Shelby dabbles in citizenship rumor [UPDATED]  —  A dispatch from Cullman, Alabama: … I emailed Shelby's spokesman, Jonathan Graffeo, to ask if Shelby believes there's substance to this rumor, for which no supporting evidence has ever emerge, and which has been debunked repeatedly and in detail.

Dark Dark Dark  —  Barack Obama's grandmother told him to smile more.  Bill Clinton tells the new president to strut more.  —  As the country takes a bullet train to bankruptcy, the last Democratic president urged the current one to “embody” that old American spunk.

Obama's Budget  —  Clearly the big story of the day is the deliberate leakage of Obama budget plans.  The highlights:  — Obama wants the 2013 deficit to be half the size of the 2009 deficit he inhereted.  — The 2010 deficit is going to be large.  — Specifically …

A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage  —  IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road.  The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now.  —  We take very different positions on gay marriage.

Sen. Feingold's Constitution  —  A simple apology would have sufficed.  Instead, Sen. Russ Feingold has decided to follow his McCain-Feingold evisceration of the First Amendment with Feingold-McCain, more vandalism against the Constitution.  —  The Wisconsin Democrat …

Rahm Emanuel on the job.  —  Rahm Emanuel's office, which is no more than a three-second walk from the Oval Office, is as neat as a Marine barracks.  On his desk, the files and documents, including leatherbound folders from the National Security Council, are precisely arranged, each one parallel with the desk's edge.

Obama in perpetual campaign, Barbour says  —  (CNN) - It's no coincidence President Obama has traveled to key swing states to push his massive stimulus measure, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Sunday.  —  Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee …

EPA to Issue Emissions Rules  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's climate czar said Sunday the Environmental Protection Agency would soon issue a rule on regulation of carbon dioxide, finding that it represents a danger to the public.  —  The White House is pressing Congress to draft …

Governors See Slow Recovery, Even With Stimulus Funds  —  WASHINGTON — While state aid provided by the $787 billion stimulate bill might help avert draconian budget cuts, governors of both parties said, they did not expect to see signs of an economic recovery until late this year or early 2010.

The quickest and broadest tax cut ever  —  Two important takeaways from the President's Weekly Address this morning.  —  #1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will start having an impact as soon as a few weeks from now, in the form of the quickest and broadest tax cut in history:

From Captive To Suicide Bomber  —  Accused of Being Little More Than a Low-Level Taliban Fighter, Abdallah al-Ajmi Was Held by the U.S. for Nearly Four Years.  After His Release, He Blew Up an Iraqi Army Outpost.  Did Guantanamo Propel Him to Do It?  —  A little more than two years …