Blue Dogs strike deal: No health vote before recess  —  Blue Dogs and House leaders have struck a deal to guarantee that the House will not vote on a healthcare bill before August, a leading Blue Dog said on Wednesday.  —  In exchange for putting off a floor vote until after Labor Day …

Poll: Obama loses ground on health care  —  NBC/WSJ survey also shows a drop in his overall job-approval rating  —  President Barack Obama discusses health care reform during a town hall meeting at Broughton High School on Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C.  —  Deputy political director

Officer suspended for Gates slur in e-mail  —  An officer in the Boston Police Department was suspended yesterday for allegedly writing a racially charged e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to colleagues at the National Guard, a law enforcement official said.

Birthers, Part Deux: Republicans Divided  —  In this installment, we find the Republicans split into two camps.  Mike Pence leads the sane brigade (he's joined by McClintock, and of all people, Peter King!), boldly going where no elected Republican had gone before and agreeing …

Prof. Gates' Unconstitutional Arrest  —  There's a First Amendment right to be rude to a cop.  —  The now-infamous Gates story has gone through the familiar media spin-cycle: incident, reaction, response, so on and so forth.  Drowned out of this echo chamber has been an all-too-important …

FIRST THOUGHTS: LOSING THE MESSAGE WAR?  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg  —  *** Losing the message war?  Perhaps the biggest thing that stood out to us at President Obama's AARP town hall yesterday was that the White House appears to be losing the message war on health care.

Baucus to Unveil Magical Health Care Bill?  —  Max Baucus is making some big claims on his own behalf, according to Jeff Young: … Is this possible?  I can envision two scenarios.  One is that the Finance Committee is defining “covers” in a pretty stingy way.

Obama's Doctor: President's Vision For Health Care Bound To Fail  —  The man Barack Obama consulted on medical matters for over two decades said on Tuesday that the president's vision for health care reform is bound for failure.  —  Dr. David Scheiner, a 70-year Chicago-based physician …

Vitter defends Southern influence in GOP, slams Voinovich  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana slammed fellow Republican George Voinovich Wednesday for saying the GOP's problems stem from the fact that it is “being taken over by Southerners,” calling the Ohio senator “a moderate, really wishy-washy.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Clarifies Resignation Talk, Kinda Sorta  —  Here are two things we have long assumed about Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.  —  One, she will challenge Gov. Rick Perry in next year's Texas gubernatorial primary.  Yes, I know, it should be more than just “assumed,” …

The Original  —  A reader writes:  —  Do you want Obama to produce a paper form of his birth certificate or do you want the vital records people in Hawaii to release a copy of the OFFICIAL ORIGINAL birth certificate filed with their office?  Obama producing a tattered piece of paper …

50 Most Beautiful 2009 - Top 40 (HTML)  —  Arjun Jaikumar … Arjun Jaikumar has been on Capitol Hill for less than two months and the shaggy-haired blogger and new-media guru for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is already getting noticed.

White House Science Adviser Advocated ‘De-Development’ of the United States  —  (CNSNews.com) - President Obama's top science adviser, John P. Holdren, advocated the “de-development” of the United States in books he published in the 1970s.  —  “A massive campaign must be launched to restore …

On The Birthers  —  So many readers are furious that I have dared to ask the president to show the original copy of his birth certificate.  The reason for demanding it is the same reason for demanding basic medical records proving Sarah Palin is the biological mother of Trig.

Now Kurtz blames Matthews, rather than Dobbs, for birther nonsense  —  Howard Kurtz seems to be committed to making his conflict of interest as obvious as possible.  Here's Kurtz during an appearance on the conservative Hugh Hewitt radio show: … No mention of CNN.  No mention of Lou Dobbs.