Obama targets tea bags at town hall  —  At his 100th-day town hall meeting in St. Louis Wednesday, President Barack Obama took direct aim at the anti-tax “tea party” demonstrations that have cropped up over the last month and took a veiled shot at the Fox News Channel, the cable news network closely associated with the protests.

We Didn't Have to Lose Arlen Specter  —  IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican …

The black-white divide in Obama's popularity  —  On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult.  But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular …

Exclusive: Utah's Republican Governor Warns GOP Leaders, “You Can't Just Say No”  —  It's Time for Party to Advance Workable Alternatives Rather Than Block the Door, Gov. Says  —  With the party reeling from Sen. Arlen Specter's defection, a prominent moderate Republican governor is warning …

Rep. Virginia Foxx Called Matthew Shepard Hate Crime “A Hoax” … Matthew Shepard's Death Was A Hate Crime, Not Simply A Robbery  —  Rep. Foxx: “The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of robbery.

EXCLUSIVE: Steele may lose purse strings  —  A battle over control of the party's purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to “embarrass and neuter” the party's new leader.

WHO raises pandemic alert level  —  The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over the spread of swine flu to level five - one short of a full-blown pandemic.  —  A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission in at least two countries.

After the Great Recession  —  On April 14, President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, trying to explain why he was taking on so many economic issues so early in his administration.  He argued that the country needed to break its bubble-and-bust cycle and cited the New Testament …

State of play in the Harman case  —  Rep. Jane Harman has hired lawyer Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky affair, as a media advisor, The Cable has learned.  —  The enlisting of the heavyweight help is the latest sign that the California Democrat intends …

Field Poll: California voters oppose five of six May 19 ballot measures  —  Voters strongly oppose five special election measures being sold as a budget-reform elixir for California's burgeoning $40 billion deficit.  —  But voters in a new Field Poll overwhelmingly support a measure …

House Passes Budget With No GOP Votes  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the House have passed a $3.4 trillion budget outline that will help him pass health care reform later in the year.  —  Not a single Republican backed the plan, which passed by a 233-193 vote.

Reid's Specter deal stirs senior Dems' anger  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) deal to allow Sen. Arlen Specter to retain his seniority after he switches to the Democratic Conference has not been received well by senior senators in the party.  —  Several Democrats are furious …

New Hampshire Senate Votes to Legalize Gay Marriage  —  The Democratic controlled New Hampshire Senate passed an amended version of the controversial measure to legalize gay marriage today.  The vote was 13-11 in favor of the measure.  —  The House passed a similar measure last month by a 186-179 vote.

“Never Again,” Obama Style  —  No president in modern times has managed to conceal so much of his biography as this one.  The journalists assigned to the Obama beat seem to have lost their traditional avidity for digging out the missing details.  We do not have a medical report …

Against Waterboarding  —  I do not believe that the United States should have a policy of using waterboarding to extract information from captured combatants in the Global War on Terror (GWOT).  Let me explain why.  Any decent society needs to defend itself from armed aggression without becoming a society not worth defending.

Federal Judge Awards Transsexual $500,000  —  A federal judge has awarded a former Army Special Forces commander nearly $500,000 because she was rejected from a job at the Library of Congress while transitioning from a man to a woman.  —  WASHINGTON — A federal judge has awarded …

Obama Adviser: ‘Now it Truly Begins’  —  President to Look Ahead to the Next 100 Days in his Prime Time News Conference  —  President Obama's top advisers have spent most of the day playing the media-driven game of marking the president's 100th day in office.

Baghdad car bombings over 4 hours kill 48  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Six car bombings in four hours killed 48 people and wounded 81 in various Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.  —  In a separate incident, five people were killed and three wounded …