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.

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 …

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

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.

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.

Rep. Paul Ryan's daring budget proposal  —  The White House's 2011 budget is only the second-most interesting budget proposal released recently.  First prize goes to Congressman Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, who's released a budget proposal that actually erases the massive long-term deficit.

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 …

Obama administration is tone-deaf to concerns about terrorism  —  There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer.  Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists their rights …

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 …

Virginia Senate bills say no to requiring health insurance  —  RICHMOND — Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health care.

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.

Abstinence-only programs might work, study says  —  Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts …

Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are  —  I'll spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead: Tim Tebow is one of the better things to happen to young women in some time.  I realize this stance won't endear me to the …

Murtha back in the hospital  —  Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha was back in the hospital Tuesday after undergoing gall bladder surgery last week.  —  The Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington said that the 77-year-old Democrat was a patient in its intensive care unit but referred all questions about his condition to his family.

Durbin, Schumer prep for fight with donations to Senate colleagues  —  The second- and third-ranking Senate Democratic leaders are doling out huge sums of cash, laying the groundwork for a leadership race should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lose reelection.

Rising FHA default rate foreshadows a crush of foreclosures  —  The share of borrowers who are falling seriously behind on loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration jumped by more than a third in the past year, foreshadowing a crush of foreclosures that could further buffet an agency vital to the housing market's recovery.

A Depressing Budget  —  I haven't gone through the budget proposal in detail yet.  But there's no escaping the sense that this is a tremendous comedown from the hopes of a year ago.  —  As many have pointed out, the administration projects high unemployment for years to come:  —  BLS, OMB

Ford vs. ‘young lady’  —  Harold Ford, on Colbert, offers a remarkably hazy definition of “pro-life” and an unusual term to refer to his rival as he explained his shifting positions:  —  If you are looking for politicians who are static in thinking, I'm not your guy …

All Planning is Planning  —  There's some good stuff in this Fast Company article on spraw, new urbanism, and the downturn but this is a head-scratcher of a paragraph: … I think this captures the slightly pathological incoherence of our discourse around these issues.

Bunning tries, but fails, to force Geithner to testify under oath  —  Politics were on display early into Tuesday's budget hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, after Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) requested Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner deliver his entire testimony under oath.

Curveball Alters Talks on Wall St. Reform  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's proposals to tax and curb the activities of Wall Street have thrown an unpredictable element into the debate over financial regulatory reform.  They also have touched off an intensive new round of lobbying …

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 …

No populism in the primaries?  —  The Illinois primaries today are set to test a thesis I've been thinking about, and on which I'd be interested in readers' input: This wave of populist revulsion at the establishment, almost by definition, is far harder to bring to bear in primaries.