Rep. Weiner: ‘I just needed a drink’ after GOP response  —  One Democratic congressman says he was ready to hit the bottle after hearing the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union Tuesday night.  —  Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.), who is known for his outspokenness …

BUDGET AND ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: FISCAL YEARS 2011 THROUGH 2021  —  Text-only.  —  The United States faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges.  The economy has struggled to recover from the recent recession, which was triggered by a large decline in house prices and a financial crisis …

The Politics of Evasion  —  If you were a visitor from Mars, watching tonight's State of the Union address and Paul Ryan's Republican response, you would have no reason to think that the looming insolvency of our entitlement system lies at the heart of the economic challenges facing the United States over the next two decades.

Poll: High Marks for Obama's State of the Union Speech  —  An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of President Obama's overall message in his State of the Union on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News Poll of speech watchers.  —  According to the poll, which was conducted online …

Sen. Graham: We Need to Act Like U.S. Troops And Raise The Social Security Retirement Age  —  In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama called on lawmakers to “find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations” without cutting much-needed benefits or privatizing the program.

The Ryan Response  —  ... was as bad as you might expect.  Lots of breast-beating about deficits; you'd never know that no leading Republican, Ryan very much included, has offered a serious proposal to cut the deficit.  Some cooked statistics about federal spending.  And then there was this curious assertion:

Against Obligatory Editorials  —  He still loves his wife.  But after 25 years of marriage, he has lost his enthusiasm for sex with her.  Still.  It is Valentine's Day.  And she has been hinting.  So he takes her to a nice dinner, uncharactertistically orders an after-dinner drink …

Rep. Dennis Kucinich files lawsuit over olive pit  —  Rep. Dennis Kucinich has filed a lawsuit over a sandwich he bought at a congressional cafeteria.  —  Kucinich, D-Ohio, bit into an olive pit in a sandwich wrap in April 2008, which he said led to “serious and permanent dental and oral injuries …

Good News From the Middle East (Really)  —  IT has lately become the accepted wisdom that the Middle East peace process is dead, finished, kaput.  This belief has been reinforced by Al Jazeera's release this week of some 1,600 documents that are said to describe the inside workings of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2008.

Egypt president's son, family flee to Britain  —  CAIRO: Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's son, who is considered as his successor, has fled to Britain along with his family, a US-based Arabic website reported.  —  The plane with Gamal Mubarak, his wife and daughter on board left …

EXCLUSIVE: Obama to Declare ‘The Rules Have Changed’  —  Full text of speech draft obtained by National Journal  —  President Obama speaks to both houses of Congress during his first State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on January 27, 2010.  —  Insisting bipartisanship …

We won't always be the biggest  —  This bugged me last night, and it's worth talking about today: One of the first big applause lines of the speech came when Barack Obama said, “For all the hits we've taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest …

Game-changer!  Arizona to pass 2012 eligibility law  —  Obama will have to produce birth certificate to run again  —  It could be a game-changer.  —  A plan in Arizona to require presidential candidates to prove their eligibility to occupy the Oval Office is approaching critical mass, even though it has just been introduced.

Rep. Broun to Obama: ‘You believe in socialism’  —  GOP Rep. Paul Broun (Ga.) rebuked President Obama using perhaps the sharpest language among his Republican colleagues following the State of the Union address Tuesday night.  —  Broun took to Twitter during the address, accusing the president of believing in socialism.

THE MISSING DEPTH OF THOUGHT.... I've long considered Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) the Republican version of John Edwards.  After one largely underwhelming term, in which he didn't tackle any noteworthy policy initiatives and failed to distinguished himself as an expert in an area …

Loughner researched lethal injection before Tucson shooting, sources say  —  TUCSON — In the weeks and days before the shooting rampage in Tucson, suspect Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet on his computer in what investigators believe was an effort to prepare for his alleged assassination attempt …

Ohio Mom Kelley Williams-Bolar Jailed for Sending Kids to Better School District  —  Judge Sentenced Mother Convicted of Falsifying Residency Records to 10 Days in Jail  —  An Ohio mother's attempt to provide her daughters with a better education has landed her behind bars.

Moscow airport bomb: suicide bombers were part of squad trained in Pakistan  —  The two suicide bombers who carried out the Moscow attack were thought to be part of a suicide squad trained in Pakistan's al-Qaeda strongholds sent to the capital to target the city's transport system.