Weigel

Opening Act: Gotcha

Two-time Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe holds up 13-month-old Isaiah Harris as he campaigns at Frying Pan Park May 13, 2009 in Herndon, Virginia.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

As gotcha questions go, this one for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is pretty solid.

In a recent interview, McAuliffe wouldn’t give specific responses when asked about technical aspects of legislative and governor’s office operations. Asked if he could name the positions in the governor’s Cabinet, for instance, McAuliffe said: “Maybe could, maybe couldn’t. That’s not what I’m going to do here today because that’s not what I’m talking about.”

This is his second campaign for governor!

David Sirota spends an hour mansplaining how politics works to the great Adele Stan.

Marin Cogan writes a Rubio v Bush story so fun it gets past my embargo on 2016 pieces.

The Kochs actually sound like model newspaper owners. They don’t mind losing money for years!

Michael Scherer counts the ways House Republicans are managing to spend money.

Consider the Speaker John Boehner, who has been publicly leading the charge for less federal outlays. “Spending is the problem here in Washington,” he likes to say. But behind the scenes he joined a bipartisan group of Senators and Congressman to insert $181 million in funding the Army does not want for an upgrade program at the Abrams Tank manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio, just a few dozen miles from Boehner’s own Ohio Congressional district. The Army has already announced that it plans to phase out the cold-war era tank, and had sought to wind down production in Lima.

And I missed this yesterday: Sarah Kliff reports on a bill that could help Mississippians get fatter.