Michael Steele: Rand Paul’s OK (as Long as He’s on Our Team)

Senate candidate Rand Paul is one of the first politicians to successfully tap Tea Party anger to win an election, scoring big in this week’s primary. Which may be one reason why Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was reluctant to criticize Paul on ABC's This Week. Steele declined to knock Paul’s “philosophy”—that businesses should be allowed to discriminate based on race—saying, essentially, that all that matters is if he votes with the GOP once in office.

Déjà Palin: “Gotcha Journalism!”

Sarah Palin talking about "gotcha journalism"—is this 2008? Nope, this fresh-but-familiar interview from Fox News Sunday features Palin defending Rand Paul against the media.

Lisa Ling: CNN Saved My Sister

Sure, cable news can be an easy way for the average American to keep up with politics and world happenings, but can it save lives? Yes, said Lisa Ling on Reliable Sources. When Ling’s sister was imprisoned in North Korea, Ling said she used CNN’s popularity with the North Korean government to deliver her pleas for her sister’s release.

Gibbs to Palin: Do Your Homework

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs beat back persistent rumblings that the massive oil spill blanketing the Gulf of Mexico is the Obama administration’s Hurricane Katrina on CBS' Face the Nation. Gibbs also offered a bit of advice to Sarah Palin, who accused the president of being too close to the oil companies.

Do Rand Paul’s Views on Civil Rights Matter?

On This Week, George Will dismissed Rand Paul’s statements opposing parts of the Civil Rights Act as a “frivolous” attempt to turn his campaign into a seminar on libertarian philosophy. But Sam Donaldson, saying that Paul was trying to reopen a debate settled 46 years ago, argued that Paul’s comments are a little bit more troubling than that.

Joe Sestak: Not Doubling Down on Party Lines

When pressed by David Gregory on NBC's Meet the Press to say whether or not he considered himself an “Obama Democrat,” Joe Sestak—the senatorial candidate who beat out the party-switching Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania primaries—refused to throw down with the party line, saying he hopes President Obama will back him but that he is “an independent-thinking person who believes in democratic principles.”

BP Managing Director “Devastated” by Oil Spill

Responding to Rep. Ed Markey’s comments this week that “BP has lost all credibility,” the embattled oil company’s managing director, Bob Dudley, told Candy Crowley that “to all of us at BP who are trying to solve the problem, those words hurt a little bit, because we’ve been open about what we’re doing.… In terms of trusting BP, there is nobody, nobody who is more devastated by what’s happened and wants to shut this off more than we do.”