But church documents showing that Dolan paid off priests who had been accused of sexually abusing minors suggest that the prominent Catholic leader was willing to overlook these very same religious convictions to help colleagues accused of egregious wrong doing. The documents, obtained by the New York Times, also show that Dolan lied to reporters when he initially dismissed news of the payments as “false, preposterous and unjust”:

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee. [...]

But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.

Dolan had described at least one payment to Franklyn Becker — who had been accused of abusing 10 minors — as “an act of charity” to help the priest “pay for health insurance.” This comes to light as Dolan and the Church are expanding their campaign against a government regulation that would increase health insurance coverage of contraception for women.

– While everyone is focused on Greece, the question that could really destroy the Eurozone is what to do about Spain: “[U]nlike Greece, Spain is not small and an externally financed bailout would be very expensive.”

– The GOP-affiliated Crossroads GPS is going after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in a new ad, “Obamacare? More like Obama-Claire”:

– The rate at which investors are abandoning the Eurozone is speeding up:

– And finally: The U.S. Senate is out of town this week, but an employee “assigned to care for furniture used by Senate offices stole and illegally sold more than $13,700 worth of tables and chairs to a used furniture dealer in Virginia.”

“I think with this president, the book is closed,” said Hoekstra in response to an attendee at the Michigan Tea Party event, before clarifying that the issue was only off the table because Republicans missed their opportunity to expose President Obama:

“We lost that debate in 2008 when our presidential nominee said ‘I ain’t talking about it’… I’d love to give you the answer and say that I’m going to fight it, we’re going to beat it and we’re going to win it. I think it wasn’t fought and we lost it.”

Hoekstra instead proposed a new three-person panel made up of intelligence officials from the CIA and FBI to investigate future presidential nominees and verify they are constitutionally eligible to hold the office. Watch it, courtesy of YouTube user JimCMacomb:

A spokesman for Hoekstra’s campaign later told The Hill that the candidate does in fact believe Obama is a U.S. citizen. But this isn’t the first time he has used fear of “foreigners” to rally conservative voters. A xenophobic ad aired during the 2012 Super Bowl in February depicting a Chinese worker mockingly thanking Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) led to widespread, bipartisan condemnation and an eventual apology from the candidate.

– Some in the GOP are subtly softening its harsh anti-tax rhetoric, just as Congress gets ready for “taxmageddon,” the almost-certainly contentious debate over whether to renew the Bush tax cuts, the payroll tax holiday, and the debt ceiling sequester agreement.

– The race for Texas’s Senate seat is going to a runoff, “setting up another showdown between a state party establishment favorite, and a national tea party-backed insurgent.”

– Jon Stewart responds to Roger Ailes’ claim that Stewart told Ailes he is a socialist:

– There are no states where a 40-hour workweek at minimum wage can pay the rent of a two bedroom apartment:

– And finally, there’s a glaring typo in Mitt Romney’s newly-released app:

MITCHELL: If president Obama were to appear with a prominent fund-raiser who said things as outrageous as what Donald Trump said again today, would you in the Romney campaign let it go?

TALENT: We’d keep focusing on the main subject of the campaign is and we’ve done that. Every time the president trying to get off to something different like the attack of Governor Romney because of his dogs or the attack on Mrs. Romney we keep going back to what’s important… Every time the campaign or something comes up on the other side that does that, we keep going back to the main issues because campaigns shouldn’t be about the horse race. They ought to be about what’s important to the American people and that’s what Governor Romney’s going to stick with.

Watch it:

The facts tell a different story, however. Within an hour of Rosen’s remarks in April, Romney’s wife Ann joined Twitter and personally condemned Rosen. The following day, the campaign deployed a series of surrogates to slam the pundit in conference calls with reporters and press releases, while Ann appeared on Fox News. The campaign and its conservative allies demanded — and won — public condemnations of Rosen from the Obama campaign, the DNC, prominent Democrats, and even President Obama himself. Ann Romney later described Rosen’s remarks as a political “gift,” noting, “It was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother, and that was really a defining moment, and I loved it.”

Rosen, unlike Trump, was never part of the Obama campaign, yet the Romney people insisted that Obama apologize for her comments. They’re now taking a different tact with Trump, proving that Romney is willing to embrace supporters who spew lies and misinformation so he can raise money and appeal to the most conspiracy-minded conservatives.

But Romney has previously demanded that his political opponents publicly rebuke supporters who make false accusations about Mormonism. In October, Romney aggressively confronted evangelical pastor and Rick Perry backer Robert Jeffress, who claimed that Romney is not Christian and is part of a Mormon cult. Romney called on Perry to denounce Jeffress:

“Gov. Perry selected an individual to introduce him who then used religion as a basis for which he said he would endorse Gov. Perry and a reason to not support me. Gov. Perry then said that introduction just hit it out of the park,” Romney said.

“I just don’t believe that that kind of divisiveness based upon religion has a place in this country. I believe in the spirit of the founders, when they suggested in crafting this country that we would be a nation that tolerated other people, different faiths — that we’d be a place of religious diversity,” Romney continued.

He concluded, “I would call upon Gov. Perry to repudiate the sentiment and the remarks made by that pastor.”

Ironically, Perry spokesman Mark Miner responded to Romney’s outrage with the same sentiment that Romney is now expressing towards those who have called on him to directly repudiate Trump. “The governor does not agree with every single issue of people that endorsed him or people that he meets,” Miner said. “This political rhetoric from Gov. Romney isn’t going to create one new job or help the economy. He’s playing a game of deflection and the people of this country know this.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) — a Romney surrogate and potential Vice Presidential nominee — also condemned Perry, saying, that any candidate that would associate with such comments “is beneath the office of president of the United States.”

– President Obama is personally overseeing “the shadow war with Al Qaeda,” spearheading “the ‘nominations’ process to designate terrorists for kill or capture.”

– While Mitt Romney was “running the Olympic games he had been investing in a company that was making performance-enhancing drugs banned by them, and he had been for almost a decade.”

– Romney attacks Obama for giving “billions of taxpayer dollars to companies that later failed”:

– How the debt ceiling debacle hurt the economy:

– And finally: Retiring Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) made an awkward Trayvon Martin reference during a commencement address at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Sunday. “You know when you get an honorary degree they give you one of these,” said Frank, indicating the white graduation hood around his neck. “Hubie, I think you have a hoodie you can wear and nobody will shoot at you.” Frank was referring to African American activist Hubie Jones, who received the University’s honorary degree.

But the campaign’s wink and nod to the birther crowd is unmistakable and this morning, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, columnist George Will slammed Romney for sharing a stage with the self-promoting businessman. Describing Trump as a ”bloviating ignoramus,” Will said, “I do not understand the cost benefit here. The costs are clear. The benefit — what voter is gonna vote for him [Romney] because he is seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious it seems to me”:

WILL: Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics. Again, I don’t understand the benefit. What is Romney seeking?

Watch it:

Trump endorsed Romney at an event in February and has since been used extensively in primary states to bash Romney’s opponents. In March, Ann Romney called him an “honorary Buckeye” after the campaign’s victory in Ohio.

On Friday, Romney adviser Kevin Madden said Romney will “stand up next to Donald Trump and he’ll talk about why he wants to be president.” “Anytime the subject goes off of that, or if something where …Governor Romney would disagree, he’s going to make that very clear,” Madden claimed, but did not say if Romney would rebuke the birther conspiracy in front of Trump. Given his resistance to confronting the right, however, that appears more than a little unlikely.

Mitt Romney regrets saying that he likes being able to fire people. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Romney said he got frustrated whenever he made flubs like his line, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me,” last winter in New Hampshire.

President Obama has nominated a new head for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Allison Macfarlane is a nuclear waste expert who is set to replace Gregory Jaczko who had “a tumultuous three-year tenure in which he pushed for sweeping safety reforms but came under fire for an unyielding management style that fellow commissioners and agency employees described as bullying.”

Mitt Romney’s campaign bus rolled into one West Philadelphia community on Thursday, but his appearance was less than welcomed. Hecklers shouted at him to leave, and a sign featuring Romney’s “I’m not concerned about the very poor” comment was raised.

The same Senate Republicans who pushed for massive spending cuts are now hitting Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid for insisting that Congress abide by them.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has outspent his Democratic opponent Tom Barrett more than 3-1 on TV ad buys during the three months leading up to the state’s June 5 recall election. Walker’s campaign has raised over $25 million for the recall campaign, $12 million of which has been spent on campaign ads.

Partial results from Egypt’s landmark presidential election indicate that the candidate from the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, has won a spot in the runoff election on June 16-17.

And finally: Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) kicked it “old” school on Highway 53, when a car he was sharing with staffers got a flat tire. The former Real World star took off his shirt, got on his knees, and promised, “This is going to be a 15-minute stop and that’s going to be it.”

Today, Romney announced a major campaign event with Trump next week, at the reality TV star’s International Hotel in Las Vegas. Romney is also soliciting low dollar contributions to win a meal with Trump. The campaign has published this flyer:

Trump rose to prominence early in the GOP presidential primary, at one time leading in the polls, by promoting birther conspiracy theories against Obama. In April 2011, he said:

I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding…it’s one of the greatest scams in the history of politics and in the history, period. You are not allowed to be a president if you’re not born in this country. Right now, I have real doubts.

Trump has not dropped the argument since. He has questioned the legitimacy of Obama’s long-form birth certificate. In the last few days he has tweeted the following:

Trump officially endorsed Romney at an event in February. He was used extensively in primary states to bash Romney’s opponents and in February recorded robocalls trashing Rick Santorum in Michigan. In March, Ann Romney called him an “honorary Buckeye” after Romney’s victory in Ohio. There are now plans for Trump’s pro-Romney calls to go national.

This isn’t the first time that Booker has had harsh words regarding the nation’s drug policy. In 2007, he told the Star-Leger that “The drug war is causing crime. It is just chewing up young black men. And it’s killing Newark.” In 2001, Booker told CNN, “you have incarceration rates in this country now that are outrageous…you aren’t really solving the problem by just throwing people in jail.” New Jersey spends over $1 billion per year on prisons and about one-third of the beds are filled with non-violent drug offenders.

Booker’s comments come at a time when Americans attitudes toward drugs, particularly marijuana, are rapidly changing. A poll released yesterday found that 56% of Americans favor legalization of marijuana, with just 36% in opposition.

The fake picture shows Cupp with a penis in her mouth and criticizes her “dumb ideas like defunding Planned Parenthood.” Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has defended the graphic, calling it “satire.”

“I am not going to back off the sequestration,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told Politico, warning that Senate Democrats will allow the automatic defense cuts agreed upon in last summer’s debt deal to go into effect unless Republicans are willing to compromise on revenues.

Senate Democrats are gearing up for a fight over the Paycheck Fairness Act, an update to the Equal Pay Act which passed into law nearly half a century ago. The debate over the measure will likely put more pressure on Republicans, who have already been labeled instigators in an ongoing legislative war on women.

New reports reveal George Zimmerman’s close connection to the Sanford police department. Zimmerman went on patrol rides with police officers, went to police department picnics, and even went back to the police station three days after he killed Trayvon Martin and wandered around unaccompanied.

Congress will be investigating Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) to see whether any investors received insider tips before the stock officially opened.

Missouri has become the first state to start using the drug propofol — an untested anesthetic that caused the overdose death of pop star Michael Jackson — as the primary drug for its executions. This marks a switch from the traditional three-drug cocktail, which contains an imported drug that has become difficult to obtain in the U.S. in recent years.

Despite conservative outrage over Elizabeth Warren’s claimed ties to Cherokee nation, voters in Massachusetts don’t seem to care all that much. A new Suffolk University poll shows Warren trailing Senator Scott Brown (R) by just one point, an eight point shift in her favor since February.