TOXIC  —  For the last week it's seemed that Sens. Clinton and Obama were adhering to their tacit truce, continuing the primary campaign but avoiding the harsh exchanges that make later party unity a dimmer and dimmer prospect.  Clinton particularly had deescalated her rhetoric.

McCain officially rejects Hagee endorsement  —  From CNN Correspondent Brian Todd, CNN's Dugald McConnell, CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand  —  (CNN) — In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain …

McCain To Obama: Don't Demagogue The GI Bill  —  I don't usually print entire press statements from campaigns, but they're usually not this acidic.  The casus belli is today's vote on Sen. Jim Webb's GI bill; McCain opposes it because he worries about military retention and/but has offered …

I'd like wife to take my seat: Kennedy  —  Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki.  —  Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long …

Powerful Iraqi cleric flirting with Shiite militant message  —  BAGHDAD - Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.

Ellen DeGeneres weds: McCain walks me?  —  Ellen DeGeneres, who hosts a popular daytime television talk show and has announced on-air that she will marry her girlfriend, broached the question of gay marriage today with Republican John McCain, the party's presumptive presidential nominee.

Petraeus: Diplomacy, Not Force, With Iran  —  Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, President Bush's nominee to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, supports continued U.S. engagement with international and regional partners to find the right mix of diplomatic, economic and military leverage …

Kennedy Talked, Khrushchev Triumphed  —  IN his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy expressed in two eloquent sentences, often invoked by Barack Obama, a policy that turned out to be one of his presidency's — indeed one of the cold war's — most consequential: “Let us never negotiate out of fear.

Exposed  —  Back in 2006, when I was 24, my life was cozy and safe.  I had just been promoted to associate editor at the publishing house where I'd been working since I graduated from college, and I was living with my boyfriend, Henry, and two cats in a grubby but spacious two-bedroom apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Viral e-mails attack Obama's life story  —  The main obstacle standing between Barack Obama and the White House was distilled into five words by a local television correspondent in South Charleston, W.Va., earlier this month.  —  Prefacing a question about the challenges of winning over white …

Conservatives And The Wrong Problems  —  Ezra Klein: … I think this gets things the wrong way round.  In fact, the argumnent is framed in such a way as to violate conservatism's core insight - and that was also the case with Packer's article (and a lot of what my friends, David Brooks, Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat said in it).

New Poll Finds Big Shift Toward Obama  —  Californians give Obama a significant edge over Clinton and McCain  —  SAN FRANCISCO—A new poll released today in California finds political momentum shifting dramatically toward Barack Obama—and away from both Hillary Clinton and John McCain—in the nation's most populous state.

Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts  —  Confused about oil prices?  So are the experts.  —  Executives from the giant oil companies say it's partly the fault of “speculators” or financial players.  Key financial players say it's really a question of limited supply and expanding global demand.

As Obama Heads to Florida, Many of Its Jews Have Doubts  —  BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — At the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club on Sunday, the fountains were burbling, the man-made lakes were shining, and Shirley Weitz and Ruth Grossman were debating why Jews in this gated neighborhood …

Where right sees bogeyman, GOP sens. see go-to guy  —  Despite his reputation outside Washington as a liberal ideologue, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is revered by his adversaries on Capitol Hill for being the chamber's greatest dealmaker and Republicans sensed his absence as much as Democrats did Wednesday.