Conditions for a coup in Congress  —  A congressional leader makes a startling statement.  The media jump on it, causing a firestorm.  The leader first fans the flames and then tries to put them out.  Speculation rises that the leader's colleagues are thinking about mounting a challenge.

The Supreme Court's stealth hard-liner.  —  Chief Justice John Roberts, in 2007.  Photograph by Steve Pyke.  —  KEYWORDS … When John G. Roberts, Jr., emerges from behind the red curtains and takes his place in the middle of the Supreme Court bench, he usually wears a pair of reading glasses …

Huntsman strategist: If Palin and Limbaugh dominate, GOP ‘headed for a blowout’ in 2012  —  The Republican strategist who helped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepare for a possible presidential run says the Republican party is in for a devastating defeat if its guiding lights are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney.

NYT defends Dowd in TPM flap  —  Last night, I reported on the plagiarism allegations leveled against New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd after a passage from a Talking Points Memo post by Josh Marshall ended up in her Sunday column without attribution.  —  On Sunday, Dowd told POLITICO …

U.S. to Issue Tougher Fuel Standards for Automobiles  —  WASHINGTON —The Obama administration will issue new national emissions and mileage requirements for cars and light trucks to resolve a long-running conflict among the states, the federal government and auto manufacturers, industry officials said Monday.

Exclusive: Clinton to be named UN special envoy on Haiti  —  Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be named a U.N. special envoy on Haiti this week, sources close to the United Nations tell The Cable.  —  A UN official confirmed to The Cable that there would be a formal announcement on this Tuesday.

Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich  —  Americans know how to use the moving van to escape high taxes.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  With states facing nearly $100 billion in combined budget deficits this year, we're seeing more governors than ever proposing the Barack Obama solution to balancing the budget: Soak the rich.

GOP Losses Span Nearly All Demographic Groups  —  Only frequent churchgoers show no decline in support since 2001  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away …

Introduction  —  I'm not one for long introductions.  This is a blog.  I'm a blogger.  We'll have fun.  You'll see.  —  But the overlords say it's good form.  So!  Our topic will be the politics and policy of the economy.  But that doesn't limit us to the latest unemployment numbers or the wreckage of a freshly collapsed bank.

Justices Turn Back Ex-Detainee's Suit Over Abuses  —  WASHINGTON — A Pakistani Muslim man who was arrested after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may not sue John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, and Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation …

A Smaller But Better Newsweek?  —  Jon Meacham admits it is hard to explain, even to his own people, why chopping Newsweek's circulation in half is a good thing.  —  “It's hugely counterintuitive,” the magazine's editor says.  “The staff doesn't understand it.”

Public Opinion Snapshot: Millennials Are a Progressive Generation  —  It's a “New Progressive America” out there, as I argued in my recent Center for American Progress report, with a new demography and a new agenda.  The new demography refers to the array of growing demographic groups …

Airport security bares all, or does it?  —  ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Privacy advocates plan to call on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend use of “whole-body imaging,” the airport security technology that critics say performs “a virtual strip search” and produces “naked” pictures of passengers, CNN has learned.

Prosecutors Block Access to DNA Testing for Inmates  —  In an age of advanced forensic science, the first step toward ending Kenneth Reed's prolonged series of legal appeals should be simple and quick: a DNA test, for which he has offered to pay, on evidence from the 1991 rape of which he was convicted.

At Geithner's Treasury, Key Decisions on Hold  —  Many Advisers' Roles Are Undefined And Others Still Awaiting Confirmation  —  Seven weeks after the Treasury Department announced that it was ousting General Motors chief G. Richard Wagoner Jr. in the federal bailout of the company, he is still technically on GM's payroll.

Oh my: Jim Webb flip-flops, now opposes closing Guantanamo  —  To be more precise: He now opposes closing it anytime soon but naturally is A-OK with closing it at some murky, distant time in the future.  Which, as far as I can tell, means he holds the same position on it as George W. Bush or Dick Cheney.

‘US special squad killed Benazir’  —  NEW YORK (Online) - Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney, which had already killed the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief of that country.

91-Year-Old Sen. Byrd Hospitalized  —  91-year-old Sen. Byrd hospitalized with high temperature  —  Sen. Robert C. Byrd, 91 and the longest-serving senator in history, was hospitalized last Friday with a temperature spike evidently caused by a minor infection, his office announced Monday.

Poor?  Pay Up.  —  Having Little Money Often Means No Car, No Washing Machine, No Checking Account And No Break From Fees and High Prices  —  You have to be rich to be poor.  —  That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand.

Tax Audits Are No Laughing Matter  —  A president shouldn't even joke about abusing IRS power.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Barack Obama owes his presidency in no small part to the power of rhetoric.  It's too bad he doesn't appreciate the damage that loose talk can do to America's tax system …

Geithner: No plans to cap executive pay  —  WASHINGTON - Financial sector executives should not fear government imposed caps on their salaries even as the Obama administration moves to influence how firms pay their employees.  —  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday that government should place …