Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation  —  Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists' influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power.

An American in Paris  —  Buchwald launched his career as a columnist in 1949 in Paris, where he wrote about the light side of Paris nightlife in the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune.  He returned to the United States around 1962 and moved to Washington, where he began writing columns filled …

McCain no longer rocks in Granite State  —  As Mitt, Hillary, Barack and a dozen others jump into the presidential stampede, something interesting is happening in New Hampshire.  —  For seven years, conventional wisdom has said that the state's pivotal independent voters would line …

The Grave and Epic War — Spending time with Alberto Gonzales, Orrin Hatch and Russ Feingold  —  The inanities one observes when watching Congress in action exceed those which one finds anywhere else on the planet outside of the right-wing blogosphere.  At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing …

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY TO ALLOW REBUTTAL AFTER CARTER SPEECH  —  WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter won't go unchallenged after his appearance next week at Brandeis University, where he is lecturing on his latest book about what he terms the Palestinian apartheid by Israel.

After Iraq Trip, Clinton Proposes War Limits  —  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday called President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq "a losing strategy" and proposed placing new limits on the White House's conduct of the war.  —  Her comments came after a weekend trip to Iraq …

Speaking Chic to Power  —  LAUDING someone for their style on Capitol Hill is a lot like celebrating the best surfer on Florida's Gulf Coast — it's all relative, and some would argue irrelevant.  Washington has never embraced fashion (nor, for that matter, has the fashion world embraced Washington), and for understandable reasons.

Give us guns - and troops can go, says Iraqi leader  —  Listen to the interview with Nouri al-Maliki  —  America's refusal to give Baghdad's security forces sufficient guns and equipment has cost a great number of lives, the Iraqi Prime Minister said yesterday.

FACT CHECK: Bush Has Cut Funding For Cancer Research  —  Health officials reported yesterday that cancer deaths in the United States dropped for the second year in a row.  President Bush teed off this news with a speech at the National Institutes of Health, touting the increased funding for cancer research since 2001:

Report: Washington rejected Iranian concessions in 2003  —  LONDON (AP) — An Iranian offer to help the United States stabilize Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas was turned down by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003, a former top State Department official told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Bush Faces Deepening War Opposition, Demand for Congress to Act  —  Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush failed to rally public support with his nationally televised speech announcing plans to send more soldiers to Iraq, as most Americans say they want Congress to find a way to stop the troop increase.

Democrats Seek to Resurrect Dead Fairness Doctrine  —  Now that Democrats are back in control of Congress, for however brief a time, they're ready to use government intrusion to ride the coattails of conservative talk radio.  —  Whenever things aren't going well for liberals …

Time Inc. Lays Off More Than 250  —  Time Inc. began laying off more than 250 people today at its top magazines, including its most profitable title, People, which said it was shutting down its Washington, Miami and Chicago bureaus entirely.  —  Employees in those bureaus said they were …

Clinton Remains the Front-runner Among Democrats  —  McCain and Giuliani are front-runners among Republicans  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Although the first primaries and caucuses of the 2008 presidential race are still one year away, there has already been a great deal of focus on the election.

FOX NEWS POLL: MOST THINK TROOP SURGE IS BUSH'S LAST CHANCE IN IRAQ  —  NEW YORK — A majority of Americans consider President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq his last chance for victory there, according to a new FOX News poll.  —  Overall, the president's plan receives only minority support …