Another Liberal Crackup  —  The real reason Evan Bayh wants out of Washington.  —  The political retirement of Evan Bayh, at age 54, is being portrayed by various sages as a result of too much partisanship, or the Senate's dysfunction, or even the systemic breakdown of American governance.

Exclusive: Hot Air Acquired By Salem Communications  —  CPAC hasn't even officially started and already its making news.  Mediaite has learned that leading center-right web site Hot Air has been acquired by Salem Communications for an undisclosed sum.  Sources close to the deal claim that Michelle Malkin …

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.

Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success  —  Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked.  —  Let's say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy.  Let's also imagine it was large enough …

Goldman Sachs, Greece Didn't Disclose Swap, Investors ‘Fooled’  —  Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managed $15 billion of bond sales for Greece after arranging a currency swap that allowed the government to hide the extent of its deficit.  —  No mention was made of the swap …

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.

Biden: Washington is “Broken”  —  Posted by Sean Alfano Vice President Joe Biden doesn't seem to miss his days as a senator.  —  In an interview with CBS “Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith, Biden was blunt about the nation's political system.  “Washington, right now, is broken.”

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.

The Accidental Plagiarist  —  Five days ago, Robert Thomson, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, wrote a letter to The Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, about “apparent plagiarism” on The Times' DealBook blog, in a post by Zachery Kouwe, a 31-year-old business reporter.

Republicans furious about timing of Bayh's retirement announcement  —  Republicans are livid about the timing of Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-Ind.) retirement announcement.  —  They have at least four candidates in the upcoming primary while the Indiana Democratic Party will get to decide its nominee.

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.

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 …

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 …

Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds Fear of a Debt Crisis  —  WASHINGTON — Senator Evan Bayh's comments this week about a dysfunctional Congress reflected a complaint being directed at Washington with increasing frequency, and there is broad agreement among critics about Exhibit A …

Odierno: Chalabi has clear ties to Iran  —  The top U.S. general in Iraq Gen. Ray Odierno told a Washington audience yesterday that the U.S. has direct intelligence that two Iraqi politicians are clearly influenced by Iran, and have held meetings in Iran with a terrorist.

2009- Global Warming Causes Foggy Days in San Francisco... 2010- Global Warming Causes Fog-less Days in San Francisco  —  You just can't make this stuff up.  —  Global warming blamed on foggier days in San Francisco:  —  SFGate reported this seven months ago:

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.

The secret behind the hot sales of “The Road to Serfdom” by free-market economist F. A. Hayek  —  Friedrich Hayek, Nobel-prize winning economist and well-known proponent of free markets, is having a big month.  He was last seen rap-debating with John Maynard Keynes in the viral video above …

NASA plans more outreach to Muslim countries  —  WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.

Pay-go gets passed, then it gets bypassed  —  The ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda.  —  Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending …

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.

It's past time for President Obama to show some leadership  —  It's a rotten time in Washington, and I'm not just talking about the snow.  Health-care reform, financial regulation, the jobs bill, the long-term budget deficit, energy and climate change — everywhere you turn, there's political stalemate.

Global Weirding Is Here  —  Of the festivals of nonsense that periodically overtake American politics, surely the silliest is the argument that because Washington is having a particularly snowy winter it proves that climate change is a hoax and, therefore, we need not bother with all this girly-man stuff …