Tea Party NY Gov Candidate's E-Mails Exposed: Racism, Porn, Bestiality  —  An online news outlet in New York state has obtained dozens of emails, many of them racist and sexually graphic, which it reports were sent by Carl Paladino, the Tea-Party-backed Republican candidate for governor of New York …

SEIU officials: Stern to resign  —  Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, one of America's most prominent labor leaders, is set to resign, according to a member of the union's board and another SEIU official.  —  The President of an SEIU local based in Seattle …

White House kills Hillary SCOTUS buzz  —  The White House moved quickly today to squelch the widening speculation that Hillary Clinton could be nominated to the Supreme Court, as Senator Orrin Hatch suggested this morning.  —  “The President thinks Secretary Clinton is doing an excellent job …

The Sarcasm of Sarah Palin  —  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin delivered a well-received speech on Friday at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, an address defined — as almost all of her public pronouncements have been in the 18 months since she emerged on the national political scene — by a stinging sense of sarcasm.

Boehner: Repealing healthcare law GOP's ‘No. 1 priority’  —  Repealing healthcare reform will be Republicans' “No. 1 priority,” their House leader said Monday.  —  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that repealing the healthcare legislation passed in Congress last month …

Obama Weekly Approval at 47%, Lowest Yet by One Point  —  Latest three-day average shows a decline to 45% approval, 48% disapproval  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Obama's job approval rating fell to 47% for the week ending April 11, the lowest of his administration so far by one percentage point.

Coburn predicts likely defeat of his unemployment objection  —  Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) conceded Monday that Democrats are likely to have the votes to overcome his objection to proceeding with a bill to extend unemployment benefits.  —  Coburn, who blocked efforts to pass an extension …

Washington Memo: Baffled by Health Plan?  So Are Some Lawmakers  —  WASHINGTON — It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way.  And, perhaps fittingly if unintentionally, no one may be more affected than members of Congress themselves.

Healthcare law to sock middle class with a $3.9 billion tax increase in 2019  —  Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — because of healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress's official scorekeeper for legislation.

‘BARTER WITH YOUR DOCTOR’.... Once in a great while, we get a peek at Republicans' health care ideals, but rarely do we see them articulated as candidly as Sue Lowden described them last week.  —  Lowden is a former state senator and chair of the Nevada Republican Party.

How the Conan O'Brien-TBS Deal Happened  —  Conan O'Brien's manager, Gavin Polone, said that a whirlwind negotiation of only about 10 days led the late-night star to leave network television and jump to the cable network, TBS.  —  “They called us about a week and a half ago,” Mr. Polone said, in outlining how the negotiations began.

Did FDR End the Depression?  —  The economy took off after the postwar Congress cut taxes  —  'He got us out of the Great Depression.  " That's probably the most frequent comment made about President Franklin Roosevelt, who died 65 years ago today.  Every Democratic president from Truman …

Conn. bishops fight sex abuse bill  —  Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) — A bill in Connecticut's legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state's Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.

CORRECTION: Visa Policy For Israeli Nuclear Scientists Did Not Begin With Obama Admin  —  On April 8, 2010, I wrote an article in this space implying that the Obama administration had instituted a new policy restricting entry to the United States for Israeli nuclear scientists who worked at the Dimona reactor.

White House points to smaller deficit numbers  —  The federal deficit is running significantly lower than it did last year, with the budget gap for the first half of fiscal 2010 down 8 percent over the same period a year ago, senior Obama administration officials said Monday.

What about the next great female pundit?  —  Respected Op-Ed pages may be getting young new blood, but they're still mostly made up of white men  —  Late last week, Politico's Michael Calderone fretted over the fact that so many young, wonder-boy pundits were climbing to the top …

CNN Poll: Public divided on eliminating all nuclear weapons  —  Washington (CNN) - Americans are split on President Obama's goal of eliminating all of the world's nuclear weapons, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday.  But the survey also indicates …