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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Durbin on Health Care: ‘Democrats Are Going to Have to Do it Alone’  —  ABC News' Aaron Katersky reports:  —  The Senate's top vote-counter told ABC News today that he's done waiting for Republicans to come on board for health care reform.  —  “The writing is on the wall,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told ABC News Monday.