Dem: House GOP is “80 percent male, 100 percent white”  —  The National Republican Congressional Committee is urging Gen. Stanley McChrystal to put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in her place” for weighing in on Afghanistan — prompting one female Pelosi ally to blast the House GOP as …

The Cup of Coffee: White House's David Axelrod Meets With Fox News' Roger Ailes  —  On a recent visit to New York, White House adviser David Axelrod met over coffee with Roger Ailes, the president of the Fox News network, which President Obama has described as a “television station …

Tom DeLay to Quit Dancing with the Stars  —  It's the end of the road for Tom DeLay.  —  Sources tell PEOPLE that the former Republican House Majority Leader will withdraw from Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday's live results show due to stress fractures in both of his feet.

Cantor: Obama Still Deliberating Whether We Need to Defeat Taliban  —  Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) just wrapped up a conference call with reporters following a meeting he attended with other members of Congress, the president and his advisers at the White House this afternoon.

How Health Care Reform Won  —  The biggest story in health care reform this year has not been the town hall meetings, or President Obama's big speech on health care.  It's that the Senate Democrats have decided they're going to pass a bill.  You just haven't heard much about this story …

The constitutionality of healthcare  —  There's nothing illegal about requiring Americans to buy medical insurance.  —  Are the healthcare bills pending in the House and Senate unconstitutional?  —  That's what some of the bills' critics have alleged.  Their argument focuses on the fact …

Is the Bible too liberal?  —  Conservapedia's attempt to weed out “liberal bias” from modern Bible translations  —  BEST OPINION: TIME, NEWSBUSTERS, BELIEFNET, SOUTHERN APPEAL ...  “And you thought liberal bias was limited to the evil mainstream media,” said Amy Sullivan in Time.

Feingold's Statement on ‘Czars’  —  Following are the prepared remarks by Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, on the use of “czars” in the executive branch, as released by the senator's office on Tuesday.  —  “I think it is fair to acknowledge that there has been a lot of discussion …

The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see!  —  Last month, Xeni blogged about the photoshop disaster that is this Ralph Lauren advertisement, in which a model's proportions appear to have been altered to give her an impossibly skinny body ("Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis").

Obama kills funding for Iranian human-rights watch agency  —  The Iran Human Rights Watch Documentation Center can be excused for thinking that this year might make them more indispensable than ever.  After all, the Iranian mullahcracy rigged a presidential election and brutally suppressed widespread protests …

ACORN: Congress can't hurt us  —  Any successful efforts by Congress to cut off federal funding to scandal-plagued ACORN would have little effect on the community organizing group's overall operations, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday.  —  “We didn't have government funding for years,” said ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis.

Two Fish, One Barrel: Deconstructing Andrew Sullivan's ‘The Breitbart Standard,’ Demolishing Conor Friedersdorf's 'The Right's Lesser Media'  —  To which I respond to my unofficial biographer Conor Friedersdorf's Daily Beast criticism of your's truly and bigger fish Andrew Sullivan's two-thumbs-up to it:

Obama Says He Won't Slash Troops in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama told Congressional leaders on Tuesday that he would not substantially reduce American forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to just hunting terrorists there, but he indicated that he remained undecided …

Bill Ayers No Dream  —  There I was, sitting in Reagan National Monday morning, sipping a Starbucks by the United counter before going through security.  I had a little time, so I was browsing through the news.  Some military guys had borrowed a chair from my table.

Michael Moore's Problems Are Our Fault  —  Michael Moore arrives at an LA premiere of his latest film, ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ in September 2009 (Kevin Winters/Getty Images for Overture) … The reaction to Michael Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, reinforces a suspicion …

Fox News's Shepard Smith Goes After Sen. John Barrasso On Public Option  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Earlier this afternoon, Fox News's Shepard Smith demonstrated some of that trademarked independent thinking that so often gets him in dutch with the cable network's most dedicated viewers …

D.C. to Introduce Same-Sex Marriage Bill  —  Measure Is Expected to Pass Congress, but Its Viability May Depend on Tilt of Future Chambers  —  Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill said it appears unlikely that Congress will block a bill to be introduced Tuesday that would allow same-sex marriages in the District.

Senate moderates echo GOP call for 72-hour disclosure  —  As the health care reform bill moves to the Senate floor, a key bloc of moderate Senate Democrats and an independent called on Senate Majority Leader Reid to increase the process' transparency.  —  Specifically, the senators called …

Let's Remember That Letterman's a Clown, Not a Cleric or Congressman  —  One of many sad things about recent stanzas in the ballad of David Letterman is that now, in all media, Dave will be lumped in with other sexually misbehaving celebrities, even though he stands head and heart above most of them.

Video: CNN helps Obama out by ... fact-checking SNL's skit  —  Via Greg Hengler.  Heaven forbid that the average half-drunk late-night Saturday TV viewer be “misinformed” about our savior by a comedy show reminding them that health care's “not done” (which it isn't) and that Afghanistan's gotten worse this year (which it has).

MSNBC's Ratigan battles McCaughey  —  Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy  —  Anthony Weiner and Betsy McCaughey brought their act to MSNBC this morning, where Weiner — unlike last night — was a relatively mellow presence while host Dylan Ratigan tangled bitterly with McCaughey.