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)  —  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 to get this ball rolling …

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 …

House conservatives seek earmark vote  —  House conservatives believe they can attract 50 Republican signatures to force a conference vote that would call for an earmark moratorium.  —  Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he and several other anti-earmark lawmakers agreed …

Franken didn't exactly leave 'em laughing in Northfield  —  Franken apparently had more fun than senior history major Peter Fritz.  —  Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Al Franken didn't exactly leave 'em laughing in Northfield.  —  Earlier this month Franken was at Carleton College …

Slick Willie Rides Again  —  The Clintons play dirty when they feel threatened.  But we knew that, didn't we?  —  The recent roughing-up of Barack Obama was in the trademark style of the Clinton years in the White House.  High-minded and self-important on the surface, smarmily duplicitous underneath …

Venezuelan troops seize food  —  Venezuela's top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez's campaign to stem shortages.  —  The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened …

Anti-Bush campaign planned  —  WASHINGTON - A liberal advocacy group plans to spend $8.5 million in a drive to make sure President Bush's public approval doesn't improve as his days in the White House come to an end.  —  Americans United for Change plans to undertake a yearlong campaign …

STUDY ON BUSH'S IRAQ DECEPTION AND LIES: FULL OF DECEPTION AND LIES  —  The headline-grabbing report released by two non-profits, Iraq: The War Card—Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War charged that the Bush administration issued “hundreds of false statements” on Iraq.

‘Paradigm Change’ Is Seen as Arabs Flee Gaza  —  UNITED NATIONS — Washington, Cairo, and Jerusalem are expressing “concern” regarding the flow of hundreds of thousands of Gazans into Egypt, testing border agreements that have existed since Israel completely withdrew from the heavily populated strip in 2005.

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.