Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in an interview with lefty advocacy group ThinkProgress:

Unfortunately you had the five right-wing judges, none of whom have ever run for any office ever and have zero political experience between the five of them, offering opinions about what money can do in elections . . . . So clearly the finding of fact in Citizens United that unlimited corporate spending cannot either increase the risk of corruption or increase the appearance to the public that there’s corruption is ludicrous.

Occupy Providence is planning to "occupy the sidewalk" outside the coming Netroots Nation conference, June 7-10. The action is not meant as a protest against the event, but as a protest against economic injustice; indeed, the Occupyers and the lefty bloggers who populate the netroots are largely simpatico on this and other issues.

Democratic Congressional candidate Anthony Gemma is touting punditry out of DC publications Roll Call and The Hill suggesting he'd be a better candidate in a general election match-up with Republican Brendan Doherty than incumbent Congressman David Cicilline.

But would he really be a lock come November?

Gemma would, no doubt, have one significant advantage: he's doesn't come with the incumbent's heavy baggage.

Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has built a robust reputation as a reformer, making Time magazine's 100 most influential list a couple of years back

The Ocean State's reform brand is neatly aligned with a national, free market-inspired approach - favored by the Obama White House on down - that focuses on building a better teacher and encouraging charter schools.

Keith Olbermann may have pulled out of Netroots Nation, the lefty blogger's conference coming to Providence June 7-10. But organizers can claim another progressive media star: New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Mary Rickles, communications coordinator for the event, passed along the word today. More big names to be confirmed in the coming days, she says.

Governor Lincoln Chafee, who's had a tough go of it since taking office on a crisp day in January 2011, has looked more statesmanlike this week than at any point in his tenure.

That is due, in part, to the nature of crisis. When something big and troubling happens in a state, all eyes turn to the chief executive. Think of Governor Carcieri after the Station nightclub fire.

Keith Olbermann, who was scheduled to speak at the Netroots Nation conference in Providence in a couple of weeks, shant be appearing. This is one gig, though, from which he wasn't fired. Olbermann's explanation, via DailyKos:

I regret to tell you that I'm going to have to miss Netroots Nation.

I need to have surgery - fortunately, minor surgery - and the best guy in the world on this says we shouldn't wait beyond next week.

My opus on how deep-blue Rhode Island enacted a voter ID bill last year is out today. And one question I got while reporting the story was this: did ALEC play a role?

ALEC, for the unitiated, is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a business-backed advocacy group that pairs corporate types with state legislators to draft conservative model legislation for use in State Houses around the country.

As soon as news broke of financial troubles at former Red Sox ace Curt Schilling's 38 Studios video game company, observers began comparing the firm to Solyndra. Former GOP gubernatorial candidate John Robitaille made the analogy just yesterday in an interview with WPRI-TV.

On the surface, the comparison makes some sense: the Obama Administration invested in Solyndra, the solar energy firm, only to watch it go bust - prompting questions about government picking winners and losers in the private sector.

Lincoln Chafee's post-Senate indictment of a Republican Party gone off the rails, Against the Tide, gets new life in a book from Geoffrey Kabaservice on the demise of the GOP's moderate wing. Here, Kabaservice writes of (recently ousted) Senator Richard Lugar:

Angry as the Tea Party became with him, Lugar had also been disowned by the moderate faction of which he was once a part.

We've got a remarkable story from contributor James Robinson in the new issue of the Phoenix that raises questions about the 40-year-old conviction of Clarence Spivey on charges of rape, kidnapping, and assault.

Spivey, one of Rhode Island's longest-serving inmates, was at the center of a racially charged case involving a young white woman dragged from a hospital parking lot by a black man and brutally raped in a nearby vacant apartment.

Yes and no, I think. In the short term, it amps up the pressure on Senator Jack Reed, the one member of the state's Congressional delegation who has not yet come out in favor of same-sex marriage, to do so. Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI) is already taking it to him:

"Today, President Obama reaffirmed the American ideal that all citizens should be treated equally.

Congressman David Cicilline, as you may have read, has helped Pawtucket World War II veteran Leo Beland get a long overdue Bronze Star. And it's not hard to imagine the campaign staff buffing that star, at this very moment, for Ciclline's first ad.

Think of it: the story is perfectly tailored for the middle-of-the-road, tradiitonal Democrats most pissed off at Cicilline at the moment.

As Dan McGowan at GoLocalProv reported earlier today, Providence City Councilman John Igliozzi has been ousted from his position as chairman of the panel's finance committee a day after he and Councilman Terry Hassett voiced second thoughts about the sweeping pension reform package they recently approved alongside the rest of the council.