Specter: GOP priorities contributed to Kemp death  —  Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

BofA and Citi in last push on stress tests  —  Citigroup and Bank of America are working on plans to raise more than $10bn each in fresh capital, even as they launch last-ditch attempts to convince the US government they do not need to bolster their balance sheets.

GOP turns to Bush aides for revival  —  Republicans looking to recover from Bush-era defeats are turning to an unlikely source for advice: top aides to former President George W. Bush.  —  Former White House press secretary Dana Perino, former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie …

The Sotomayor Video: I have a different reaction than my co-blogger Jonathan to the video of Judge Sotomayor.  Here's the transcript, as best I can tell: … As I see it, Judge Sotomayor is saying that, descriptively, the court of appeals is “where policy is made.”

4th-Grader Questions Rice on Waterboarding  —  Ex-Secretary of State Stresses Legality  —  Days after telling students at Stanford University that waterboarding was legal “by definition if it was authorized by the president,” former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was pressed again …

The World's New Numbers  —  “Here lies Europe, overwhelmed by Muslim immigrants and emptied of native-born Europeans.”  That is the obituary some pundits have been writing in recent years.  But neither the immigrants nor the Europeans are playing their assigned roles.

Pakistan Strife Raises U.S. Doubts on Nuclear Arms  —  WASHINGTON — As the insurgency of the Taliban and Al Qaeda spreads in Pakistan, senior American officials say they are increasingly concerned about new vulnerabilities for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, including the potential for militants …

China Forces Dozens of Mexican Travelers Into Quarantine  —  BEIJING — The A/H1N1 flu outbreak is leading to a potential diplomatic row between China and Mexico, as Chinese health authorities round up and quarantine scores of Mexicans — only one of whom is thus far reported to be sick — as they fly in on business and holiday trips.

Falling Wage Syndrome  —  Wages are falling all across America.  —  Some of the wage cuts, like the givebacks by Chrysler workers, are the price of federal aid.  Others, like the tentative agreement on a salary cut here at The Times, are the result of discussions between employers and their union employees.

N.Y. Fed Chair Faces Questions on Goldman  —  The Federal Reserve Bank of New York shaped Washington's response to the financial crisis late last year, which buoyed Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other Wall Street firms.  Goldman received speedy approval to become a bank holding company …