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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Biden Fears Terror Hit by Individual  —  Veep Tells Harry Smith Administration Has Made Inroads against al Qaeda, but He's “Very Concerned” About Lone Attacker  —  (CBS) Vice President Joe Biden says the Obama administration has made “progress in dismantling the hierarchy of Al-Qaeda,” …

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?

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 …

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 …

Obama to create debt panel  —  President Obama will create a commission like the one that was killed in the Senate.  AP  —  President Obama will sign an executive order for a deficit commission on Thursday and name Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson as co-chairs.

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 …

New Hints of Skulduggery in Hamas Killing  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon — The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller.  At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision …

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.

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.

Elders of Wall St. Favor More Regulation  —  Put aside for a moment the populist pressure to regulate banking and trading.  Ask the elder statesmen of these industries — giants like George Soros, Nicholas F. Brady, John S. Reed, William H. Donaldson and John C. Bogle — where they stand on regulation …

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.

U.S. Supports New Nuclear Reactors in Georgia  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic audience of union officials in Lanham, Md., on Tuesday, underscored his embrace of nuclear power as a clean energy source, announcing that the Energy Department had approved financial help …