SEC Said to Vote 3-2 to Sue Goldman Sachs Over CDOs  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission split 3-2 along party lines to approve an enforcement case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to two people with knowledge of the vote.  —  SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro sided …

Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor  —  The People and Their Government  —  By almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.  A new Pew Research Center survey finds a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government …

Top GOP Officials Writing Off Crist  —  Top GOP officials in DC now believe it is a virtual certainty that FL Gov. Charlie Crist (R) will bolt the GOP and run instead as an independent, sources tell Hotline OnCall.  —  Over the weekend, Crist pulled TV advertisements that had been running in key markets …

Tancredo: Send Obama ‘back’ to Kenya  —  Former congressman Tom Tancredo's speech at the National Tea Party was a misstep that gave organizers their only lasting, negative coverage.  At a Sunday afternoon tea party rally in Greenville, S.C., where he was the keynote speaker, Tancredo stepped in it again.

This Is Apple's Next iPhone  —  You are looking at Apple's next iPhone.  It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS.  We got it.  We disassembled it.  It's the real thing, and here are all the details.  —  While Apple may tinker with the final packaging …

Top Qaeda Leaders in Iraq Killed in Raid  —  BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi intelligence officers have located and killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced on Monday.  —  Mr. Maliki said the intelligence team also killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi …

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests  —  Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, a BBC World Service poll suggests.  —  For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative.

Romney Does Not Support the Repeal of Obamacare's Individual Mandate  —  After Obamacare passed the House on March 21st, I was heartened by the rapid response of Gov. Mitt Romney who announced his commitment to fighting the implementation of the measure tooth-and-nail in an Op-Ed for the National Review:

THE THEOCRATIC WING OF THE GOP.... A certain former half-term governor appears to be drifting even further away from the American mainstream.  Over the weekend, appearing at an evangelical Christian women's conference in Louisville, Sarah Palin rejected the very idea of separation of church and state …

It's the demand, stupid  —  Christina Romer remembers the first time she really had to walk Barack Obama through the scope of the mounting recession.  “As I was briefing the President-Elect by phone, I found myself saying, ‘I am so sorry, the numbers are horrible.’ The President-Elect replied, 'It's not your fault.

LEAVE THE 19TH AMENDMENT ALONE.... I like to think I can take a joke, and appreciate political commentary intended as humor, but this item from Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wasn't amusing.  The headline read, “Time to repeal the 19th Amendment?”

North Carolina Democrats' votes against health care push labor to form party  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — A political rebellion is brewing inside an old funeral home near the state Capitol here.  Frustrated liberals and labor organizers are taking aim at the Democratic Party, rushing to gather enough signatures …

An alarming outbreak of ‘regime’ amnesia  —  Time's Joe Klein got some attention over the weekend when he said, on “The Chris Matthews Show,” that statements from Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are “right up close to being seditious.”  What received less attention was the statement immediately following Klein's …

The Beholden State  —  How public-sector unions broke California  —  The camera focuses on an official of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California's largest public-employee union, sitting in a legislative chamber and speaking into a microphone.

Militia movement will be packing heat at rally on the Potomac  —  Daniel Almond, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, is ready to “muster outside D.C.” on Monday with several dozen other self-proclaimed patriots, all of them armed.  They intend to make history as the first people to take their guns …

Americans Still Most Confident in Obama on Economy  —  Obama, business leaders have confidence of majority of Americans  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Obama and “business leaders” engender the most confidence from Americans for their ability to do or to recommend the right thing for the economy.

Congress may get fined by its own health-care law  —  Congress may be fined tens of millions of dollars a year under its own health-care law, in part because the bill dumps members of Congress and their staffs from their current health-care plans.  —  But no one really knows for sure what the bill does, not even the experts.