Jennifer Rubin writes in today's WaPo, The Right Turn:

"President Trump’s unprecedented meeting on Monday with the FBI director and deputy attorney general regarding a case in which he is directly involved may turn out to be the defining moment of his presidency and for his party. Bob Bauer at the Lawfare blog writes:

The National Rifle Association’s incoming president, Oliver North, is not wasting any time jumping into the gun-control debate. On Sunday, two days after a shooting at a Texas high school left 10 dead, the retired Marine made an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the epidemic of school shootings.

Here’s the difficulty. We want Congress to exercise oversight when it comes to the activities of our intelligence services, to prevent them from abusing their awesome powers and to maintain public confidence that such abuses — of which there is a long history in this country — aren’t happening once again.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., WaPo yesterday

......

Yes, there is much more to learn here, and we know by now never to assume that any development in this saga can be seen as the beginning of the end. We have no idea yet how this story will end or who, except perhaps for Mueller, will write its conclusion.

FAIRFAX, Va. — A group of student activists sat in the library at George Mason University this past week feeling both vindicated and violated.

Behind just about every divisive Senate Republican primary this year, an amiable Midwestern businessman is bankrolling the candidate who claims to be the most hard-charging, anti-establishment conservative in the race.

Richard Uihlein, a wealthy shipping-supplies magnate from Illinois who shuns the spotlight, has risen to become one of the most powerful — and disruptive — GOP donors in the country.

House Chaplain Patrick Conroy was suddenly forced out of his job last week by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and while it’s not clear why, Democratic lawmakers and Hill sources say it was driven by Ryan’s distaste for one of Conroy’s prayers about the GOP’s tax bill.

As first reported by The Hill, Conroy was clear in his resignation announcement that it wasn’t his choice to go. It was Ryan’s.

....

Robert Kuttner, HuffPo today

Did you have a happy Tax Day? Are you feeling grateful for the Republican tax cut?

Evidently, most American taxpayers are not.

In a sublime case of poetic justice, the so-called Tax Cut and Jobs Act is backfiring on the Republicans big time. Most voters are unimpressed, and Republicans themselves are ceasing to emphasize it in their campaign material. 

As America remembers the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination Wednesday, segments of one influential American demographic are reflecting on their role in perpetuating the white supremacy that the civil rights leader rallied against.

.....

Erin Wade, WaPo today.  Erin Wade is a chef, restaurateur and co-author of “The Mac + Cheese Cookbook.”

Sasha Ingber, WaPo March 20

Max Boot, WaPo yesterday.  Fascinating piece on the evolution of a superhawk into...something a bit different from that.

Michael Scherer, WaPo yesterday front page, via PressReader link

More horror.

WaPo account by Alex Horton and Wesley Lowery (the latter is author of They Can't Kill Us All).

Dominique Mosbergen, HuffPo today.

After spending a year in space, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is not the man he used to be — at least genetically speaking.

His genetic expression has changed, according to preliminary results from a NASA study that compared the bodily changes between the astronaut and his identical twin, who stayed on Earth while Kelly was aboard the International Space Station. 

Phillip Kennicott, going back to January 26, WaPo.  574 comments at this writing.  Apologies if someone already posted about this earlier and I missed it...

This Thursday, the Department of Labor will induct President Ronald Reagan into the Labor Hall of Honor, joining fellow inductees like Cesar Chavez, Mother Jones, and A. Philip Randolph. The only U.S. President to have led a major union, the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan launched the modern era of union-busting when he fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981. According to labor historian Joseph A.

Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of President Trump’s longest-serving and closest political advisers, said Wednesday that she is leaving the administration sometime in the next few weeks.

Hicks, 29, began working for Trump before he announced his candidacy and has been a constant at his side over the past three years, managing his public image and advising him on policy and other matters. A political neophyte, Hicks exerted extraordinary influence in the White House as arguably Trump’s most trusted aide.

My favorite line from the HuffPo article by Sebastian Murdock and Jessica Schulberg this afternoon:

“This action will definitely impact Kushner’s ability to cure the world of all ills but not necessarily prevent him from doing aspects of his job,” Mark Zaid, a lawyer who specializes in national security law told HuffPost in an email.

DC story receiving considerable attention locally, Clarence Williams, Lynh Bui, Justin Jouvenal, WaPo, this afternoon

Funeral arrangements were expected to be announced Thursday for a slain Prince George’s County police officer, as he was being remembered as a model public servant and fresh details emerged about his killer’s troubled past.

Cpl. Mujahid Ramz­ziddin, 51, was lauded as “exceptional” by the head of the Northwest Washington mosque where he had been a worshiper for about eight years.