Harry Reid abdicates his leadership role  —  Bill Frist never had 60 votes.  Bill Frist never cared.  Republicans ran the Senate as if they owned the place, even when enjoying razor-thin majorities.  —  Yet when Democrats took the chamber, the first thing Harry Reid did was complain …

Majority of Nobel jury ‘objected to Obama prize’  —  OSLO — Three of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee had objections to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to US President Barack Obama, the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang (VG) reported Thursday.

CNN Admits That On-Air Commentator Has Ties To Insurance Industry, Promises Full Disclosure  —  Looks like the insurance industry has another PR mess on its hands.  —  CNN has acknowledged in a statement to me that a high-profile Republican commentator who frequently discusses health care …

Public Option Is Next Big Hurdle in Health Debate  —  WASHINGTON — As the White House and Congressional leaders turned in earnest on Wednesday to working out big differences in the five health care bills, perhaps no issue loomed as a greater obstacle than whether to establish a government-run competitor to the insurance industry.

When Your Neighbor Loses His Job It's A Recession.  When You Screw A Whore Behind Your Wife's Back, Get Caught, And Lose Your Job, It's A Catastrophic Economic Meltdown  —  Disgraced criminal Eliot Spitzer has for reasons unknown been occupying a columnist spot at Slate.com for some period of time.

Tonight... We Are All Rush Limbaugh  —  Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.  —  Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a radio personality.  —  Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a NFL owner denied

So Much for the Post-Racial America — By: Andy McCarthy  —  I'm hunkered down on some projects and just heard about the phony attacks on Rush by the race-hustlers extraordinaire, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  I know Rush has big shoulders and he'll handle it just fine.

Profile of Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director  —  Interim Media Strategist Leads Salvo Against Fox  —  Earlier this week, Anita Dunn inserted two words into the conservative electronic echo chamber: Anita Dunn.  —  With her CNN appearance on Sunday attacking Fox News as …

‘Dead’ al Qaeda terrorist surfaces for media  —  Doubts raised on drone tactics  —  A key al Qaeda military planner thought dead by the United States and Pakistan gave an interview this week to a Pakistani reporter, illustrating the uncertainties of a military strategy based on air strikes by unmanned drones.

French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban  —  When ten French soldiers were killed last year in an ambush by Afghan insurgents in what had seemed a relatively peaceful area, the French public were horrified.  —  Their revulsion increased with the news …

Third-party pooper: GOP's N.J. dilemma  —  The surging campaign of third-party candidate Chris Daggett has turned the New Jersey governor's race into a dead-heat and left Republicans divided over the seriousness of the threat he poses to GOP nominee Chris Christie.

New book pins ‘debategate’ on Dem  —  In the annals of Washington scandals, “debategate” in 1983 may have set some sort of record for flare followed by fizzle.  It looked to some reporters, for a brief moment, like it could topple a CIA director, a White House chief of staff and maybe even a president.

Maverick fallout: GOP won't retaliate  —  Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe's decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill.  —  That's about all they can do.

Rep. Shadegg: 'We're getting full on Russian gulag, Soviet-style gulag healthcare.'  —  Yesterday on the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) ranted against health reform.  While his colleagues have used inflammatory rhetoric to denigrate various health proposals …

G.O.P. Has a Lightning Rod, and It's Not Palin  —  BUFFALO, Minn. — Representative Michele Bachmann will appear in the 2010 calendar of “Great American Conservative Women” (she will be November).  Her likeness has been transformed into an action figure.  And, so far in 2009 …

Cap-and-Trade Climate Bill Would Slow U.S. Economy, CBO Head Says  —  A House-passed bill that targets climate change through a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits would slow the nation's economic growth slightly over the next few decades and would create “significant” …

ACORN Scandal Immortalized on ‘South Park’  —  ***VIDEO FIXED!!!  Watch the full episode here.  ACORN segment begins after the last commercial.  —  The ACORN scandal was immortalized tonight on “South Park.”  The plot of the season 13 episode “Butters' Bottom Bitch” is that Butters …

House Republicans may face a ‘civil war’ over Scozzafava bid  —  The House GOP conference is bitterly divided over a centrist New York Republican's run for the House seat vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh.  —  Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who backs abortion rights and has voiced support …

Why Joe Biden Should Resign  —  Joe Biden met with CENTCOM chief Gen. David Petraeus this morning to talk about Afghanistan — an issue that has pushed the vice president into the spotlight, landing him on the cover of the latest Newsweek.  —  I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention …

President Obama's Crucial Afghanistan Decision  —  Afghanistan could be the most important decision of Barack Obama's presidency.  Maybe that's why he is, in effect, making it twice.  —  What's odd about the administration's review of Afghanistan policy is that it is revisiting issues …