Clinton says she won't commit to serving second term at State  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she hasn't committed to serving a second term in the Obama administration and is looking forward to an eventual return to private life.  —  “That's not something …

VIDEO: House Republicans Explain Why They Won't Give Up Their Own Government-Sponsored Health Care  —  With the Republican legislative agenda increasingly focused on repealing health care reform, many observers are beginning to question whether GOPers in Congress will personally abide …

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  Before banning ‘crosshairs,’ CNN used it to refer to Palin, Bachmann  —  CNN's John King is attracting a lot of notice — and some ridicule — in the blogosphere for his on-air apology after a guest used the word “crosshairs” during a report on Chicago politics Tuesday.

Video Captured ‘Calculated’ Gunman in Tucson  —  TUCSON — The chief investigator for the sheriff's department here has for the first time publicly described the brief and gory video clip from a store security camera that shows a gunman not only shooting Representative Gabrielle Giffords …

U.S. Rep. David Wu loses staffers, political team amid complaints of public behavior  —  Since the November election, U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., has lost at least six staffers plus the leadership of a veteran campaign team that guided him to a seventh term amid complaints about his public behavior.

CNN Poll: Palin unfavorable rating at all time high  —  Washington (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that 56 percent of all Americans have an unfavorable view of Sarah Palin, an all-time high for the former Alaska governor.  That 56 percent unfavorable figure is up seven points …

Hawaii governor can't find Obama birth certificate  —  Suggests controversy could hurt president's re-election chances  —  Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie suggested in an interview published today that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not exist within …

WHY OBAMA IS SCARY SKINNY  —  The real reason behind PRESIDENT OBAMA's shocking weight loss - he's secretly battling stomach parasites, say sources.  —  The pencil-thin president caught the parasites on a trip last year to Hawaii, where he and his family also vacationed over Christmas, according to top political insiders.

Sheila Jackson Lee Says Repealing ObamaCare Violates Constitution  —  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, said on Tuesday afternoon that repealing the national health care law would violate the Constitution.  —  Arguing that the Commerce Clause provides the constitutional basis for ObamaCare …

Muslim groups nervous about King hearings  —  American Muslim leaders, who have struggled to present a clear public voice or organize politically in the decade since Sept. 11, are increasingly apprehensive about the direction Rep. Pete King will take when he convenes hearings next month on the threat posed by radical Islam in America.

Parenting by Gays More Common in the South, Census Shows  —  JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Being gay in this Southern city was once a lonely existence.  Most people kept their sexuality to themselves, and they were reminded of the dangers of being openly gay when a gay church was bombed in the 1980s.

Ron Charles reviews ‘O: A Presidential Novel’  —  By Anonymous.  —  Simon & Schuster.  353 pp.  $25.99  —  Like the people who end up running for president, this anonymous novel about Barack Obama's reelection campaign isn't as good as you hoped or as bad as you feared.

The new Clintonian Obama is playing offense, and building momentum  —  Three months after an electoral “shellacking” that threatened to derail his agenda and his reelection, Obama is on a roll.  —  President Obama — the centrist, Clintonian version — is rolling.

Carol Braun Moseley rips Bill Clinton's ‘betrayal’  —  Chicago mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun on Wednesday called former President Bill Clinton's campaign appearance for former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a “betrayal” of the city's African-American and Latino communities.

Steele: “I Know How Caesar Felt”  —  This past weekend, RNC Chairman Michael Steele lost his bid for reelection.  Sitting down with FrumForum as he ponders his next move, perhaps the thing that gets the garrulous Steele most quiet is a mention of his successor, Wisconsin State Republican Chair Reince Priebus.

New Ala. gov: Just Christians are his family  —  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley told a church crowd just moments into his new administration that those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior are not his brothers and sisters, shocking some critics who questioned Tuesday whether he can be fair to non-Christians.

Study Points to Windfall for Goldman Partners  —  Goldman Sachs executives have long been among the most richly paid on Wall Street in the best of times.  They are now poised to reap a windfall that was sown in the dark days of the financial crisis in 2008.

In Wreckage of Lost Jobs, Lost Power  —  Alone among the world's economic powers, the United States is suffering through a deep jobs slump that can't be explained by the rest of the economy's performance.  —  The gross domestic product here — the total value of all goods and services …

Why Did Lieberman Off Himself?  —  The retirement of Joe Lieberman is the culmination of a series of domestic repercussions of the Iraq war.  The war estranged Lieberman from his party base, which gave rise to a liberal primary challenge in 2006.  National Democrats supported Lieberman …

Dem Rep: Tucson Hero Wants Health Care Bill Kept In Place  —  As Democrats ramp up their day-long press tour to criticize the House Republican plan to vote on a repeal of the landmark health care reform bill today, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is using this month's tragedy in Tucson to take on the GOP.

The White House Looks for Work  —  Three days before Christmas, President Obama gathered his economic team in the West Wing's Roosevelt Room to review themes for his State of the Union address.  The edge-of-the-cliff crisis he inherited had passed, but with more than 14 million Americans still out of work …

'Wear the hijab or I'll kill you, cousin told girl': Muslim tells of terrifying phone threats  —  A man threatened to kill his cousin and harm her family after she decided to stop wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf, a court has heard.  —  Mohamed Al-Hakim, 29, allegedly phoned Alya Al-Safar …