Lefty Blogger Outs Senator As Gay  —  Outing specialist Mike Rogers has "outed" Senator Larry Craig as a closet homosexual.  —  And he promises more to come.  —  The Democrats want to make this an election about gay sex.  —  And people say the Republicans deserve to lose?

Rove foresees GOP victory  —  White House political strategist Karl Rove yesterday confidently predicted that the Republican Party would hold the House and the Senate in next month's elections, dismissing fallout from the sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley.

Elections May Leave Bush An Early Lame Duck  —  On desks around the West Wing sit digital clocks counting down the days and hours left in the Bush presidency, reminders to the White House staff to use the time left as effectively as possible.  As of 8 a.m. today, those clocks will read 825 days, four hours.

Bush to Blame for North Korean Crisis, Soros Says (Update1)  —  Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire investor George Soros today blamed U.S. President George W. Bush for escalating tensions with North Korea, which last week tested a nuclear bomb for the first time.

Pennsylvania Senate: Santorum Trailing by 13  —  Casey (D) 54% Santorum (R) 41%  —  With just a few weeks to go until November 7, Senator Rick Santorum's chances of securing reelection fade a bit more every day.  The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll finds that challenger Bob Casey …

Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority  —  U.S. Says Shift Is Not A Step Toward Arms; Experts Say It Could Be  —  President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests."

655,000 War Dead?  —  A bogus study on Iraq casualties.  —  After doing survey research in Iraq for nearly two years, I was surprised to read that a study by a group from Johns Hopkins University claims that 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the war.

Funding Constrains Democrats  —  Party Chiefs See Chance to Take 40-Plus Seats With TV Push  —  Top Democrats said yesterday that they are planning to significantly expand the number of GOP House seats they will target during the final 20 days of the campaign but that financial disputes …

The end of cod  —  A COMPLETE ban on cod fishing is the only way to prevent the species from dying out in the North Sea, scientists said last night.  —  The much-trumpeted European rescue plan for cod is failing, the official committee of European fisheries experts will tell governments on Friday.

Iraq Removes Leaders of Special Police  —  The Iraqi government removed the country's two most senior police commanders from their posts on Tuesday, in the first broad move against the top leadership of Iraq's unruly special police forces.  —  The two generals had led Iraq's special police commandos …

Which Way to Win?  —  As we head toward Election Day 2006, political analysts are focusing on a few dozen tossup races that will determine whether the Democrats take the House and Senate.  But there's a larger, overarching battle this year between two visions of America …

Hoyer Remark 'Racist,' GOP's Steele Charges  —  Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele accused a leading Democratic congressman yesterday of racial insensitivity for saying the Republican candidate has "slavishly" followed the GOP.  —  Steele, an African American running for the U.S. Senate …

Video: Tony Blair calls the veil a "mark of separation"  —  Thanks much to kasper kasper, our man in the UK, for clipping this.  The news services are already buzzing about it.  —  Blair, like the public, is siding with Jack Straw, but I don't know what he hopes or expects to happen here.

And the Winner Is ... Me  —  Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy.  The latest news from the state's governor's race is that the Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state …

Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman  —  Former Representative Randy Cunningham pressured and intimidated staff members of the House Intelligence Committee to help steer more than $70 million in classified federal business to favored military contractors, according to a Congressional investigation made public on Tuesday.

Iraq war cost years of progress in Afghanistan - UK brigadier  —  Commander echoes criticism of Blair's foreign policy by head of army  —  The invasion of Iraq prevented British forces from helping to secure Afghanistan much sooner and has left a dangerous vacuum in the country for four years …

9 U.S. troops killed in Iraq bombings  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military reported Wednesday that nine American troops had been killed in bombings and combat, raising to 67 the number of U.S. troops killed in October.  —  A roadside bomb killed a provincial police intelligence chief in southern Iraq early Wednesday, police said.