Obama lists financial rescue as ‘most important thing’ of his first year  —  President Obama outlined Tuesday a first-year legislative record that he said rescued the economy and placed it on a path of long-term growth, even as he acknowledged that some unfinished items would probably …

Plan to Move Guantánamo Detainees Faces a New Delay  —  WASHINGTON — Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison.

Change... Obama Now More Loathed Than Bush at End of His Second Term  —  A Good Solid B+  —  Barack Obama's approval index number dropped to a new low today.  —  Rasmussen reported: … At the end of his second term President George W. Bush had a 43% disapproval rating.

EXCLUSIVE: Transvestites, Mao And Obama Ornaments Decorate White House Christmas Tree  —  Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements?  The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House.

After quiet first months, Franken's sharp tongue emerges in Senate  —  Al Franken, the Democrat from Minnesota who won election to the Senate after a successful career as a comic and author, has begun to show the sharp-tongued side of his personality by ripping into GOP staffers behind the scenes.

When legerdemain is used to pass an unpopular bill  —  Senior Political Analyst  —  It's time to blow the whistle on two erroneous statements that opponents and proponents of the health care legislation being jammed through Congress have been making.  Republicans have been saying that never …

BANNED!!  Making it on Sarah Palin's enemies list.  Update!  —  Today was the last day of Sarah Palin's book tour.  —  And it was to be held in the “picturesque” town of Wasilla, at the Curtis C. Menard Memorial Sports Center.  —  How could I miss it?  —  So Dennis Zaki and I loaded …

Why I Went on Fox and Friends  —  I notice there is a diary up on Daily Kos attacking me for going on Fox & Friends.  Unsurprisingly, it doesn't say what I actually said:  —  In 2000, the Republicans passed Medicare Part D, and it had no negotiation for prescription drug prices.

How do I know China wrecked the climate deal?  I was in the room  —  As recriminations fly post-Copenhagen, one writer offers a fly-on-the-wall account of how talks failed  —  • Ed Miliband: China tried to hijack climate deal  —  • The key players and how they rated  —  Copenhagen was a disaster.

The Green Movement's People Problem  —  The once unstoppable green machine lost its mojo at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.  After all its laboring and cajoling, the movement at the end resembled not a powerful juggernaut but a forlorn lover wondering why his date never showed up.

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen  —  Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism.  What her followers probably don't know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen.

SIREN: White House plans ‘very hard pivot to jobs’ next month — will be ‘prescriptive’ — Health reform NOT expected to pass before SOTU, but opponents concede it's ‘when’ not ‘if’  —  BREAKING — AP's Glen Johnson, in Boston: “Teresa Heinz says she is being treated for breast cancer discovered …

Cornyn: Conservatives ‘have to yield’ to reality in Senate races  —  Conservative primary voters “have to yield” to reality, Senate Republicans' campaign chairman said Wednesday.  —  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) …

Robert Byrd back in form for Senate health-care vote  —  Since Robert C. Byrd arrived in the Senate in 1959, the senior senator from West Virginia has cast more than 18,500 votes.  —  Byrd has orchestrated and witnessed maneuvering.  He has presided over the shortest session in Senate history …

Parker Griffith Cites “Liberal Policies,” GOP Support For NASA And Defense Projects  —  That's how sudden Republican Rep. Parker Griffith (AL) explained his decision to switch parties and become the House's newest Republican lawmaker, citing concerns that the Democratic House leadership …

WaPo Sits on Eyewitness Account on Snowball Gun Incident  —  Washington Post editorial aide Stephen Lowman was at 14th and U on Saturday when the controversial snowball-fight-cum-police-indiscretion went down.  He wasn't there on assignment—he was just taking it all in.  —  And take it all in he did.

Obama makes ‘surprise’ call to Gov. Kaine  —  WASHINGTON - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine received an unusual phone call while taking calls on WTOP's Ask the Governor program Tuesday.  —  It was President Barack Obama.  —  Kaine, unaware that caller “Barry from D.C.” would be Obama, reacted with surprise when the president said who he was.