Via the Washington Post:

Rep. John P. Murtha has announced his endorsement of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, bringing his clout as a 17-term member of the House and a prominent anti-war Democrat to bear with more than a month until the primary here in his home state.

“Sen. Clinton is the candidate that will forge a consensus on health care, education, the economy, and the war in Iraq,” Murtha wrote in a statement about his decision.

As to what convinced him:

“Her experience and careful consideration of these issues convinced me that she is best qualified to lead our nation and to bring credibility back to the White House,” Murtha said. He said he “whole-heartedly” recommends Clinton to all voters in his state.

Via TPM and Oliver Willis, Hillary Clinton was just on CNN and provided this statement about Barack Obama's race speech.

"I did not have a chance to see or to read yet Sen. Obama's speech. But I'm very glad that he gave it. It's an important topic. Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign.

"There have been detours and pitfalls along the way. But we should remember that this is an historic moment for the Democratic Party, and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the Presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate."

Oliver, a staunch Obama supporter, says "Good on her." If you have more to say on the speech or Hillary's reaction, you can do so here.

Update: A reader writes in that Obama's speech today is similar to one given by Bill Clinton in 1995 commemorating the Million Man March.

Lynndie England, the poster woman for the torture at Abu Ghraib, finished her three year jail sentence a year ago after serving 1 1/2 years. (It wasn't easy time.) She's just given a long interview to the German magazine, Der Stern, which has an English version up.

The headline: Rumsfeld knew.

[England] tells the magazine that when her unit arrived at the prison outside Baghdad in September, the prisoners were already naked, were forced to wear women's underwear, and were being put in stress positions. "The company that we relieved was doing the exact same stuff," she is quoted as saying. "We just took over from them."

I wonder if he also knew non-medical personnel were performing amputations at Abu Ghraib?

In a new CNN poll, it's a statistical dead heat between McCain-Hillary and McCain-Obama.

• Hillary 49, McCain 47
• Obama 47, McCain 46

According to CNN Polling Director Keating Holland:

"Clinton appears to do a little bit better than Obama among older voters, women, and self-identified Democrats against McCain; Obama's numbers may be slightly better among younger voters and those who describe themselves as Republicans and Independents."

Update: Gallup's daily tracking has Hillary ahead of Obama today.

This isn't a compromise, but the possible outcome of a complaint filed with the Rules Committee. Via Marc Ambinder:

Last week, DNC member Jon Ausman filed a petition with the party's rules and bylaws committee pointing out that the charter of the DNC uses the verb "shall" when describing the relationship between superdelegates and the convention, as in -- superdelegates "shall" be seated. The argument, basically, is that the charter supercedes any penalty imposed by the RBC. The counterarguement is that the verb "shall" is later qualified.

The 28 members of the DNC's Rules and Bylaws committee may well decide that the challenge has validity and may well decide to seat the superdelegates from Florida, and then, should there be a similar petition from Michigan, the superdelegates from Michigan.

This has nothing to do with the disenfranchisement of Florida's 1.7 million voters, and I doubt that Florida's superdelegates will make much of a difference in the long run. But....[More...]

The National Archives tomorrow will release more than 11,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's travel schedules from her years as First Lady.

The Archives said in a statement on Tuesday that the schedules are from the staff files of Patti Solis Doyle, Mrs. Clinton’s former campaign manager who was her chief scheduler in the White House.

“Arranged chronologically, these records document in detail the activities of the First Lady, including meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities for the eight years of the Clinton Administration,” the statement said.

Of the more than 11,000 pages to be released, 4,746 pages have redactions, mostly relating to “the privacy interests of third parties,” including Social Security numbers, telephone numbers and home addresses, the Archives said.

I'm not sure why her social activities are relevant, but I suspect in total, the documents will substantiate her experience argument.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the case involving the DC handgun bill which should decide whether the Second Amendment conveys an individual right to bear arms.

The Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to endorse the view that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns, but was less clear about whether to retain the District of Columbia's ban on handguns.

...Several justices were skeptical that the Constitution, if it gives individuals' gun rights, could allow a complete ban on handguns when, as Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out, those weapons are most suited for protection at home.

"What is reasonable about a ban on possession" of handguns?" Roberts asked at one point.

That's my problem with the D.C. bill and politicians who claim to support an individual rights' theory but then support every restrictive bill on gun rights. The "reasonableness" test is too vague and open to interpretation.

Where does reasonable regulation end and infringement on an individual's rights begin? [More...]

The Michigan re-vote plan appears still possible, but is meeting resistance in the state legislature which must approve it, according to one legislator who was at a closed-door meeting today.

Barack Obama's campaign still hasn't endorsed it even though they have had a copy since yesterday. Hillary's campaign supports it.

"A re-vote is the only way Michigan can be assured its delegation will be seated, and vote in Denver' at the party's national convention this summer, Clinton campaign aide Harold Ickes said Monday. "If the Obama campaign thwarts a fair election process for the people of Michigan, it will jeopardize the Democratic nominee's ability to carry the state in the general election.''

Two threads on Barack Obama's speech are now full. Here's a third and final one, before we move on to other topics of the day.

Update: Thanks to all for your comments. There are over 600 of them on our three threads. I'm closing this one now as it's over 200.

Here's the text of Barack Obama's speech on Rev. Jeremiah Wright and race.

Our last thread is filled. Here'a a new one for more of your thoughts.

Update: I only caught the last 5 minutes live and will wait until the re-run to write more. I will say I was impressed by his calmness and his tone. I was expecting a sermon, and the portion I heard was not.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux says there were teleprompter problems for a while.

Update: I just watched the clip of him saying say he would not renounce Rev. Wright, and I thought he did that well. Here's the quotes:

Queen at Wembley, 1986, Under Pressure

Related: Under pressure, Obama plans speech on race:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama plans a major speech Tuesday morning in Philadelphia about race, and addressing his relationship with Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright, according to The New York Times.

“I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright, but just the larger issue of race in this campaign, which has ramped up over the last couple of weeks,” Obama said. According to aides, he was up until 3 a.m. Monday working on his remarks.

New York Times: On Defensive, Obama Plans Talk About Race

Mr. Wright’s statements, said strategists, threaten his greatest strength, his reputation as a unifying, uplifting figure, capable of moving the country past old labels and divisions.

“The problem is the complete contradiction between the message of the Obama campaign and the message of the minister who’s been his close friend and confidant for 20 years,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican consultant unaffiliated with any campaign.

Open thread, please keep it civil.

Update: Comments closed here, a new thread is up.

I doubt this will bring any solace to Eliot Spitzer, but after his swearing in today, New York Governor David Paterson and his wife told the New York Daily News they each had had extra-marital affairs.

In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.

In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999.

What prompted the interviews? Threats of exposure:

The First Couple agreed to speak publicly about the difficulties in their marriage in response to a variety of rumors about Paterson's personal life that have been circulating in Albany and among the press corps in recent days.

Paterson and his former paramour trysted at a Manhattan Days Inn Hotel.

Asked if he had stayed with anyone else since 2001 at the same West Side hotel, Paterson said, "From time to time I used to take Michelle to that hotel."