Behind delayed summit: Republican distrust of President Obama  —  The roots of the partisan standoff that led to the postponement of the bipartisan White House summit scheduled for Thursday date back to January, when President Barack Obama crashed a GOP meeting in Baltimore to deliver a humiliating rebuke of House Republicans.

Sarah Palin's Daughter Uses Homophobic Slurs  —  Sarah Palin's 16-year-old daughter Willow Palin used multiple homophobic slurs — including the word f**got — to attack a Facebook user who criticized her mom's new reality show .... TMZ has learned.  —  During the premiere of “Sarah Palin's Alaska” …

The Palin Network  —  On the night of the midterm elections earlier this month, Sarah Palin stayed up until 3 in the morning.  From her hotel bedroom in Manhattan, she and her husband, Todd, followed the returns while she wrote e-mails on her iPad — congratulating winners, consoling losers …

Has Airport Security Gone Too Far?  —  Pilots and travelers are rebelling against scanners that douse them with X-rays and reveal their private parts.  There must be a better way.  —  In May, Transportation Security Administration screener Rolando Negrin pummeled a co-worker with his government-issued baton.

Roger Ailes Lets Rip  —  In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, the Fox News chief says Obama thinks differently from most Americans, defends Murdoch's GOP donations, and admits Beck sometimes goes too far.  —  In the media world, as in politics, having a high-profile target can be a very good thing.

One Way to Trim Deficit: Cultivate Growth  —  We look back on the late 1990s as a rare time when the federal government ran budget surpluses.  We tend to forget that those surpluses came as a surprise to almost everybody.  —  As late as 1998, the Congressional Budget Office was predicting a deficit for 1999.

Insurers Gave U.S. Chamber $86 Million Used to Oppose Obama's Health Law  —  Health insurers last year gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million that was used to oppose the health-care overhaul law, according to tax records and people familiar with the donation.

Pretty Good for Government Work  —  My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly.  I've been remiss.  —  Let me remind you why I'm writing.  Just over two years ago, in September 2008, our country faced an economic meltdown.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the pillars that supported …

Michael Bloomberg & Joe Scarborough: The Independent Odd Couple  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — There's no campaign yet, and there may never be, but New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MSNBC's morning talk-show host Joe Scarborough have begun trying to figure out whether …

Murkowski's lead more than 10,000 votes  —  Today's review of write-in ballots ended with Sen. Lisa Murkowski enjoying an apparently insurmountable 10,420-vote lead over Joe Miller.  —  Murkowski also now has collected more votes that went unchallenged by Miller ballot observers than Miller's total vote count.

State representatives file birth certificate bill filed for presidential candidates  —  AUSTIN — A state representative on Tuesday filed a bill that would require any candidate for president or vice president of the United States to show his or her birth certificate to the Texas secretary of state …

Health panel brings out big guns  —  The state's health insurance connector — the highly touted agency that aims to bring cheap medical care to the masses — has turned into a legal pit bull by aggressively going after a growing number of Bay Staters who say they can't afford mandated insurance …

Bloomberg Says Independent Candidate Can't Win Contest for U.S. Presidency  —  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been mentioned as a potential U.S. presidential candidate, said he doesn't believe an independent can win.  —  Bloomberg, who isn't affiliated with Republicans or Democrats …

Alvin Greene: ‘Born to be president’  —  Former South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene has only the highest hopes for his political future despite his crushing defeat two weeks ago — he thinks he will be the next president.  —  In an interview outside a Columbia …

The Washington Independent, signing off  —  Nearly three years ago, The Washington Independent was launched as a bold experiment in online journalism.  The idea was to combine hard-nosed investigative reporting with all the web had to offer: the nimbleness of real-time coverage …

Why Democrats don't dump Nancy Pelosi  —  To the outside world, what House Democrats are poised to do later this morning seems to defy logic: Why would politicians who supposedly care above all about public opinion and their own hides stick with an unpopular leader who just carried them through …

Bean concedes; Walsh wins seat by 291 votes  —  By a margin of 291 votes out of more than 200,000 cast, GOP challenger Joe Walsh emerged Tuesday as the winner over U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean in their nail-biting 8th District congressional race.  —  Bean, a three-term Democrat …

McCaskill: I'm not disloyal to Obama  —  Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said she's not “disloyal” to President Obama, but is willing to differ with him and other Democrats when necessary.  —  The centrist Missouri senator said she believes Obama has done many good things …