Throughout this election season, one of the most confounding hurdles for John McCain has been, well, John McCain - as in McCain/Feingold campaign finance laws.  Today, Jennifer Skalka of Hotline On Call reports on two possible FEC violations by the McCain presidential campaign.  Also, not surprisingly, these violations tie into another McCain albatross: lobbyists with serious conflicts of interest.  

The details of these developments are a bit complex for public consumption, but they do reinforce a growing meme of the general election.  John McCain is neck deep in shady lobbyists and questionable campaign financing.

On April 21st, the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal announced a change in their opinion pages.

We've redesigned them to give you more, and more diverse, commentary on the debates of the day.

And to their credit, they have delivered with a weekly column from none other than What's the Matter with Kansas author, Thomas Frank.

Today the renowned populist commenced (though he did have a preview coulumn a month ago) his weekly foray into heart of capitalist media and the mouthpiece of corporate interests.

House Republicans are maneuvering to force a vote on the Senate-passed version of the FISA Amendments Act of 2007.  This is the Rockefeller version that includes telecom immunity - the version that House Democrats were able to fight off while passing their own bill without immunity.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Clinton strategist Mark Penn has met with the Colombian ambassador to discuss a free-trade agreement that might see Congress as early as next week.

Quick diary here.  American Prospect co-founder and editor-in-chief, Robert Kuttner has some high praise for Barack Obama's economic speech, given yesterday in New York.

From Marc Ambinder:

Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign has accepted ABC's invitation for a 4/16 debate in Philadelphia.

So has Obama -- but he's also accepted a debate for 4/19 in North Carolina, one hosted by Katie Couric and Bob Scheiffer of CBS News.

A nice little trump.

Republicans, Senator Bond, Rep. Hoekstra and Rep. Smith, have authored an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal, Hard of Hearing, regarding FISA and the need for telco immunity.  Unfortunately, you probably won't be shocked at their opinion of a certain constitutional amendment.

[Please read the end of this diary before posting.  Thanks.]

Every year, people across the nation become college basketball wonks and amateur pundits as they fill out scores of brackets and test their prognosticative skills in what is known as March Madness.

This year, however, the madness comes a month early.  On Tuesday, 22 states hold their Democratic primaries and caucuses.  Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are engaged in a very tight race and Super Tuesday will be a critical step in the race to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.  This is no doubt an important and historic event, unprecedented in many ways in our lifetimes.  Nevertheless, I thought it might be fun to engage in the lighter side of this event, and invite all of you to channel your inner political punditry and try to predict the results in the Unofficial Daily Kos Super Tuesday Office Pool.  

Warning: I'm an Obama supporter and the bias will show in this diary.

I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts, observations and favorite moments from the debate. Please feel free to discuss or share your own takes.  Keep it civil, please.

Richard Cohen offers an opinion column in today's Washington Post, Obama's Farrakhan Test.  He attempts to raise doubts as to the qualifications of a Barack Obama presidency by highlighting a second-hand (if not more removed) connection between the presidential hopeful and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.  He hints (if not outright suggests) that Obama is sympathetic to those who practice anti-semitism.  

This "guilt by association" reasoning appeals to some of the lowest denominators of voter psychology and irrational fear.  Such a cold and thinly drawn out piece as this column hardly deserves the dignity of a response, but in the spirit of 'disagreeing without being disagreeable' that Senator Obama endorses, I will offer up a reply to Cohen.