Steele's victory  —  Michael Steele makes history as the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, and as a rare winner — at least in part — of an outside game in what is usually an insider's contest.  He won with 91 votes, 6 more than he needed, over South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson.

Giuliani: Corporate plums help keep NYC afloat  —  NEW YORK (CNN) — Bonuses for Wall Street fat cats are easy political fodder in uncertain economic times, but former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Friday cutting corporate bonuses means slashing jobs in the Big Apple.

Why Limbaugh is the new Bush  —  I've been hunting around for polling data to explain why Democrats are so eager to make Rush Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party, and lo, Mark Blumenthal finds some.  —  The numbers are pretty clear.  When this poll was taken last fall …

Nelson ‘Undecided’ On Recovery Plan: 'I Don't Even Know How Many Democrats Will Vote For It As It Stands'  —  On Wednesday, when the House voted 244 - 188 to approve the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 11 Democrats joined with the entire Republican caucus in voting against the bill.

CHANGE FOR THE WORSE  —  WASHINGTON - Buried deep inside the massive spending orgy that Democrats jammed through the House this week lie five words that could drastically undo two decades of welfare reforms.  —  The very heart of the widely applauded Welfare Reform Act of 1996 is a cap …

GOP fights to keep Gregg in the Senate  —  Republicans in Washington and New Hampshire are mounting a full-court press to keep Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) in the Senate and out of the Obama administration, aides and senators said Friday.  —  But if he does take the commerce secretary job …

Time to put middle class front and center  —  For years, we had a White House that failed to put the middle class front and center in its economic policies.  —  President Obama has made it clear that is going to change.  And it's why he has asked me to lead a task force on the middle class.

Cleaner and Faster  —  Throughout 2008, Larry Summers, the Harvard economist, built the case for a big but surgical stimulus package.  Summers warned that a “poorly provided fiscal stimulus can have worse side effects than the disease that is to be cured.”  So his proposal had three clear guidelines.

Iraqis construct shoe sculpture to honor Bush shoe-throwing incident.»  —  A large sculpture of one of the shoes thrown at President Bush last December by an Iraqi journalist was unveiled this week just outside an orphanage in Tikrit, Iraq — Saddam Hussein's hometown.

India's Empty Holbrooke Power Play  —  It may be an interesting demonstration of India's clout that New Delhi managed to strip Indian issues from Richard Holbrooke's official mandate as a special envoy to deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan.  But it's nonsense to think this reflects …

Unlike Bush's ‘Google Bomb,’ Google Quickly Defuses Obama's  —  It took four years for Google to address the “Google bomb” that was lobbed at former President Bush.  —  But it took the Internet behemoth only a few days to defuse the same attack on President Obama.

New Jungles Prompt a Debate on Rain Forests  —  CHILIBRE, Panama — The land where Marta Ortega de Wing raised hundreds of pigs until 10 years ago is being overtaken by galloping jungle — palms, lizards and ants.  —  Instead of farming, she now shops at the supermarket and her grown children …

Obama Distorts America's Stance on Muslims  —  Every new president flatters himself that he, kinder and gentler, is beginning the world anew.  Yet, when Barack Obama in his inaugural address reached out to Muslims by saying “to the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward …