Should Michelle Cover Up?  —  Journalists are never supposed to start a piece with a scene in a taxi because it signals either laziness about gathering facts or a tendency to embroider facts.  —  Nonetheless, I'm going to.  David Brooks and I were sharing a cab to the British Embassy the other day to meet with Gordon Brown.

David Frum Does Not Speak for Me Any More Than Rush Limbaugh Does  —  I recently risked being labeled one of the “oddballs” at Hot Air when I said that, while I believe Rush Limbaugh is a very talented salesman for conservative values, I think it would be counterproductive to set him up as the head of the conservative movement.

A Pardon For A Friend, A Good Deal For Dodd  —  It takes considerable political skill for a U.S. senator to win a presidential pardon for a friend without the traditional review by the Justice Department.  Sen. Christopher Dodd moved the furtive levers of power in 2001 for Edward R. Downe …

Recession on track to be longest in postwar period  —  WASHINGTON - Factory jobs disappeared.  Inflation soared.  Unemployment climbed to alarming levels.  The hungry lined up at soup kitchens.  —  It wasn't the Great Depression.  It was the 1981-82 recession, widely considered America's worst since the depression.

The Inflection Is Near?  —  Sometimes the satirical newspaper The Onion is so right on, I can't resist quoting from it.  Consider this faux article from June 2005 about America's addiction to Chinese exports: … Let's today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis …

The Next Hit: Quick Defaults  —  More FHA-Backed Mortgages Go Bad Without a Single Payment  —  The last time the housing market was this bad, Congress set up the Federal Housing Administration to insure Depression-era mortgages that lenders wouldn't otherwise make.

Thousands join talk show hosts in tax protest  —  Officials estimate more than 8,000 people showed up in downtown Fullerton to protest tax hikes in budget deal.  —  Recommend  —  FULLERTON - They're revolting.  Families with children, bikers, seniors, pirates - by the thousands descended …

Obama to bring Cuba in from the cold  —  US companies are queuing up as the president moves to ease restrictions on travel and trade, raising hopes of warmer relations and an end to the embargo  —  President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America.

Mixed Opinions of a Judge Accused of Misconduct  —  DALLAS — If Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of Texas' highest criminal court, has ever doubted her judgment, she has not shown it.  —  In 1998, Judge Keller wrote the opinion rejecting a new trial for Roy Criner, a mentally retarded man convicted …

Real IRA ‘behind army shootings’  —  A Dublin-based newspaper has received a call supposedly from the Real IRA which claimed responsibility for the attack at Masserene army base.  —  Using a recognised codename, it claimed responsibility for the attack in which two soldiers were killed.

New Chairman Boos G.O.P. When He's Not Cheerleading  —  None of the guests seemed to be complaining, yet Michael Steele stood at a Fifth Avenue fund-raiser in New York on Wednesday evening and defended his month-old tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Brooks: Boehner's spending freeze would be ‘insane,’ GOP is ‘stuck with Reagan.’  —  This morning on ABC's This Week, conservative columnist David Brooks addressed House Minority Leader John Boehner's recent call for a “freeze on government spending” in response to the quickly worsening economic conditions.

Dreaming of Splitting the Taliban  —  FRIENDS?  FOES?  —  WASHINGTON  —  HERE is a proposition that is bound to cut deep into the national psyche: Should the United States seek to negotiate with some of the same people who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden prior to the Sept. 11 attacks?

U.S. Troops Face a Tangle Of Goals in Afghanistan  —  BARAKI BARAK, Afghanistan — It started out as a mission of diplomatic outreach, a get-acquainted visit to a village school principal.  It ended with a far less comfortable encounter, as U.S. soldiers and Afghan police poked through haylofts …

Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court liberal?  —  In a decision last week against the drug company Wyeth, it was the court's most conservative justice who most harshly criticized a Bush administration legal policy.  —  Reporting from Washington — The Supreme Court opinion that drew the most praise …

Pentagon's Unwanted Projects in Earmarks  —  When President Obama promised Wednesday to attack defense spending that he considers wasteful and inefficient, he opened a fight with key lawmakers from his own party.  —  It was Democrats who stuffed an estimated $524 million in defense earmarks …