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!

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Obama's Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama directed federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks.  He also ordered the Transportation Department …

New, Transparent WhiteHouse.gov Forgoes Press Briefing Transcripts?  —  Barack Obama's administration may be promising the “greatest ethical standard ever administered to an executive branch,” and increased transparency over his predecessor, but it seems to be forgoing at least one transparency practice …

Feingold Introduces 28th Amendment  —  I hope you'll excuse the hubristic headline.  Constitutional amendments are introduced all the time in the Congress.  Most of them are used to make a political point of one kind or another and stand little chance of becoming law.

Rep. Peter King calls on Paterson to justify Senate pick  —  While U.S. Senate designee Kirsten Gillibrand met Sunday with the state's top political power brokers in Manhattan, forces opposed to her began plotting against upstate congresswoman.  —  Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) …

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.

Woodward Suggests Future Scandal For Obama White House  —  Appearing on the Chris Matthews Show Sunday, Bob Woodward offered a rather cryptic prediction of scandal that will plague the Obama White House.  —  “This may be tantalizing but vague,” said the Washington Post scribe.

Secretary Clinton names climate czar  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday will name Todd D. Stern, a trusted top aide in her husband's White House, to serve as a special envoy for climate change, Democratic officials said.  —  Climate was largely ignored by President George W …

Commentary: Torture weakened America's national security  —  Editor's Note: John Kerry, a Democrat, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the junior senator from Massachusetts.  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Thursday was an important day for the rule of law in the United States of America.

Krugman shows why we need more progressive voices on TV  —  When I was at MoveOn, media reform was one of my main issues.  I had substantial dialogues with the folks at ABC's This Week about the right-wing skew of some of their Sunday roundtables.  —  To his credit, George Stephanopoulous …

Twenty-five people at the heart of the meltdown ...  Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006  —  Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through …

Ready-for-Disaster Republicans  —  Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation in the midst of a grave crisis lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns to the task of getting it back.  —  Party politics has not been suspended.

Top EU official: Hamas fully responsible for Gaza war  —  Hamas bears full responsibility for the war in Gaza, a top EU official said Monday in the Strip, calling the group “a terrorist movement.”  —  “At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas,” Louis Michel …

SWISS HISS FOR THE GOV  —  ALL SIDES RIP TRIP  —  By BRENDAN SCOTT and FREDRIC U. DICKER in Albany and SALLY GOLDENBERG in New York  —  Gov. Paterson was blasted by Republicans, Democrats and good-government groups for plans to jet off on a European junket this week …

History's Forgotten Fiascos  —  JoeJoeJoe commented in yesterday's Commerce Secretary post: “More Spanish Flu blogging please.  That was a huge public health event in our history and it's rarely discussed.”  —  Indeed.  Most of what I know about the episode comes from John M. Barry's excellent book …