Cornyn: ‘We Will Not Spend Money in a Contested Primary’  —  ABC News' Rick Klein reports:  —  With Republicans grappling with the fallout of an intra-party battle that may have cost them a House seat, the head of the Senate Republican campaign effort is making a pledge that may ease …

Letter to Reid on healthcare from former Surgeon General Koop shuts Senate  —  A letter about healthcare reform to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop triggered a security scare that briefly shut down much of the Senate on Wednesday.

Yesterday's Overwhelming Historic Republican Victory Makes Democratic Health Care Reform Just A Bit Easier  —  Most of the commentary about last night's elections has centered around Republican pickups in the New Jersey and Virginia statehouses.  But what's gone largely unnoticed …

How Gay Marriage Lost In Maine  —  Mainers, and national observers, have woken up this morning asking how the Yes on 1 coalition won this fight.  Through most of the lead up to this vote, observers (including myself) felt that it would be extremely close, potentially to a recount, and that the No on 1 folks had the early advantage.

Bachmann aide no longer taking care of business  —  The aide who helped turn Rep. Michele Bachmann into a controversial mainstay of cable news has informed colleagues that she's quitting - just as the firebrand Republican congresswoman prepares for her biggest media moment yet.

Prejean Sex Tape Triggers Settlement  —  Carrie Prejean demanded more than a million dollars during her settlement negotiations with Miss California USA Pageant officials — that is, until the lawyer for the Pageant showed Carrie an XXX home video of her handiwork.

AP Sources: AARP to endorse House health care bill  —  WASHINGTON — Officials are telling The Associated Press that AARP_the seniors' lobby_will endorse the health care overhaul bill that House Democrats are preparing to take to the floor.  —  Officials with knowledge of the group's decision told …

Panel goes AWOL in GOP earmark war  —  On Nov. 19, 2008, House GOP leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor created a select committee on earmark reform to bring “meaningful change to the process by which Washington spends taxpayers' hard-earned money.”  —  Nearly a year later …

Obama Watched HBO Special About Himself Instead of Election Results  —  UPDATE: Fox News misreported Gibbs' press gaggle comments.  He did not claim President watched HBO special on election night.  —  During the 10AM ET hour of America's Newsroom on Fox News Channel …

ELEMENTARY EPIDEMIC: 11 Uncovered Videos Show School Children Performing Praises to Obama  —  Big Hollywood has already posted a couple disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock.

STIMULUS WATCH: Salary raise counted as saved job  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan.  Trouble is, only 508 people work there.

Pancho  —  Barone studiously avoids mention of the increase in the “D” House delegation despite the best efforts of Palin, Bachmann, Limbaugh, Malkin, etc., in NY Congressional District 23.  —  Michael Bloomberg nearly lost his mayoral seat in NYC despite outspending his Democratic opponent 5-1.

Voters Roll Back Democratic Gains in New York Suburbs  —  Voters in two of New York's wealthiest suburbs, where Democrats had established a stronghold in recent elections, shocked the party by backing virtual unknowns in two contests that left one three-term incumbent defeated, and a former rising star dangling by his political life.

Obama Uses Malia's Test Scores as a Teaching Example  —  MADISON, Wisconsin - President Obama marked the first anniversary of his election on Wednesday by calling on states to toughen their education standards - and wound up calling on parents to toughen theirs, too, as he confessed …

Why I'm running for Senate  —  Our most pressing problems today are too few jobs for Americans and too much spending in Washington.  —  CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE FROM CALIFORNIA  —  Recommend  —  Admittedly, I have not always been engaged in the electoral process, and I should have been.

Where in the World Was Keith Olbermann?  —  MSNBC boasted that on election night they would present a “special live edition of Countdown” at 10:00 pm.  But with bad news for the Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a funny thing happened on the way to the bonus Hour of Spin.  Keith wasn't there!

Conservatives Rework Rhetoric After NY-23 Loss  —  Tea Partiers Say GOP Loss Enough for Conservative Victory  —  Saranac Lake, N.Y. - Jim Kelly walked into the lounge of the Hotel Saranac, his red tie undone and flapping against his shirt.  He sighed.  He plopped into a chair.

V: Tea Party TV  —  I didn't watch much television as a kid.  But when the miniseries “V” came out in 1983, when I was eleven years old, it was event television for the entire family.  The sci-fi series used an alien invasion of Earth under friendly guise as a metaphor for fascism.

Axelrod: NY-23 Is A Reminder For Blue Dogs  —  Senior White House adviser David Axelrod just made an appearance on MSNBC, and, as host Andrea Mitchell asked him about the elections last night (which, by the way, are being cast by some as an “awful day” for President Obama) and their implications …

Who Are You Calling a Narcissist, Rush?  —  I had a four-hour dinner once with Rush Limbaugh at the “21” Club in Manhattan, back in the days when I was still writing profiles as a “reporterette,” to use a Limbaugh coinage.  —  He was charming, in a shy, awkward, lonely-guy way.  Not a man of the people.

A brief history of Goldman Sachs heads  —  With Jon Corzine losing the governorship of New Jersey yesterday, it was yet another bad day for former heads of Goldman Sachs.  It's worth running down the list, since the venerable pairing of John Weinberg and John Whitehead came to an end in 1990.

Secret copyright treaty leaks.  It's bad.  Very bad.  —  The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to “national security” concerns, has leaked.  It's bad.  It says:

Obama's brother speaks out for first time  —  GUANGZHOU, China — The mixed-race son of a brilliant but troubled Kenyan academic and a white American woman writes an emotionally wrenching book about his search for identity and self.  —  This is not the familiar story of President Obama.

Italian court convicts 23 Americans in CIA rendition case; extradition undecided  —  MILAN — An Italian court on Wednesday convicted 22 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force colonel of orchestrating the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric here in 2003 and flying him to Egypt, where he said he was tortured.