Huckabee: Obama Grew Up “In Kenya”  —  During a radio appearance yesterday, Mike Huckabee repeatedly falsely claimed that President Obama grew up in Kenya.  After questioning Obama's purported secrecy about the birth certificate, radio host Steve Malzberg asked Huckabee if “we deserve to know more about this man.”

Darrell Issa fires press secretary Kurt Bardella in New York Times e-mail flap  —  House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) fired Kurt Bardella, one of Capitol Hill's top press secretaries, after he provided e-mailed correspondence with other journalists to New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich.

Dem senator: Senate has accepted House GOP spending plan  —  As House and Senate leaders haggle over ways to avoid a government shutdown, a Democratic senator said the Republicans' short-term spending bill - including billions of dollars in cuts - has been largely accepted by upper-chamber Democrats.

Dodd said last year he would not lobby  —  Former Sen. Chris Dodd (D) on Monday took the type of job he said last year he would not accept.  —  Dodd accepted the chairmanship of the Motion Picture Association of America — Hollywood's top lobbyist — on Monday.

Gingrich Jumps In: First 2012 GOP Candidate  —  Sources: Former House Speaker Will form 2012 Exploratory Comm.  —  The 2012 presidential campaign is about to get its first big-name Republican.  —  ABC News has learned that Newt Gingrich will make the leap this week.

How Rumsfeld misleads and ducks responsibility in his new book  —  Few people know the ins and outs of the Bush Administration as well as the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, who is flat-out disgusted with the evasions and elisions in Donald Rumsfeld's new book.  Here he explains why:  —  By Bob Woodward

Exclusive: AWOL Democrats Experiencing ‘Dissension in the Ranks’  —  Fox Nation has learned exclusively from a highly placed source within Wisconsin state politics that the fourteen AWOL Democrats are experiencing “dissension in the ranks.”  State Sen. Julie Lassa (D) is pregnant and “extremely unhappy” about being on the run.

Ohio Set to Vote on Union Rights  —  COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican State Senators on Tuesday unveiled a new version of a bill governing public employee unions, saying the legislation would preserve the right of workers to bargain collectively, but Democratic lawmakers said it did not appear …

Assange goes off deep end - blaming Jews and Guardian in Private Eye  —  This is published in the latest edition of Private Eye (buy a copy!).  —  The article is titled, ‘A Curious Conversation With Mr Assange’ - and it is the phone version of a horrible car crash.  (hat-tip @jamesrbuk)

Eric Holder: Black Panther case focus demeans ‘my people’  —  Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.

Powerful Cleric Joins Protest to Urge Islamic Rule in Yemen  —  SANA, Yemen — As thousands of demonstrators for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets on Tuesday, a cleric who is a former mentor of Osama bin Laden joined them to call for the replacement of the government with an Islamic state.

African Americans respond to Obama's shift on DOMA  —  When same-sex marriage was upended in California by popular vote in 2008, gay rights activists pointed to one factor: religious African Americans who came out in record numbers for President Obama but who also largely voted against the marriage proposal, according to exit polls.

Breaking News: Sarah Palin Denounces Obama's DOMA decision (to NOM)  —  In response to a question from me, Sarah Palin offered this exclusive response to President Obama's DOMA decision: … Please cite www.nationformarriage.org as the source for this statement from Sarah.

Billions in Bloat Uncovered in Beltway  —  The U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development.  —  These are a few of the findings in a massive study of overlapping …

Rep. Holt beats Watson the super-computer at ‘Jeopardy!’  —  There are a lot of smart people on Capitol Hill.  But none of them can claim quite the same brainy bragging rights as Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.).  —  On Monday, Holt beat IBM's super-computer, known as Watson, at a round of “Jeopardy! …

ANSWER THIS: ANDREW SULLIVAN  —  Andrew Sullivan has achieved the hat trick of Washington journalism: author, editor, blogger.  And he's adding another item to his long and diverse résumé, announcing this week that he's leaving The Atlantic and taking his blog to the new Daily Beast/Newsweek venture in April.

A Union Education  —  What Wisconsin reveals about public workers and political power.  —  The raucous Wisconsin debate over collective bargaining may be ugly at times, but it has been worth it for the splendid public education.  For the first time in decades, Americans have been asked …

Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Minister in Memorial Church, Dies at Age 68  —  Reverend Peter J. Gomes, who oversaw Memorial Church for the past three and a half decades, died Monday evening after suffering a brain aneurysm and heart attack.  He was 68.  —  His death was announced in an e-mail …

Southern Decadence protest leader booked with masturbating at Metairie park  —  The Rev. Grant Storms, the Christian fundamentalist known for his bullhorn protests of the Southern Decadence festival in the French Quarter, was arrested on a charge of masturbating at a Metairie park Friday afternoon.

Sen. Boxer on PBS cuts: ‘Republicans have a vendetta against Elmo’  —  Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that House Republicans want to strip government funding of PBS because they have a “vendetta against Elmo.”  —  Boxer made the comments during a floor speech where she made the case …

Speaker Boehner to Brody File: Preparing For “one giant fight over the future for our country.”  —  Speaker John Boehner tells The Brody File that when it comes to issue over the budget and raising the debt ceiling he is preparing for “one giant fight over the future for our country.”

Wisconsin closely divided, but against Walker  —  There are two conclusions we can make from our poll on the Wisconsin conflict: the state is very closely divided, but it leans slightly to the union side of things rather than Scott Walker's on pretty much every question we asked.

Natalie Portman Condemns Galliano  —  The actress Natalie Portman, who has an endorsement contract with Dior for its Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, has strongly condemned its chief designer, John Galliano, for anti-Semitic remarks after a video surfaced of Mr. Galliano appearing to deliver a tirade in a Paris bar.