Specter Will Vote Against Employee Free Choice Act  —  UPDATE: Senator Specter ended speculation on where he would come down on the Employee Free Choice Act by declaring, on the Senate floor, that he would oppose the legislation until the economy improves.  —  “The problems of a recession …

Go back into hiding, GOP begs Dick Cheney  —  Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.  —  Displeased with the former vice-president's recent media appearances …

Culture Shock  —  What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble.  —  Last May, Conor Friedersdorf, a twenty-eight-year-old recent graduate of NYU's Journalism School, decided he was going to save conservative journalism.

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms  —  Goal Is to Limit Risk to Broader Economy  —  The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers …

House bonus bill is buried by the Senate  —  President Obama and Senate Democrats have buried a bill passed last week by the House that would have heavily taxed executive bonuses at bailed-out firms.  —  Despite the public outcry over $165 million in bonuses awarded at troubled insurer AIG …

Strip-Search of Girl Tests Limit of School Policy  —  SAFFORD, Ariz. — Savana Redding still remembers the clothes she had on — black stretch pants with butterfly patches and a pink T-shirt — the day school officials here forced her to strip six years ago.  She was 13 and in eighth grade.

Reines storm: Clinton conflict brews  —  Hillary Clinton's departure for the State Department was meant to end the era of Clinton drama, and to leave the turmoil of her campaign behind.  But one former Clinton aide, now a senior adviser to Secretary Clinton, has brought at least some of that drama along with him.

A major difference between conservatives and progressives  —  (updated below)  —  One of the linchpins of the Bush presidency, especially during the first term (and well into the second, until he became a major political liability), was the lock-step uncritical reverence …

Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe  —  Related editorial: We must heed the threat of solar storms  —  IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light.  Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived.

Money For Nothing  —  Jilted Wall Street donors should rethink future political donations.  —  An honest politician, as an old saw has it, is one who stays bought.  If this is true, then we have the most dishonest bunch of officeholders ever, and it may lead Wall Street to reconsider its donations in the future.

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers: Stiglitz  —  The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.

Obama seeks filter-free news  —  At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.

Madoff's pain is a Queens man's gain  —  Someone is finally making some money off Bernie Madoff.  —  A Queens construction worker used the swindler's prison number to play the lottery and won $1,500.  —  Ralph Amendolaro, 50, noticed the digits under Madoff's mug on the front page …

Analysis: Campaign films may get OK  —  Analysis  —  Because a government lawyer pushed his argument as far as logic would carry it, an alarmed Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed poised to create a new exception to federal power to regulate what advocacy groups can say during national political campaigns.

TAMMY BRUCE.  —  It's worth considering the full context of Tammy Bruce's comments on Michelle Obama yesterday.  Bruce said this of the first lady: … Right.  Nothing that makes a racist comment more obvious than a self-conscious attempt to qualify it as not being racist.

AIG, Congress, Geithner Target of Bonus Backlash  —  No consensus on best way to recover bonus money  — USA - Credit Crisis - Financial Services - Government and Politics - Americas - Northern America  —  PRINCETON, NJ — For the most part, the central players in the AIG bonus controversy …

Reporters war-game Obama questions  —  CBS's Chip Reid jots the gist of his questions on a legal pad.  CNN's Ed Henry writes them word for word on white paper torn from the notebook he's using, so there's no danger of cards dropping to the ground.  Fox's Major Garrett has three word …

Will Obama Listen to Iran's Bloggers?  —  Barack Obama extended the olive branch to Iran's leaders last Friday in a videotaped message praising a “great civilization” for “accomplishments” that “have earned the respect of the United States and the world.”  The death of Iranian blogger Omid-Reza Mirsayafi …

Geithner: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Contingencies  —  Moments ago, Secretary Geithner artfully dodged a question that's on everybody's mind: What happens if his plan fails.  Echoing the architects and supporters of the success-bonanza that is the Iraq war, Geithner said that the only thing …

Coleman won't rule out federal appeal  —  Former Sen. Norm Coleman is still considering taking his election lawsuit to the federal court if he's unsuccessful in reversing Al Franken's 225-vote lead in the Minnesota Senate recount.  —  Speaking to reporters at the Capitol …

Border plants to be killed to reveal smugglers  —  The U.S. Border Patrol plans to poison the plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank as soon as Wednesday to get rid of the hiding places used by smugglers, robbers and illegal immigrants.

Pro-life group calls on Notre Dame to rescind Obama invite  —  (CNN) — The National Right to Life Committee is calling on the University of Notre Dame to rescind its invitation to President Obama to speak at the university's May commencement.  —  In a letter sent to Notre Dame's president …

Treasury rewards waiting  —  Maybe it was worth the wait.  —  Judging from preliminary details, the US Treasury's plan to rescue the financial system is a lot savvier about the relationship between financial markets and the macroeconomy than are the usual-suspects: critics from both left …

Commentary: Time for another tea party?  —  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.”  He provides commentary on CNN's “The Situation Room” daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET.  You can also visit Jack's Cafferty File blog.

Bunning: McConnell making fundraising difficult  —  FRANKFORT, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning is blaming his fundraising difficulties on a fellow Kentucky Republican, Senate Minority Floor Leader Mitch McConnell.  —  Bunning said during a conference call Tuesday that McConnell and Texas …

Wars, Guns, and Votes  —  The subtitle is Democracy in Dangerous Places and the author is Paul Collier.  Here are three bits:  —  Anke and I have estimated the proportion of Africa's private wealth that is held outside the region.  By 2004 it had reached the astounding figure of 36 percent …

Make Haste, Slowly  —  President Obama's financial rescue plans have two limiting factors.  One is the willingness of the Congress to sanction what amounts to an unprecedented federal intervention in the economy and the ability of the administration to calmly transport the Congress towards a particular destination.