will return later this year for harvesting and cooking with the food grown."

The First Lady did say on "60 Minutes" before moving into the White House that she wanted to "have an impact in the D.C. area." I just didn't know that meant she'd be inviting a bunch of elementary school kids over to the house once a month.

Silvio Berlusconi on the 17,000 Italians left homeless by the Abruzzo earthquake:

They should see it like a weekend of camping.

George W. Bush is just kicking himself for not using that little gem in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.