NPR executives caught on tape bashing conservatives and Tea Party, touting liberals  —  A man who appears to be a senior National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.  —  “The current Republican Party …

Freshman Democrat Joe Manchin: Obama has ‘failed to lead’ on budget  —  West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is planning to rip President Barack Obama on his budget proposals in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, a rare rebuke from a freshman Democrat who's clearly worried about the politics …

Rep. Pete King is right, say feds and cops: We don't get many tips from Muslim community  —  Cops and federal agents agree with Rep. Pete King that they don't get a lot of tipsters from the Muslim community - but they say that's true of many other communities.

GOP Sen. Lugar says he'll support House Republican spending cuts  —  Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), who faces a Tea Party-backed challenge in his 2012 primary, has withdrawn his stated opposition to House-passed spending cuts.  —  Lugar said Tuesday afternoon that he made a mistake …

Intruder calls 911, afraid homeowner may have gun  —  (CNN) — This time it was the intruder who called 911.  —  A man who broke into a house in Portland, Oregon, called police — afraid the homeowner may have a gun.  —  The suspect, Timothy James Chapek, was in the bathroom taking a shower …

Can Any One Of These People Beat President Obama?  —  To do so, one of these candidates has to win the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.  What follows is a cheat sheet of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the GOP presidential candidates and a quick assessment of where they stand now.

After Praising 2009 Town Hall ‘Outrage,’ Sensenbrenner Overwhelmed By Progressive Town Hall Protesters  —  against Democrats who supported the health care overhaul, raucously disrupting the town hall meetings of these members of Congress.  —  One of the Republican members of Congress …

Searching for Marizela: An update  —  SEATTLE — The photo above from Marizela's friends/family shows the tattoo on her left inner arm that reads “lahat ay magiging maayos” — a Tagalog saying for “all will be well.”  —  Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers and for helping to spread the word across the Internet.

Drive to recall Wisconsin GOP senators gaining steam, Dems say  —  So how's the drive to recall Wisconsin GOP state senators going?  If these new numbers the Wisconsin Democratic Party shares with me are accurate, it's already exceeding expectations in a big way.

Vilsack: ‘I took it as a slam on rural America’  —  Yesterday afternoon, I got an e-mail from a “usda.gov” address.  “Secretary Vilsack read your blog post ‘Why we still need cities’ over the weekend, and he has some thoughts and reflections, particularly about the importance of rural America,” it said.

Senate Democrats weigh making big mistake on health-care reform  —  I'm getting some worried e-mails from Hill staffers who think Senate Democrats might rubberstamp a policy House Republicans passed to undermine the Affordable Care Act.  It's the sort of policy decision that won't get much attention …

Israel Considers Military ‘Upgrade’  —  JERUSALEM—Israel will need to boost military spending and may seek an additional $20 billion in U.S. security assistance to help it manage potential threats stemming from popular upheavals in the Arab world, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday.

E-mails reveal possible Walker concessions on union bill  —  By Jason Stein, Patrick Marley and Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison - Gov. Scott Walker's office released documents Tuesday detailing back-and-forth talks with Senate Democrats in Illinois about his union bargaining bill …

Florida Republicans Are at Odds With Their Leader  —  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Rick Scott, the conservative Republican billionaire who plucked the governor's job from the party establishment in November with $73 million of his own money and the backing of the Tea Party, vowed during his campaign …

NPR, PBS campaigns to keep federal funds called unlawful  —  NPR and PBS stations nationwide are rallying their audiences to contact Congress to fight against Republicans' proposed spending cuts, but some affiliates' pleas may violate laws preventing nonprofits or government-funded groups from lobbying.

Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message  —  FORT WORTH — Brigitte Gabriel bounced to the stage at a Tea Party convention last fall.  She greeted the crowd with a loud Texas “Yee-HAW,” then launched into the same gripping personal story she has told in hundreds of churches, synagogues and conference rooms across the United States:

Obama Misery Index hits a record high  —  The unemployment rate has just fallen one-tenth of a percent, from 9 percent to 8.9 percent.  Of course, it is indeed progress, and it is being celebrated in the White House as such.  But the celebrations bring to mind what a wit once said: An …