Top GOP Staffer Forced Out for Role in Page Scandal  —  Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz Report:  —  Jake Tapper contributed to this report.  —  The chief of staff for Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds, Kirk Fordham, resigned after questions were raised about his role in the handling …

"The List" (of Gay GOP Aides on the Hill); Hubris on Bloggingheads.tv  —  There's a list going around.  Those disseminating it call it "The List."  It's a roster of top-level Republican congressional aides who are gay.  —  On CBS News on Tuesday, correspondent Gloria Borger reported …

Mark Foley and the unmasked Republican Party  —  Denny Hastert is smack in the middle of one of the tawdriest and ugliest sex scandals in American political history.  As a result, he has been the target of aggressive criticism, even from a few members of his own party, and, by all accounts, is desperately battling to keep his job.

Powell: Staying course in Iraq isn't enough  —  The United States and allies can not resolve the current sectarian violence in Iraq, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said today during a lecture in Minneapolis.  —  "Only the Iraqi people can resolve this," Powell said.

Banned on YouTube  —  Back in February, you may remember, I cobbled together a little mini-movie called "First, They Came" inspired by the Mohammed Cartoon riots.  It's a simple slideshow highlighting the victims of Islamic violence over the years.  We posted it at YouTube a while ago.  No problems.

R.W. Apple, a Times Journalist in Full, Dies at 71  —  R. W. Apple Jr., who in more than 40 years as a correspondent and editor at The New York Times wrote about war and revolution, politics and government, food and drink, and the revenge of living well from more than 100 countries, died early this morning in Washington.

Al-Qaida's Narrative of Doubt  —  Several declassified al-Qaida documents — one discovered after the June 2006 air strike that killed al-Qaida's Iraqi emir, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — strongly suggest al-Qaida's leaders fear they are losing the War on Terror.  —  On Sept. 18, Iraqi National …

Reuters/Zogby Poll: Dems Hold Leads in Races for Key House GOP Seats as Republicans grapple with sex scandal  —  Democrats hold leads in races for 11 out of 15 key Republican-held House seats, the first in a series of Reuters/Zogby tracking polls shows.  This sets the stage for a full-tilt battle …

Wellstone Funeral Redux? … That quote comes from a new campaign ad by Patty Wetterling, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 6th district.  You have to admit, it's pretty impressive - in two introductory sentences, Wetterling ably and completely misrepresents two of the key facts of the Foley scandal.

Border Security, Job Market Leave Farms Short of Workers  —  Growers Frustrated by Delay in Agriculture Legislation  —  CLOVIS, Calif. — Bins of Granny Smith apples towered over two conveyor belts at P-R Farms' packing plant.  But only one belt moved.  P-R Farms, like farms up and down California …

Joe Lieberman on whether he will caucus with the Dems: … Could be improved by dropping the "intend"—he's maintaining some Saddam-like strategic ambiguity!  But this promise would still be fairly difficult to weasel out of, I should think. ...  **—The text, from a NYT blog, says "world," which I assume is a typo.

'Neither Force Nor Will, But Merely Judgment'  —  Recently some leaders of the bench and bar — including, on this page last week, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor — have decried what they describe as unprecedented threats to the independence of the judiciary.  I respectfully disagree.

W. Va. Lawmaker Embarasssed by Photos  —  CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A state senator said he is evaluating whether to continue his bid for a second term after a Charleston television station aired revealing pictures of him last week.  —  "My family has urged me not to withdraw from the election …

Green Party hopeful is out; win for Casey  —  By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  —  The prospect of a three-way U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania appeared all but over yesterday as the state Supreme Court rebuffed Green Party Senate candidate Carl Romanelli's bid to get on the November ballot.

THE JIHAD ON KING  —  CNN'S OUTRAGEOUS SMEAR STEVEN EMERSON  —  THE media is engaged in a jihad against Rep. Peter King - a jihad in defense of Islamist extremists.  —  King, a Long Island Republican, has warned his constituents that some leaders of the Islamic Center of Long Island have …

Man Sues Secret Service Agent Over Arrest After Approaching Cheney and Denouncing War  —  A Colorado man who was arrested in June on harassment charges after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney to denounce the war in Iraq filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday accusing a Secret Service agent of civil rights violations.

OMB Welcomes Help From Anti-Pork Bloggers  —  Call it the Office of Management and Blog-it.  —  The Office of Management and Budget is turning to bloggers for help in pushing the OMB's government reform plans after last week's success of its pet project, the Federal Funding Accountability …