Michele Bachmann bid adds drama to the GOP leadership race  —  House Republicans look like they've largely been spared any uncomfortable leadership races as they cruise into their robust new majority, except for one little speed bump: Michele Bachmann.  —  The often fiery and always …

GOP Voters Like Three Candidates Best for 2012  —  OK, the election's over, and the message from most voters was that they didn't care much for President Obama's agenda.  Now the focus is on the race for the presidency in 2012.  —  On the Republican side, it's a dead heat between the ex-governors …

Top Blue Dog calls for Pelosi to quit  —  An elder statesman of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to step down from party leadership after a historic election in which she presided over the loss of 60 seats and control of the House.

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit  —  New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.  —  Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines …

Governor Christie to cut 1,200 public sector jobs, saving NJ millions  —  When Governor Christie set his sights on reducing the size of government and the debt in the Garden State, he is keeping that promise.  —  The governor announced that beginning January, he'll cut 1,200 state jobs saving New Jersey taxpayers $8.8 million.

The Day After the Day After  —  O.K., you poor little Democrats.  Stop sobbing.  Lift up your little liberal heads and shout.  There's gonna be. ...  Umm.  —  Harry Reid!  There's gonna be more Harry Reid!  Nobody thought it could happen, but the charisma-challenged Senate majority …

Blue Dogs Dumped  —  Bill Galston has an elegant statistical analysis of what happened on Tuesday: it wasn't so much that Republican enthusiasm was up or Democratic fervor was down—there was a near symmetrical shift from blue to red among independents.  This stands to reason …

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward  —  Have an intelligent message, and fight for your right to be heard.  —  Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 midterm elections, it's slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are.  We saw an extreme left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat.

A recoil against liberalism  —  Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012.  Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp …

Rep. Grayson: Dems lost because of ‘appeasement’  —  House Democrats were swept out of power because party leaders tried to hard to “appease” Republicans on major issues, said a high-profile member Thursday who lost his seat.  —  Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Democratic leaders …

Devastation: GOP Picks Up 680 State Leg.  Seats  —  While the Republican gains in the House and Senate are grabbing the most headlines, the most significant results on Tuesday came in state legislatures where Republicans wiped the floor with Democrats.  —  Republicans picked up 680 seats …

Pulling a Clinton?  —  John Harris, the noted Clinton biographer, considers the notion of a 1994 repeat:  —  [T[he widespread speculation that what Obama needs to do now is simply “pull a Clinton”—replicating Bill Clinton's comeback after being trounced by Newt Gingrich in 1994 …

Kondracke: Palin's a ‘joke’  —  At the Roll Call/CQ election analysis session at the Ronald Reagan Building this morning, Roll Call Executive Editor and Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke blamed Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint for Republicans' failure to capture the Senate.

Geithner Visited Jon Stewart in April, Though Not for Laughs  —  In the midst of debates on financial regulation and China's currency in April, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat down to discuss the U.S. economy — with comedian Jon Stewart.  —  Geithner and Stewart, host of Comedy Central's …

Pawlenty Inadvertently Explains How House Republicans Are ‘Lying To You’ About Spending Cuts  —  As ThinkProgress has repeatedly noted, despite their professed commitment to cut government spending, most Republicans in Congress refuse to propose specifics that would actually cut spending in any significant way.

You think '10 was tough?  Check out '12  —  For the first time in two cycles, Democrats will have more seats up for grabs than the Republicans, and the party could see its shrunken majority erased altogether.  —  Several of the senators up for reelection came in on the 2006 Democratic wave …

In new memoir, Bush makes clear he approved use of waterboarding  —  Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice …

Harkin warns: No repealing or defunding healthcare reform on my committees  —  A well-placed Senate Democrat warned Thursday that efforts to scale back the new healthcare reform law will hit a brick wall in the upper chamber.  —  Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — chairman of both the Senate Health Committee …

Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy!”  —  Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.  —  I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn's life and legacy.  I was also surprised.  I am a journalist, not a historian.

BREAKING in Illinois: CNN projects Democratic Gov. win  —  (CNN) - Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has narrowly won his bid for a full term in Illinois, CNN projects.  He defeated Republican challenger Bill Brady and three other minor candidates.  Quinn was lieutenant governor in 2009 …

Defining “compromise”  —  Can we please bag this idea that it's somehow a “compromise” in any meaningful sense if we temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts, including the ones for the rich?  Come on.  It's really capitulation.  Temporary capitulation, perhaps, but capitulation all the same.