LIMBAUGH AT CPAC  —  President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican party.  Here's Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation yesterday: “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party.”

A Moderate Manifesto  —  You wouldn't know it some days, but there are moderates in this country — moderate conservatives, moderate liberals, just plain moderates.  We sympathize with a lot of the things that President Obama is trying to do.  We like his investments in education and energy innovation.

Wealthy Idiots Meet Idiot Reporter  —  I've seen a lot of dumb news reports in my life, but I'm not sure anything can quite match this one from ABC News.  The premise of the report is this: Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000, so the reporter has gone …

Extraordinary Measures  —  A new memo shows just how far the Bush administration considered going in fighting the war on terror.  —  In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside …

Senate Dems angry over four AIG bailouts  —  Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee voiced frustration over recent decisions made by the Federal Reserve during a Tuesday morning hearing where they grilled Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.  —  Democrats and a few Republicans are irate …

The Obama Economy  —  As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.  —  As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic.

Coleman camp asks that election result be ‘set aside’  —  Request was made as Franken's lawyers prepare to make their case.  —  For more than a month, Norm Coleman stressed flaws in Minnesota's election system.  —  And on Monday, Coleman lawyer Jim Langdon wrote the three-judge panel …

Blacks, whites hear Obama differently  —  On his pre-inaugural visit to Ben's Chili Bowl, a landmark for Washington's African-American community, President Barack Obama was asked by a cashier if he wanted his change back.  —  “Nah, we straight,” Obama replied.  —  The phrase was so subtle some listeners missed it.

Russia rejects link between missile defence and Iran - Update  —  Madrid/Washington - Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday showed willingness to discuss the US-planned missile defence system opposed by Moscow, but without “haggling” linking it to Iran.

A U.N. resolution seeks to criminalize opinions that differ with the Islamic faith.  —  The Muslim religion makes unusually large claims for itself.  All religions do this, of course, in that they claim to know and to be able to interpret the wishes of a supreme being.

Red States Gobble Up Omnibus Earmarks  —  If it's budget time, it's good to be a red state.  And it's very good to be Mississippi.  —  According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, Mississippi has won the earmark contest in the omnibus budget package.

MTSU POLL: One In Six Tennesseans Admit To Telling Racist Jokes About The President  —  The newest poll on state and national issues in Tennessee is out from our friends over at Middle Tennessee State University complete with charts and graphs.  Some of the more interesting findings below.

Zombie financial ideas  —  Calculated Risk looks at the latest plan floated by the Treasury — to make low-interest, non-recourse loans to private investors who buy bad assets — and immediately gets it: this is a plan to drive up the prices of toxic assets by creating a lot of moral hazard.

Analysis: Obama-McCain relationship deteriorates  —  The rollercoaster-like relationship between President Obama and John McCain has taken a dive in recent weeks, culminated by the Arizona Republican's scathing Monday speech on the Senate floor.  —  McCain's diatribe on the Obama administration's decision …

Cafferty: My crush on Michelle Obama  —  Editor's note: Jack Cafferty is the author of a new book, “Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream,” to be published in March.  He provides commentary on CNN's “The Situation Room” daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET.

Barack Obama cancels press conference with Gordon Brown “because of snow”  —  Strange goings on surrounding the programme for the first day of Gordon Brown's visit to Washington.  —  No sooner had the Prime Minister's plane touched down at Andrews Air Force on Monday evening when word …