Let's Not Be Civil  —  Last week, President Obama offered a spirited defense of his party's values — in effect, of the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society.  Immediately thereafter, as always happens when Democrats take a stand, the civility police came out in force.

What's Donald Trump really after?  —  Despite an almost universal refusal by Republican establishment figures and the press to take him seriously, Donald Trump is taking very concrete steps toward forming - and announcing - a presidential campaign.  —  He has interviewed at least two people …

Vandals Break In WI Office - Steal Fleebagger Recall Petitions Hours After It Was Announced Enough Signatures Were Collected (Video)  —  On Thursday Wisconsin conservatives announced that they had collected enough signatures 15,000 to recall fleebagger Senator Dave Hansen of Green Bay.

As debt ceiling vote nears, the pressure's on House Republican freshmen  —  They ran against debt.  They swore and swore again that they'd cut up the nation's credit card.  —  But now the 87 freshmen House Republicans are facing intense pressure from administration officials …

Huntsman team plans South Carolina campaign  —  Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) - If ambassador to China Jon Huntsman does decide to run for president after returning to the United States in early May, his advisers are planning to make a serious play for South Carolina, the early primary state …

The Middle-Class Tax Trap  —  “Let's tell the truth,” Walter Mondale said, accepting the Democratic nomination in 1984.  “Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you.  I just did.”  —  Three months later, Mondale lost 49 states, and liberal politicians learned a valuable lesson.

TheDC Exclusive: Conservatives hit Beck for taking content without attribution  —  A number of conservative activists and bloggers say they're furious at media magnate Glenn Beck for what they call content theft.  Over the past several years, Beck has relied on video, audio and written content …

Ryan Budget Plan Defended as Republicans Return Home to Voters  —  First-term Representative Bobby Schilling is getting ready for some uncomfortable conversations.  —  The pizzeria owner-turned-Republican lawmaker supported his party's 2012 budget plan that passed in the House last week …

S&P Affirms US AAA Rating, Cuts Outlook to Negative  —  Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded the outlook for the United States to negative, saying it believes there's a risk U.S. policymakers may not reach agreement on how to address the country's long-term fiscal pressures.

President Obama to ignore ‘czar’ ban  —  President Barack Obama is planning to ignore language in the 2011 spending package that would ban several top White House advisory posts.  —  House Republicans tacked on language to the contentious spending bill to cut the salaries for four so-called czars …

Al-Jazeera has fans in Obama W.H.  —  In the halls of American power, the Arab Spring has brought Al-Jazeera in from the cold.  —  Seven years after then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the broadcaster's reporting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” and President George W. Bush joked …

Where the Tax Money Is  —  Obama targets the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich.  —  A dominant theme of President Obama's budget speech last Wednesday was that our fiscal problems would vanish if only the wealthiest Americans were asked “to pay a little more.”

Relieve Pain by Swearing, Study Says  —  Hey, after all these years, I'm vindicated at last: … And, indeed, some of what we were taught in schools was wrong.  —  For instance, the story has it Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty or give me death.”  He really said: “Wear one of those dreadful Tory hats?

Obama 49%, Trump 34%  —  President Obama leads Donald Trump by 15 percentage points in a hypothetical 2012 match-up, but the president is unable to top the 50% level of support even against an opponent some are deriding as a joke.  —  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds …

Unhinged Lunatics Message to Madison Tea Party & Sarah Palin  —  These protesters at the Madison, Wisconsin Tea Party Protest featuring Andrew Breitbart and Sarah Palin unleashed a furious message in the following video.  Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea what this message means...

Ha'aretz: Bibi, Barak, Lean Toward Confronting Iran; Mossad More Skeptical  —  This weekend brought us a fascinating and complicated report from Ha'aretz's Amir Oren, who suggests that the early success of the Iron Dome missile-interception system makes it somewhat more likely that Israel …

GANG OF SIX ‘VERY CLOSE’ TO AN AGREEMENT, INTENDS TO ‘MAKE EVERYBODY MAD’.... Two months ago, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” deficit-reduction talks, said the group was “getting close” to striking a deal.  Two weeks ago, however, the negotiations …

An Interview With Andrew Breitbart  —  I was pleased to have an opportunity to interview conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbartabout his new book “Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World! .”  What follows is a slightly edited transcript of our conversation.

E.J. Dionne Jr.  —  America's elites have a duty to the rest of us  —  The American ruling class is failing us — and itself.  —  At other moments in our history, the informal networks of the wealthy and powerful who often wield at least as much influence as our elected politicians accepted …

US Rep. Mo Brooks retracts ‘socialist’ remark  —  WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Huntsville withdrew a statement he made Friday morning on the House floor about other members of Congress being socialists, but he said later he did not regret his remarks and thought Democrats who objected to the label were being “thin-skinned.”

Democrats eye Army general for Texas Senate race  —  Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, may enter the open-seat Senate race in Texas as a Democrat, POLITICO has confirmed.  —  Democrats expect that Sanchez will run for the seat of retiring GOP …

U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show  —  / AP - Syrian anti-government protesters march in Banias, Syria on Sunday.  The Arabic banner at center reads: “All of us would die for our country.”  —  The State Department has secretly financed Syrian …