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 backs off abortion remarks  —  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 …

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.

Mark Sanford blasts “Zimbabwe” stimulus  —  South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, whose state has the second-worst-in-the-nation 10.4 percent unemployment rate, on Wednesday compared supporters of the stimulus package to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.  —  Sanford told reporters in South Carolina …

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.

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.

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 …

BAGHDAD IN NPR'S PARALLEL UNIVERSE  —  The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush has been sentenced to three years in prison.  The sentence seems harsh to me (a fine might have been sufficient), but I'm the last person who would presume to judge a great Arab culture.

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.

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.

Everyman Obama courts socialites  —  A workingman's White House cultivates Beltway ‘tastemakers’  —  While publicly identifying with the nation's have-nots, the Obama administration has been quietly cultivating the Beltway social elite behind the scenes.  —  Earlier this year …

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!

Sy Hersh: Cheney Ran Assassin Ring  —  Like many reporters, Seymour Hersh has a lot of trouble keeping a hot scoop to himself, and dropped a major bomb at the University of Minnesota the other night.  This is the second time he's spilled the beans on an upcoming story at a public forum:

Republicans Propose ‘No Cost’ Stimulus  —  This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” March 11, 2009.  This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.  —  SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And in “Your America” tonight, another economic plan is also emerging tonight.

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.

Artificial life ‘could be created within five years’  —  Artificial life could be created “within five years”, researchers from the USA have claimed.  —  Laboratories across the world are closing in on a “second genesis” - an achievement that would be one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

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 …

Workers' Health Benefits Eyed for Taxation  —  Revenue Would Fund Expansion of Coverage  —  With President Obama's plan to tax the rich to pay for health care facing deep skepticism on Capitol Hill, key lawmakers are pressing a different way to raise money: taxing the health benefits workers receive from their employers.