Sen. Corker Threatens Reid: If You Bring DADT Repeal For A Vote, We'll Walk Away From START  —  This afternoon, as momentum began to build for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) threatened that if Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) brings up a vote to repeal the ban …

The new comeback kid  —  If Barack Obama wins reelection in 2012, as is now more likely than not, historians will mark his comeback as beginning on Dec. 6, the day of the Great Tax Cut Deal of 2010.  —  Obama had a bad November.  Self-confessedly shellacked in the midterm election …

PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ‘A government takeover of health care’  —  In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system.

Judge Hints He May Rule Against Health Law  —  PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge asserted on Thursday that it would be “a giant leap” for the Supreme Court to accept the Obama administration's defense of a central provision of the new health care law, suggesting he may become the second judge to strike it down as unconstitutional.

Obama brand remains surprisingly strong  —  Some interesting — and unexpected — results in The Washington Post's big post-election poll.  First, Obama's position against the Republicans in Congress is much stronger than that of his predecessors.  The following polls were all taken …

CNN and Tea Party Express to host 2012 debate  —  CNN said Friday that it is joining forces with the Tea Party Express — a political action committee that played a key role in the 2010 midterm elections — to co-host a Republican presidential debate.  —  The debate is scheduled for Labor …

How Would President Romney Govern?  —  “Sincerity is everything - once you can fake that, you've got it made.”  —  There's Mitt Romney's problem in 1 sentence.  He cannot fake sincerity.  His insincerity is blatant, inescapable, clumsy and off-putting.  Ross Douthat phrased the indictment …

Breaking?  Study Finds Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed  —  To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.  —  The University of Maryland study, called “Misinformation and the 2010 Election,” …

Snub for Obamas as Royal sources reveal they will not be invited to Prince William's wedding  —  President Obama and his wife Michelle will not be invited to Prince William's wedding next year.  —  Because Prince William is not yet heir to the throne, his wedding to Kate Middleton is not classed …

Exclusive: Sarah Palin on 2012 Plans, Double Standards for Women  —  Palin Says Thinking About Presidential Run Is a ‘Prayerful Consideration’  —  Sarah Palin is surveying the lay of the land to consider whether to make a presidential run in 2012, she told “Good Morning America” …

Pakistani Role Is Suspected in Revealing U.S. Spy's Name  —  WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency's top clandestine officer in Islamabad was pulled from the country on Thursday amid an escalating war of recriminations between American and Pakistani spies, with some American officials convinced …

Our view: Pawlenty wishes he'd have run again; will he pursue the presidency?  —  Outgoing Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn't even hesitate.  “Yes,” he answered when asked by the News Tribune editorial board this week whether, after the Republicans took control of the Minnesota Legislature …

Feds Force Okla. Bank To Remove Crosses, Bible Verse  —  Federal Examiners Say Religious Decoration Inappropriate  —  PERKINS, Okla. — A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won't let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.  —  Federal Reserve examiners come every four years …

Reapportionment Preview: Mapping Out States “On the Bubble”  —  House Editor David Wasserman kicks off the Cook Political Report's in-depth coverage of Redistricting 2012, which you can also follow via Twitter handle @Redistrict as the remap gets underway.  Over the next year …

DREAM Act is an acute issue for Asian Americans  —  David Cho has a dream — and it's to become a citizen of the country in which he has grown up, graduated high school and now attends college.  However, instead of entertaining employment offers upon his graduation this spring …

HPD knows names of 2 slain robbers  —  In the back room of a humble jewelry store and pawn shop in Houston's East End Thursday afternoon, a gunman tied Eva Castillo's wrists tightly — too tightly.  She complained of the pain, so he loosened the bindings.  Then Castillo's husband was ordered …

Wall Street Whitewash  —  When the financial crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment.  Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated.  —  How naïve we were.  We should have realized …

Why Is This Tax Different From All Other Taxes?  —  I'm getting two arguments about the insurance mandate a lot.  First, I'm hearing that it's like car insurance, which is silly.  Car insurance is liability insurance requiring you to, effectively, post a bond in exchange for the privilege …

Top RNC fundraiser quits  —  The Finance Chairman of Michael Steele's Republican National Committee resigned today, a Republican source said.  —  Peter Terpeluk, a major George W. Bush fundraiser who served as Ambassador to Luxembourg, had struggled to raise large-dollar contributions from big donors skeptical of Steele.

How They Learned to Start Worrying and Stop Appropriating  —  The omnibus spending bill died in the Senate last night, and the death was a long time coming.  It started to bleed in 2006, when a series of rule changes and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act were passed …

The Limits of the Taxing Power  —  An interesting question emerges from one of my comment threads on whether or not congress should be able to use the taxing power to get over limits on its enumerated powers.  —  1) Can Congress enact a $50,000 tax on second term abortions?

Dems are earmark junkies but GOP goes straight  —  Press coverage of the budget frenzy on Capitol Hill has suggested that pork-barrel earmark spending is still a bipartisan problem, that after months of self-righteous rhetoric about fiscal discipline, Republicans and Democrats remain equal-opportunity earmarkers.