Evangelical Leader Quits Amid Allegations of Gay Sex and Drug Use  —  The news has been abuzz with controversy surrounding the allegations that Ted Haggard had a three-year homosexual relationship with a male prostitute that included drug use.  Haggard is pastor of a 14,000-member church in Colorado …

G.O.P. Glum as It Struggles to Hold Congress  —  The battle for Congress rolled into a climactic final weekend with Republican Party leaders saying the best outcome they could foresee was losing 12 seats in the House.  But they were increasingly steeling themselves to the loss of at least 15 …

THE NEOCON REHABILITATION PROJECT....David Rose's Vanity Fair interview with the neocon elite is getting plenty of well-deserved attention this weekend.  For one thing, it's fun to play the "which quote is the most damning?" game.  Is it Michael Ledeen (the most powerful people in the White House are …

Yikes!  —  Kristol, Barnes, Labash, Continetti, Matus, Last, and the rest give their midterm election predictions.  —  Senate: 48 (R), 52 (D)  —  House: 192 (R), 243 (D)  —  Dark Horse: Anti-immigration stance backfires with Republican meltdown in Arizona and Colorado.  —  Fred Barnes

Where Plan A left Ahmad Chalabi  —  1. London, August 2006  —  Many miles away in a more dangerous place the dream is ending badly.  The bodies pile up.  Good people stream to the borders.  Leaders pile money onto planes.  The center is giving way.  —  The apartment on South Street …

Interrogation is "optional," Guantanamo chief says  —  GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE (Reuters) - Guantanamo prisoners are no longer forced to undergo interrogation, including 14 "high-value" prisoners who include the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks, the detention camp commander said.

Time for Rumsfeld to go  —  "So long as our government requires the backing of an aroused and informed public opinion ... it is necessary to tell the hard bruising truth."  —  That statement was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Marguerite Higgins more than a half-century ago during the Korean War.

The Patrician and the Grunts  —  What we can learn from John Kerry's latest flub.  —  Regrettable though it might be for the United States military to become an untouchable "third rail" in American politics, there can be little sympathy for someone who keeps on brushing against that rail just to see what will happen.

Looking for a Lifeboat  —  A new NEWSWEEK poll shows that the GOP has lost more ground.  Will rallying the base stem a Democratic tide?  —  Jason Reed / Reuters  —  President Bush speaks to supporters in Iowa on Friday  —  As President George W. Bush jets across Red State America this weekend …

Nervous excitement builds for Democrats  —  IF YOU'RE not a big admirer of George W. Bush, you are going into Election Day feeling more than a little schizophrenic.  Red Sox fans know the queasy feeling, around mid-August.  —  On the one hand, it sure looks like This Could Be The Year.

Harris' Prayer Call Stirs Concerns  —  TAMPA - U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, who has made past comments that raised questions about her religious sensitivity, prayed in a telephone prayer service recently that God would "bring the hearts and minds of our Jewish brothers and sisters into alignment."

"WE SUPPORT THOSE NOT AS SMART AS JOHN KERRY" - AT THE ARMY-AIR FORCE GAME  —  Former Paratrooper and Army Officer, Matthew Currier Burden started Blackfive upon learning of the valorous sacrifice of a friend that was not reported by the journalist whose life he saved.  —  Email: blackfive AT gmail DOT com

"Take these lies and make them true somehow"  —  If this video doesn't get you fired up and ready to vote next Tuesday, November 7, I don't know what will.  It recounts the rise and fall of George W. Bush and the disasters he's caused—and ignored—during his almost six years in the White House.

For U.S. and Top Iraqi, Animosity Is Mutual  —  The cycle of discord and strained reconciliation that has broken into the open between Iraq's Shiite-led government and the Bush administration has revealed how wide the gulf has become between what the United States expects from the Baghdad government …

Priest burns himself to death over Islam  —  A retired priest committed suicide by setting himself on fire in a German monastery in protest at the spread of Islam and the Protestant Church's inability to contain it.  —  Roland Weisselberg, 73, poured a can of petrol over his head and set light …

Poll: Burns, Tester in dead heat  —  HELENA - After months of campaigning and millions of dollars of advertising, it all comes down to this: Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Democratic challenger Jon Tester are running dead even, a new Gazette State Poll shows.