For GOP: all pain, no gain  —  Four months after John McCain's sweeping defeat, senior Republicans are coming to grips with the fact that the party is still - in stock market terms - looking for the bottom.  —  Republicans this week are processing two sobering new polls that found …

Obama Taps Clinton Ideas but Not Clinton Herself  —  WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton has not participated in any of the White House's planning sessions on health care, the issue that defined her public persona during the 1990s.  Intent on establishing herself as a powerful secretary of state …

Democrats' Diversionary Tactics  —  In the first two months of 2009, the Democratic Congress and the White House have spent more money than the combined cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the response to Hurricane Katrina.  After they doled out taxpayer dollars at such a blistering pace …

First Lady Michelle Obama shows even she has a gift for the gaffe  —  It was all going so well.  The dresses, the brains, the Vogue cover shoot - everything so far about Michelle Obama has left us wide-mouthed in admiration.  It seemed there was no end to her fabulousness.  Then Mr and Mrs Brown came to stay.

Sex Appeal May Have Hurt Sarah Palin  —  In a Sept. 4, 2008 column, just after Sarah Palin accepted the Republican nomination for vice-president, Will Wilkinson wrote admiringly of her “sexual power,” adding: “I think she is a tremendously sexy woman.  How this will affect the race, I have no idea, but it's just got to.”

EXCLUSIVE: Rove Warns of ‘Show Trial,’ Says Dems ‘Would Love to Have Me Barbecued’  —  Karl Rove tells FOX News he is looking forward to telling the House Judiciary Committee about his alleged role in the firing of federal prosecutors and the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Jon Stewart's rant: Santelli re(un)wound  —  Apparently Rick Santelli - famous for “Santelli's rant” on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a broadcast diatribe against the Obama administration's bailout of bad mortgages - should have shown up on The Daily Show.

The “Afghanistan” Problem is In Pakistan  —  Joe Klein's article on the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan is informative, but doesn't inspire a ton of confidence.  It seems that military planners want the Obama administration to dispatch further additional troops to Afghanistan over and above …

One France Is Enough  —  The French writer François Mauriac once said during the cold war that he loved Germany so much, he was glad there were two of them.  After what an undivided Germany had done to France in World War II and before, that was understandable.

Brown says he hasn't filed federal, state taxes in 2 years  —  ATLANTA — Nearly 10 percent of Georgia state legislators are late filing or paying their state taxes, and state Sen. Robert Brown is apparently among them.  —  Brown, D-Macon, said Wednesday he's not sure whether he actually owes …

US schools chief wants DC kids to keep vouchers  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday that poor children getting vouchers to attend private schools in the District of Columbia should be allowed to stay there, putting the Obama administration at odds with Democrats trying to end the program.

Professor Takes Heat for Calling Cops on Student Who Discussed Guns in Class  —  A professor in Connecticut reported one of her students to the police after he gave a class presentation on why students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.

Obama surprises daughters with new swing set  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — First daughters Malia and Sasha Obama got a big surprise after school Wednesday: a brand-new swing set.  —  They squealed with delight upon seeing it, a spokeswoman for the first lady said.

Matters of Principal  —  TO stanch the hemorrhage of foreclosures, we don't need another bailout.  What we need is a fix — and the wisdom to see what is in our own self-interest.  —  An avalanche of foreclosures is coming — as many as eight million in the next several years.