Will Obama Save Liberalism?  —  All good things must come to an end.  Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era.  —  Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy.  And a good thing, too!

Blago Says He Thought of Oprah for Senate  —  Blago Goes on ‘GMA’ and Skips His Impeachement Trial  —  Illinois' beleaguered Gov. Rod Blagojevich said today that when he was deciding who would take President Obama's Senate seat he considered appointing talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.

Bad Faith Economics  —  As the debate over President Obama's economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the plan's opponents aren't arguing in good faith.  Conservatives really, really don't want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don't want to see government activism vindicated.

BEHIND THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS  —  On Thursday, President Barack Obama consigned to history the worst excesses of the Bush Administration's “war on terror.”  One of the four executive orders Obama signed effectively cancelled seven years of controversial Justice Department legal opinions authorizing methods …

The Stimulus Time Machine  —  That $355 billion in spending isn't about the economy.  —  The stimulus bill currently steaming through Congress looks like a legislative freight train, but given last week's analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, it is more accurate to think of it as a time machine.

Nationalization Gets a New, Serious Look  —  WASHINGTON — Only five days into the Obama presidency, members of the new administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are already dancing around one of the most politically delicate questions about the financial bailout …

Rail in the Stimulus  —  Rep Peter DeFazio has authored an amendment that would increase the level of rail funding in the stimulus bill.  It's an excellent idea.  Funds for highway repairs are a fine use of stimulus money, but insofar as we're investing in new transportation capabilities …

For $10, Fuld Sold Florida Mansion to His Wife  —  Housing prices are falling around the country, but this one sounds hard to believe: A seaside mansion on Jupiter Island in Florida, bought for more than $13 million five years ago, was just sold for $10.  —  That's right, 10 bucks.

JUST PLANE DESPICABLE  —  ‘RESCUED’ CITI BUYING $50M JET  —  Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed.  —  Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas …

Senate Seat Is Latest Stop On Bennet's Unlikely Ride  —  Learning on the Job Has Become Coloradan's Hallmark  —  Michael Bennet has been sleeping in his mother's Woodley Park house and taking the Metro to a borrowed conference room in the Hart Senate Office Building to meet with staff members, who are also on loan.

Obama's Initial Approval Ratings in Historical Context  —  Rank among the best for a newly elected president since World War II  — USA - Government and Politics - Leadership - Presidential Job Approval - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America  —  PRINCETON, NJ …

Obama's Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

Bill Ayers denies '70s plot to blow up Detroit police sites  —  Bill Ayers, leader of a 1960s radical anti-war organization who helped launch Barack Obama's political career in Chicago in the 1990s then threatened to derail it when their relationship became an issue in the 2008 campaign, will be in Michigan Monday.

School Vouchers  —  EARLY SURVEYS of D.C. parents of children receiving federal school vouchers showed many of them liked the program because they believed their children were in safe schools.  Over time, a new study shows, their satisfaction has deepened to include an appreciation for small class sizes …

PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY  —  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic “stimulus” package, claiming “contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”

Holder Continues to Claim that He Knew Nothing About Rich  —  After Eric Holder's confirmation hearing nearly two weeks ago, senators on the Judiciary Committee submitted follow-up questions for him to answer in writing.  In his hearing testimony, as in 2001 when Congress investigated …

Continuing Bush policies in Israel and Afghanistan  —  By all accounts, the U.S. is suffering extreme economic woes.  We continue to borrow trillions of dollars simply to prevent financial collapse.  Our military resources are spread so thin that the establishment consensus view blames …

Franken Has the Lead, but Coleman Has His Day in Court  —  The longest-running Senate campaign in the nation heads into the home stretch this week.  We think.  —  Today in St. Paul, Minn., a three-judge panel will kick off a trial featuring Norm Coleman, the incumbent Republican senator who …

Top Dem: No comprehensive health reform this year  —  A prominent House Democrat said he doesn't expect a comprehensive healthcare reform bill to pass Congress in 2009, saying an incremental approach to covering the uninsured would be better “than to go out and just bite something you can't chew.”