U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O'Keefe Case  —  James O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was “framed” by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday.

Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power  —  WASHINGTON — In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.  —  The first is the projected deficit in the coming year …

Frank Luntz Pens Memo To Kill Financial Regulatory Reform  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Nine months after he penned a memo laying out the arguments for health care legislation's destruction, Republican message guru Frank Luntz has put together a playbook to help derail financial regulatory reform.

Climate emails scientist ‘hid’ flaws  —  Exclusive: Key study by East Anglia professor Phil Jones was based on suspect figures  —  • How the location of weather stations in China undermines data  —  • How the ‘climategate’ scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics' lies

Ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'  —  When the Senate Armed Services Committee hears Tuesday morning from the Defense Department's top leaders, we will hopefully begin the task of ending the “don't ask, don't tell” policy on gays in the military.  This change would improve our military's capability …

Obama Budget Would Impose Host of Tax Increases  —  Obama budget plan would imposes host of tax increases on businesses, wealthy families  —  While President Barack Obama is proposing to cut some taxes for companies that hire workers, his budget would raise a host of other taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals.

Poll: Republicans Think Obama Is A Socialist, And Palin More Qualified To Be President  —  A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, conducted among 2,000 self-identified Republican respondents nationwide, gives an interesting peek into the psyche of the minority party's base.

Bill Watterson, creator of beloved ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ comic strip looks back with no regrets  —  This marks the 15th year since “Calvin and Hobbes” said goodbye to the comics pages.  Creator Bill Watterson, who grew up in Chagrin Falls and still makes Greater Cleveland his home …

Getting real about Congress  —  “No single vote by any single senator could possibly illustrate everything that is wrong with Washington today,” writes Fred Hiatt.  “No single vote could embody the full cynicism and cowardice of our political elite at its worst, or explain by itself why problems do not get solved.”

Bill Kristol agrees that Obama's ‘been doing all kinds of crazy stuff that risks destroying America’  —  One of the key points President Obama made in his back-and-forth with House Republicans seems to be really sticking in the craw of the right-wing pundit class: … Bill Kristol, yesterday on Fox News Sunday:

Chris Matthews Compares Conservative Republicans to Murderous Khmer Rouge Regime  —  Appearing on the January 29 “Rachel Maddow Show,” fellow MSNBCer Chris Matthews compared Republican conservatives to the Khmer Rouge, the murderous Communist regime that racked up a body count of some two million during its reign of terror:

Senate Aides Identify Key Roadblock To Passing Reform Via Reconciliation  —  Senate leadership aides have identified what they see as a key roadblock to passing a fix to their bill via reconciliation — and parliamentarians in the Senate and House are hard at work trying to identify a solution, aides say.

Danny Williams going to U.S. for heart surgery  —  Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States.  —  CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 59, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.

Obama to unveil small biz lending plan drawn from bailout funds  —  President Barack Obama will call Tuesday for a new, $30 billion small business lending fund drawn from bailout funds as part of his push for new job creation.  —  The president will unveil his new “Small Business Lending Fund” …

Iraq Veteran Leads 'Don't Ask' Push  —  The Obama administration's staunchest ally in the uphill fight to allow gays to openly serve in the nation's military is a little-known Democratic congressman named Patrick Murphy, an Iraq war veteran who has written the only legislation that would repeal the “don't ask, don't tell” restrictions.

Election 2010: Florida Republican Primary for Senate  —  Florida GOP Senate: Rubio 49%, Crist 37%  —  Former state House Speaker Marco Rubio has now jumped to a 12-point lead over Governor Charlie Crist in Florida's Republican Primary race for the U.S. Senate.

Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?  —  The newly-released mind-boggling, record-smashing $3,400,000,000,000 federal budget invites plenty of opportunity to debate the merits of incurring more and more debt that will drown the next generation of Americans.  Never has it been possible to spend your way out of debt.

Arkansas Poll Preview  —  We are going to have Blanche Lincoln-John Boozman numbers tomorrow and they aren't pretty for Lincoln.  —  If I had to name one reason Lincoln is in so much trouble it's that voters are no longer differentiating her from national Democrats.

Specter To Sestak: Imma Let You Finish ...  At a Pennsylvania Progressive forum this Saturday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) were supposed to be doing separate Q&As, one after the other.  —  But Specter apparently jumped the gun and climbed onstage while Sestak was giving …

The Death of Global Warming  —  The global warming movement as we have known it is dead.  Its health had been in steady decline during the last year as the once robust hopes for a strong and legally binding treaty to be agreed upon at the Copenhagen Summit faded away.

College tuition hikes in double digits  —  State budget deficits contribute to higher education costs  —  SEATTLE - As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities.

Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores  —  One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image.  So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee …

The Geezers' Crusade  —  We like to think that in days gone by, the young venerated the elderly.  But that wasn't always so.  In “As You Like It,” Shakespeare's morose character, Jaques, calls old age “second childishness and mere oblivion.”  Walt Whitman hoped that the tedium and pettiness …

Officials OKd Miranda warning for accused airline plotter  —  At least four U.S. agencies were involved in a decision to read Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his rights, sources say, after it was clear that he had stopped sharing information.  —  Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair …

UPDATED AGAIN: Science Triumphs in Obama's 2011 Budget Request  —  Wow.  A first, quick look at what President Barack Obama wants to spend next year on science shows across-the-board increases for research and training.  Those gains come despite the president's plan to freeze domestic discretionary programs …