Charles Krauthammer Slams Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint Over Delaware Endorsement  —  On Monday's edition of Fox News' “Special Report with Bret Beir,” columnist Charles Krauthammer criticized former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) for endorsing Delaware Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell …

After Volatile Primary Season, G.O.P. Faces New Test  —  As the long and turbulent primary season of the midterm election campaign drew to a close on Monday, the Republican establishment was placing its confidence on hold and bracing for the prospect that voters in yet another state would send …

Wonkbook: GOP doubles down on Bush tax cuts; possible recess appointment for Warren; EPA vote  —  Republicans spent much of yesterday walking back John Boehner's conciliatory comments on the Bush tax cuts.  Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP, in particular, made it clear that either everyone …

McConnell intros Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2010  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky drew the line in the sand with President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday, introducing the Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2010 to extend the Bush tax cuts of 2001 …

Blumenthal Up Just 6 Points In Connecticut Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Much McMahon Support Is Anti-Blumenthal  —  Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat, leads Republican former wrestling executive Linda McMahon 51 - 45 percent among likely voters …

President Obama seeks his inner Bill Clinton and feels voters' pain  —  President Obama told a small crowd in Fairfax, Va., on Monday that he would stand in the hot sun with them and “feel their pain.”  —  He was meeting with a Fairfax family for a backyard discussion on the economy …

Mitch Daniels makes White House moves  —  Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has been holding a series of private dinners with top Republican business leaders, policy hands and donors from around the country since this spring, an indication that he's thinking more seriously about a presidential bid than he publicly lets on.

Document drop: Breaking: DOJ Inspector General will investigate Obama voting rights record  —  Just obtained this letter from Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine to members of Congress informing them that he will open up a review of the Obama administration's selective enforcement …

Democratic aides may get cold shoulder from K Street after midterms  —  Democratic congressional aides aiming for a big payday from K Street have seen their value plummet with their party's declining fortunes, according to corporate headhunters and lobbyists.

We didn't “sneak in” to Sarah Palin's speech  —  First: This blogpost is not about politics.  —  Second: Contrary to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's warning to the standing-room-only crowd at this afternoon's Teen Challenge fundraiser in Missoula, the media did not “sneak in” to her speech.

AIG Plots End to U.S. Aid  —  Insurer and Treasury Discuss Accelerating the Sale of Government's Stake  —  American International Group Inc. and its government overseers are in talks to speed up an exit plan designed to repay U.S. taxpayers in full while enabling the giant insurer to regain independence …

U.S. government hails ominous news from Turkey  —  The most significant event of the weekend, I would argue, occurred in Turkey.  There, voters approved a sweeping package of constitutional reforms and, in the process, gave Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a vote of confidence.

Remarks of President Barack Obama -As Prepared for Delivery - Back to School Speech Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  —  Hello Philadelphia!  It's wonderful to be here.  Today is about welcoming all of you and all of America's students back to school - and I can't think of a better place to do it than Masterman.

Only Nixon Could Go to China  —  How Obama can help ease “Islamophobia.”  —  “One of the things that I most admired about President Bush was after 9/11, him being crystal-clear about the fact that we were not at war with Islam,” President Obama said in his Friday press conference.

“I Love The Mosque” Shirts Printed by Activists to Challenge Islamophobia  —  What's Your Reaction:  —  People say you worry more as you get older.  I am wondering if it is that exact sentiment that is resonating in me now.  It's 10pm on Friday night, September 10th …

Confessing to Crime, but Innocent  —  KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eddie Lowery lost 10 years of his life for a crime he did not commit.  There was no physical evidence at his trial for rape, but one overwhelming factor put him away: he confessed.  —  At trial, the jury heard details that prosecutors insisted …

Liberal despair: Age of irrationality  —  A couple of influential writers broadly in sympathy with Obama today float the same notion: That we're living in a fundamentally unreasonable age, that voters basically can't be trusted, and that democracy is just barely muddling through.

Digging for the Roots of Conservative Rage  —  In his new book, “The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama,” the progressive journalist Will Bunch serves up his own anatomy of the Tea Party movement, that loose agglomeration of right-wing insurgents …

In Defense of the Afghanistan Study Group Report  —  If the opposition to the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan were anywhere near as hysterical or shrill as the attacks on the report of the Afghanistan Study Group (in which I participated), the country might be in a happier place.