Married GOP Congressman Sent Sexy Pictures to Craigslist Babe  —  Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York.  But when he trolls Craigslist's “Women Seeking Men” forum, he's Christopher Lee, “divorced” “lobbyist” and “fit fun classy guy.”

Growing pains: House GOP stumbles  —  It usually takes a lot longer for the party in charge to start with the finger-pointing, the failed votes and the backpedaling on campaign promises.  —  But the House Republican majority has already had two failed floor votes, is experiencing a backlash …

House Democrats say Justice Thomas should recuse himself in health-care case  —  Seventy-four House Democrats have signed a letter to Clarence Thomas asking the Supreme Court justice to recuse himself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of the national health care overhaul …

Webb won't seek reelection  —  Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb plans to announce today that he won't seek reelection, the Senator confirmed Wednesday.  —  Webb appeared likely to face a rematch with former Senator George Allen, whom he beat in a bruising 2006 contest.

EXCLUSIVE: White House to Cut Energy Assistance for the Poor  —  Budget proposal would cut billions from aid program.  —  President Obama's proposed 2012 budget will cut several billion dollars from the government's energy assistance fund for poor people, officials briefed on the subject told National Journal.

Barbarism the New National Norm?  —  Civility is making the headlines lately, but if you dig a bit deeper, barbarism is the real story.  —  To wit: Last month, MSNBC.com carried this story from Reno, NV: “Six girls arrested for Facebook ‘Attack a Teacher Day’ invite.”

AOL stock sheds $315M — HuffPo price tag  —  You pay for what you get.  —  Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, co-founders of the Huffington Post, are said to be walking away with a combined $80 million to $100 million from an original $2 million per person investment — but so far AOL stockholders aren't seeing that kind of return.

Santorum's Twe-eating his Palin words  —  Rick Santorum is quickly backpedaling from his critical remarks over Sarah Palin's decision to blow off CPAC, going after POLITICO for spotlighting his attack.  —  “This article is garbage,” Santorum tweeted this morning, linking to the POLITICO story.

‘Forcible Rape’ Language Remains In Bill To Restrict Abortion Funding … WASHINGTON — After significant public blowback, House Republicans last week promised to drop a controversial provision in their high-priority No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act that would redefine rape.

White House, State Department move to end Egypt confusion  —  The White House is moving to stamp out reports that top officials — including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — are sending conflicting signals about how best to resolve the crisis in Egypt.

Malpractice Bill Raises Issues About a Lawsuit  —  The lawmaker and retired obstetrician sponsoring a Congressional bill to sharply cut medical malpractice awards was involved in a $500,000 settlement of a malpractice lawsuit.  The action was brought by a pregnant woman who charged …

Security Firms Pitching Bank of America on WikiLeaks Response Proposed Targeting Glenn Greenwald  —  On Saturday, private security firm HBGary Federal bragged to the FT that it had discovered who key members of the hacking group Anonymous are.  In response, Anonymous hacked HB Gary Federal …

Monetary Policy Hearing Today, or: Ron Paul Versus the Kochtopus.  —  Ron Paul is holding one of his first monetary policy hearings today, and he hasn't sold out.  Ron Paul is from the school of libertarians that hates D.C. libertarians, which is weird since Ron Paul is one of the most well-known libertarians …

100 UC Irvine faculty members ask district attorney to drop charges against Muslim students  —  A group of 100 faculty members at UC Irvine signed a letter asking the Orange County district attorney to drop criminal charges against 11 Muslim students who disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

Aide: Giffords can speak  —  (CNN) — U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, recovering from a gunshot wound to the head sustained January 8, is regaining part of her ability to speak, her spokesman said Wednesday.  —  C.J. Karamargin would not divulge what Giffords has said, other than saying she asked for toast.

At CPAC, the race for second place as Paul goes all out  —  The Conservative Political Action Conference's annual straw poll typically indicates three things: Whom CPAC's segment of the conservative base prefers for president; who bought tickets for their supporters; and whether Ron Paul is really trying.

Texas Tea Party Leader On Obama: He ‘Might Be Muslim’  —  On MSNBC this evening, Chris Matthews hosted two representatives of the Tea Party to analyze its influence in Washington: FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe and Phillip Dennis of the Texas Tea Party.  Matthews asked Dennis …

Hoyer And Boehner Agree Retirement Age Should Be ‘On The Table’  —  When he was still leader of the Republican minority, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) put himself on the line and explicitly advocated raising the retirement age to 70.  He stood by the comment for weeks until last month when he called it a mistake.

Is ‘Eat Real Food’ Unthinkable?  —  In recent weeks we've seen a big, powerful government agency, a big, powerful person and a big, powerful corporation telling us what to eat.  Even with all this big, powerful input, we know nothing that we didn't know last year.