Pelosi's brutal reality check  —  Asked this weekend to grade her performance as speaker, Nancy Pelosi gave herself an “A for effort.”  —  But Pelosi knows that the real test is still to come.  —  Pelosi is inarguably one of the strongest speakers in modern history …

Halter declares against Lincoln  —  Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is moving ahead with a primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, he announced Monday.  —  “Washington is broken,” Halter said in a video on his campaign website.  “Bailing out Wall Street with no strings attached …

Financial Reform Endgame  —  So here's the situation.  We've been through the second-worst financial crisis in the history of the world, and we've barely begun to recover: 29 million Americans either can't find jobs or can't find full-time work.  Yet all momentum for serious banking reform has been lost.

Network News at a Crossroads  —  ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct.  —  “I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing,” said David Westin …

30!  Five More Democrats—Including Durbin—Say They Support a Public Option Through Reconciliation  —  Five leading Democrats—including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin—have publicly announced that they will vote for a public option if it's offered up during the budget reconciliation process …

Who's Obsessed and Deranged?  —  Frank Rich of the New York Times retired as a drama critic in order to take up his new role as the paper's full-time drama queen.  As an op-ed columnist for the Times, his assignment, apparently, is to write in such a hysterical fashion that Paul Krugman seems rational by comparison.

IPCC “science” on hurricanes no longer settled, either  —  In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, anthropogenic global warming (AGW) activists insisted that the stronger storm systems resulted from the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, making hurricanes increasingly more severe.

White House Is Rethinking Nuclear Policy  —  WASHINGTON — As President Obama begins making final decisions on a broad new nuclear strategy for the United States, senior aides say he will permanently reduce America's arsenal by thousands of weapons.  But the administration has rejected proposals …

Are Democratic Presidents Smarter Than Republican Presidents?  —  Watching President Barack Obama at the White House health care summit last week, it was hard not to have an obvious thought: Could George W. Bush have done this?  It is tough to imagine Bush leading a seven-hour gabfest …

Doctors tell Barack Obama to quit smoking  —  The american president has been trying to kick the habit for sometime, apart from the smoking he is in excellent health  —  Barack Obama is still struggling to kick smoking, according to his first medical examination since becoming president.

Obama plans to target low-performing schools  —  President Barack Obama will announce Monday a national effort to reduce the high school dropout rate and better prepare students for successful college careers.  —  The administration has committed $3.5 billion to fund changes …

The Raging Septuagenarian  —  Taking on the Times, Google, and, in a sense, his own children, Rupert Murdoch is not going gently into the night.  —  On Saturday, January 9, Rupert Murdoch was on his Boeing 737 returning to New York from a business trip to Los Angeles when he learned …

Tommy Thompson eyes Senate bid  —  Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who served four terms as Wisconsin governor, is securing financial pledges and ramping up his outreach to longtime political aides in preparation for a possible campaign against Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

POLL: Obama's visit just bounced off Reid  —  Poll shows senator gained little ground in re-election battle  —  WASHINGTON — During his whirlwind visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago, President Barack Obama mentioned U.S. Sen. Harry Reid by name four dozen times, gave him a big hug and talked him up as if he was a long-lost brother.

GOP allows extender bill to move forward  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has agreed to allow amendments on legislation extending several tax measures that expired last year, ending Republican procedural roadblocks on the legislation.  —  Around 2pm on Monday …