Blagojevich arrested on federal charges  —  Updated at 9:17 a.m.: Blagojevich also was alleged to be using a favors list, made up largely of individuals and firms that have state contracts or received taxpayer benefits, from which to conduct a $2.5 million fundraising drive before year's end.

Cracks appear in Obama foreign policy team … WASHINGTON (AP) - The first sign of cracks in President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy team of rivals emerged on Monday as his choices for secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations visited the State Department.

Breitbart's big, red Hollywood  —  After playing supporting roles to big names in media and politics, Andrew Breitbart is poised to become the protagonist in his own story.  —  The publisher of the online news aggregator Breitbart.com helped launch and run two of today's most influential media …

Poll: 79% approve of way Obama is handling transition  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — With six weeks before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama is having one heck of a honeymoon, a new national poll suggests.  —  Nearly eight in 10 Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey …

For Bush's staff, upbeat talking points on his tenure  —  Administration officials get a memo from the White House suggesting what to say about the last eight years: President Bush upheld ‘the honor and the dignity of his office,’ for one.  —  Reporting from Washington …

Illinois Governor Halts Business With Bank of America  —  A A A  —  Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich said the state will suspend business with Bank of America Corp. until the lender restores credit to the shuttered Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago where workers are staging a sit-in.

AMAZING  —  Even setting aside the primordial level of corruption of trying to sell the senate seat of the President-elect of the United States, I never fail to be amazed at the brazenness and stupidity of some political crooks.  I mean, I think everyone involved in politics or interested …

Homeowners re-defaulting after getting aid  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recent data suggests that many borrowers who received help with mortgage modifications earlier this year tended to re-default on their payments, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Monday.

Boehner: Future of GOP is Cao  —  One week ago, most Republicans had never heard of Anh “Joseph” Cao.  Those who were aware he was challenging Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) thought he had almost no chance of winning.  Not a single Republican in the state's congressional delegation donated to his campaign.

Did Democrats peak too early?  —  Did the Democrats' exile end too soon?  —  That may be a question that nags at more than a few party activists once all the partying is done.  —  Democrats have clearly come a long way in rebuilding their party infrastructure since falling from power in the late 1990s.

EXCLUSIVE: Obama's Web presence loses its luster  —  Viewership for President-elect Barack Obama's weekly YouTube “fireside chats” has tanked, dropping more than 50 percent since his initial video three weeks ago.  —  “I've heard a lot of puffed-up rhetoric about how this is going to change …

The media's disingenuous failure to state the obvious.  —  The obvious is sometimes the most difficult thing to discern, and few things are more amusing than the efforts of our journals of record to keep “open” minds about the self-evident, and thus to create mysteries when the real task of reportage is to dispel them.