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 …

Rove Gets Branded ‘War Criminal’ At Book Signing  —  BEVERLY HILLS (CBS) ― About 100 fans came out to hear Karl Rove at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills Monday night to discuss his book “Courage and Consequences: My Life As a Conservative In The Fight,” — but the fight wasn't contained to his book.

Insurance industry agrees to fix kids coverage gap  —  WASHINGTON — After battling President Barack Obama's health care overhaul the better part of a year, the insurance industry said Monday it won't try to block his efforts to fix a potentially embarrassing glitch in the new law.

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 …

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 …

Health care law too costly, most say  —  Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government's role in health care too far, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, underscoring an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats.

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?

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.

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.

Large Hadron Collider Finally Smashing Properly  —  PASADENA, Calif. — After 16 years and $10 billion — and a long morning of electrical groaning and sweating — there was joy in the meadows and tunnels of the Swiss-French countryside Tuesday: the world's biggest physics machine …

Republican candidates told to talk health care  —  Atlanta (CNN) - Republican Senate candidates are being instructed Tuesday to promote the party's health care policy proposals as they continue to push the “repeal and replace” theme following passage of the President Obama's health care reform legislation.

Bud Day endorses Charlie Crist  —  Not everyone in Northwest Florida plans to vote for Marco Rubio, a U.S. Senate candidate who has become the darling of conservative Republicans across the state.  —  Col. Bud Day, Fort Walton Beach attorney and Medal of Honor winner, has publicly endorsed …

Health premiums could rise 17 pct for young adults  —  CHICAGO — Under the health care overhaul, young adults who buy their own insurance will carry a heavier burden of the medical costs of older Americans — a shift expected to raise insurance premiums for young people when the plan takes full effect.

GOP senators say they can work with Dems despite healthcare battle  —  Republican senators say they can work with Democrats, despite dire predictions that the healthcare fight would make cooperation impossible.  —  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned that using reconciliation to block …

Payback Time: States' Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage  —  California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes …

Oops!  Iowa Town Renames Good Friday  —  Citing the Separation of Church and State, Davenport Nixes Holy Day  —  One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed Good Friday from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints …

Obama Gets Aggressive  —  White House Seeks to Rally Supporters With Aggressive Tone Against Opponents  —  President Barack Obama, after a year of fitfully searching for compromise, is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters …

Doctors Get Reprieve From 21% Medicare Payment Cut  —  Doctors slated to have their Medicare reimbursements cut 21 percent on April 1 got a reprieve from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is delaying lowered payments until after Congress reconvenes.

Greek Tragedy  —  A reader forwarded me the March 25 edition of the Goldman Sachs “European Weekly Analyst” report which includes a sobering discussion of the situation in Greece: … To state the obvious “very substantial cuts in living standards” doesn't sound like a winning re-election slogan to me.

Blunt takes the lead  —  Missouri voters continue to be unhappy with Barack Obama and his health care plan and that's helped Roy Blunt to take the lead in the US Senate race.  —  Blunt is up 45-41 on Robin Carnahan, but that result probably has more to do with how the state feels …

Half of Commercial Mortgages to Be Underwater: Warren  —  By the end of 2010, about half of all commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater, said Elizabeth Warren, chairperson of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, in a wide-ranging interview on Monday.

Companies Push to Repeal Provision of Health Reform  —  An association representing 300 large corporations urged President Obama and Congress on Monday to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul that prompted AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies to announce substantial charges for the current quarter.

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 …

Obama: Tea Party features ‘core group’ against him  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he believes the Tea Party is built around a “core group” of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist.  —  But beyond that, Obama tells NBC he recognizes the movement involves …

McCain: Obama could cave and repeal healthcare  —  Political pressure might become so intense that President Obama would agree to repeal major portions of the healthcare bill he signed into law recently, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said today.  —  Even if Republicans win Congress in 2010 …

Under shadow of 1957, Arkansas stays out of health-care fight  —  LITTLE ROCK — As 14 states move forward with a lawsuit to block President Obama's new health-care law, calling it an unconstitutional infringement on state sovereignty, Arkansas is nowhere to be found.