FBI raids office of D.C. CTO, Obama appointee  —  Federal agents this morning are searching the office Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer.  —  The search of the office at 1 Judiciary Square is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI's D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said.

Steele, under fire, walks back ‘choice’ remark  —  RNC Chairman Michael Steele said today that despite telling an interviewer he supports “individual choice” and state-level decisions on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban.  —  Steele said in a statement through an RNC spokesman:

New Limbaugh billboard slogan announced - creativity was not considered  — E-mail a friend - Print this - Letter to the Editor - Republish - - Get e-mail alerts - RSS  —  Setting a world record today for beating a dead horse, the Democratic National Committee will announce they've selected …

The Country's Loss  —  The Obama administration has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place, and their friends on Capitol Hill.  The country has lost an able public servant in an area where President Obama has few personal credentials …

Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty  —  Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to all the charges against him and expressed remorse for a vast Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars.  —  Standing before Judge Denny Chin in United States District Court in Manhattan …

Clyburn: Sanford jab ‘beyond the pale’  —  House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told me he thinks S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford's quip comparing President Obama's stimulus package to Zimbabwe's economic policies are “beyond the pale” — and suggested they might carry a racial subtext.

Why Freeman himself was wrong about what his defeat signified...  There was a lot I didn't like about the Chas Freeman debacle, but the thing I did not like most was the degree to which it offered apparent support to the “theories” of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.

Paved With Magnificent Intentions  —  Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, described Washington as a “city of magnificent intentions” because of the incongruity between the city's grand aspirations and muddy, swampy actuality.  Today Washington's discrepancy is not architectural but political.

Pres. Obama Will Not Attend Annual Gridiron Dinner, First President Since Cleveland to Miss  —  A Gridiron Club member tells FBDC first that President Obama will not attend this year's dinner next Saturday, March 21st.  He will be the first president since Grover Cleveland not to attend the first Gridiron Club Dinner of his presidency.

Congresswoman With Ties to Bank Helped Seek Funds  —  WASHINGTON — Top banking regulators were taken aback late last year when a California congresswoman helped set up a meeting in which the chief executive of a bank with financial ties to her family asked them for up to $50 million in special bailout funds, Treasury officials said.

Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush jailed for 3 years  —  BAGHDAD - A court convicted an Iraqi journalist of assault Thursday for hurling his shoes at George W. Bush and sentenced him to three years in prison, prompting an outburst from his family and calls for his release from Iraqis who consider him an icon for a nation decimated by war.

Third Top Treasury Pick Withdraws From Consideration  —  Democratic sources say that H. Rodgin Cohen, a partner in the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and the leading candidate for Deputy Treasury Secretary, has withdrawn from consideration.  —  It's the third withdrawal …

Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.

The Galts of Gullible Gulch  —  Galt Gulch seemed so much bigger in the book  —  Threatened by “Obama's Thugs” which slims her pickin's mightily, Dr. Mrs Ole Perfesser assembles a crack panel of quarter millionaires (plus one dollar) who describe how they are going to Go John Galt.

How DARE you say 9/11 happened on Bush's watch!  —  Oh boy...popcorn all around!  This from the Bush Legacy Revisionism Tour ™.  —  Chris Matthews asks Ari Fleischer about how Bush left the economy.  Fleischer answers 9/11!  9/11!  Then the money shot...  Priceless!

Obama Makes Use of Signing Statements  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed a $410 billion spending bill Wednesday that includes thousands of pet projects inserted by lawmakers, even as he unveiled new rules to restrict such so-called earmarks.  —  At the same time …

No Skepticism on the Energy Gap  —  On Tuesday, the final day of the Heartland Institute's conference examining whether global warming was ever a crisis, there was a fascinating moment in one session when the discussion shifted from questioning warming to assessing humanity's limited energy choices.

Donors, security experts blast Coleman campaign as credit card numbers show up online  —  Republican, aides suggest partisan motives in aftermath  —  Former Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign didn't do enough to protect donors' confidential information, and Wednesday that lapse came home to roost …

Chris Dodd's Irish ‘Cottage’  —  The Senate Ethics Committee has been looking into possible conflicts of interest in Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd's 2003 mortgages.  Now questions about another Dodd real-estate adventure, this one in Ireland, should keep the Ethicists even busier.

‘This Man Needed the Firepower of Assault Weapons’  —  Yesterday I noted that a local police chief claimed Michael McLendon, the Alabama man who killed 10 people on Tuesday, was armed with a machine gun.  According to the Alabama State Police, he actually had two semiautomatic rifles …