SATURDAY ROUNDUP

Barack Obama may be moving toward the center in the general election, but bloggers on the left tell readers Saturday that it’s not the end of the world. The latest book proposing a new Republican direction won’t save the party, pro-Democratic bloggers write. And Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) should be censured for using al Qaeda during his grilling of a Bush administration official, according to conservative bloggers.

While liberals have the right to raise a ruckus over Obama’s decision to support the proposed overhaul of foreign surveillance law, they can’t run screaming from the Democratic Party just because Obama doesn’t do the right thing on one issue, writes blueness at Daily Kos. After all, Obama, famous for his 2004 speech about blurring differences between red states and blue states, was never much of a liberal, reminds TalkLeft’s Jeralyn. But the handwringing among Obama supporters over his “flip-flopping” on surveillance, guns, foreign policy and other issues is welcomed by Townhall’s Hugh Hewitt.

The suggestion in the new book “Grand New Party” that downtrodden Republicans look to GOP moderates won’t gain much traction this year, as the Republican chattering classes are blaming the party’s current crisis on insufficient conservatism, writes Ed Kilgore, The Democratic Strategist. While New York Times columnist David Brooks sees authors Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam as possible GOP saviors along with young bloggers, The Plank’s Isaac Chotiner points out that many of those bloggers are libertarians who wouldn’t agree with the book’s big government argument.

Delahunt should be censured for saying during a House subcommittee hearing that he’s glad al Qaeda gets a chance to finally see David Addington, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, on television, according to RedState’s Directors and Power Line’s Scott Johnson. While Delahunt denies that he was implying that Addington should be a terror target, the remark is still far worse than the comment by Charlie Black, a John McCain adviser, that Republicans could benefit politically from a terror strike, writes Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Dog Soldiers – blueness, Daily Kos
Obama Shifts to the Center – Jeralyn, TalkLeft
Corruption of Moving to Center – Matt Stoller, Open Left
Bipartisan Confusion – Tim Fernholz, TAPPED
Obama Has Flip-Flopped – Hugh Hewitt, Townhall.com
The Next Conservatives – Isaac Chotiner, The Plank
A New Deal for GOP? – Ed Kilgore, Dem Strategist
A Choice, Not an Echo – Ross Douthat
Delahunt’s Disgrace – Scott Johnson, Power Line
Delahunt Backpedals on Cheerleading Terror – E. Morrissey, Hot Air
Call Bill, Barack – Joe Klein, Swampland
The Agony of Defeat – Carol Platt Liebau, Townhall.com
Extremes of Justice – Eli, Firedoglake
Court Brings Conservatives Closer to McCain? – E. Morrissey, Hot Air
Pawlenty Does Stamford – Ironman, The Next Right
Rep. Arcuri in Fundraiser Flap – Rob Bluey, RedState

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
As Bill Evolves, Mortgage Debt is Snowballing – NYT
McCain, Obama Court Hispanic Voters – Reuters
Obama Plans Visits to Europe, Mideast This Summer – AP