Big Democratic wins likely on Election Day  —  NBC/WSJ poll: Public's opinion of GOP hits record low  —  WASHINGTON -  —  Mark Murray  —  Just 20 days until Election Day, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds approval of the GOP-held Congress is at its lowest mark in 14 years …

Hot From the Debate: "Time to Go, Joe!"  —  Hot gossip from today's debate: Alan Schlesinger pwned Loser Joe again.  Hard.  Drew blood.  Stephen Colbert, please have him on your show.  I asked you once nicely.  Don't make me get nasty!  —  Joe kept going over his alotted time …

Kolbe Matter Is Referred to House Ethics Panel  —  Allegations Involve Contact With Male Former Pages  —  The House committee looking into allegations that former congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) had improper contact with male former pages has been asked by lawmakers overseeing the page program …

Website Warns Of Attacks At NFL Games This Weekend  —  Government Skeptical Of Threat Against NFL Stadiums  —  (CBS 13 / AP) WASHINGTON A website is claiming that seven NFL football stadiums will be hit with radiological dirty bombs this weekend, but the government on Wednesday expressed doubts about the threat.

VIDEO: Conrad Burns Says Bush Has A Plan For Iraq, But 'He's Not Going To Tell Everyone In The World'  —  Yesterday in a debate against Senate Democratic candidate Jon Tester, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) took offense at the suggestion that President Bush has no real plan for victory in Iraq.

FBI Yet to Find Evidence of Foley-Page Sexual Contact  —  Brian Ross Reports:  —  After interviewing some 40 former congressional pages, FBI agents have yet to turn up any evidence of direct sexual contact between underage pages and former Congressman Mark Foley.

Human species 'may split in two'  —  Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.  —  Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

IT'S THE HOMOS, STUPID  —  An Open Letter to the Conservative-American Community  —  by Dr. Howard Dean  —  Chairman, Democratic National Committee  —  Dear Valued Potential Customer:  —  As the leader of one of America's premier political parties, I know firsthand the importance …

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 …

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 …

The Anti-Paranoid Style in American Politics  —  I adore my dog-eared Hofstadter books as much as the next self-important pundit, but I'm done worrying about the paranoid style in American politics.  More pernicious, I'm starting to think, is anti-paranoid punditry in American politics …

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.

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 …

McCain: "I'd just commit suicide" if Democrats take control of Senate  —  Arizona Senator and probable 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain jokingly says he would "commit suicide" if Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate in this November's election.

The blue wave of the future is clear  —  But which specific seats will fall and how far inland will the wave go?  —  WASHINGTON -  —  Charlie Cook  —  Election Day is three weeks from now, and unless something happens fast, this will be one of those once- or twice-in-a-generation elections …

Will You Fight With Them?  —  Anyone who comes to Huffington Post has seen that the bloggers here have been the first to stand up and defend veterans from Admiral Sestak to Tammy Duckworth when they've been slandered.  It should be a source of pride and testimony to how the blogosphere …

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.

The Worst Congress Ever  —  How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts — in five easy steps  —  >> See our picks for the 10 Worst Congressmen and read what people are saying in our politics blog.  —  There is very little that sums up the record of the U.S. Congress …

Bush Accepts Iraq-Vietnam Comparison  —  George Stephanopoulos Interviews President Bush on Iraq, the Midterms and His Legacy  —  President Bush said in a one-on-one interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that a newspaper column comparing the current fighting in Iraq to the 1968 Tet offensive …

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 …

Why has CNN devoted 50 times as much coverage to Harry Reid's land deal as Dennis Hastert's?  —  From October 12-17, CNN aired 3,361 words about allegations that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV) improperly reported a land deal in which he made $700,000.

Townhall's First HamNation: Bar Napkin Politics  —  I am such an unbelievable dork in about 19,000 different ways.  This is only one of them.  —  All right, people asked me about it, so I went out and got me a video blog.  It's all the rage, right?  It is very, very silly, and I hope you'll take it in that spirit.

U.S. Military Announces Deaths of 10 Soldiers  —  Ten American soldiers were killed on Tuesday, the military announced today, bringing October's death toll for United States forces to 69.  —  Four of the soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad, and three others died in fighting …

Governor's race turns ugly  —  Blackwell campaign links Strickland to predators, hints he's gay  —  COLUMBUS - With Republican Ken Blackwell trailing by double digits in almost every poll, Blackwell's campaign Tuesday tried to link his Democratic opponent to child sex predators …