Obama weighs in on Michael Vick, and other cultural issues  —  HONOLULU - President Obama doesn't seem to shy away from the divisive social and cultural topics that Americans are debating in their living rooms, gyms and workplaces.  —  He has spoken out about the responsibility of fathers …

GOP Turns To K Street Veterans To Help Unravel Health Care Law  —  House Republicans are turning to old friends on K Street to lead their legislative attempts to repeal the new health care law.  —  Three recently hired Republican aides — two set to work in senior positions on the powerful Energy …

Palin takes hit from the right for picking food fight with first lady  —  Sarah Palin has come under fire from the right for her attacks on the first lady's anti-obesity campaign.  —  The conservative opinion page of The Wall Street Journal, which frequently criticizes the White House …

DeMint challenger Alvin Greene to run for S.C. state house  —  Alvin Greene, the unemployed military veteran who won the Democratic nomination to face Sen. Jim DeMint (R) this fall, has filed to run for South Carolina's state house.  —  Greene, who lost to Demint by over 30 percentage points …

Lawmakers Fund Pet Projects Without Earmarks  —  WASHINGTON — No one was more critical than Representative Mark Steven Kirk when President Obama and the Democratic majority in the Congress sought passage last year of a $787 billion spending bill intended to stimulate the economy.

Obama and Income Inequality: No New Brazils!  —  We're going to be hearing a lot about income inequality over the next few years.  It may be an abstract concept, but it gets hits like Sarah Palin and attracts grant money like Cory Booker.  Tim Noah's series on the subject was (rightly) so popular he got a book contract out of it.

Christmas bomb plot: nine men remanded over plan to ‘blow up Big Ben and Westminster Abbey’  —  Nine alleged terrorists plotted a Christmas bombing campaign targeting sites that included the London Stock Exchange and Big Ben, a court heard.  —  They are alleged to have carried …

Obama's Budget Delayed a Week  —  WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama's budget proposal for fiscal 2012 will be released in mid-February, a little more than a week after its planned release date.  The administration is scrambling to assemble what could be a pivotal document following …

N.J. senator criticizes Gov. Christie, Lt. Gov. Guadagno for being out of state during blizzard  —  TRENTON — A Democratic lawmaker is questioning why both Gov. Chris Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno are out of state at the same time, leaving Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) …

Tests of ‘Roe’ more frequent since justices upheld late-term abortion ban in '07  —  LINCOLN, NEB. - Mike Flood, the 35-year-old speaker of Nebraska's legislature, had a problem: He wanted to stop the state's well-known abortion provider from offering late-term abortions.

The merger of journalists and government officials  —  The video of the CNN debate I did last night about WikiLeaks with former Bush Homeland Security Adviser (and CNN contributor) Fran Townsend and CNN anchor Jessica Yellin is posted below.  The way it proceeded was quite instructive …

Sotomayor Guides Court's Liberal Wing  —  At her confirmation hearings last year, Sonia Sotomayor spent a lot of time assuring senators that empathy would play no part in her work on the Supreme Court.  —  That was a sort of rebuke to President Obama, who had said that empathy was precisely …

Group Opposed To DADT Repeal To Fight On Against Shower Policy  —  Since 1993, the Center for Military Readiness has been fighting to keep gay men and lesbians from infiltrating the United States military.  So now that “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” has been repealed, what's next for the group …

SARAH PALIN KNOCKS CONSERVATIONISTS  —  It was time to pick up the chainsaw and yell “timber” on Sunday night's episode of “Sarah Palin's Alaska.”  —  While last week's installment had Sarah doing a little of everything, from dog sledding to waitressing —this week, the show focused …

Iraq Wants the U.S. Out  —  Prime Minister, in Interview, Says Troops Must Leave Next Year as Planned  —  BAGHDAD—Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ruled out the presence of any U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of 2011, saying his new government and the country's security forces were capable …

Gitmo Is Not Al Qaeda's ‘Number One Recruitment Tool’  —  During a press conference on December 22, President Obama was asked about the difficulties his administration has encountered in trying to close Guantanamo.  The president explained (emphasis added):

Optimism for Obama Should Come With Caution  —  For as poorly as President Obama's Democrats performed on Nov. 2, you can find several assessments of his re-election chances that seem doggone optimistic.  —  The Washington Examiner's Michael Barone, in a careful analysis, suggests that Mr. Obama won't be easy to defeat.

Division Wrought by New Tea Partiers  —  Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who was taken out in his primary by Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell, expresed alarm at the division the movement had caused within his own party.  —  “The Tea Party movement really is quite a bit different …