There have been a host of Republican candidates for Senate -- chief among them Sharron Angle and Rand Paul -- who have taken heat this election cycle for ducking the press. Connecticut Senate aspirant Linda McMahon is not one of them. The former wrestling executive has not gone out of her way to avoid the media. She has, however, made some fairly interesting decisions about what press questions she will and won't answer.

In the past few weeks, McMahon has studiously refused to talk about what she would like to see done to both Social Security and Medicare. The Connecticut Republican has been upfront with her belief that the entitlement programs need reforming. She's argued that they are both going bankrupt and, in the process, bankrupting the country. But when pressed for specific remedies she's insisted that those two topics are not campaign issues.

"Here's my position: I really do think we're going to have strengthen all of our entitlement programs, but that's not really a discussion for the campaign trail," McMahon said late last week. "I think that really needs to be in the legislative arena where we can have bipartisan debate and really talk about that earnestly."

"She has never endorsed a specific entitlement reform," Ed Patru, McMahon's spokesperson told the National Review Online, the week prior. "There are no plans on that end for the campaign at all. She believes any plans for Social Security or Medicare must be divorced from the hyper-partisan arena of the campaign and be done in the legislative process."

While hardly a profile in political courage, McMahon's avoidance of specific Social Security and Medicare proposals has an obvious strategic purpose. Instead of choosing between a platform of more intense privatization (as embraced by some members of the GOP) or one that avoids deep cuts (as preferred by most of the public), she's avoided the topic altogether.

What's driven Democrats in Connecticut mad is not just the notion that a campaign is somehow an inappropriate time to discuss entitlement reform. Members of both parties have said they want to wait for the recommendations of the president's deficit commission before weighing in on the matter. It's that McMahon has managed to do this while presenting herself to voters as a savior of Social Security and bludgeoning her opponent, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, for supposedly cutting Medicare benefits with his support of Obamacare.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama sternly condemned Tuesday's attacks in Hebron that killed four Israelis.

Calling the attacks by Hamas a "senseless slaughter" carried out by "terrorists that are purposely trying to undermine" upcoming peace talks between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to seeing those talks through.

"I want everybody to be very clear," he said. "The United States is going to be unwavering in support of Israel's security and we are going to push back against these kinds of terrorist activities. And so the message should go out to Hamas and everybody else who is taking credit for these heinous crimes that this is not going to stop us from not only ensuring a secure Israel but also securing a longer lasting peace with the people throughout the region."

The president spoke for roughly two minutes, wearing a dark suit and a lavender tie. He had notes placed on the lectern before him but did not appear to be reading heavily from them. To his left stood Netanyahu in a similarly dark suit with a red tie with blue stripes. The Israeli Prime Minister spoke after Obama and was slightly more graphic, calling the attacks "savagery and brutality."

"These people have no respect for human life and trample human rights into the dust and butcher everything they oppose," he said.

Prior to their statements, the two had been talking in the Oval Office as part of a set of bilateral meeting the president was having with key stakeholders in the region. Obama, who peered over Netanyahu's right shoulder throughout his remarks, took the microphone once again to address his upcoming meeting with Abbas.

"He condemned this outrageous attack as well," the president said of the Palestinian leader. "I have the utmost confidence in him and his belief in a two state solution in which the people of Israel and Palestinians are living side-by-side in peace and security. He has got a lot of work to do. There are going to be those who will do everything they can to undermine these talks."

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Ben Smith's been digging into whether Newt Gingrich's call -- "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia" -- echoes a similar statement from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. His research has yielded some edifying results. The good news, for Gingrich, is that he wasn't, technically, remixing the words of one of the world's best-known fascists. Here's the bad news:

"Newt is more to the right of Mussolini on this," emailed Victoria de Graziathe, director of Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Europe, who wrote that Mussolini positioned himself as an Islamophile "to bug the British, also because he was an anti-Semite, also because he liked Nietzsche and Nietzsche was interested in the Koran."
There's much more, so go read the whole thing.

For my part, I've been deeply puzzled over the whole "no mosques at Ground Zero until there's a synagogue at Mecca" line, and not just because there's already a mosque in the neighborhood.

Aye, verily, all nations that aspire to be part of modern civilization should be welcoming of people of all religious faiths. But there's at least one nation that took those aspirations, put them on paper, and made it law: the United States. It makes zero sense for us to hold our principles hostage, demand that other nations that do not measure up to our standards hew to the ideals we whimsically abandon, and then pretend that that is some sort of bargain. That's the sort of thing that someone very daft or very disingenuous would say. But you have to be dafter or more disingenuous than Benito Mussolini, as it turns out!

LAS VEGAS — Paris Hilton had an explanation for police: The rolling papers, $1,300 in cash and several credit cards were hers, but not the purse they were in.

And definitely not the bag of white powder that fell out of it.

Believing it to be cocaine, an officer asked her who it belonged to.

"She said she had not seen it but now thought it was gum," Las Vegas police Lt. Dennis Flynn wrote in a report made public on Monday.

Hilton told police the purse belonged to a friend. But the friend was never identified.

The 29-year-old celebrity socialite was charged with cocaine possession. She was freed without bail before dawn Saturday after spending less than three hours handcuffed on a jailhouse booking room bench.

Hilton's lawyer, David Chesnoff, said he would not comment on the police report, and added, "the facts of the situation will be tested in a courtroom."

Flynn said Hilton acknowledged also owning a broken tablet of the prescription asthma medication Albuterol found in the purse she took with her into a security room at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

Flynn said Hilton had asked to be allowed to go into the hotel after her boyfriend, Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits, 34, failed field sobriety tests given by a motorcycle officer.

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Supporters from across the country have called to give encouragement to a suburban Nashville mosque where a fire was the latest setback for a planned new building, officials said Sunday.

Authorities told mosque officials that four pieces of heavy construction equipment on the site were doused with an accelerant and one set ablaze, said Camie Ayash, spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. Federal investigators have not ruled it arson, saying only that the fire was being probed and asked the public to call in tips. Earlier, Ayash said that gasoline was poured on the equipment but later backed off that statement.

"No threats, not at all," since the fire, Ayash told The Associated Press. "We've had a tremendous amount of calls of support."

American Muslim leaders say the furor over the building of a mosque near ground zero has emboldened opposition groups to resist new mosques elsewhere.

Some say they oppose them because of infrastructure and traffic problems. Others have implied that the mosque would be a haven for terrorists.

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro's planned expansion has drawn increasingly vehement opposition from the community in recent weeks. The proposed center on 15 acres would serve some 250 families.

Digging had begun at the site where a sign that marks it as the future Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been vandalized twice in the past several months. But Ayash said the fire "makes everybody really on edge."

Ayash said Islamic Center officials were contacted by the sheriff's department around 4 a.m. Saturday. Someone walking by called in the fire to 911 about 1:30 a.m.

Rutherford County resident Kevin Fisher has led protests against the mosque he says because of zoning issues, parking, traffic and a lack of transparency in the county's planning approval process. He issued a statement Saturday to the Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro.

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"It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body," Superintendent Russell Taylor said in a statement.

"Therefore, beginning immediately, student elections at Nettleton School District will no longer have a classification of ethnicity. It is our intent that each student has equal opportunity to seek election for any student office."

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Nettleton Middle School in Mississippi is facing criticism in the wake of reports that its students were told they could only run for certain student council posts based on their race.

According to a memo obtained by The Smoking Gun that was distributed to students enrolled at the public school last week, black children are not eligible to run for the position of class president or secretary-treasurer. Those roles are available only for their white counterparts, the notice indicates; however, they are able campaign for the title of vice president or reporter, and it seems white children are not allowed to vie for those specific posts.

The website reports:

Of the 12 offices for which students compete, eight are earmarked for white students (including the three class president spots), while four are termed "black" seats. Middle school administrators have not returned TSG phone calls, so it is unclear how this policy was established, or whether the number of offices apportioned for each race changes annually.

Support for Ethan Haines, the unemployed-lawyer-on-hunger-strike whom Huffington Post e-interviewed at the start of the strike, has backfired as USA Today revealed "his" true identity yesterday to be Ms. Zenovia Evans, an employed 28-year-old graduate of fourth-tier Cooley Law School.

Evans gained some attention in early August when "he" allegedly went on a 30-day hunger strike until ten randomly-selected law schools handed over their graduate employment statistics to a new law school watchdog, Law School Transparency. Evans blogged about the strike and ranted about law schools at UnemployedJD.com.

But after USA Today revealed her true identity-- with her permission-- Evans' cause for law school transparency appeared to be lost in the scope of her deceit:

For instance, Evans says she owed "more than $150,000" in student loans. But Volokh Conspiracy did the math: "Cooley's current annual tuition is $30,644, with discounts of 25-100% available for students with high LSATs (starting at 149, with an additional 10% discount for Michigan residents)," VC writes.

A commenter on VC scoffed at Evans' hunger strike, which apparently allows V8 juice and smoothies: "Fruit juice breaks a hunger strike; it's full of sugar. You don't starve to death while consuming calories."

Above the Law had to disable its comments section when commenters turned nasty about Evans' body size.

AUSTIN, Texas — A judge denied former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's request Wednesday to have his money laundering trial moved from Austin, which DeLay calls a liberal bastion where he alleges a rogue prosecutor crusaded against him.

Senior Judge Pat Priest ruled that appropriate safeguards could be taken to give the Republican a fair trial in Democratic-leaning Travis County. Priest set a trial date for Oct. 26.

"I hope I can get a fair trial here. We'll find out," DeLay said. "We're ready."

The former congressman was indicted in 2005 on charges that he illegally sent $190,000 in corporate money through the Republican National Committee to help elect GOP Texas legislative candidates in 2002. DeLay said he has done nothing wrong and that a trial will prove it.

If convicted of money laundering, DeLay could face between five years to life in prison, though lawyers could ask for probation.

District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said she was pleased the judge heard arguments about a change of venue and decided a fair trial could be held in Travis County. She said the trial would likely take less than a month, and include "some bank records and looking at some numbers, but also a lot of testimony."

DeLay wanted the trial moved to his conservative home county of Fort Bend.

A Republican pollster who tested public opinion on DeLay as recently as this week testified for the defense Wednesday, saying a large percentage of those polled in Travis County knew who DeLay was and had a negative impression of him. Pollster Marc DelSignore also said a big chunk of voters questioned believed DeLay was guilty of a crime.

"I think the poll is very accurate, so that's why we're so concerned," said DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin.

William Saxbe, a Republican maverick who became the fourth attorney general to serve under President Richard M. Nixon and presided during the Watergate investigation, died Tuesday. He was 94.

Saxbe, who served in the Ohio Legislature and as state attorney general, died at his home in Mechanicsburg, northwest of Columbus, said his son, Charles "Rocky" Saxbe.

Nixon's first two attorneys general were accused of Watergate-related crimes and the third, Elliot Richardson, resigned to protest Nixon's efforts to limit the investigation into the break-in and cover-up attempts.

Searching for a nominee who would be easily confirmed, the president chose Saxbe, a lame-duck one-term U.S. senator who had once labeled the Nixon administration "one of the most inept" in history.

Saxbe was a politician who "just did everything right," Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett said.

"He was probably the only one who could have got confirmed as attorney general of the United States after the 'Saturday night massacre,"' Bennett said, referring to the 1973 firing on Nixon's orders of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox and the resignation of the Justice Department's top two officials.

Saxbe took office in 1974 served for just longer than a year. He resigned Feb. 1, 1975, six months after President Gerald Ford took office, to become ambassador to India, a post he held until January 1977.