Reid: Coons, ‘my pet,’ will win  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday predicted to The Hill that Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons will safely win the Nov. 2 general election against GOP nominee Christine O'Donnell.  —  Reid talked up the New Castle County executive following …

Catty Carla Bruni lifts lid on Michelle Obama's ‘hellish’ job  —  Michelle Obama thinks being America's First Lady is ‘hell’, Carla Bruni reveals today in a wildly indiscreet new book.  —  Miss Bruni reveals that Mrs Obama replied when asked about her position as the U.S. president's wife: 'Don't ask!

Exclusive: President Obama to This Week Name Elizabeth Warren to Special Advisory Role to White House/Treasury Dept to Form New Consumer Agency  —  President Obama will announce this week that Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor who first proposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …

Battleground Poll: Voters see November GOP takeover of the House and Senate  —  Voters, by a 9-point margin, believe Republicans will pick up both the House and the Senate, even though they are evenly divided over whom they intend to back in six weeks, according to a new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll.

On the Advice of the FBI, Cartoonist Molly Norris Disappears From View  —  Her work won't be in Seattle Weekly anymore, or anywhere else.  —  You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week.  That's because there is no more Molly.  —  The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully.

Limbaugh Taken In: The Judge Was Not Loaded for Bear  —  PENSACOLA, Fla. — Anyone listening to Rush Limbaugh's radio show Tuesday could be forgiven for thinking that Judge Roger Vinson has the federal government dead in his sights.  —  Mr. Limbaugh spent some time profiling Judge Vinson …

Shock Audio: Facing ‘Obligations’ From Leadership, Democrat Congresswoman Leaves Voicemail for Lobbyist Cash  —  A couple weeks ago, House Member Eleanor Holmes Norton made a fundraising call to a lobbyist.  The lobbyist wasn't available, so Holmes Norton left a voicemail.

Charlie Crist listed 9th on ballot for U.S. Senate  —  TALLAHASSEE — In three successful statewide elections, Charlie Crist's name was at the top of the ballot.  But as a nonpartisan candidate for the Senate, he shows up ninth in a field of 10 candidates, sandwiched between Rick Tyler and Lewis Jerome Armstrong.

“I think you're an ass”: Conservative media finally discover their colleagues are frauds  —  In the run-up to Delaware's Republican Senate primary, conservative media figures noticed that their colleagues are “lazy and unfair” “idiot[s]” and “mouthpieces for the Republican establishment” …

Teachers union helped unseat Fenty  —  The American Federation of Teachers spent heavily to unseat Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and to put the breaks on his aggressive efforts to shake up the city's schools system.  —  The national union spent roughly $1 million in contributions …

Parsing the Polls on Health Reform  —  The last few polls on health care reform have been discouraging.  Public support for the Affordable Care Act does not seem to be rising.  If anything, it seems to be falling, as a quick glance at Pollster.com will confirm.

Rebel Jim DeMint sparks GOP Senate civil war  —  South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint accidentally walked into a room full of lobbyists Wednesday morning and declared that “Republicans are not prepared to take over the Senate,” according to people in the room.  —  Some Republicans agree — and say he may be part of the reason why.

EXCLUSIVE: Venezuela Cancels Round-Trip ‘Terror Flight’ to Syria and Iran  —  Image taken from a video of the inside of the cabin of Flight IR744 in May 2007.  —  A Venezuelan airline's “mystery” flight that shuttled among the capitals of three of the world's most terror-friendly nations …

Stephen Breyer Questions Right to Burn Quran  —  During an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America this morning, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer addressed the recent controversy over a Florida pastor's plan to hold a Quran-burning rally on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks …