Frank James

Osama bin Laden in death continues to be one of the few unifying factors between President Obama and congressional Republicans.

Even before news emerged Wednesday afternoon that Obama had decided against releasing death photos of the arch terrorist (he was said to be leaning against it before then) Speaker John Boehner let it be known that he didn't need to see the photos to know bin Laden was dead though he didn't have an opinion one way or another on a release.

That was a strong indication that he, for one, wasn't planning on politicizing the issue.

The first debate of the likely candidates for the Republican presidential nomination takes place Thursday. We know you've been waiting breathlessly for this one.

Even before the killing of Osama bin Laden, the debate in Greenville, S.C. was already viewed as likely to be a lackluster affair. The politicians thought to have the best shot at the nomination, former governors Mitt Romney (Massachusetts) and Mike Huckabee (Arkansas) had already said they wouldn't be attending.

This week's elimination of the terrorist leader just further eclipses the event.

Former President George W. Bush declined President Obama's invitation to join him on Thursday at Ground Zero in New York City to mark the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The New York Times reports that Bush's spokesman said it's part of the former president's pattern of keeping a relatively low profile in his retirement.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Rep. Peter King of New York are among Republican conservatives suggesting that the Bush Administration's harsh interrogation of detainees through techniques like waterboarding resulted in key intelligence that eventually allowed U.S. Navy Seals to kill Osama bin Laden Sunday.

Lawmakers' response to constituents can differ based on the perceived race of the voter seeking the legislator's help, according to an interesting study by a Yale University political scientist.

The researcher sent 4,859 state legislators across the nation an e-mail from a fictional constituent with either a white-sounding name (Jake Mueller) or black-sounding name (DeShawn Jackson.) The emailer sought help in registering to vote.

The stunning news that President Obama ordered a lightning raid of a Pakistan safehouse that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden could dramatically reshape the political landscape though only time will tell how durable any such change will be.

Only days ago, the pundit class was consumed by the relatively low voter approval of the president's performance, particularly for his management of the economy.

They came, fiirst by the scores, then by the hundreds, to the streets outside the White House in Washington, near Ground Zero and in Times Square in New York City to celebrate the death at the hands of U.S. Navy Seals of the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.

In both cities that formed the twin epicenters of Sept. 11 attacks, spontaneous chants of "USA, USA. USA" were heard from people who came out to share the moment that Americans had waited ten years for and that many Americans thought they might not ever see.

So is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels going to run for president or not?

That lingering question which has occupied the minds of political observers for weeks now will only be asked with more intensity now that he's let it be known that he intends to sign a bill banning Planned Parenthood from receiving state taxpayer funds.

Daniels' decision would make Indiana the first state to enact such a ban. Planned Parenthood's receipt of taxpayer funds has angered conservatives because, along with the preventive health-care services it provides to women, it also provides abortions.

Natural disasters are no respecters of political parties or any of the other numerous ways humans use to separate themselves from each other.

That seems to get largely ignored until calamities happen. Then, state officials who usually criticize the federal government as overly intrusive welcome help from Washington. Northern liberals and southern conservatives, Democrats and Republicans can't offer enough kind words for each other.

The birther revival fueled by Donald Trump reintroduced the issue of just how much influence race and racism have had on Obama's political career.

Democrats have decided they won't unilaterally disarm in the war for campaign cash even though the leader of their party has publicly opposed certain fundraising tactics, like raising money from donors who remain anonymous.

Two new Democratic groups will officially kick off Friday, according to a piece by Jeanne Cummings in Politico. One is called Priorities USA, the other Priorities USA Action.

Something to note about the members of President Obama's reshuffled national security team is that they should all be fairly easily confirmed by the Senate which has confirmed all of them for other key posts.

Something else to note is that at least when it comes to the national security experts who flanked him Thursday, partisanship really does seem to end at the waters' edge, at least with Obama.

Several of those named to new jobs on Monday played prominent roles on President George W. Bush's national-security team.

President Obama will visit Alabama Friday to see first-hand the damage done by a massive outbreak of tornadoes that killed more than 200 people Wednesday.

In a statement, the White House press office said besides inspecting the devastation, the president will meet with state and local officials, including Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.

If nothing else, Wednesday's unprecedented birther briefing by President Obama at the White House gave him a new line to use in opening his fundraising appearances.

At a Democratic fundraiser in the Manhattan apartment of Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor, Obama said, according to a White House transcript of the event:

Here's an interesting piece of fallout from the Wisconsin fight between Gov. Scott Walker and the public-employee unions.

The University of Wisconsin medical school is investigating for sanctions some of its doctors who gave government workers sick notes so they could attend protests at the state capitol.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Paul O'Neill, who served as Treasury Secretary during President George W. Bush's first term, has long been known for his bracing candor.

He apparently hasn't lost his edge. In a Bloomberg News interview, O'Neill said lawmakers who are threatening not to raise the federal debt ceiling are the "U.S.' version of al Qaida terrorists." O'Neill is definitely not one for sugarcoating his words, that's for sure.

Is there a difference between portraying President Obama as a chimp and former President George W. Bush as a simian?

That question was put on the table by Marilyn Davenport, the Orange County, Calif. Republican politician who recently emailed a birther joke that included a Photoshopped image of President Obama's face over a baby chimp.

Speaker John Boehner made a statement in an interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl sure to cause some doubletakes.

It wasn't that high gas prices might cost President Obama the election. Linking high gas prices to the alleged failures of Obama's policies is part of the GOP strategy heading into the 2012 general election.

Ditto for the speaker's comment that the president's re-election chances may be hurt by a relatively jobless recovery. That's not news either.

Monday was the occasion of the White House Easter Egg Roll and I'm guessing there were probably more than a few kids who were terror-stricken by the sight of the very large bunny seen with President Obama in the above photo.

I've witnessed such inconsolable fear myself. I once attended one of these South Lawn rolls and saw the toddler child of a friend shriek at the sight of a bunny the size of a man. Only leaving the White House grounds calmed the youngster.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has decided against running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Barbour, long a member of the national GOP Party establishment as a one-time chair of the Republican National Committee chair, said he couldn't guarantee his supporters that he had the all-consuming "fire in the belly" it takes to wage the kind of campaign it takes to get the nomination, let alone to try and beat an incumbent president.

And whatever fire he did have might have been dampened by polls that gave him very little encouragement.

To be a freshman Republican House member representing a swing congressional district with traditionally strong Democratic leanings means walking a tightrope when you're back home.

You get it from voters who are Democrats, Republicans and independents which obviously can make your political life much more difficult than your fellow lawmakers in their safely solid red or blue districts.

Some news outlets examine what some of the freshman Republicans in such marginal districts have encountered.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed a birther bill passed by the state legislature last week that would have required presidential candidates, among others seeking spots on the ballot, to present to state officials proof the candidates were born in the U.S.

In her veto letter, of which the Associated Press reported details, Brewer said she was troubled by a process that could be politicized since the bill would have given Arizona's secretary of state the power to decide whether or not to accept a given candidate's documentation and claims to being born on U.S. soil.

In the annals of the modern American politics, few political figures have had as large an influence on his city and state as William Donald Schaefer who became a national figure first as the energetic mayor of Baltimore, then as governor and comptroller of Maryland.

Schaefer died Monday at age 89 after a recent illness from pneumonia hastened his decline.

Remember Rodney King whose beating by police triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots and who later tried to calm the waters with his plaintive "Can't we all just get along?"

Wall Street issued its own plea for greater cooperation, too. But it played the part of King and the police, since it also delivered the beatdown as well.

The cudgeling took the form of a warning, which came in the form of the queasiness-inducing, if not totally surprising, news that the Standard & Poors has changed its outlook on U.S. debt to "negative" from "stable."

How wacky are U.S. campaign-finance laws? Let Stephen Colbert demonstrate.

On Thursday's Colbert Report the comedian, who has said he wants to be a big political-money player in the 2012 election-cycle, showed how easy it is, with the right Washington lawyer, to game the system.

After learning Viacom was concerned about his running afoul of campaign finance laws if he formed a political action committee, Colbert learned of a workaround, a super pac.

As NPR's Peter Overby reported for the network's newscast:

When President Obama criticized Republicans in comments to Democratic donors in Chicago, remarks that were unintended for the media, he said nothing he hasn't said publicly, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters Friday.

We journalist types should be lavishing less attention on Donald Trump and greater attention on more substantial people who are likely to win the Republican nomination.

At least, so says Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic who, arguing that journalists should pay more attention to candidates of political substance, recently wrote:

A day after scores of House Republicans abandoned their leadership on a floor vote on the spending bill that avoided a partial government shutdown, they held their ranks Friday in what some saw as an even bigger test of House Speaker Boehner's ability to maintain party discipline.

With only four defections, Republicans voted solidly for Rep. Paul Ryan's 2012 budget proposal which would privatize Medicare and turn Medicaid into a block grant program to the states.

Arizona continues to lead where so far few other states appear willing to follow.

The state's House of Representatives passed by a wide margin a birther bill Thursday requiring presidential candidates to provide proof they were born in the U.S., becoming the first state to do so. The bill now awaits Gov. Jan Brewer's signature.

It's unclear whether she will sign it, veto it or just let it sit on her desk, in which case it would become law after five days.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee and author of the 2012 budget plan that would, among other things, privatize Medicare, defended his proposal on All Things Considered Thursday.

Much of the interview with NPR host Robert Siegel centered on the Medicare plan which would radically change the program from a single-payer approach.