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 …

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.).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.)

British fear ‘American-style’ healthcare system  —  As leaders debate ways to reform healthcare, politicians repeatedly tell a worried public that Britain will not turn the National Health Service into an ‘American-style’ private system.  —  British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks …

How educated are state legislators?  —  The Chronicle has looked at where each of the 7,000-plus state legislators in America went to college - or whether they went at all.  In doing so, we got a glimpse of how the citizens who hold these seats reflect the average American experience.

Why Anthony Weiner Shouldn't Quit  —  THE DAILY BEAST ON:  —  The congressman's public flogging doesn't fit the crime, and is emblematic of our kick-'em-when-they're-down culture.  Peter Beinart on why we need a new rulebook for political sex scandals.  —  Excuse me for asking, but why exactly should Anthony Weiner resign?

‘The Sarah Palin I Know’  —  For more on Ziegler's Palin-related experiences and to read his pre-emptive rebuttal of his critics, go to: www.TheSarahPalinIKnow.com  —  For many reasons, the first week of January 2009 was clearly the longest and most difficult of my life.

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 …

U.S. pressuring Netanyahu to accept Obama's peace plan  —  Israeli source says Americans frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for hampering U.S. efforts to stop Palestinians trying UN route to statehood in September.  —  Washington is pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

Tim Pawlenty Attempts To Rebut Allegations Of Dullness With Lame Joke, Bad Timing  —  On paper, Tim Pawlenty seems like a formidable political candidate.  But he's been dogged since the beginning of the campaign with alleged dullness.  Asked about this yesterday on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace …

Cantor: Dems should strip Weiner of committee posts  —  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) pushed Democratic leaders to consider stripping Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) of his committee assignments if the embattled congressman refuses to resign.  —  “I'm hoping that they will begin to move …