NBC: 7 dead, 12 injured in Fort Hood shooting  —  No word from the military base whether the victims are military or civilians  —  At least seven people are dead and 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.

Tea partiers descend on Capitol  —  The Tea Party holds no seat in Congress, but at least 10,000 of the party's members descended on Capitol Hill Thursday to rally against a Democratic-written health care overhaul.  —  A plan first hatched and heralded on FOX by iconic conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann …

WEAK KNEES KEEP SHAKING.... In Tuesday's congressional races, voters sent two more House Democrats to Congress, expanding an already-large Democratic majority on the Hill.  In 2008, the electorate made a House Democratic majority bigger, and in 2009, Dems went five for five in special elections, making that majority bigger still.

Bachmann calls for ‘scare’ tactics  —  In a conference call Wednesday night with bloggers and activists for the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called on protesters to “scare” members of Congress into killing the proposed health care reform bill.

Right-wing protesters at GOP rally display prominent sign tying health care to the Holocaust.  —  ThinkProgress' Lee Fang snapped this photograph of a prominent sign being displayed at today's GOP anti-health care rally.  It's unclear whether this sign is one of the many being handed …

Steele to Republicans Who Support Obama: 'We'll Come After You'  —  ABC News' Rick Klein reports: RNC Chairman Michael Steele has been endorsing a “big tent” approach to recruiting candidates for 2010, emphasizing the need to find candidates who fit the needs of individual districts.

Huckabee, Romney, Palin See Most Republican Support for '12  —  Huckabee, Romney viewed as most qualified of possible Republican presidential candidates  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Looking ahead to the 2012 presidential election, 71% of Republicans say they would seriously consider voting for Mike Huckabee.

Senate panel approves Democratic climate bill  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A controversial climate change bill cleared its first hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, allowing President Barack Obama to tout progress in the run-up to next month's global warming talks in Copenhagen.

Crist says he never backed stimulus measure  —  (CNN) - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist tells CNN he never endorsed President Obama's $787 billion stimulus measure, in what appears to be the latest effort by the Florida Republican to distance himself from the president as he seeks his party's Senate nomination.

The Vote for Mayor, Block by Block  —  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg won re-election Tuesday, but voters were less enthusiastic about him than the last time he ran in 2005.  The mayor did well in high-income white areas of Manhattan and Queens, and also in election districts dominated by immigrants, like Flushing and Brighton Beach.