RNC fires staffer behind controversy  —  A Republican National Committee staffer who accompanied a group of young donors to a bondage-themed West Hollywood club and then expensed the nearly $2,000 tab has been fired by the committee, POLITICO has learned.  —  RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay announced …

Flap on Kids' Coverage Settled  —  Insurers Say They Will Accept Pre-Existing Conditions After Dispute on Timing, Warn of Higher Prices  —  Jade Harmer, right, with her mother, Tina, earlier this year.  Jade could benefit from the new health-care law.  —  Insurers said they would comply …

On Global Warming, Scientists and TV Weathercasters Are at Odds  —  The debate over global warming has created predictable adversaries, pitting environmentalists against industry and coal-state Democrats against coastal liberals.  —  But it has also created tensions between two groups …

BREAKING VIDEO: Reid Supporters Throwing Eggs And Assaulting Andrew Breitbart  —  Here is a smidge of our video from Saturday's Tea Party Express coverage in Searchlight, Nevada.  —  The AP calls this a hospitality tent.  We call it destruction of property and assault.  Either way, this is Harry Reid's Democrat Party.

Al Sharpton plies his trade  —  When Don Imus sought absolution for his characteristic display of poor taste, he bent his knee to Pope Al Sharpton.  How is it that Al Sharpton has become the arbiter elegantiae for matters pertaining to race and etiquette?  Though he is accorded …

Searchlight vs. L.A.: Rival Rallies Reveal Stark Right/Left Divide  —  On March 27, 2010, thousands of people gathered in the small town of Searchlight, Nevada, for a political rally.  —  Just 250 miles away and seven days earlier, there was another political rally of similar size in Los Angeles on March 20, 2010.

Code Pink mob shuts down Rove book event  —  They're baaaaaack in full force.  The speech-stifling, original angry mob of Code Pinkos shouted down Karl Rove during a book tour event in Beverly Hills tonight — forcing him to cut his remarks short and leave before attendees could get their books signed.

The Sandra Bullock Trade  —  Two things happened to Sandra Bullock this month.  First, she won an Academy Award for best actress.  Then came the news reports claiming that her husband is an adulterous jerk.  So the philosophic question of the day is: Would you take that as a deal?

CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings  —  CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year.  —  The trend in news ratings for the first three months of this year …

Marine's father ordered to pay Westboro's court costs  —  Church members had conducted anti-gay protests at the funeral of Marine who died in Iraq  —  From Baltimore Sun staff and wire reports  —  Lawyers for the father of a Marine who died in Iraq and whose funeral was picketed …

Afghan Leader Is Seen to Flout Influence of U.S.  —  KABUL, Afghanistan — This month, with President Hamid Karzai looking ahead to a visit to the White House, he received a terse note from aides to President Obama: Your invitation has been revoked.  —  The reason, according to American officials …

Pro-Life Democrats Who Switched Vote for Health Bill Request Billions in Earmarks  —  The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks — and one watchdog group wants …

The Hutaree militia and the rising risk of far-right violence  —  The arrests of members of a Michigan-based “Christian” militia group should convince doubters that there is good reason to worry about right-wing, anti-government extremism — and potential violence — in the Age of Obama.

Clyburn: Reid's dealmaking cost Mass. seat  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's dealmaking lost a key seat in Massachusetts but eventually led to the right strategy to win the vote on landmark healthcare legislation, U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Monday.

A Long Post: The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates — By: Jim Geraghty  —  By popular demand, a comprehensive list of expired Obama statements...  HEALTH CARE MANDATES  —  STATEMENT: “We've got a philosophical difference, which we've debated repeatedly …

Gallup crumble: ObamaCare underwater again, GOP surges on generic ballot  —  The One's bounce has already started to fade but the numbers for the bill itself were an open question since Gallup's shocker last week showing a surge of support to 49/40.  Momentary spike due to glowing media coverage of the historic historicness of passage?

Banking on hypocrisy  —  Banks or families?  —  For almost a year, the big banks and the American Bankers Association (ABA) have presented that choice to Congress.  Lobbyists argue that meaningful consumer protection will jeopardize the safety and soundness of banks, telling lawmakers that they must decide between the two.

CNN Poll: Big shift on closing of Guantanamo Bay facility  —  Washington (CNN) - Attitudes about the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have changed dramatically since President Barack Obama took office, according to a new national poll.  —  Support for closing the facility …

Vandalism At Alaska Democratic Headquarters; State Chair Blames Palin  —  The headquarters of Alaska's Democratic Party was vandalized over the weekend and the state party chair thinks the incident was influenced by Sarah Palin.  —  “There has become this inflammatory rhetoric …

Opposed to Obamacare?  Then You Must Be a Racist  —  Frank Rich spent many years as the theater critic for the New York Times, where, at worst, his venom could cause a Broadway production or two to close down.  —  Now, however, Mr. Rich opines on political and social issues for the Times …

Obama shifts focus from foreign populations to leaders  —  President Obama traveled halfway around the world last weekend to lecture his mercurial Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, about the need to fight corruption in his government.  —  It was a brief, unhappy encounter in which Obama conveyed concerns …