Our One-Party Democracy  —  Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.

GOP Lawmaker's Graphic Sex-Bragging Caught On Tape  —  We've all seen those stories where a careless politician gets a little too candid when speaking into a hot mic.  But this one's really in a whole different league.  —  [RELATED SLIDESHOW: TPM'S HISTORY OF THE SEX-SCANDALOUS FALL OF THE MODERN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT]

Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.

Boehner: GOP leaders haven't met Obama for health talks since April  —  The ball is in President Obama's court to reach out to Republicans if he wants a bipartisan bill on healthcare reform, House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said Monday morning.  —  Boehner told reporters that the president …

Analysis: Two precedents in jeopardy  —  Analysis  —  If supporters of federal curbs on political campaign spending by corporations were counting on Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to hesitate to strike down such restrictions, they could take no comfort …

WHIP COUNT: DEMS LACK THE VOTES  —  At least 44 more moderate Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record in opposition to the current health care bill in the House, a Hill source claims.  Likewise, at least 57 liberal Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record saying …

With one simple sentence, ABC News confirms the death of Beltway journalism  —  It's from an online report about the Obama school “controversy,” and it's written by Dan Harris.  In his piece, Harris notes that conservatives pre-emptively blasted Obama's stay-in-school speech even though conservatives …

The Speech Tonight  —  With all of the TV chatter and bickering, it might be easy to forget what makes health insurance reform such a monumental issue.  It is not about the fortunes of one political party or another; it is about the anxiety and insecurity Americans face …

After Thesis Uproar, McDonnell's Strongly Worded Comments on Gays Resurface  —  ‘Homosexual Conduct’ Comments ‘Irrelevant’ to Campaign, He Says  —  In January 2003, then-Del. Robert F. McDonnell helped gavel in one of the most extraordinary judicial reappointment hearings in Virginia history …

Attacks on Sunstein Frustrate Conservative Fans  —  On January 8, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein would be nominated to run the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.  It was a surprising choice for a job, created in 1980 …

GOP Picks One-Time “Birther” To Rebut Obama's Health Care Speech [UPDATED]  —  UPDATE: An eagle-eyed reader points out that Boustany, after espousing his “Birther” views on camera, below, caved and retracted his statement on a Louisiana KPEL radio show.  —  Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany …

The GOP vs Fiscal Conservatism  —  Charlie Cook and others are predicting a sea-change in public mood, with support for the GOP rising because of deficits.  This strikes me as an amazing thing.  It makes Charlie Brown, the football and Lucy look like the model of intelligent interaction.

Less Spocky, More Rocky  —  As soon as I started covering Barack Obama, I knew he was going to be trouble.  —  Not Global Trouble, like W. and Dick Cheney.  Or Hanky-Panky Trouble, like Bill Clinton and John Edwards.  Or Tedious Trouble, like John Kerry and Michael Dukakis.

Too late for Obama to turn it around?  —  Plus: The left's visionaries lost their bearings on drugs — but the GOP is led by losers  —  What a difference a month makes!  When my last controversial column posted on Salon in the second week of August, most Democrats seemed frozen in suspended animation …

New Revelations Raise Questions About Justice Sotomayor's Temperament  —  It seems that Sonia Sotomayor celebrated her official ascension to the Supreme Court with a little dance party at the Irish Channel Pub in Chinatown here in DC:  —  Now as Sommer Mathis notes, this is a terrible bar:

Are the Days of Drudge Over?  —  Just over a month ago, Linda Douglass, a former ABC News correspondent and current communications director for the Obama administration's Health Reform Office, appeared in a video posted on the White House's official blog titled “Facts Are Stubborn Things.”

'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush  —  Smoke billows up Tuesday after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the military entrance to Kabul's airport, killing at least three.  Read the story.  (Photo by Hal Bernton of the Seattle Times.)