White House: If GOP Filibusters, We'll Pass Health Reform Via Reconciliation  —  The game of chicken commenceth — right now.  —  In the course of unveiling Obama's new health reform proposal on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers made it clearer than ever before …

(2 of 2)  —  “Looking at it from a cultural, historical perspective, this organization should be called ‘Planned Barrenhood’ because they have nothing to do with families, they have nothing to do with responsibility,” Marshall said.  —  Nelson suggested that the organization be called …

ACORN ‘dissolved as a national structure’  —  The embattled liberal group ACORN is in the process of dissolving its national structure, with state and local-chapters splitting off from the underfunded, controversial national group, an official close to the group confirmed.

Republicans Voting Against Stimulus Then Asked Obama for Money  —  Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Alabama Republicans Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt took to the U.S. House floor in July, denouncing the Obama administration's stimulus plan for failing to boost employment.  “Where are the jobs?” each of them asked.

On ‘ask,’ Lieberman answers the call: An exclusive chat about Don't Ask, Don't Tell  —  WASHINGTON - Just when you thought Joe Lieberman couldn't frustrate and perplex liberals any further, he is going off to become chief sponsor of the most significant piece of socially progressive legislation that Congress will deal with this year.

Zazi Pleads Guilty in Plot to Bomb Subways  —  Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan immigrant who was a key player in what the federal authorities have said was one of the most serious threats to the United States since the 9/11 attacks, pleaded guilty on Monday to terrorism charges after admitting to a plot to blow up the subways.

THE DEFLATIONIST  —  How Paul Krugman found politics.  —  When it is cold at home, or he has a couple of weeks with nothing to do but write his Times column, or when something unexpectedly stressful happens, like winning the Nobel Prize, the Princeton economist Paul Krugman and his wife, Robin Wells, go to St. Croix.

Suicide Pilot's Daughter Retracts ‘Hero’ Remark  —  Joe Stack's Daughter Samantha Bell Agrees With Victim's Son: Victim Vernon Hunter Was the ‘Hero’  —  The daughter of the man who carried out a suicide plane attack against the IRS in Texas said today she considered her father a hero for standing up to …

Scientology Church hires reporters to investigate newspaper  —  After decades of digging into the Church of Scientology, reporters and editors at the St. Petersburg Times are accustomed to being denounced by its leaders.  —  But they find it unsettling that three veteran journalists …

Paul: CPAC win ‘significant’  —  Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Monday that his win in the Conservative Political Action Conference's straw poll was “significant” but that he is still undecided on another run for president.  —  Paul captured 31 percent in the annual straw poll …

Sen. John McCain: I was misled on bailout  —  Under growing pressure from conservatives and “tea party” activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government's massive bailout of the financial system.  —  In response to criticism from opponents seeking …

The Bankruptcy Boys  —  O.K., the beast is starving.  Now what?  That's the question confronting Republicans.  But they're refusing to answer, or even to engage in any serious discussion about what to do.  —  For readers who don't know what I'm talking about: ever since Reagan …

The Torture Memo Author You've Never Heard Of  —  The Torture Memos will forever be known as the work of John Yoo, the former Office of Legal Counsel lawyer who took the lead in preparing them.  But the internal Justice Department report on the memos, released Friday, reveals …

Obama Biography Is Coming From New Yorker Editor  —  Updated David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, who has already written extensively about President Obama in the pages of his own magazine, will soon have another platform to do so.  The Alfred A. Knopf imprint of Random House said Monday …

The Democratic plan: Finish this bill  —  There's not a lot of policy news in the president's new health-care plan.  The changes are pretty much what we expected: more money going to subsidies (which are now being referred to as “the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history” …

Economist: If Only Obama Had Done Things He's Actually Done, Things Might Be Different  —  The Economist has put together a good website featuring a number of good blogs, which has tended to obscure from me the fact that their coverage of US politics remains remarkably bad—a mix of center-right ideological commitments and sloppiness.