CAROLINE KENNEDY ENDS SENATE SEAT BID  —  By FREDRIC U. DICKER IN ALBANY and MAGGIE HABERMAN IN N.Y.  —  Caroline Kennedy has told Gov. David Paterson that she is withdrawing her name from consideration to replace outgoing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate, The Post has learned.

McCain Lends Hillary Clinton a Helping Hand  —  Patrick Yoest reports on Congress.  —  Sen. John McCain unexpectedly lent a hand to Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Senate floor today, calling for her quick confirmation as secretary of State without a lengthy roll-call vote.

Mitchell As Envoy Could Split Center … The expected appointment of a special envoy to breathe new life into Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could split the pro-Israel center while pleasing the Jewish left and outraging the right.  The schism could be particularly deep if …

A major Bush rule gets scrapped by Obama  —  (CNN) — It's the same Oval Office.  The same desk.  Even the same curtains.  But President Obama has already made one major change: Go through eight years of White House photos, and you won't find one of former President Bush in the Oval Office without his jacket on.

Holder confirmation delayed  —  Eric Holder's confirmation vote before the Judiciary Committee will be delayed for up to a week as Republican senators continue to press him on his views about interrogation and other Bush administration intelligence methods.  —  The Judiciary Committee …

Obama blows off Medal of Honor recipients  —  According to TSO who was at the “Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball”, this newly sworn-in President for the first time in 56 years blew off the ball (that's 14 Inaugurations).  —  Some background on the ball;

GOING, GOING, GONE  —  The mood at the Inauguration was so joyful, so filled with unalloyed expectation and—there's that word again—hope, that it seems almost peevish (and historically repetitive) to sound a sour note, but here it unavoidably is: the hostility among some in the vast crowd toward …

Experts say Obama should retake the oath  —  (01-21) 04:00 PST Washington - — Several constitutional lawyers said President Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts.  —  The 35-word oath is explicitly prescribed in the Constitution …

Obama Will Get His Blackberry  —  President Barack Obama is going to get his blackberry.  —  On Monday, a government agency that the Obama administration — but that is probably the National Security Agency — added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package. …

On the new whitehouse.gov: ‘Pool’ reports to be public?  —  But a quick tour around its features indicates it will have some interesting features, along with the usual pages about the president's agenda, the White House and the federal government:  —  • Pool reports.

Daily Show - What Differences Between Bush & Obama?  (VIDEO)  —  Tonight Jon Stewart rightly pointed out that there really are no differences when it comes to philosophy about national security, and he demonstrates it with sequential video clips, comparing Barack's speech with past Bush speeches.

Deleted scenes: Chapter 1  —  A grand strategy grading sheet  —  On articulation, President Bush gets a “T” for “trying”—as in, too hard.  As Jacob Weisberg argues in his 2008 book, The Bush Tragedy, George W. Bush was determined to succeed where his father had failed in articulating …

Found - AGAIN - the Poster Source Photo  —  The photographer is MANNIE GARCIA, a Washington DC freelancer for the Associated Press.  —  Driving home from Washington after the inauguration, cruising on adrenalin from covering the historic event and then stopping two or three times for coffee …

Justices Reject Pornography Law  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton.

My “To Don't” List for the Right  —  The only thing worse than bad winners are sore losers, and we've had enough of them for the past eight years.  So with that in mind, in the wake of today's historic inauguration, here's my Handbook For The Loyal Opposition, 2009 edition - a “To Don't List,” if you will.

Treasury Secretary Nominee Urges Changes to Current Bailout Plan  —  Timothy Geithner Apologizes for Failing to Pay $43,000 in Taxes  —  Timothy F. Geithner, President Obama's nominee to be secretary of the Treasury, said today that the economic bailout program crafted by the Bush administration …

Inaugural Committee Apologizes for Ticket Fiasco  —  The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which was responsible for planning and executing Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony yesterday, apologized today for keeping thousands of ticket-holders outside the security gates, causing them to miss the ceremony.

President Barack Obama willing to negotiate with Iran ‘without preconditions’  —  The new Obama administration is willing to talk to Iran “without preconditions” and will work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons, the White House said today.  —  The Obama foreign policy agenda that appeared …

Senate Progressive Media Summit Liveblog  —  digg it  —  Marcy and I are at the Hart Senate Office Building with Atrios, Jerome, Bowers, David Corn, Mike Rodgers, Natasha Chart, Chris Hayes, Brownsox and others listening to various Senators come in and talk about their issues.

Mohammed Jawad and Obama's efforts to suspend military commissions  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  This is a very good and important step — not only because of its substance, but also because it was something Obama did almost immediately, even before his first full day in office:

Judge Obama on Performance Alone  —  Let's not celebrate more ordinary speeches.  —  With the noon sun high over the U.S. Capitol, Barack Obama yesterday took the oath of office to become president of the United States.  On one level, it was a simple matter of political process — the symbolic transfer of power.

Have you met the French, Mr. Obama?  —  God bless France.  You knew, once Obama was sworn in, that Paris would welcome the new president with open arms and not get all passive-aggressive-y ike they [always] [frequently] occasionally do.  —  What's that?  There's a Reuters story about this?

Worshipping Obama  —  Churlish right-wingers will likely keep complaining about the “cult of Obama.”  I won't indulge in that easy cynicism.  I will note, however, that as I stumbled home, tired and scotch-afflicted for the first time in my life, I talked to one of my best friends …

Dutch MP faces anti-Islam charges  —  A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.  —  Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Supreme Court revokes ban on Arab parties from national elections  —  Israel's Supreme court overruled on Wednesday a parliamentary panel which had decided to bar Israeli Arab parties from running in next month's parliamentary election.  —  The court issued its decision in response …