Sarah Palin to Contribute to Fox News  —  Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has signed on as a contributor to the Fox News Channel.  —  The network confirmed that Ms. Palin will appear on the network's programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Coakley lead solid in Democratic poll  —  Martha Coakley enjoys a solid, double-digit lead in the Massachusetts Senate special election, according to an internal Democratic poll obtained by POLITICO.  —  The survey, conducted by longtime Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, has Democrat Coakley …

Dems launch defense to save Reid  —  Democrats are preparing to throw the race card back in the laps of Republicans as part of a counterattack designed to help save Harry Reid's political career.  —  First, Reid's allies plan to distribute the NAACP vote ratings of Republican senators who have scolded him.

U.S. Supreme Court blocks video coverage of Prop. 8 trial  —  The ruling will keep the proceedings off YouTube.  The justices, acting on an emergency appeal, say showing video could jeopardize the fairness of the trial.  —  Reporting from Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court …

Learning From Europe  —  As health care reform nears the finish line, there is much wailing and rending of garments among conservatives.  And I'm not just talking about the tea partiers.  Even calmer conservatives have been issuing dire warnings that Obamacare will turn America into a European-style social democracy.

White House Changes Stimulus Jobs Count  —  When the White House unveiled its nearly $800 billion stimulus package last year, it promised not only to create and save 3.5 million jobs but also to open the books and prove it.  But counting jobs turned out to be a lot harder than lining up a work crew and tapping hardhats.

Health Care Overhaul Bill Is ‘Hanging by a Thread’: Dodd  —  Health care reform is “hanging on by a thread,” and one or two votes could determine the outcome of the heavily-debated bill, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd told CNBC Monday.  —  “Everyone feels, I guess, to some degree who have been for this …

White House Readies Aggressive Midterm Push  —  Axelrod Says Focus Will Be On Republican Alternatives  —  The White House strategy for contesting the midterm election is beginning to take shape.  —  In an interview with National Journal, senior White House political adviser David Axelrod laid …

The Bogus Flight 253 ‘One-Way Ticket’ Meme: Anatomy Of A Myth  —  In a remarkable example of how bad information can travel far and wide, dozens of media outlets around the world have said Umar Abdulmutallab was traveling on a one-way ticket to Detroit when he allegedly tried to blow up Flight 253 …

STIMULUS WATCH: Unemployment Unchanged by Projects  —  STIMULUS WATCH: Billions of stimulus dollars for roads, bridges didn't chop unemployment  —  A federal spending surge of more than $20 billion for roads and bridges in President Barack Obama's first stimulus has had no effect …

Mr. Smith Rewrites the Constitution  —  ABOUT the Senate, a college professor of mine used to say, “One day, the Supreme Court will declare it unconstitutional.”  He was joking, I think.  —  But the Senate, as it now operates, really has become unconstitutional: as we saw during …

Culture Shock  —  What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble.  —  Last May, Conor Friedersdorf, a twenty-eight-year-old recent graduate of NYU's Journalism School, decided he was going to save conservative journalism.

Game over: The Clintons stand alone  —  A new book is out with a highly critical but unsourced portrait of Hillary Clinton.  This familiar occurrence — it's happened too many times to count over the years — has usually been greeted with an equally familiar response: A fast and furious counterattack from the Clinton inner circle.

Lou Dobbs: What I've Learned  —  The broadcaster on (actually) being pro-immigrant, why he's a bit too enthusiastic about speaking his mind, and much more  —  I'm one of those fellas who's got lots of regrets, but I don't regret having regrets.  —  When you've got a 120-pound bale …

Obama Weighs Fee to Recoup Bank Bailout and Cut Deficit  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama is likely to propose a fee on financial institutions to help reduce the federal deficit when he releases his budget plans in February, although the details remain unresolved, according to administration officials.

Red-Ink Tsunami: Why Old Ideas Can't Fix the New Government Perma-Crisis  —  State and local governments have faced big budget gaps before.  Typically, things get tight for a while, then the economy perks up, tax revenues recover, and deficits are eliminated.  Life goes back to normal.

The Most Stunning (and Uncommented on) Revelation in Too Big Too Fail  —  Although I read it two months ago, I haven't made much in the way of comments on Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big Too Fail, figuring the ground was well plowed by others.  However, the bit that I found the most shocking …

Blagojevich: 'I'm Blacker Than Barack Obama'  —  Ex-Governor Later Calls Remark ‘A Stupid Thing To Say’  —  CHICAGO (CBS) ― Deposed Gov. Rod Blagojevich is apologizing for comments in a new interview, in which he claims he is “blacker” than President Barack Obama.

CNN Poll: Majority confident Obama can handle terrorism  —  Washington (CNN) - In the wake of the Christmas day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner, most Americans remain confident that the Obama administration can protect the country from terrorism, according to a new national poll.

Devaluation Sparks Chaos in Caracas  —  CARACAS — President Hugo Chávez's decision to devalue Venezuela's bolivar and impose a complicated new currency regime may paper over some growing cracks in the economy, but it is also setting the stage for bigger problems down the road …