Tea Party groups eager, GOP unsure on possible Sarah Palin Senate bid "Republican leaders in Washington appear decidedly less interested in the prospect." (Emphasis mine.) I've never been so persuaded by Republican leaders in Washington. Time for Palin to run for senator! (Link stolen from HotAir.) [rdbrewer]
Fred Thompson: A Person of Privilege? "Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of tax-exempt groups, took her too-clever-by-half act to Congress yesterday...." Thanks to Monty. [rdbrewer]
Costa Concordia: Capt Schettino to face trial in July Multiple manslaughter charges and abandoning ship. "He has been accused of leaving the luxury liner before all those on board - 4,229 - had been evacuated and steering it too fast and too close to shore." [rdbrewer]
The Fed sneezes, markets fall. As Monty keeps telling us, things that can't go on forever, won't. Always remember that stock markets operate largely on the Greater Fool theory. Update: be sure to read the various posts over at Zero Hedge. [Fritzworth]
Newsmax: Alan Dershowitz: IRS Chief Lerner 'Can Be Held in Contempt "'You can't simply make statements about a subject and then plead the Fifth in response to questions about the very same subject' . . . . 'Once you open the door to an area of inquiry, you have waived your Fifth Amendment right. . . .'" [rdbrewer]
Allahpundit: Rothenberg: Forecast for Senate seats changing because of White House scandals "The one thing Rothenberg’s pick-six has in common, of course, is that they’re red states, and if ever there was a scandal to get red-state voters motivated to turn out, it’s the IRS scandal. . . [T]he Republican base might ride a wave of righteous rage to the polls and swamp Dems again like they did in 2010." [rdbrewer]
Orin Kerr: Can A Congressional Witness Deny Guilt and Then Plead the Fifth? "I don’t think the answer is clear, as there are no cases quite like it. The general rule is that a witness can’t testify about her version of the facts and then invoke the Fifth Amendment when facing cross examination." [rdbrewer]
Huge theoretical prime number breakthrough."...no matter how large a twin prime is, there will always be another pair of primes separated from it by less than 70 million..." IOW-finding very large primes by twin-prime jumping is very brute forcible approach when another pair are only a (relative) handful of iterations away worst case. [PA]
Jonah: Obama’s ‘Idiot’ Defense "But, suddenly, when the administration finds itself ensnared by errors of its own making, the curtain is drawn back on the cult of expertise and the fantasy of statist redemption." [rdbrewer]