Morning Read

FROM THE BLOGS:

No defense for the Ryan budget
Mother Jones’s Erika Eichelberger on the hidden line item for defense in the Ryan budget.

Sanford the 'Comeback Kid'
Slate’s Corey Hutchins on Mark Sanford’s unlikely return to politics.

Congressman Broun has an ax to grind on the Ryan budget
The Daily Caller’s Alex Pappas on Georgia Rep. Paul Broun’s opposition to the Ryan budget.

GOP’s lack of action on the Hispanic American dream
The Washington Examiner’s Michael Barone on why the GOP is losing with Hispanics.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Continuing resolution bill passes Senate
The Hill’s Ramsey Cox on how the continuing resolution bill passed the Senate a day early.

Dems strategize against RSC budget
The Hill’s Pete Kasperowicz on how House Democrats used a voting tactic against the Republican Study Committee’s budget.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Reince Priebus wants to go on 'The View'
The Blaze's Eddie Scarry discusses the RNC chairman's view that the GOP needs to do a better job at communicating with the American people through diverse media outlets.

Lessons learned from the Steubenville rape case 
Zerlina Maxwell offers her take in The Grio on the rape charges of two football players.

Panic!
Ed Kilgore of the Washington Monthly writes about the potential bank deposit tax proposed by the Cypriot government.

The South Carolina GOP's not-so-sweet 16
National Review's Jim Geraghty discusses the likeliest candidates to face off against former Gov. Mark Sanford in the republican primary race to win Sen. Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) former House seat.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Steele-Priebus feud heats up
The Hill's Jonathan Easley reports on the war of words between the current and former RNC chairmen.

Report: Women paid to say they had sex with Sen. Menendez
The Hill's Jordy Yager updates the lingering scandal surrounding the New Jersey senator.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Libertarian-leaning Rep. Justin Amash considering Senate run
Alex Pappas of The Daily Caller reports that Amash acknowledged that he is now thinking hard about jumping into the race to replace Sen. Carl Levin in 2014. Read more...

FROM THE BLOGS:

Paul Ryan: The GOP plan to balance the budget by 2023
Rep. Paul Ryan in The Wall Street Journal says the goal can be reached, with no new taxes, while increasing spending by 3.4 percent annually instead of the current 5 percent.

The end of a two-state solution
Why the New Republic's Ben Birnbaum thinks the window is closing on Middle East peace.

Lawmakers dismiss China’s denials over cyberattacks
Ryan Knowlton of The Caucus reports that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the situation was “as bad as I’ve ever seen it and exponentially getting worse.”

What if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling?
Matthew Yglesias of Slate says if the government doesn’t pay its bills on time, a 7 percent drop in GDP will be just the start of our problems.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES

Website claims to have hacked first lady’s financial records
The FBI and Secret Service are investigating a website that says it has hacked the first lady’s personal and financial information, The Hill's Jonathon Easley and Brendan Sasso report.

Senate Democrats pepper Obama with questions on entitlements
Liberal Democrats challenged President Obama on Tuesday over his willingness to cut Social Security benefits, The Hill's Justin Sink and Ben Geman report.

FROM THE BLOGS

Why Mr. Smith can't make it to Washington—in one chart
The Fix's Aaron Blake says the prohibitive cost of running a campaign prevents many from being able to vie for open seats.

How the establishment press got Rand Paul wrong
Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic thinks the mainstream press isn't giving Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and libertarians in general, enough credit.

How gun control ends: not with a bang, but a whimper
Time's Massimo Calabresi examines the likelihood of current gun bills under consideration actually becoming law.

South Carolina to have first openly gay Republican senator?
RedState's Ben Howe looks into potential Republican challengers to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Scott Brown joins law and lobby firm
The former senator announced he is joining lobbying firm Nixon Peabody, The Hill's Kevin Bogardus reports.

Carney: 'Absurd' to employ OFA selling access to Obama
The Hill's Justin Sink reports that the president's press secretary fought back against allegations from Republicans that he was selling access through his new nonprofit.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Senate Dems unveil changes to House bill funding government
Senate Democrats plan to significantly alter legislation from the House to avoid a government shutdown by tacking on three appropriations bills, Erik Wasson of The Hill reports. Read more...

FROM THE BLOGS:

A Washington Post report confuses one prostitute for another in Menendez scandal
The Washington Post mistook one prostitute for another Monday in a report that initially seemed to debunk a November 2012 Daily Caller exposé of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, argues David Martosko for The Daily Caller.

Congress goes bipartisan - against civil liberties
The Congress that barely averted the "fiscal cliff" swiftly passed extensions of warrantless wiretapping and indefinite detention, says W. James Antle III with The American Conservative.

GOP proposes drug tests before welfare
Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) introduced a bill in the House Friday that would require states that want to receive full funding for welfare assistance to submit to random drug testing, according to Andrea Peterson and Nicole Flatow of ThinkProgress.

Newt Gingrich faces reality
Howard Kurtz of The Daily Beast examines Gingrich's comments about the GOP "kidding themselves" to think that they would beat Obama.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Dems back down from opposing GOP spending bill
House Democratic leaders have decided against uniting their party's rank and file in opposition to a Republican spending bill that would fund the government, The Hill's Mike Lillis reports.

Senate Intelligence Committee approves Brenna nomination
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday voted 12-3 to approve John Brennan's nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, The Hill's Carlo Muñoz reports.

FROM THE BLOGS:

One study explains why it's tough to pass liberal laws
Wonkblog's Dylan Matthews elaborates on a new study that indicates there is a "systematic bias" against liberal legislation and policies, particularly on the state-level.

Sequester in a 'word cloud'
Dorian De Wind of The Moderate Voice examines the words most Americans are using to describe the budget cuts, and the results aren't looking good.

The bin Laden Raid and Obama's CIA nominee
The Weekly Standard's Thomas Joscelyn writes on John Brennan's role in the bin Laden raid.

Empathy for the devil
Political Animal's Ed Kilgore wonders if Mark Sanford really has learned anything from his post-gubernatorial time of introspection.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Obama to deliver US Naval Academy graduation speech
The Hill's Daniel Strauss reports that the president will give the keynote address at graduation this May.

White House mocks North Korean regime for hosting Dennis Rodman visit
Press secretary Jay Carney calls on the regime to focus less on basketball stars, more on the well-being of its people, The Hill's Justin Sink reports.

FROM THE BLOGS

South Carolina voting rights come to Supreme Court
The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis dissects the issues behind South Carolina’s Voting Rights Act.

Another take on voting rights in South Carolina
The Cato Institute’s Illya Shapiro examines at the politics behind the Voting Right Act.

No more tears for Chris Christie
The Fix’s Chris Cillizza looks at what makes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a Republican front-runner despite the snub from CPAC.

Everybody can’t move to the back of the bus
Read The Daily Beast’s John Avlon take on why Republican pundits like Ted Nugent and Glenn Beck can’t stop comparing themselves to civil rights icons.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
 
Release of illegal immigrants had no White House approval
The White House said the decision to release hundreds of illegal immigrants from their detention centers was made without its approval, The Hill's Jordy Yager reports.

Congress in a no-fly zone
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced that the use of military aircraft for House members will be suspended if sequestration sets in, according to The Hill's Jeremy Herb.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Proposals to make gun owners carry liability insurance
Walter Olson of the Cato Institute wonders whether a new federal gun restriction law would hold up in court.

Michelle Obama wasn't the first first lady to take part in the Oscars. So who was?
Slate.com's Josh Voorhees looks back at previous presidents and their wives who participated in the annual awards ceremony.

I don't understand the Republican position on the sequester
Wonkblog's Ezra Klein is confused about the GOP's motives in ongoing sequester negotiations.

The 52 who didn't make it into the Oscar winner last night
Ed Morrissey of Hot Air takes issue with the little screen time devoted to Iranian hostages in Best Picture winner Argo.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Vote on Hagel set for Tuesday
The Senate will vote to end debate on former Sen. Chuck Hagel's (R-Neb.) nomination for secretary of Defense on Tuesday, according to The Hill's Jeremy Herb.

GOP seeks Planned Parenthood study with hope to strip funding
A team of congressional Republicans is hoping to prove, through a new study, that Planned Parenthood is focusing more on abortions than other healthcare measures, The Hill's Pete Kasperowicz reports.