Ex-aides unload on Christine O'Donnell  —  By pulling off arguably the biggest upset of the primary election season Tuesday, Christine O'Donnell shocked the Republican establishment and political pundits who didn't think her campaign for the Delaware GOP Senate nomination had a chance.

The Backlash Myth  —  Many of my liberal friends are convinced that the Republican Party has a death wish.  It is sprinting to the right-most fever swamps of American life.  It will end up alienating the moderate voters it needs to win elections.  —  There's only one problem with this theory.

The Tax-Cut Racket  —  “Nice middle class you got here,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader.  “It would be a shame if something happened to it.”  —  O.K., he didn't actually say that.  But he might as well have, because that's what the current confrontation over taxes amounts to.

Five Street Cleaners Held Over ‘Pope Plot’  —  Jon di Paolo, Sky News Online  —  Five street cleaners have been arrested over a potential threat to the Pope, Sky News sources say. … The Best Of Sky News Right Now  —  Armed counter-terror officers swooped on the central London agency …

Mao's Great Leap Forward ‘killed 45 million in four years’  —  Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday.

Stimulus funds failed to create enough jobs: LA City Controller  —  The Los Angeles City Controller said on Thursday the city's use of its share of the $800 billion federal stimulus find has been disappointing.  —  The city received $111 million in stimulus under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act …

Harvard/Peretz Controversy Illustrates Folly of Charitable Donations to Wealthy U.S. Universities  —  Canaday Common Room entrance, former home of The Harvard Independent (my photo, available under cc license)  —  I realized dimly that New Republic editor in chief Martin Peretz had apologized …

Advice for Palin: How to Win Over Iowa  —  Sarah Palin is not running for president.  —  Yet.  —  But the former Alaska governor turned media celebrity turned Tea Party queenmaker is headed to Iowa, the Midwestern state which holds the first-in-the-nation contest for president every four years.

2012 hopefuls to slam Barack Obama  —  The tough rhetoric of the 2012 Republican presidential primary season will get a tryout Friday when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) slam President Barack Obama at the Family Research Council's “Values Voters Summit.”

Where Have All the Deficit Hawks Gone?  —  I noticed that earlier this year we were overwhelmed by a wave of anti-deficit grandstanding throughout the Democratic Party while the Catfood Commission was sending up trial balloons about cutting Social Security benefits, raising the retirement age …

Fighting to Protect Consumers  —  Over the past several weeks, the President and I have had extensive conversations about the vital importance of consumer financial protection.  —  The President asked me, and I enthusiastically agreed, to serve as an Assistant to the President and Special Advisor …

Is Ohio slipping from Democrats' grasp?  —  1. New numbers out of Ohio from Quinnipiac University show Republicans running away with the gubernatorial and Senate races even as Democrats insist that they are still in the game in this most critical of electoral battlegrounds.

Documentary?  Better Call It Performance Art  —  CASEY AFFLECK wants to come clean.  —  His new movie, “I'm Still Here,” was performance.  Almost every bit of it.  Including Joaquin Phoenix's disturbing appearance on David Letterman's late-night show in 2009, Mr. Affleck said in a candid interview …

GOP to roll out election agenda  —  House Republicans are planning to roll out their election agenda over the next two weeks as they seek to take back the House majority, prepping a list of roughly 20 initiatives — including a few that seem driven by the tea party movement.

Paldino mailing sends a smelly message  —  New York (CNN) — Whew!!  Something stinks!  But before you run to take out the trash, check the stack of mail you just carried inside.  —  A few thousand New York household received an odoriferous gift in the mail from Carl Paladino …

IDENTIFYING A KEY JOBS PROGRAM — AND LETTING IT DIE.... Politicians of every stripe insist that job creation is their top priority.  If that were true, the TANF Emergency Fund would be the most popular program in Congress, and its funding would be assured.  Instead, it's poised to die.

Maxine Waters's aides are expelled from event of Speaker Pelosi's  —  Three staffers working for embattled Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) were asked by security officers to leave an event in downtown Washington on Thursday after they tried to display large campaign signs just as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was about to speak.

At 103, a Judge Has One Caveat: No Lengthy Trials  —  WICHITA, Kan. — Judge Wesley E. Brown's mere presence in his courtroom is seen as something of a daily miracle.  His diminished frame is nearly lost behind the bench.  A tube under his nose feeds him oxygen during hearings.