White House Kept Justice Lawyers in Dark on Warrantless Wiretapping  —  The Bush White House so strictly controlled access to its warrantless eavesdropping program that only three Justice Department lawyers were aware of the plan, which nearly ignited mass resignations and a constitutional crisis …

David Brooks: A Republican senator put ‘his hand on my inner thigh’ for a ‘whole’ dinner party.  —  Earlier this week, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about how “the dignity code” has been “completely obliterated” in Washington, DC.  Discussing the concept on MSNBC today …

House to target wealthy to pay for healthcare  —  The House will propose raising taxes on people earning more than $350,000 a year to pay $540 billion for healthcare reform, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Friday.  —  House Democrats had been weighing a plethora …

A Farewell to Harms  —  Palin was bad for the Republicans—and the republic.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Sarah Palin's resignation gives Republicans a new opportunity to see her plain—to review the bidding, see her strengths, acknowledge her limits, and let go of her drama.

Kirk Opts Out of Senate Race (Or Maybe He Doesn't)?  —  Rep. Mark Kirk will not run for the Senate from Illinois (or will he?).  Photo by Sabah Arar of AFP/Getty Images  —  Update, 4:17 p.m.: Although Kirk has already told several national Republicans today that he will not run for the Senate …

Movin' Out  —  ADVANCE COPY from the July 20, 2009 issue: Sarah Palin on why she resigned and what it means for her future.  —  In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of cheesy parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own.

2 world leaders demonstrate the 2 ways of conspicuously gawking at a woman's ass.  —  I see a distinct difference between these 2 stances.  Yes, there are similarities.  Both are blatant and hilarious.  But the Sarkozy ass-gawking stance says: I admire but I must not act.

“Busted?”  Fox News still running with Obama G8 photo story day after Van Susteren debunked it  —  SUMMARY: A day after Fox News host Greta Van Susteren debunked the “lying picture that's going around the Web” of President Obama purportedly “checking out” a young woman at a G8 photo shoot …

“Pals Around With Terrorists”: Palin Wasn't That Rogue, After All  —  In the mail this morning was an advanced copy of Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's extremely well-reported history of the 2008 presidential campaign: The Battle for America is what the two veteran Posties have called it.

Political opposition is not a hate crime  —  What's wrong with this picture?  The federal government spends billions on homeland security, but apparently can't stop foreigners from illegally crossing the border or overstaying their visas.  The Obama administration wants …

CNN Poll: Do Americans want Sotomayor confirmed?  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Just three days before the start of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, a new national poll indicates that by a narrow margin, Americans would like the Senate to confirm her as the next Supreme Court justice.

Christian Believers Would Be Excluded From Government If The Left Liberals Had Their Way  —  I don't know who's behind President Obama's appointment of Dr. Francis S. Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health.  Maybe it was the influence on the president of Nobel Laureate in Medicine …

Hampton: Religious Buddies Drove Ensign To FedEx To Mail Letter To Cindy  —  We're probably not going out on a limb by saying that Doug Hampton's entire televised interview about John Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife Cindy, and the fallout from it, had to have been pretty embarrassing …

Obama up big on Pawlenty, Palin  —  Barack Obama's approval rating in Minnesota has dropped six points since April, but that doesn't mean voters are responding too positively to some of his Republican alternatives.  —  54% of voters in the state now give Obama good marks, with 39% saying they disapprove of his job performance.

Efforts at Regulation Have Yoga Teachers Bent Out of Shape  —  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Ten years ago, with yoga transforming itself into a ubiquitous pop culture phenomenon from a niche pursuit, yoga teachers banded together to create a voluntary online registry of schools meeting …

Was Obama Checking Out This Girl's Butt?  —  Photo courtesy Jason Reed / Reuters-Landov  —  You may have seen this rather misleading photo doing the rounds this morning.  The photo appears to depict President Obama checking out the rear of 16 year old Brazilian girl Mayora Taveres.

House overwhelmingly rejects signing statement  —  The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration to abide by its constraints.  —  House members approved an amendment …

U.S. Said to Have Averted Inquiry Into '01 Afghan Killings  —  WASHINGTON — After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts …

Administration Considers Bailout Funds for Small Businesses  —  Proposal Would Take Money From $700B Program for Banking System  —  The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses …

Civil Rights Group Divided Over Gay Marriage  —  LOS ANGELES — The Southern Christian Leadership Conference — the 50-year-old civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others — is seeking to remove the president of its Los Angeles chapter in response …

High-Priced F-22 Fighter Has Major Shortcomings  —  The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces …

Rep. Paul Broun Outrageously Claims The Public Option “Is Gonna Kill People”  —  29 minutes ago by Media Matters Action Network … REP. BROUN: CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN DON'T APPRECIATE LIFE … Besides absurdly stating that the public option will “kill people,” Rep. Broun's ham-handed transition between …

Reporter: ‘We Took Sides, Straight and Simple’ Against Palin  —  On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling …

Have Palin and Sanford damaged the GOP brand?  —  Katherine Mangu-Ward and Glenn Reynolds finish their discussion. … Palin and Sanford are the least of the GOP's problems  —  Point: Katherine Mangu-Ward  —  The modern Republican Party comprises racist white reactionaries, rich CEOs …

The Stimulus Trap  —  As soon as the Obama administration-in-waiting announced its stimulus plan — this was before Inauguration Day — some of us worried that the plan would prove inadequate.  And we also worried that it might be hard, as a political matter, to come back for another round.