A Hatchet Job So Bad It's Good  —  In the past, the insurance industry's power has been a major barrier to health-care reform.  Most notably, the industry paid for the infamous “Harry and Louise” ads that helped kill the Clinton plan.  But times have changed.

FOX News vs. White House: Round three  —  In Glenn Beck's pursuit of every member of the Obama administration who ever hung a Che Guevera poster on his college dorm wall, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has become a new target for.... Well, for criticizing FOX News.

Exclusive: W.H. helped create corporate-backed health care campaign  —  At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups …

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.  —  HAMMOND, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.  —  Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish …

Meghan McCain twitter photo backlash leads to apology  —  Republican firebrand Meghan McCain's skimpy pajamas have her conservative followers all atwitter, forcing the daughter of failed 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain to apologize for posting a racy photo of her décolletage.

BREAKING: Dems Go Nuclear on Obamacare  —  House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) held a hearing this morning to certify that H.R. 3200 — the main House Obamacare bill which was the subject of all the town hall rage in August — has met all requirements to pass as a “budget reconciliation” measure.

Glenn Beck Cries AGAIN On Air, Pining For A Simpler Time In America (VIDEO)  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Glenn Beck was in the middle of pining for a ‘simpler time’ in America when he decided the best way to illustrate this idea was to show two advertisements from said 'simpler …

HuffPo, Rick Sanchez retract phony Limbaugh quotes  —  No harm in admitting the lie now that his NFL bid's dead.  First, via the Standard, comes this belated HuffPo postscript to a post that's three years old: … And now here's Sanchez, kinda sorta apologizing — on Twitter …

No Nobel Results From Obama Foreign Policy  —  About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama's foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five …

John Edwards, Sarah Palin Both See Favorable Ratings Slide  —  Edwards' popularity down 27 points since January 2008  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Former presidential and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, embroiled in personal scandal, is rated favorably by 21% of Americans and unfavorably by 59%.

Michigan Dem responds to GOP charges about Muslim interns  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is blasting charges by a group of Republican lawmakers that a Muslim activist group has planted interns on Capitol Hill in an effort to alter national security legislation.

$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan  —  The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan.  —  The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week.

Poll Finds Little Faith in New Jersey's Candidates  —  In New Jersey, one of only two states with governor's races this year, voters are gloomy about the future, upset about their own circumstances and deeply unsettled by the economy.  —  Still, they remain broadly supportive of President Obama …

Sky-high drama ends in the family attic  —  (CNN) — After scouring northern Colorado by foot and air, frantically chasing a Mylar balloon for miles and repeatedly interviewing his big brother, authorities ended the search for 6-year-old Falcon Heene where it began — at his house.  —  He was in a box.

The Reality Moment  —  That which can't continue doesn't.  A nation can spend and spend, pile debt upon debt, but eventually there comes a reality moment when some leader emerges to say enough is enough and when decent people, looking around at themselves and their own best nature, respond by demanding a return to responsibility.

Morning Fix: Reid's Early-Bird Ad Strategy  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) took to the Nevada airwaves this week with a series of ads designed to reintroduce him to the state's voters more than a year before any votes will be cast.  —  Reid launched two different ads on Thursday.