It looks like Nancy Pelosi got the message from Hillary supporters and is now saying super-delegates should vote their conscience.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the superdelegates who may ultimately decide the Democratic party’s presidential nominee have a right to vote as they wish, and that the drawn-out contest between candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama should be allowed to reach its conclusion.

“These superdelegates have the right to vote their conscience and who they think would be the better president, or who can win, but they also then should get involved in the campaigns and make their power known there,” Pelosi said in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

So really, how do you all feel about the whole super-delegate business?

LINK OF THE DAY: Super-Delegates

The same day that The Independent (UK) pretty much claimed that our economy was heading for another Great Depression, stocks rallied significantly and the dollar rose.

In an election year you can expect plenty of doom and gloom rhetoric about the economy from the Democrats, who have a political interest in the economy doing poorly. But I heard a few forecasts on the radio which said the economic slowdown may be very short-lived. Still, it’s time for Congress to do its part to keep the economy strong by making the Bush tax cuts permanent.

UPDATE: Bernanke: Economy NOT in a recession.

Looks like more dishonesty from Barack Obama has been uncovered…

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion — positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he has projected during his presidential campaign.

The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire.

They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize[d] his position.”

But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama — the day after sitting for the interview — filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes added to one answer.

Pathetic. Obama is trying to cover up just how radical and out-of-the-mainstream he really is.

Michael Barone gives us some interesting scenarios for the Democrat primary race… Be sure to read the whole thing.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Question for the morning – are the moves by the Democratic leadership to force Hillary out of the race a reflection of their conviction that Obama has won, or their fear that if Obama doesn’t get the nomination, their vote total will collapse in November?

The Bush Administration is proposing expanding the powers of the Federal Reserve:

The Bush administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the way the government regulates the nation’s financial services industry from banks and securities firms to mortgage brokers and insurance companies.

The plan would give major new powers to the Federal Reserve, according to a 22-page executive summary obtained by The Associated Press.

The Fed would be given broad authority to oversee financial market stability. That would include new powers to examine the books of any institution deemed to represent a potential threat to the proper functioning of the overall financial system.

The proposal, which will be outlined Monday in a speech by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is certain to set off heated debates within different sectors of the financial services industry and in Congress, where some Democrats are likely to complain that the proposal does not go far enough to crack down on abuses.

We need less government regulation… not more… And the fact that Democrats think the proposal doesn’t go far enough is even more scary.

…may very well deliver a decisive victory for John McCain in November:

A new analysis of March polling data suggests that John McCain’s cross-party support surpasses that of either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton.

According to data provided by the Gallup Organization at Politico’s request, in a hypothetical contest between McCain and Obama, McCain wins 17 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic, while Obama wins 10 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners.

In a potential contest with Clinton, McCain wins 14 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaners while Clinton wins 8 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners.

By way of comparison, exit polls in 2004 reported that George W. Bush won 11 percent of Democrats and John F. Kerry won 6 percent of Republicans.

Yet, many on the left think they’re heading to a landslide Democrat victory in November. I wouldn’t bet on it. Everyday this race seems to look better and better for John McCain.

Those darn Democrats, taking trips paid for by dictators… but, really, this is old news..

Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam’s regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.

At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq.
The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

“Obviously we didn’t know it at the time,” McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. “The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That’s the only reason we went.”

Why is this “old news?” Well, the aforementioned Democrats had previously been reported to have been on a pre-war trip to Iraq that reportedly funded by Detroit-area businessman Shakir Al-Khafaji, an Iraqi-American, who also had ties to Saddam’s regime and accompanied them on the trip. Al-Khafaji received loads of cash from the U.N. Oil for Food scandal. Apparently, Al-Khafaji is the “third-party” mentioned in the indictment.

And guess what? Mark and I discussed this trip in our book, Caucus of Corruption.

Things aren’t looking so good for Democrats’ hopes for the White House this year. According to a recent Gallup poll, “a sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination.” The poll says that 28% of Hillary’s supporters would rather vote for McCain than Barack Obama, if Obama got the Democratic nomination. In addition to that, 19% of Obama’s supporters said they’d vote for McCain if Hillary got the Democratic nomination

This certainly shows the impact of the ongoing battle between Hillary and Obama is having on the Democratic Party. True, come November, I wouldn’t expect either of those figures to maintain the same level, but it is clear that the Democratic Party is divided, and the longer this primary race goes for them the worse it will be for the Democrats. But, don’t expect the race to end anytime soon. In fact, I think we’re going to see Hillary and Obama battle it out all the way to the convention in Denver. A Rasmussen poll shows that 22% of Democrats think Hillary should drop out of the race, and and equal number of Democrats believe Obama should drop out.

The Democratic Party is divided, and I’m loving every minute of it. One might even say there’s a quagmire in the Democratic Party.

UPDATE: The plot thickens…

Have at it, folks.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72B3tUAqpo4%5D