Romney Leads in Ill Will Among G.O.P. Candidates  —  TAMPA, Fla. — At the end of the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire this month, when the Democrats joined the candidates on stage, Mitt Romney found himself momentarily alone as his counterparts mingled, looking around a bit stiffly for a companion.

Some in Party Bristle At Clintons' Attacks  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign aired a new radio ad here Wednesday that repeated a discredited charge against Sen. Barack Obama, in what some Democrats said is part of an increasing pattern of hardball politics by her and former president Bill Clinton.

Jay Rockefeller's unintentionally revealing comments  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  As the Senate takes up “debate” today over granting the President new warrantless eavesdropping powers and granting immunity to lawbreaking telecoms, the individual who joined forces with Dick Cheney …

Business as Usual GOP  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — When House Republicans convene behind closed doors today (Thursday) at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., they have a chance to make two bold moves to restore their reputation for fiscal responsibility.

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Obama's SC lead slipping but still wide  —  Edwards makes gains amid shifting voter preferences  —  Utica, NY - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's lead over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has shrunk by four points overall and by nine points among black voters …

Source at Fund-Raiser: Edwards Calls McCain ‘Crazy’ and Says Hillary Thinks There's More on Rezko  —  Before John Edwards let David Letterman mess up his hair on the Late Show last night, the former Senator was at a private fund-raiser in midtown Manhattan, also attended by Kevin Bacon …

Obama said oops on 6 state Senate votes  —  He pushed the wrong button, he asserted at the time.  Two of the admitted flubs were on hotly contested issues.  —  Barack Obama angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago's West Side.

Bill Gates Issues Call For Kinder Capitalism  —  Famously Competitive, Billionaire Now Urges Business to Aid the Poor  —  Free enterprise has been good to Bill Gates.  But today, the Microsoft Corp. chairman will call for a revision of capitalism.  —  In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos …

THE FOOLISHNESS OF ECONOMIC ‘STIMULUS’  —  Do we really want to risk prolonging a bad economy? … A consensus is building that America's economy is sliding - perhaps plummeting - into recession.  In December the unemployment rate jumped to 5.0 percent, up 3/10ths of 1 percent from its November level.