LIGHTNING ROUND: BECAUSE INDEPENDENCE WASN'T ENOUGH.

• It may be true that Eric Cantor is trying out a new media strategy to help boost his party's fortunes, but back in the real world Republicans are blocking Kathleen Sebelius' nomination for HHS, gearing up to take down Dawn Johnsen, and promising to do everything in their power to grind the nation's business to a halt if Democrats dare ask for a majority vote on health-care reform. Ah, democracy.
  
• Dan Balz reports that Barack Obama made it clear from the beginning that he did not want a special commission investigating the Bush administration's use of torture, lest it consume the rest of his agenda; Scott Horton reports that the Justice Department is displeased that the president has inserted himself into their business by signaling immunity for CIA officers who believed they were acting lawfully; and Greg Sargent thinks Dick Cheney wants to shift the conversation about torture to a referendum on the Bush administration keeping the country safe from terror.
• I think it's safe to say that Rep. Joe Barton's (R-TX) belief that his sub-elementary school knowledge of science "stumped" Nobel Prize-winning Energy Secretary Stephen Chu qualifies for one of the most ridiculous things uttered by the minority party in the last 24 hours. But then again, consider that Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) thinks the Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody is untrustworthy because it's a "partisan document" (it's not) and Newt Gingrich wants to make July 4th "American Freedom Day" to celebrate last week's tea parties.
• It's been a while since we've seen the "angry left" meme of the Bush years in circulation, but Byron York manages to resurrect it for his Washington Examiner column by citing the single example of Janeane Garofalo making some incoherent remarks on the Keith Olbermann show. York then talks to a friend of his who surmises that liberals are really just afraid that their moment of victory is precarious, because they know it's only a matter of time before the public wakes up to their radical plans for the country. I know conservatives are fond of recycling old arguments, but this is just pathetic.
• Remainders: Americans are surprisingly optimistic given the circumstances; Lieberman has issues if he can't figure out whether he's for or against waterboarding; Bill O'Reilly is apparently a very stupid man; and inexplicably, Matt Drudge still rules their world.

--Mori Dinauer