The battle over the filibuster escalated Wednesday as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) jumped in the fray to lash Democrats’ threats to use the “nuclear option” to scrap the minority party’s …

Anthony Weiner: I’m Focused On Middle Class Issues, Not The Clintons

Anthony Weiner talked to TPM Wednesday evening about his newly announced mayoral bid, his relationship with his wife’s bosses, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the crowd of reporters camped out in front of his apartment.

How Anthony Weiner Managed To Screw The NYC Tabloids

Anthony Weiner’s announcement of his long-rumored mayoral campaign sparked a media frenzy, but he managed to avoid seeing his face plastered on the front pages of the two tabloid newspapers that relentlessly lampooned him during the 2011 Twitter photo scandal that ended his congressional career. By launching his bid via a video posted on his website around midnight Wednesday Weiner prevented the New York Daily News and New York Post from featuring him and lewd puns on their covers, leaving staffers at the papers convinced it was a deliberate dodge.

GOP Senator Misleads Constituents On Gun Control Vote

Facing pushback on his vote against expanding the scope of background checks for gun purchases, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) is obscuring his vote against the policy with the use of a familiar tactic: claiming to have supported it anyway.

In a letter to inquiring constituents, obtained by Nevada reporter Jon Ralston and posted online Wednesday, Heller insisted that he’s “adamant” about fixing the background check system and that he has not only voted for but also cosponsored legislation to “close existing loopholes” within it.

GOP Nominee In Virginia Called Three-Fifths Clause An ‘Anti-Slavery Amendment’

The Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in Virginia has called the Constitution’s original clause to count blacks as three-fifths of a person an “anti-slavery amendment.”

In an April 28, 2011 statement while he was a Senate candidate, conservative minister and lawyer E.W. Jackson held up the three-fifths clause as an “anti-slavery” measure. The context of his statement was to attack President Obama after a pastor at a church service he attended referred to the three-fifths clause as a historical marker of racism.

“Rev. [Charles Wallace] Smith must not have understood the 3/5ths clause was an anti-slavery amendment. Its purpose was to limit the voting power of slave holding states,” Jackson, an African-American, said in his statement.

Reid Eyes Serial Votes On Obama Nominees In Key Nuclear Option Test

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would hold a vote on Richard Cordray’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before the Senate skipped town for Memorial Day.

Plans change. Cordray will now most likely get his chance after immigration reform legislation clears the Senate. And not because Reid is giving up on Cordray’s nomination, but because he wants to turn Cordray and a handful of other nominees into a test of the GOP’s vows to filibuster top Obama picks, including two designated cabinet secretaries.

The move serves two purposes: First, it removes one of the largest pretexts Republicans will have to walk away from immigration reform. Second, it puts Republicans on the spot in an exquisite — and in Reid’s mind necessary — way, thus providing the nominees their best chance at confirmation, and leaving Democrats little choice, if the GOP blocks them, but to change the rules to immunize executive and judicial nominees from filibuster.

“The more likely scenario is that cloture is filed on some or all of them, because that is more substantive than a unanimous consent request,” says a senior Democratic aide. “But that determination hasn’t been made yet.”

McCain, Collins Slam Republicans For Budget Hypocrisy

In the latest expression of Republican frustration with conservative GOP colleagues, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Susan Collins (R-ME) excoriated Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) for persistently refusing to initiate House-Senate budget negotiations.

Their comments on the Senate floor Tuesday reflect a growing Republican schism over how to approach the tax and spending fights that have hamstrung Congress for years and dragged its approval ratings to historic lows.

“For four years, four years, we complained about the fact that the majority leader … would refuse to bring a budget to the floor of the United States Senate,” McCain said. “What [do] we on my side of the aisle keep doing? We don’t want a budget unless — unless — we put requirements on the conferees that are absolutely out of line and unprecedented.”

Virginia Lt. Gov. Candidate Fought Against Desegregation Efforts

E.W. Jackson, the Virginia GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor, began his career as a minister and attorney in Boston. While there, he lent his support to a high-profile 1988 fight against a plan to desegregate public housing developments in the neighborhood of South Boston.

Inhofe: Oklahoma Disaster Relief Will Be Different Than ‘Slush Fund’ For Sandy (VIDEO)

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who opposed emergency disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy and called the bill a “slush fund,” suggested he’ll support legislation to provide similar assistance to victims of the tornado in Moore, Okla., provided it’s tailored narrowly enough to prevent federal dollars from being appropriated to other states.

“[Sandy aid] was totally different,” Inhofe said on MSNBC Tuesday morning. “They were getting things, for instance, that was supposed to be in New Jersey. They had things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there, they were putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C. Everybody was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won’t happen in Oklahoma.”

The NRA Thinks These Are The ‘Coolest Gun Movies’ Ever

After the December killings in Newtown, Conn., the National Rifle Association’s chief lambasted the the evils of violent movies and video games, saying they, rather than guns, were a source of the nation’s woes.

Now, less than six months later, the NRA’s “flagship publication,” American Rifleman, is celebrating cinematic savagery with a list of the top 10 “coolest gun movies” that unabashedly praises Hollywood depictions of death and crime.

“Who has not dreamed of having the power and respect of Michael Corleone? That he built his empire through violence is only that much more alluring,” the magazine’s Associate Online Shooting Editor Paul Rackley wrote in his summary of “The Godfather.”