If a candidate other than Rand Paul were nominated in Kentucky, given the rightward tilt of the state and the current electoral environment, they would have probably sailed to victory. But Paul’s past statements are really catching up with him and giving Jack Conway an angle to win.

Todd Purdum has a pretty extensive and in depth article on John McCain just up at Vanity Fair and it paints a very brutal picture of McCain the tired old gluehorse. It is a picture I know well.

Hotline on Call is the best place to watch for an assessment of how the campaign committees view the races around the country, and they have two interesting articles up.

In a letter to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the board made up of chief regulators of the financial industry, Rep. Alan Grayson has called for a national moratorium on all foreclosures because of the systemic risk of fraudulent practices.

Of course the Intelligence Authorization bill would have a signing statement, because that’s just how these carefully crafted bills are treated by Presidents guarding their Executive Power.

DDay pointed me to the signing statement that Obama issued in conjunction with the new Intelligence Authorization. There are three key points, IMO.

Chris Christie just put thousands of construction workers out of work for the next several years, in addition to lowering economic productivity permanently, by stopping funding for a rail tunnel project in New Jersey. This is a miserable idea even apart from job creation and the killing of 6,000 jobs.

It seems that the problem is not just that the government tortured Ahmed Ghailani and now want to use his testimony under torture to help convict him, but that they may have continued to coerce witnesses — in unknown ways — to get a conviction for Ghailani.

Reid had to do this. Nevada is off the charts when it comes to foreclosures and negative equity. Over 70% of homeowners in the state, an amazing number, are underwater or nearly underwater. Foreclosures are higher than any other state as well, and this contributes to both the skyrocketing unemployment rate and state budget deficit.

Bob Woodward’s inside-the-White-House books always provide scoops and provoke controversy and his new one, Obama’s Wars, is no different, but with one vital twist: It is less a look back than a look around. Readers don’t merely re-live or debate, say, a president’s decision to start a war – nothing much can change that – but how he is now conducting, even escalating, a conflict at a key moment. The book concludes with an Oval Office interview with President Obama less than three months ago.

There’s been a pang of concern over the language of “will not sign” over “will veto” in the statement. The President cannot “pocket-veto,” in other words veto something by not signing it, when Congress is in session. Though you think they’re not, they are in fact having pro forma sessions, because of the silly deal in the Senate to block recess appointments between now and the election. Some have feared this amounts to a pocket signing of the bill.