Pregnant Pause  —  It was, in this reporter's opinion, the most interesting moment in today's Clinton campaign phoner with reporters.  Responding to the release of HRC's new TX TV ad, which asserts in no subtle terms that only she has the experience to deal with a major world crisis, and …

“Why are the letters ‘NIG’ on the child's pajamas?”  —  Asks a commenter — “Tom” — on my post about the new Hillary Clinton commercial, the one that shows several children sleeping and then Clinton taking a national security phone call in the middle of the night.

On the Press Bus, Some Questions Over Favoritism  —  On the bus ferrying a group of reporters to an appearance by Senator Barack Obama at Ohio State University on Wednesday, Lee Cowan, the NBC reporter assigned to the campaign, was asked the media question of the week: Had journalists …

Potential Deal Could Assure Retroactive Immunity  —  This is from last night's Congress Daily PM dispatch by Chris Strohm and Christian Bourge: … This is not a good sign.  If Title I and Title II of the Senate-passed Intelligence Committee bill are voted on separately in the House …

Of Ohio, Texas and Onion Dip  —  It's all up to Texas and Ohio!  —  Everything — the Democratic nomination, the fate of the presidency, the solution to global warming, the next American Idol — hinges on Tuesday's primaries.  Texas and Ohio rule!  —  O.K., and Rhode Island and Vermont.

William F. Buckley Jr., 1925-2008  —  What he fought for.  —  Here's one measure of the man and the scope of his achievement: No serious historian will be able to write about 20th-century America without discussing Bill Buckley.  Before Buckley, there was no conservative movement.

Bush Aide Resigns After Admitting Plagiarism  —  WASHINGTON — A longtime aide to President Bush who wrote occasional guest columns for his hometown newspaper resigned on Friday evening after admitting that he had repeatedly plagiarized from other writers.  —  The White House called his actions unacceptable.

Mukasey: No contempt inquiry for Bush aides  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey Friday said he will not ask a federal grand jury to investigate whether two top Bush administration officials should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

McCain seeks distance from pastor  —  PHOENIX - John McCain is refusing to renounce the endorsement of a prominent Texas televangelist who Democrats say peddles anti-Catholic and other intolerant speech.  —  Instead, the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement Friday afternoon saying …

Dutch public broadcaster gives up idea of “violent Bible” film to counter Wilders' violent Qur'an film  —  This is rich: Dutch public broadcaster KRO was planning a film on the violent passages of the Bible, which get trotted out on a routine basis, as if they prove something about the violent passages …

Five Myths, Direct From Pyongyang  —  What Not to Think About the Philharmonic Concert  —  Now that the New York Philharmonic has paid its long-awaited visit to North Korea, the floodtide of justificatory gush has begun.  Lorin Maazel, the orchestra's music director, intoned that …

EXCLUSIVE-The Three Trillion Dollar War: Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Economist Linda Bilmes on the True Cost of the US Invasion and Occupation of Iraq  —  One week after President Bush rejected charges the war in Iraq has hurt the US economy, a new book puts a conservative estimate of the war's cost at $3 trillion so far.

Air tanker deal provokes US row  —  Boeing's loss of a $40bn contract to build a new in-flight refuelling aircraft for the US military has drawn angry protests in Congress.  —  Lawmakers from Washington state and Kansas, which have big Boeing plants, voiced “outrage” that it had gone to a consortium including Europe's Airbus.