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 …

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 …

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.

Amy Bishop was charged with assault in 2002 IHOP dispute  —  In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.

Steele appeases Tea Party activists in lengthy meeting  —  Michael Steele met privately with 50 Tea Party leaders in Washington on Tuesday.  —  Washington (CNN) - An uneasy truce may have been reached between the Tea Party movement and the Republican Party after Republican National Committee …

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.

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 …

INTERVIEW-Nuclear power aids White House climate push  —  Source: Reuters  —  * Obama is optimistic about climate legislation status  —  * No timeline for more nuclear loan guarantees (Updates with quotes, background)  —  The White House is working hard to advance climate change legislation …

Poll: Large majority opposes Supreme Court's decision on campaign financing  —  Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Obama's Islamic Envoy Quoted Defending Man Charged With Aiding Terrorists  —  President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group

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 …

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.

Even Before Filming, Kennedy Series Stirs Anger  —  A new mini-series about John F. Kennedy's presidency that is being prepared by the History channel does not yet have a cast or a premiere date.  Not a frame of footage has been shot.  It does, however, have prominent critics who want it brought to a halt.

Exxon Hits Peak Oil... Reserves  —  Exxon Mobil (XOM) announced today that in 2009 the company's proven reserves increased by 133% of the amount of oil produced.  —  Exxon now has 23.3 billion oil-equivalent-barrels of reserves comprised of about half liquids and half gas.

Lawrence Kudlow: The Washington, D.C., disconnect  —  Washington's disconnect from the rest of the country has never been greater.  Why can't the political class in the District of Columbia produce a fiscal product that voters, taxpayers and investors are willing to consume?

What's Obama's beef with India?  —  It's easy to figure out why President Obama has little use for Israel and England.  Israel is the bete noir of most contemporary left-liberals and England was the colonial overlord of Kenya.  —  But what has Obama got against India?

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.

The Continuing Climate Meltdown  —  More embarrassments for the U.N. and ‘settled’ science.  —  It has been a bad—make that dreadful—few weeks for what used to be called the “settled science” of global warming, and especially for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is supposed to be its gold standard.

Speaker Pelosi bets the House on success of $787 billion stimulus  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has issued 260 statements on the stimulus package over the past year in an effort to win a debate that could be the key to retaining the Democrats' majority in the House.

Dems' blues: States reverting to red  —  The electoral map candidate Barack Obama remade in 2008 appears to be retreating into its familiar patterns.  —  Obama broke the decisive role Ohio and Florida seemed to play in presidential elections, by moving from trench warfare engagement …

Olympics call in new Zamboni to reshape speedskating oval  —  RICHMOND, B.C. — Some of the tensest moments at speedskating Tuesday came when there were no competitors on the ice.  —  That's because it was time to clean the ice and, after events of the two previous days …