Death Knell May Be Near for Public Election Funds  —  The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend.

Poll: Bush Approval Rating At New Low  —  On Eve Of State Of Union, President's Approval Rating Falls To 28%, A New Low  —  (CBS) President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night to a nation that's strongly opposed to his plan for increasing troops in Iraq …

Key Republican Senator Offers Bipartisan Call to Reject Bush Plan for More Troops in Iraq  —  Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, one of Congress's leading authorities on the military, presented a bipartisan proposal on Monday that soundly rejected President Bush's plan to send more American troops …

CNN debunks false report about Obama  —  JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) — Allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate, according to CNN reporting.  —  Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times …

Retreat Isn't an Option  —  Sen. Hillary Clinton declared this weekend, " I'm in to win."  Anyone who has watched her remarkable trajectory can have no doubt that she'll do whatever it takes to win the presidency.  I wish she felt the same way about the war.

1 dead, 10 hurt as opposition moves to topple Lebanon gov't  —  At least 11 men were wounded Tuesday in clashes during the first hours of a Lebanese general strike called by the Hezbollah-led opposition to try to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Western-backed government.

Baby Killing as a Civil Right  —  "As to abortion.  I can speak as to what is wrong with it because I had one.  If some asks now if I have children, I say none living.  If they dare ask what happened, I tell them I murdered my children.  I say children but I only had one abortion.

Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri Addresses U.S. President Bush's Baghdad Security Plan in Video Speech from as-Sahab, "The Correct Equation" - 1/2007  —  Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two, presents a speech titled: "The Correct Equation," in a 14:11 minute video produced by the group's multimedia arm, as-Sahab.

Bush Poll Ratings Before Speech Fall to Nixon's Level (Update2)  —  Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Nearly two-thirds in U.S. have given up on Iraq  —  NBC/WSJ poll: Bush 'really in the cellar of public opinion'  —  WASHINGTON - When President Bush delivers his next-to-last State of the Union address Tuesday night, he will confront this reality, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll …

Bush, at Low Point in Polls, Will Push Domestic Agenda  —  Carrying some of the worst public approval ratings of any president in a generation, President Bush is heading into his State of the Union address on Tuesday night seeking to revitalize his domestic agenda but facing stiff resistance …

Black Caucus: Whites Not Allowed  —  Freshman Rep. Stephen I. Cohen, D-Tenn., is not joining the Congressional Black Caucus after several current and former members made it clear that a white lawmaker was not welcome.  —  "I think they're real happy I'm not going to join," said Cohen …

Can I Be President?  —  "No person except a natural born citizen ... shall be eligible to the Office of President."  —  Forget Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Obama, and Clinton.  There is only one candidate that every American envisions in the White House: oneself.

New Coalition Aims to Keep Dems in Check  —  WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers who stray too far from the party line could find themselves facing primary opponents financed by unions, trial lawyers and political activists eager to put the new congressional majority to the test.

WEB SITE KICKS SAND IN FACES OF GIS IN IRAQ ASKING FOR MATS TO EASE HARDSHIP OF SLEEPING ON GROUND  —  An American GI assigned to one of the harshest posts in Iraq had a simple request last week for a Wisconsin mattress company: send some floor mats to help ease the hardship of sleeping on the cold, bug-infested ground.