Romney Support Up; Widens Advantage in 2012 Preferences  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Republicans' support for Mitt Romney as their party's 2012 presidential nominee has increased significantly to 24%, compared with 17% in late May.  As a result, Romney has widened his advantage over Sarah Palin …

Obama Seeks to Win Back Wall St. Cash  —  WASHINGTON — A few weeks before announcing his re-election campaign, President Obama convened two dozen Wall Street executives, many of them longtime donors, in the White House's Blue Room.  —  The guests were asked for their thoughts on how to speed …

In Reversal, 3 Democratic Senators Will Back Gay Marriage  —  ALBANY — Three wavering Democratic lawmakers in the State Senate have agreed to support legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in New York, several people with knowledge of the negotiations said on Monday, marking a potential turning point for the long-debated measure.

RNC chair struggles to defend double standard  —  NBC's “Meet the Press” hosted a discussion between the two major party chairs — the DNC's Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the RNC's Reince Priebus — and right off the bat, host David Gregory wanted to talk at length about Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

Pawlenty: Bush Tax Cuts “Didn't Fully Serve Their Intended Purposes”  —  DERRY, N.H. — Addressing a packed, boisterous room at Halligan Tavern here, accompanied by half a dozen state legislators (not all had endorsed him), Tim Pawlenty made a mostly economics, competence-based case against the Obama administration.

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say  —  U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion, sent by the planeload in cash and intended for Iraq's reconstruction after the start of the war.  —  Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills, pictured last month, has held hearings on waste and fraud in Iraq.

F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds  —  WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.

Gov. Perry: Economic Crisis Is Part of God's Plan To Return Us To Biblical Principles  —  For the past week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has been roundly criticized by religious and LGBT groups alike for inviting other governors to join him at an anti-gay prayer event hosted by stridently bigoted American Family Association.

Why We're Going Back to Single-Sex Dorms  —  Student housing has became a hotbed of reckless drinking and hooking up.  —  My wife and I have sent five children to college and our youngest just graduated.  Like many parents, we encouraged them to study hard and spend time in a country where people don't speak English.

Scientific Consensus on Global Warming  —  Scientific societies and scientists have released statements and studies showing the growing consensus on climate change science.  A common objection to taking action to reduce our heat-trapping emissions has been uncertainty within the scientific community …

Medicare Saves Money  —  Every once in a while a politician comes up with an idea that's so bad, so wrongheaded, that you're almost grateful.  For really bad ideas can help illustrate the extent to which policy discourse has gone off the rails.  —  And so it was with Senator Joseph Lieberman's proposal …

Democratic source: Weiner ‘on the fence’ about resigning, in state of ‘despair’  —  Washington (CNN) - A Democratic source who spoke to Anthony Weiner after Democratic leaders called on him to resign Saturday told CNN that even with that public hammer dropped on him, Weiner made clear he was still …

After running pizza chain, Cain says he can make foreign policy decisions  —  MANCHESTER, N.H. — Is running a pizza chain similar to being commander in chief of the armed forces?  —  Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza running for president, said he's suited …

Neocon flack: Weiner may have converted to Islam  —  (UPDATED) We thought everything that could be said about Anthony Weiner's lewd photo scandal had been said.  But Eliana Benador, a former influential neoconservative public relations operative, has proved us wrong.

Rep. Anthony Weiner's Nissan Pathfinder is unregistered, DMV says  —  Lying about sexting apparently isn't Rep. Anthony Weiner's only gray area.  —  When Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) was photographed by the Daily News fleeing the Capitol in his Nissan Pathfinder, it was clear …

White House calls Weiner's sex scandal a “distraction”  —  (Reuters) - The White House Monday ramped up pressure on Democratic lawmaker Anthony Weiner to resign, calling his Internet sex scandal a distraction from the work that needs to be done in Washington.

How to avoid a lost decade  —  Even with the massive 2008-09 policy effort that prevented financial collapse and depression, the United States is now halfway to a lost economic decade.  From the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2011, the U.S. economy's growth rate averaged less …

McLean woman ‘involuntarily committed’ in alleged Red Line bomb threat  —  [This story was originally posted at 8:39 a.m. with updates at 12:15 p.m., 1:50 p.m. and 2:33 p.m. Stay with PostLocal.com as more information becomes available.]  —  A 51-year-old Mclean woman was “involuntarily committed” …

US Is in Even Worse Shape Financially Than Greece: Gross  —  When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

Heard on the Hill: West Intern Fired Over Retweet  —  It's not Monday without a Member of Congress making a very public faux pas the week before ... and on the social networking site Twitter, no less.  (Members, never stop tweeting.  Politics and Twitter paint the rest of our lives with a bit of Technicolor.)

Indiana Senate Candidate Mourdock's Campaign Assaults Citizen Journalist  —  This weekend we attended a Tea Party event in Kokomo, Indiana.  As we were interviewing Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock; his campaign manager, Chief Deputy & General Counsel for Indiana …

Unemployment in the Swing States  —  To win reelection, President Obama needs to match his 2008 performance in four swing states: Florida, Nevada, Michigan and North Carolina.  Unfortunately, as Sara Murray reports for the Wall Street Journal, those are also states with levels of unemployment that rise far above the national average.

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  How to get a federal health-care waiver (Hint: it involves former government health-policy officials)  —  Senior Political Columnist Follow Him @TPCarney  —  This filing just came across the old Lobbying Disclosure Act Database:  —  Client: State of Oregon