McCain fields audience question on whether he called wife an expletive  —  A widespread Internet rumor about Sen. John McCain popped up in an audience question today during the Republican presidential candidate's Iowa forum.  —  A member of the audience at the Polk County Convention Complex asked …

Obama's Image Slips, His Lead Over Clinton Disappears  —  Public Support for Free Trade Declines  —  Summary of Findings  —  Democratic voters are not as positive about Barack Obama as they were a month ago.  Somewhat smaller percentages of Democrats describe Obama in favorable terms …

D.C. Madam: Suicide Before Prison  —  Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. Madam,” once implied that suicide was cowardice but, in the end, she seems to have chosen that same path herself.  “She wasn't going to jail, she told me that very clearly.  She told me she would commit suicide …

Washington Post Editorial Board Attempts To Erase Its Pre-War Rush To Invasion  —  Today marks the fifth anniversary of President Bush's “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.  To commemorate the occasion, the Washington Post has trotted out its editorial from May 4, 2003.

Poll: Bush most unpopular in modern history  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.  —  A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove …

Bloomberg: Clinton-McCain Gas Tax Break Is the ‘Dumbest Thing’  —  Michael Bloomberg said giving drivers a break from the gas tax is “the dumbest thing I've heard in an awful long time.”  —  I asked him about it right after he delivered his executive budget at City Hall just now.

Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama  —  Former journalist Sidney Blumenthal has been widely credited with coining the term “vast right-wing conspiracy” used by Hillary Clinton in 1998 to describe the alliance of conservative media, think tanks, and political operatives …

EXCLUSIVE: MYSTERIOUS CRIMES PLAGUE US ATTORNEY TARGETS  —  The Permanent Republican Majority Part VI  —  MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - In two states where US attorneys are already under fire for serious allegations of political prosecutions, seven people associated with three federal cases …

What The Old Farts Don't Get  —  A reader writes:

Barbara Walters reveals past affair with US senator  —  NEW YORK (AP) - entertainmentminute After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as “exciting” and “brilliant.”

On the brink  —  Some of America's most venerable newspapers face extinction, unless they evolve  —  THE New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry's deep malaise.  The Grey Lady's circulation is tumbling …

THE INCOHERENCE OF NANCY PELOSI  —  The Democrats' domestic policies are an incoherent jumble: they want lower gasoline and heating oil prices, but they block the very things, oil drilling and the construction of new refineries, that would actually reduce them.

Minister: Muslim decree to condemn bombings  —  WASHINGTON — High-ranking Shiite and Sunni leaders are preparing to issue a religious decree condemning suicide bombings and other forms of violence, according to an Anglican minister who has led efforts to bring the two Muslim sects closer.

Brown admits election mauling was a ‘bad night’  —  Gordon Brown today acknowledged a “bad night” for Labour after the party's national share of the vote plummeted to 24% - its lowest level since the 1960s - in his first electoral test as prime minister.  —  With about two thirds …

The Lincoln-Douglass Debate: Live On Fox!  —  Two weeks ago, publius tried to imagine what the Lincoln-Douglas Debates would have looked like had they been moderated by ABC.  I thought it was one of the funnier things I'd ever read.  It turns out, however, that in a startling breach with precedent …