Pardon Me?  —  Hillary Clinton Takes Cash From Recipients of Husband's Controversial Pardons  —  Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks about her health care policy on Sept. 18, 2007.  An examination of Clinton's fundraising donors reveals three donors …

Iraqis Wasting An Opportunity, U.S. Officers Say  —  With Attacks Ebbing, Government Is Urged to Reach Out to Opponents  —  CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — Senior military commanders here now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq …

Gallup documents public disgust with Congress; Big Government faces paralysis by promise  —  Gallup's latest survey turns up extensive evidence of deep public disgust with the performance of the Democratic majority in Congress.  On six major issues, Gallup found solid majorities either disappointed …

U.S. Is Looking Past Musharraf in Case He Falls  —  Almost two weeks into Pakistan's political crisis, Bush administration officials are losing faith that the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can survive in office and have begun discussing what might come next, according to senior administration officials.

Jefferson case could change bribery laws  —  Congress moves to redefine 'official acts'  —  WASHINGTON — Bribery has been around as long as politics, but recent provocative legal challenges have prompted Congress to look at rewriting the laws to spell out more clearly what it means to be on the take.

Romney, Searching and Earnest, Set His Path in '60s  —  In December 1968, Mitt Romney returned home from a Mormon mission in France to find a changed country.  —  While assassinations, race riots, sit-ins and marches transformed his generation, Mr. Romney spent more than two years cloistered …

Saudi punishes gang rape victim with 200 lashes  —  A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.  —  The 19-year-old woman — whose six armed attackers …

O'Malley draws line with Democrats  —  Backing abortion rights candidates 'borders on scandal'  —  BALTIMORE - Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, saying the Democratic Party has been persistently hostile to opponents of abortion rights, asserted yesterday that the support of many Catholics …

Rep. Dennis Hastert to announce resignation Thursday  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is expected to announce Thursday on the House floor that he is retiring from Congress, a senior aide to the congressman told CNN Wednesday.  —  The aide said that Hastert …

1968: The Long Goodbye  —  Can America rise above the divisions of the 1960s?  Not yet.  —  It's too bad Barack Obama wasn't able to meet Abbie Hoffman.  I don't know if Hillary Clinton ever met Hoffman, who died in 1989, but like any young person up and running in America in the late 1960s, she knows him well.