Too Bad  —  President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.  —  What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration.  They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting …

RNC fires phone solicitors  —  The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors' rebellion over President Bush's immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, Ralph Z. Hallow will report Friday in The Washington Times.  —  Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off …

Senate Panel Questions C.I.A. Detentions  —  The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday questioned the continuing value of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects, suggesting that international condemnation and the obstacles it has created …

Sunni Insurgents Battle in Baghdad  —  Residents of Western Neighborhood Join Groups' Fight Against Al-Qaeda in Iraq  —  Sunni residents of a west Baghdad neighborhood used assault rifles and a roadside bomb to battle the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq this week …

Bush's 'new climate strategy'  —  Today's headlines are full of the news that President Bush is &;  quot;unveiling a new climate strategy.&;  quot; If your immediate reaction is cynicism, well ... looks like you learned something over the last seven years.  Let's look a little closer.

Exclusive: Diane Sawyer Speaks to TB Patient  —  Sawyer Interviews Andrew Speaker, TB Patient in Isolation  —  Andrew Speaker has asked for forgiveness from the airline passengers he exposed to a rare strain of tuberculosis, and told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview …

Can Any Immigration Bill Be Saved?  —  Another day of interviews and calls, and my overwhelming sense is that the immigration bill as drafted is as dead as dead can be.  The president's speech on Tuesday had the effect of throwing gas on the flames, and the anger has multiplied, and it isn't nativist in the least.

Brokeback Hill  —  Mike Rogers has outed so many closeted gay politicos, he's starting to make Capitol Hill look like Brokeback Mountain.  —  WASHINGTON - Members of the 110th Congress consider yourselves warned: Mike Rogers is making his list.  —  Rogers is a muckraking gay blogger …

Get in Line, Einstein  —  Beware legislative behemoths.  Beware "comprehensive immigration reform."  Any bill that is 380 pages long is bound to have nooks and crannies reflecting private deals, quiet paybacks and ad hoc arrangements that you often don't learn about until it's too late.

Raging Caging  —  WHAT THE HECK IS VOTE CAGING, AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?  —  Last week, in her testimony before the House judiciary committee, Monica Goodling referred several times to "vote caging" possibly done by Arkansas' soon to be ex-interim, never-confirmed U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin.

Breaking the big stick: removing the threat of war to achieve peace?  —  Sometimes it's hard to believe Henry Kissinger is still alive.  He seemed so old already back when he was Secretary of State in the 70s to both Nixon and his successor Ford.  —  Odd to recall Kissinger received …

Fired McCain Religion-Outreach Aides Say They Were Ignored  —  Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes …

NINE DAYS AFTER PHOTOS RELEASED, NETS AND TOP PAPERS SILENT OVER AL-QAEDA TORTURE HOUSE  —  Yet Top Media Ran More Than 6,000 Stories on Abu Ghraib Abuses  —  "The elite media's liberal bias is abundantly clear in this case.  U.S. soldiers raided several al-Qaeda safe houses in Iraq …