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.

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 …

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.”

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

Tea partiers get audience with RNC chairman but not a shared public stage  —  Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele treated tea party leaders like an ugly date Tuesday afternoon: They were good enough to take upstairs, but not good enough to be seen with in public.

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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:

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 …

The Rape of American Prisoners  —  Summary Report for Administrative Review  —  Texas Youth Commission, Office of the General Counsel, 14 pp.  (2005)  —  Report of Investigation  —  by Brian Burzynski  —  Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Ranger Division, redacted version, 229 pp.

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.

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?

Koch ‘Not Really’ For Paterson  —  It was, at best, a sympathy endorsement of an embattled fellow Democrat by an eminence grise, but former Mayor Ed Koch nevertheless wants to set the record straight.  —  No. He has not endorsed Gov. David Paterson.

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 …