The Mask Slips  —  I haven't read much Karl Marx since the early 1980s, when I taught political philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.  Still, it didn't take me long this weekend to find my copy of “The Marx-Engels Reader,” edited by Robert C. Tucker — a book that was assigned …

Democrats Wrangle Over Words and Beliefs  —  GRANTHAM, Pa. — A candidate forum devoted to issues of faith and justice became another flash point for Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to spar in their intensifying nominating fight, with the candidates exchanging frosty glances Sunday night …

Obama, Bitterness, Meet the Press, and the Old Politics  —  I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 61 years ago.  My father sold $1.98 cotton blouses to blue-collar women and women whose husbands worked in factories.  Years later, I was secretary of labor of the United States …

Iraqis aren't stupid — and they're watching us  —  Last month, Vets for Freedom visited the Twin Cities to talk about their experience in Iraq — and got rewarded by being booted from a local high school.  Michael Honeycutt and I, along with hundreds of people from our community …

Is John McCain Bob Dole?  —  Or is he Dwight Eisenhower?  (Actually, that may depend on whether Barack Obama is Mike Dukakis or John Kennedy.)  A handicapping.  —  By the time John McCain trundles into the ballroom of the Fairmont hotel in Dallas, he has already had what for most men his age would have been a very full day.

BILL REFERS TO ‘BITTER’ REMARK  —  From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli  —  BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — After tiptoeing around the matter in North Carolina yesterday, Bill Clinton weighed in on Obama's “bitter” remark before a small-town audience in Central Pennsylvania today.

Housing Woes in U.S. Spread Around Globe  —  DUBLIN — The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon, with real estate prices swooning from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports and even parts of northern India.

Israel snubs Carter and declines security help  —  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's secret service has declined to assist U.S. agents guarding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit in which Israeli leaders have shunned him, U.S. sources close to the matter said on Monday.

The Indiana primary's fretful five  —  In the May 6 Indiana primary, the next critical contest after Pennsylvania votes on April 22, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can point to impressive rosters of endorsements by prominent state and local politicians.

Obama Goes on Offense After Fumble  —  GRANTHAM, Pa. — Sen. Barack Obama sharply mocked his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sunday night as he found himself defending his candidacy to white working-class voters for the second time in a month.  —  Sen. Obama accused Sen. Clinton …

The Matter With What?  —  The politics of condescension.  —  ON THE AFTERNOON OF May 25, 1984, the rising It Candidate of the current electoral season committed an unwitting faux pas at a fundraising event for le tout California that set his high-flying campaign on its heels.

Foreign Legions  —  At the beginning of this web video, Michael O'Hanlon explains that the current pace of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't sustainable.  He also notes that the situation in Iraq is “nowhere near an acceptable or sustainable outcome.”

Despite Tough Times, Ultrarich Keep Spending  —  Who said anything about a recession?  Sometime between the government bailout of Bear Stearns and the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that America lost 80,000 jobs in March, Lee Tachman spent roughly $50,000 last month on a four-day jaunt to Miami for himself and three close friends.

Senator: Probe of rising gasoline prices needed  —  WASHINGTON — With the price of crude oil hovering near $110 a barrel and gasoline prices at record levels, a Washington senator says federal regulators need to stop delaying and start investigating whether petroleum markets are being manipulated.

Iraq to seek parliamentary approval for long-term U.S. pact  —  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will seek parliamentary approval for a strategic agreement being negotiated with the United States even though it expects heated debate over the deal, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said.

MR. AND MS. SPOKEN … When the footage surfaced showing that Hillary Clinton, contrary to what she had been claiming in campaign speeches, had not been obliged to duck and run from sniper fire during her visit to Bosnia in 1996 but, rather, had listened smilingly as a little girl recited a poem about peace …