On the NY23 Race, We Have A Practical Choice To Make  —  In the statement and audio clips below, Speaker Gingrich explains his decision to endorse Dede Scozzafava in the NY 23 special election:  —  Through my experience as Speaker of the House and building a Republican majority in 1994 …

Temporary Beltway Sanity  —  The doctor fix blows up in the Senate, no thanks to the AMA.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Yesterday saw some rare good news on the health-care front, with the stealth Democratic plan to move $247 billion in ObamaCare costs off the books collapsing in the Senate on a procedural vote of 47 to 53.

Conservatives roar; GOP trembles  —  Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party's chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.

W.H.: Cheney failed on Afghanistan … No comments yet.  Be the first!

Obama administration to cut executive pay at 7 bailed-out firms  —  NEW YORK — The Obama administration plans to order companies that have received exceptionally large amounts of bailout money from the government to slash compensation for their highest-paid executives by about half on average …

Cheney: “We cannot protect this country by putting politics over security, and turning the guns on our own guys”  —  On Wednesday night, October 21, former Vice President Dick Cheney received the Center's 20th Keeper of the Flame Award.  —  Here are the Vice President's prepared remarks:

AHIP Lobbyist To GOP: Don't Give “Comfort To The Enemy” On Health Care  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  A top lobbyist for the major private insurance industry trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), urged Congressional Republicans to not even consider helping Democrats pass …

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming  —  Modest Support for “Cap and Trade” Policy  —  There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising.  And fewer also see global warming …

EVEN NPR.... Ken Rudin is the political editor for NPR.  To see him swallow the latest Republican attack meme whole is more than a little painful.  Here's his commentary on “Talk of the Nation” yesterday, complaining about the White House's criticism of Fox News. … I'd like to think Ken Rudin knows better.

How John Kerry got the Afghan leader to see sense.  —  Sen. John Kerry's successful mission to Kabul—in which he convinced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to hold a second-round runoff to August's fraud-soaked election—suggests that the Obama administration is putting the squeeze on Karzai …

Mock As We Say!  —  Not as we do!  —  Lefties resort to sexism vs. empowered woman!  Again!  (Caution: Don't try this with the sitting president) Entertainment Weekly: … Such a good joke, they're all telling it: … It's OK.  Making fun of a powerful self-made woman of backwoods origins is good clean fun!

Snowe: I Do Not Support Opt Out Compromise, Would Likely Filibuster Public Option Bill  —  In a huddle with reporters moments ago, I asked Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) for her thoughts on a public option compromise that would allow states to opt out of a national government insurance program …

For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking  —  JACKIE KLEIN is a devoted mother of two little boys in the suburbs of Portland, Ore. She spends hours ferrying them to soccer and Cub Scouts.  She reads child-development books.  She can emulate one of those pitch-perfect calm maternal tones to warn …

Tzipi Livni Shows Prime Ministerial Stuff on J Street Conference  —  The more I listen to Congressional Opposition chief John Boehner as of late, the more I wish he could find the dignity and common ground for big objectives that Israel's Opposition Party Leader, Kadima Party chief Tzipi Livni …

At n+1 Panel, the Cat Got Douthat's Tongue on Topic of of Gay Marriage  —  Ross Douthat, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was made visibly uncomfortable for a moment while onstage last night at the New School's Tishman auditorium.  Having sailed through a discussion titled …

Torture songs spur a protest most vocal  —  Musicians call for release of records on Guantanamo detainee treatment  —  Was the theme to “Sesame Street” really played to torture prisoners held at Guantanamo and other detention camps?  What about Don McLean's “American Pie”?  Or the Meow Mix jingle?