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 …

Obama's debt expert yells at kids  —  Alan Simpson referred to Snoop Dogg (left) and Eminem (right) in his tirade.  —  AP Photo  —  Alan Simpson might need to freshen up on his pop culture.  —  The co-chairman of President Obama's deficit commission tried to scold the elderly on Monday …

White House memo notes shortage of applicants for contest to have Obama to speak at high school graduation  —  The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama.

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 …

Republicans divided over Muslim hearings  —  The top two House Republican leaders are divided over how to handle the bubbling controversy surrounding Homeland Security Chairman Peter King's hearing into “radicalization” in the American Muslim community.  —  Majority Leader Eric Cantor …

Wisconsin's Walker accuses Senate Democrats of blocking negotiations  —  A chance to end the legislative standoff that has paralyzed the Wisconsin government for weeks seemed to slip away Monday after Gov. Scott Walker (R) accused the leader of the state Senate Democrats of blocking negotiations to end the impasse.

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 …

Obama creates indefinite detention system for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay  —  President Obama signed an executive order Monday that will create a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who continue to pose a significant threat to national security.

No guts, no glory: GOP should heed lesson of '91  —  Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork  —  In early March 1991, all the smart people in politics knew one thing about the upcoming 1992 campaign: President George H.W. Bush was unbeatable.  —  Fresh from victory in the Gulf War …

Discord Fills Washington on Possible Libya Intervention  —  WASHINGTON — Nearly three weeks after Libya erupted in what may now turn into a protracted civil war, the politics of military intervention to speed the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi grow more complicated by the day — for both the White House and Republicans.

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:

Report says too many whites, men leading military  —  WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday.

Caterpillar's Problem With Peoria  —  Why an American icon is looking beyond Illinois for its future.  —  Just over 100 ago, the company we know as Caterpillar began building track-type tractors at a plant on the banks of the Illinois River.  From these humble origins in East Peoria …

Why Fire Teachers?  —  ED Kain has been blogging a lot about teacher firings, and makes what I think is one of the better cases for the tenure/civil service/union protections from firing that teachers now enjoy. … Naturally, I'm going to be the mean person who steps in and argues in favor …

Bachmann will decide on run in ‘early summer’  —  (CNN) - Political observers waiting for a big announcement from Rep. Michele Bachmann will have to wait a little longer.  The three-term Minnesota congresswoman said in an interview Tuesday that she'll hold off deciding whether to run …

Mitt Romney, the most transparent candidate  —  We're all for transparency these days, and if anything is transparently clear about American politics, it is that Mitt Romney will do or say anything to become president.  The best guess is that at heart he is an old-fashioned, business-oriented Republican.

Drawing the stars for charity  —  There is no such thing as a short dinner when Bill Clinton is in the house.  The 42nd president, bless his heart, loves to talk.  And talk.  And then talk some more.  —  Of course he was the last guest to leave Sunday's Kuwait-America Foundation dinner …

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 …

Missing: Marizela Perez  —  I just got off the phone with my family.  —  This is my beautiful cousin, Marizela Perez:  —  She is a University of Washington undergrad and she has been missing since Saturday afternoon, when she left the Rainier Beach neighborhood headed to the UW Seattle campus.

Too Long to Wait  —  Seven months have passed since Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in San Francisco following a much-publicized trial that turned up no evidence to justify the measure's denial of equal protection and due process.