Obama pick for Justice post withdraws  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has withdrawn her bid for confirmation, after several Republicans objected to her criticism of the Bush administration's terrorist interrogation policies.

Base stirred by Palin, but not sure she's ready yet  —  NEW ORLEANS - Sarah Palin dominated a sleepy Southern Republican Leadership Conference here Friday, stealing a show that had largely been ceded to her by other Republicans of national stature.  —  When Palin was introduced …

Grayson crashes local GOP meeting, tells Orange mayoral critic “take a walk”  —  U.S. Rep Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, walked in on an Orange County Republican Executive Committee meeting Thursday night at a Perkins restaurant and got into a confrontation with county mayoral candidate Matthew Falconer …

A “Seditious Rant”  —  Yes, the right gets nuttier and nuttier.  From Liz Cheney's favorite Arab (Pushtun Karzai) to Gingrich's latest attempt to portray a responsible center-left president as some kind of radical socialist, it's a nuthouse.  But the nuthouse is not resisted by the establishment.

URGENT: Stop CNN From Airing Deficit Propaganda  —  This weekend, CNN is giving four hours of free airtime to the leading propagandist fanning the flames of deficit hysteria, Pete Peterson, along with his lackeys.  Bloggers and online activists are joining today to promote this action:

QUOTE OF THE DAY.... I appreciate the role a nuclear arsenal can play in serving as a deterrent against adversaries.  But Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota may not appreciate the notion of a proportionate response. … There are obviously a lot of errors of fact and judgment in that quote …

Generic Ballot Points Toward Possible 50+ Seat Loss for Democrats  —  A couple of weeks ago, we examined the potential upside case for Democrats in November's midterms.  If the party were able to limit their losses to about 20 House seats and 3-4 Senate seats, it might not have as deleterious …

Majority of state chairs back Steele  —  Michael Steele seems to be on his way to surviving the latest round of calls for his resignation, and his supporters just produced a statement from 31 GOP state chairmen supporting his continued tenure —hardly an overwhelming number, but enough.

McMahon warned steroid doctor of investigation  —  In December 1989, as federal investigators were zeroing in on a Pennsylvania doctor who would soon be convicted of selling steroids to professional wrestlers, Linda McMahon sent a confidential memo to a fellow executive at Titan Sports …

Republicans expected to line up behind New START  —  WASHINGTON - Despite near gridlock in the Senate, Republicans were expected to swing behind a new arms control treaty with Russia that President Barack Obama said they will like, even though some are reserving judgment until Obama can assure …

15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America  —  The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  Cliché, sure, but it's also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age.  —  The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.

Afghanistan and the Decline of American Power  —  President Karzai's anti-American shift is a statement about the standing of the Obama administration in the region.  —  President Obama's “war of necessity” in Afghanistan increasingly has to it the mark of a military campaign disconnected from a bigger political strategy.