Is a top Dem stirring Daschle trouble?  —  Tom Daschle will tell his old Senate colleagues Monday that he made an honest mistake when he failed to pay taxes on the use of a limousine and a driver — and that he considered the services to be a gift from an old friend rather than income he had to report to the IRS.

New GOP chair comes out swinging  —  The new chairman of the Republican National Committee said Sunday that his party should put the brakes on Democratic initiatives, from the economic stimulus bill to President Obama's plans for his Cabinet.  —  Steele said in a telephone interview …

Lynch Will Appoint Republican If Obama Nominates Gregg  —  Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) indicated today he'll appoint a Republican to replace Sen. Judd Gregg if Obama nominates the New Hampshire senator to be Secretary of Commerce.  In a statement, Lynch said that Gregg made it clear …

Conservative Pajamas Media shuts down ad network, righty blogs hopping mad  —  This story is a little inside baseball about the blogosphere that sounds like another bit of fallout from the election and the economy is rocking the righty blogs right now.  A few years ago (2005) …

Bailouts for Bunglers  —  Question: what happens if you lose vast amounts of other people's money?  Answer: you get a big gift from the federal government — but the president says some very harsh things about you before forking over the cash.  —  Am I being unfair?  I hope so.

35 years later, Jerry Brown runs for governor again  —  The ‘reformed reformer’ wants to be governor again — 35 years after first winning the post.  —  It was 1974 when Jerry Brown ran for governor as a dashing 36-year-old reformer, the embodiment of change in Watergate's aftermath.

The Man Who Made Obama  —  Campaign manager David Plouffe got the first black president elected.  Now he's moving on to something even more difficult, and potentially more important.  —  Plouffe with Obama at the second presidential debate last October.  The prep was serious, he says, “but we had fun.

How Government Prolonged the Depression  —  Policies that decreased competition in product and labor markets were especially destructive.  —  The New Deal is widely perceived to have ended the Great Depression, and this has led many to support a “new” New Deal to address the current crisis.

Renditions Buffoonery  —  In a breathless piece of reporting in the Sunday Los Angeles Times, we are told that Barack Obama “left intact” a “controversial counter-terrorism tool” called renditions.  Moreover, the Times states, quoting unnamed “current and former U.S. intelligence figures,” …

Justice Dept. Under Obama Is Preparing for Doctrinal Shift in Policies of Bush Years  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department, probably more than any other agency here, is bracing for a broad doctrinal shift in policies from those of the Bush administration, department lawyers and Obama administration officials say.

Poll: Republicans Want Party To Be Like Palin  —  A new Rasmussen poll further demonstrates that the GOP could be in for a long stretch in the wilderness: A majority of GOP voters now say that the party should be more like Sarah Palin.  —  The numbers: 55% of Republicans say the party should be like Palin …

NBC's David Gregory falsely claimed Social Security will “pay out more than it's taking in by 2010” … During the February 1 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory falsely asserted that “Social Security is about to go — pay out more than it's taking in by 2010.”

How Can the World Be Blind to Israel's Existential Threats?  —  I heard Benjamin Netanyahu, the person who could soon become Israel's new prime minister, speak this week at the Jerusalem Conference.  The most pressing point that he talked about was that under no circumstances should Jerusalem be divided.

Richard Shelby wants Senate to filibuster stimulus bill  —  U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, said he is prepared to filibuster the proposed economic stimulus bill, but fears enough Republicans will side with Senate Democrats to override any attempt to block the bill's passage.

The Dems who bucked Obama  —  Nearly all of the 11 Democrats who voted against the economic stimulus package Wednesday had an incentive other than the plan's hefty price tag: Nine of them hold districts carried by John McCain in 2008.  —  While none cited that fact when explaining …

Obama Springfield-bound: Lincoln's Bday  —  Two years ago this month, on Feb. 10, 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, Ill., — not far from the Abraham Lincoln museum  —  Next week, on Feb 12., President Obama will return to Springfield …

ElBaradei: 'I'm Not Taking Sides' on the Destruction of Israel  —  In an interview with the Washington Post, the leader of the UN's blind, toothless International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei (on whose watch Iran's nuclear weapons program has been able to advance almost unhindered) …

Palin pushes for road to Nome  —  PIPE DREAM?  Project would cost $3 million to $4 million a mile.  —  scockerham@adn.com  —  JUNEAU — Boomers talked for decades about building a road to Nome, an epic 500-mile plus project that would run through some of the most remote wilderness of forest, tundra, rivers and valleys in the world.

The Political Suspicions of 9/11  —  A coming episode of the acclaimed FX drama “Rescue Me” will tackle what may sound like a far-fetched plot line: that the attacks of Sept. 11 were an “inside job.”  The actor who espouses the theories on camera, it turns out, also subscribes to them in real life.

PETER HITCHENS: We show tolerance to ‘gays’ and get tyranny in return … If I never again had to read or write a word about homosexuals, I would be very happy.  I really don't want to know what other people do in their bedrooms.  But these days they really, really want us all to know.