McCain launches direct mail attack  —  CONCORD - Republican hopeful Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, launched an attack - a direct mail campaign labeling New Hampshire primary front-runner Mitt Romney as a serial flip-flopper that "voters can't trust."  —  The mailing is believed to be the first …

Dems consider ousting Byrd as appropriations chair  —  A group of Senate Democrats has begun quietly exploring ways to replace the venerable Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, believing he's no longer physically up to the job …

The Obama-Clinton Issue  —  Hillary Clinton has been a much better senator than Barack Obama.  She has been a serious, substantive lawmaker who has worked effectively across party lines.  Obama has some accomplishments under his belt, but many of his colleagues believe that he has not bothered …

Stay Classy, Bob Kerrey  —  It's hard to express how odious I find Bob Kerrey.  His behavior as a Senator was entirely discreditable, and it's hard to see that he's done anything good in his life in non-Senator roles.  Keeping it up, he's now following up on his "Barack Hussein Obama" …

Border Patrol fights back  —  After hundreds of attacks in a year, agency responds with tear gas  —  SAN DIEGO - The Border Patrol says its agents were attacked nearly 1,000 times during a one-year period along the Mexican border, typically by assailants hurling rocks, bottles and bricks.

Does Our Looks-Obsessed Culture Want to Stare at an Aging Woman?  —  BEGIN TRANSCRIPT  —  RUSH: Now, this theory of mine based on this Drudge picture of Mrs. Clinton, with the headline: "The Toll of a Campaign."  Now, it could well be that that's a sympathy photo, too, to make people feel sorry for how tough the campaign trail is.

FBI, CIA Debate Significance of Terror Suspect  —  Agencies Also Disagree On Interrogation Methods  —  Al-Qaeda captive Abu Zubaida, whose interrogation videotapes were destroyed by the CIA, remains the subject of a dispute between FBI and CIA officials over his significance as a terrorism suspect …

Jet From Supermassive Black Hole Seen Blasting Neighboring Galaxy  —  A jet of highly charged radiation from a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy is blasting another galaxy nearby — an act of galactic violence that astronomers said yesterday they have never seen before.

How High is Up?  The Defense Budget gets even crazier  —  For those of you concerned about the state of US security—levees that don't collapse, for example, or bridges that don't fall into the Mississippi river, sit down before you see these numbers.  —  Last week, both houses …

The Scribe Who Gets The Candidates' Vote  —  DES MOINES — Back in May, when speculation burbled up that Hillary Clinton might bypass Iowa, David Yepsen dashed off a blog entry comparing the New York senator's campaign to previous clunkers, including the early days of Reagan 1980, Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004.