Harkin: No place for GOP at Senate health-bill table  —  Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.  —  Harkin, a Democrat and chairman of one of the committees …

Grayson Breaks the Rules  —  Representative Alan Grayson's statement that the Republican plan for health care amounts to “don't get sick” and if you do “die quickly” probably doesn't meet a test of literal accuracy.  Reality is I guess closer to “only get sick if you're stably employed in a good …

Roman Polanski's Powerful Friends  —  If a rapist escapes justice for long enough, should the world hand him a get out of jail free card?  If you're Roman Polanski, world-famous director, a lot of famous and gifted people think the answer is yes.  Polanski, who drugged and anally raped …

Kerry blocks DeMint trip to Honduras  —  Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has blocked Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) trip to Honduras slated to begin Friday, according to DeMint's office.  —  DeMint's office informed The Hill of Kerry's decision Thursday afternoon.

Senator's Aid to Mistress's Husband Raises Ethics Flags  —  WASHINGTON — Early last year, Senator John Ensign contacted a small circle of political and corporate supporters back home in Nevada — a casino designer, an airline executive, the head of a utility and several political consultants …

McChrystal Rejects Scaling Down Afghan Military Aims  —  LONDON — The top military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, rejected calls for scaling down military objectives there on Thursday and said Washington did not have unlimited time to settle on a new strategy to pursue the eight-year-old war.

Chart of the Day  —  The Office of the Speaker of the House emails to nominate this for chart of the day.  Sure.  Why not.  It's a good chart.  Bottom line: the public really likes the idea of having a choice between either a private or a public health insurance plan.

Poll: 43% say Olympics trip ‘bad idea’  —  A plurality of Americans thinks President Barack Obama's trip to Copenhagen to lobby International Olympic Committee officials was a “bad idea,” according to a poll released Thursday by Rasmussen Reports.  —  Forty-three percent of the 1,000 adults …

Kristol Floats ‘Plausible Rumor’ That Hagel Will Replace Gates, Calls Him ‘An Advocate Of Retreat Everywhere’  —  Yesterday, Foreign Policy Initiative co-founder Bill Kristol appeared on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, where he said that he now believes “for the first time that he will not accept …

Carter walks back racism charge  —  Former President Jimmy Carter insisted Thursday that he did not say protests against President Barack Obama were driven by racism.  —  Carter touched off a firestorm three weeks ago when he said Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) “You Lie!” outburst was …

Support for Abortion Slips  —  Issue Ranks Lower on the Agenda  —  Overview  —  Polls conducted in 2009 have found fewer Americans expressing support for abortion than in previous years.  In Pew Research Center polls in 2007 and 2008, supporters of legal abortion clearly outnumbered opponents …

Assessing the GOP brand  —  How weak is the Republican brand right now?  This issue came up yesterday when a Media Matters criticized The Hill for failing to mention the GOP's poor polling numbers in a story on the 2010 elections.  Similarly, I recently suggested that that the damaged …

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE TAKES THE PRIZE  —  White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee took home the top prize in the 16th annual “D.C.'s Funniest Celebrity” contest on Wednesday evening, and he did so in a very unconventional way.  Instead of adopting a traditional comedic routine of joke buildup and punchline …

Iran Agrees to More Nuclear Talks With U.S. and Allies  —  GENEVA — Critical talks over Iran's nuclear ambitions that included the highest level bilateral discussions between the United States and Iran in many years ended Thursday evening with Iran agreeing to meet to talk again before the end of the month.

Hannity Targeting Gay Admin Figure Because He's Feeling Heat From Glenn Beck?  —  As devoted watchers of Fox News know, Sean Hannity has been waging something of a jihad against Kevin Jennings, a high level education official in the Obama administration who has been targeted by conservatives because of his past as a gay rights advocate.

GOP tried to recruit hero pilot ‘Sully’ for 2010 Congress bid  —  Sullenberger, a registered Republican and commercial airline pilot whose textbook landing in the Hudson River in January was labeled a miracle, made it clear through his business manager that he was not interested, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort.

How Politics Destroyed a Great TV Show  —  Either you are with me, or you are my enemy!" shouted a young Darth Vader in 2005's Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, one of the execrable prequels to the original films by George Lucas.  In response to this all-or-nothing provocation …

Grant gives Grateful Dead archive new life online  —  SANTA CRUZ — The Grateful Dead Archive has taken another step in its long strange trip, from the UC Santa Cruz library to its own Web site, The Virtual Terrapin Station.  —  One of the most popular bands in rock ‘n’ roll history …

Pawlenty preps 2012 campaign team  —  Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been quietly assembling the blueprint of a presidential campaign and will announce Thursday the support of a group of high-level political strategists and donors, complemented by a handful of top new media consultants, POLITICO has learned.