Poll shocker: Scott Brown surges ahead in Senate race  —  + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email + Bio  —  Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate …

Bankers Without a Clue  —  The official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — the group that aims to hold a modern version of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, whose investigations set the stage for New Deal bank regulation — began taking testimony on Wednesday.

What Karl Rove got wrong on the U.S. deficit  —  For its Topic A feature last Sunday, The Post invited a panel of political operatives to offer their advice to the Democratic Party on strategy for 2010 [Sunday Opinion, Jan. 10].  Improbably, one of the operatives asked was Karl Rove …

Limbaugh stands by his Haiti remarks, tells critical caller she's a ‘bigot’ with ‘tampons in her ears.’  —  Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh controversially said that President Obama was going to try to use the devastating Haitian earthquake to boost his credibility with the …

Cynicism on the excise tax  —  “Unions get a special two-year exclusion from the [excise] tax,” comments Megan McArdle.  “Presumably, the unions plan to go back and get their exclusion extended every few years.”  Tyler Cowen agrees with her, commenting that this will “increase the rate of unionization …

‘Very angry’ Dem sounds alarm  —  Democrats moved closer to a final deal on health care reform Thursday — and for some vulnerable members, the end can't come soon enough.  —  In an emotional talk with other Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee this week, North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy …

One year out: President Obama's fall  —  What went wrong?  A year ago, he was king of the world.  Now President Obama's approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president's second year.

Black activists sing Reid's praises  —  Senator's re-election event scheduled before brouhaha over ‘Negro dialect’ comment  —  It felt more like a religious revival than a political rally, with shouts of “Amen” filling the air.  A choir of third-graders raised their voices in song before a Baptist preacher led a prayer.

Martha Coakley's Convictions  —  The role played by the U.S. Senate candidate in a notorious sex case raises questions about her judgment.  —  The story of the Amiraults of Massachusetts, and of the prosecution that had turned the lives of this thriving American family to dust, was well known to the world by the year 2001.

Executive Leaps to Leno's Defense  —  The verbal battle in the late-night wars got louder Thursday as a top NBC executive struck back against on-air attacks on the network's once and future “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno.  —  The executive, Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports …

Former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford Jr.  —  Harold Ford Jr. has gone viral.  —  “You can judge from the editorials in the city, and just the response in the city and in the state that people don't want party bosses telling anyone that you can't run,” Ford said in a phone interview between meetings …

Testing the Waters: Santorum Makes It Official — By: Kathryn Jean Lopez  —  In a letter that went in the mail yesterday to his PAC, the America's Foundation, Rick Santorum talks about his concerns about Barack Obama's first year of “Change we can't afford.”