Goldman Sachs taps ex-W.H. counsel  —  Goldman Sachs is launching an aggressive response to its political and legal challenges with an unlikely ally at its side — President Barack Obama's former White House counsel, Gregory Craig.  —  The beleaguered Wall Street bank hired Craig …

Sen. Collins pledges to block Democratic Wall Street bill  —  Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday that she will vote to filibuster a Democratic Wall Street reform bill.  —  Her announcement hurts Democratic chances …

Gay rights protesters interrupt Obama speech at fundraiser  —  Gay rights protesters interrupted President Barack Obama's speech at a fundraiser for California Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) Monday night in Los Angeles.  —  Activists from a group called GetEQUAL began shouting at Obama while he was speaking at the podium.

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 …

GOP Split Over How to Win in Fall  —  WASHINGTON—Sen. John Cornyn, who is spearheading the Republicans' campaign to take back the Senate, is on a roll.  The GOP snatched a seat in Massachusetts and polls favor Republicans in many key states.  —  But the genial Texas lawyer is facing an unusual challenge …

McCain tacks right on immigration  —  Sen. John McCain has endorsed a tough Arizona anti-immigration bill that will let police arrest people who aren't carrying identification, the latest move in McCain's rightward shift in advance of a tough Republican Senate primary this summer.

But who will be Nick Clegg's political partner?  —  The Lib Dem leader has a problem with Gordon Brown ... but the Tories may prove incompatible too  —  Nick Clegg has been saying for months that he'd dance across the studio in a pink tutu for a place in the leaders' TV debate.

More from Eyjafjallajokull  —  As ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continued to keep European airspace shut down over the weekend, affecting millions of travelers around the world, some government agencies and airlines clashed over the flight bans.

The costs of crossing the president  —  Will the White House punish Democrats who defected on the monumental health care overhaul?  —  “There is not a whole lot of [President] Barack Obama and [Vice President] Joe Biden to spare on a good day,” one senior White House official told POLITICO.

Mayor Rahm?  ‘I would like to run’  —  WASHINGTON — White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who in January tried to quash stories about a future Chicago mayoral bid, on Monday put his interest in City Hall on the record: “One day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago.”

Debate tests members' financial IQs  —  Ask White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee about derivatives, and he'll tell you about free tacos.  —  That's the trouble with the financial regulatory reform debate: The arcane terminology of the financial world can be daunting.

Beaten Jindal Staffer Says Protesters are the Perpetrators  —  The mother of one of the victims of a brutal beating in New Orleans outside of a Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC) event has confirmed in a new interview that the two victims assaulted outside of the high-dollar GOP …

FDA plans to limit amount of salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons  —  The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands …

What's behind the anti-Tea Party hate narrative?  —  There's a new narrative taking hold in the wake of the recent Tea Party protests and the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing: The Tea Partiers' intense opposition to the Obama administration has led to overheated political rhetoric …

Black Tea Party Protesters vs. Keith Olbermann  —  A couple of months back, in response to criticism about his multiple characterizations of Tea Party activists as racists, MSNBC oxygen-generator Keith Olbermann issued this agonized open letter to his antagonists:

Crist: 'I'm Staying in This Race' — By: Robert Costa  —  In an exclusive interview, Gov. Charlie Crist (R., Fla.) tells National Review Online that “damn right, I'm staying in this race.”  He tells us that he will not run as a Democrat.  “I was never going to do that.”

US climate report publicized in runup to Senate bill  —  Source: Reuters  —  An environmental coalition publicized a new U.S. draft report on climate change on Monday, one week before the expected unveiling of a compromise U.S. Senate bill that aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Justices Get Personal Over Privacy of Messages  —  WASHINGTON — The question in a case argued Monday in the Supreme Court sounded both irresistible and important: Did a California police department violate the Constitution by reading sexually explicit text messages sent by an officer on a department-issued pager?

Dems race for cash — for 2012  —  A handful of Democratic senators ramped up their fundraising efforts in the first quarter of 2010 — despite the fact that they're not up for reelection until 2012.  —  The burst of fundraising activity underscores Democrats' deepest fears …