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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

The Worst Pollster in the World Strikes Again  —  Dirty little secret: I sometimes write material in the late evening that will be posted the following morning.  This is one of those instances.  The early word, however, is that a Zogby poll to be released today will show Barack Obama's presidential approval numbers at around 50-50.

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.

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 …

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.

Sustainable Security in Afghanistan  —  Crafting an Effective and Responsible Strategy for the Forgotten Front  —  The Obama administration must distinguish between short-term goals to stabilize conditions on the ground in Afghanistan and sustainable intermediate and long-term goals …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Norquist: Specter Will Vote No On Card Check  —  I'm attending the Capitol Research Center's Summit on 2009 Labor Issues, where Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform Vigilante, announced that Sen. Arlen Specter's office had just called him with news that the Senator will vote against card check legislation.

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.

Larry, Larry  —  From The Hill: … I'm fine with this.  Larry is a first-rate economist with a job to do, and I wish him luck in it.  He understands what I'm saying, of course, but he's doing his best to support the official line.  —  That line now goes like this: first …

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.

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 …

Consider This: NPR Achieves Record Ratings  —  At a time when newspapers, magazines and TV news continue to lose readers and viewers, at least one part of the traditional media has continued to grow robustly: National Public Radio.  —  The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including …

Don't Fear the Swedish Model  —  The Triumph of the Geeks and Tough Guys by Tina Brown  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Bo Lundgren, Sweden's minister for fiscal and financial affairs, stared down a financial crisis in the 1990s and lived to tell the tale.  In a Daily Beast interview …