Evan Bayh: An ordinary politician  —  My impression of Evan Bayh was that he was a major deficit hypocrite.  Despite spending all his time talking about the need to reduce spending, he'd voted for all the major spending increases in recent years.  When I looked into it, that wasn't true …

4 Dem Senators Pressure Reid to Use Reconciliation for Public Option  —  Posted by Stephanie Condon Four Democratic senators, including two facing potentially challenging election campaigns this year, are asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation, a procedural maneuver requiring …

Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right  —  SANDPOINT, Idaho — Pam Stout has not always lived in fear of her government.  She remembers her years working in federal housing programs, watching government lift struggling families with job training and education.

Bill Keller Explains Why The New York Times Held the Story of Captured Taliban Commander: Transcript  —  HEADLEE: So explain the delay, the White House called you and asked you not to print the story?  —  KELLER: Well, actually, we called them, Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins had the story pretty …

52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection  —  52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll.  —  44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority …

Obama's disco-era jobs bill  —  WASHINGTON (Fortune) — The ghost of Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency is hovering over President Obama as the Democrats try to pass a jobs bill in time for this year's elections.  So why is the centerpiece of the measure — a tax break for companies that make new hires …

Scalia: “There Is No Right to Secede”  —  The right of a state to secede from the nation is way outside my personal injury wheelhouse.  But it has become a source of conversation on professorial and political blogs, and the concept has generated interest from the Tea Party movement.

BROWNS PROPOSE GAME WITH OBAMA  —  Hoops for Haiti, featuring President Barack Obama and Ayla Brown?  Maybe.  AP photo composite by POLITICO  —  Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his daughter, Ayla, say they're serious about their proposal to play hoops with President Barack Obama at the White House.

IN Dem Misses The Deadline  —  Restaurant owner Tamyra d'Ippolito (D) has enough signatures to make the ballot in the race to replace Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), she told Hotline OnCall in a brief interview, but an official in a key district says she has failed to reach the threshold.

Obama Selects Heads of His Deficit Panel  —  President Obama is going to name Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, as the co-chairmen of a bipartisan commission to recommend how to reduce high deficits …

What's the Deal?  —  One of the most intriguing news stories of the past week is the murder of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.  The team that carried out the assassination allegedly included eleven members, ten men and a woman.  They were evidently traveling on fake passports …

Keith Olbermann Defends MSNBC Against Charges Of Lack Of Diversity  —  Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night on his MSNBC show was about the undertones of racism within the Tea Party movement, and like he often does, he posted a portion on his Daily Kos blog.

Obama going nuclear: $8 billion startup  —  President Barack Obama today pledged $8 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first U.S. nuclear power plant in nearly three decades.  —  Speaking at a training center at the Landham, Md., headquarters of the International Brotherhood …

47% Blame Global Warming on Planetary Trends  —  Questions continue to mount over the science behind years of studies that say humans are chiefly to blame for global warming.  But reflecting a trend that has been going on for more than a year, just 35% of U.S. voters now believe global warming is caused primarily by human activity.

Another case of TSA overkill  —  Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.  —  Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

Oh, Canada for HRC if Pres. Palin?  —  From NBC's Courtney KubeSecretary of State Hillary Clinton could not escape U.S. politics during her trip to Saudi Arabia.  Early this morning during a town hall meeting with students at Dar Al Hekma College, a student asked Clinton if she thinks Sarah Palin …

Paterson Aide's Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny  —  David W. Johnson has worked for Gov. David A. Paterson for much of his adult life.  He began as a young, ambitious intern from Harlem when Mr. Paterson was a state legislator.  He rose to be Mr. Paterson's driver, serving as a kind of protector and scheduler.

Foreign demand for Teasury securities falls  —  Foreign demand for US Treasury securities falls by record amount as China reduces holdings  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The government said Tuesday that foreign demand for U.S. Treasury securities fell by the largest amount on record in December …

Lake Erie Frozen over; First Time in 14 Years  —  Following a cold snap in the Northeast, Lake Erie's surface is virtually frozen over for the first time in about 14 years.  —  The ice ranges in thickness between paper thin along the northern shore and several inches along the southern shore, where many people are ice skating.