Weiner Tells Friends He Will Step Down  —  WASHINGTON — Representative Anthony D. Weiner has told friends that he plans to resign his seat after coming under growing pressure from his Democratic colleagues to leave the House in the wake of revelations of his lewd online exchanges with women, said a person told of Mr. Weiner's plans.

Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic  —  WASHINGTON — A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

Romney: 'I'm Also Unemployed'  —  TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work.  When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.

Romney, Bachmann, Cain Lead The Pack Among GOP Primary Voters  —  Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to lead the race for the Republican nomination, but Michele Bachmann has surged into second place following her Monday night entry into the campaign.

Bachmann Said To Have Deal For Memoir  —  Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has made a deal to publish her memoir, selling a book to Sentinel, a conservative imprint at Penguin Group USA, two people familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday.

Our Lefty Military  —  As we search for paths out of America's economic crisis, many suggest business as a paradigm for cutting costs.  According to my back-of-the-envelope math, top C.E.O.'s earn as much as $1 a second around the clock, partly by cutting medical benefits for employees.

Return Of The Dreaded Misery Index  —  Economy: As if the picture weren't bleak enough, here's one more data point to worry about — the Misery Index is on the rise.  —  Conceived by economist Arthur Okun in the early 1970s, the Misery Index simply adds together the inflation and unemployment rates …

San Francisco Mulls Goldfish Ban  —  First kittens, then puppies and hamsters and now goldfish?  —  San Francisco's Animal Control and Welfare Commission is recommending that the City ban the sale of goldfish, tropical fish and guppies in its borders, according to Matier and Ross.

The Big Questions: Why Bachmann?  —  Mark Halperin's Big Questions in the new issue of TIME on the rise of the Gentlelady from Minnesota.  —  Why has Michele Bachmann suddenly become the It candidate?  —  With her impressive New Hampshire debate performance, Bachmann has gone …

Obama's unauthorized war on Libya costs $9,421,000 a day: Are you getting your money's worth?  —  The Obama administration is spending almost $9.5 million every single day to blow things up in Libya because the president has determined that is in the country's national interest, this country's national interest, not Libya's.

Ayman al-Zawahiri appointed as al-Qaeda leader  —  Zawahiri warned a week ago that Bin Laden would continue to “terrify” the US from beyond the grave  —  Al-Qaeda has appointed Ayman al-Zawahiri as leader following the death of Osama Bin Laden, the organisation's general command says in a statement.

Exclusive: Jimmy Henchman Associate Admits to Role in Robbery/Shooting of Tupac; Apologizes To Pac & B.I.G.'s Mothers  —  (AllHipHop News) A man has admitted to being involved in the attack on rap star Tupac Shakur in 1994, inside Manhattan's Quad Studios in November of 1994 …

Tim Pawlenty's New Hampshire Ally: Obama is a “Jungle Alien”  —  The candidate's “Time for Truth” campaign makes a pit stop in the home of a GOP birther.  —  Post Comment  —  During his recent swing through New Hampshire for CNN's presidential debate, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty courted …

Weiner looking for a new job  —  Anthony Weiner, Chapter 2: Out siders think rehab's smart.  Time passes.  Maybe his peccadillo can go down — excuse my phraseology — and he can someday recoup.  —  Insiders, considering this is as much a reality as Elizabeth Taylor's return, say …

Internal Republican fights make Boehner's plan for debt deal harder  —  A series of policy battles that have broken out among House Republicans poses a significant challenge to Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) effort to unify his troops on a bill raising the nation's debt ceiling.

Czechs withdraw from US missile-defense plans  —  Count the Czech Republic out of any American missile-defense system in Europe.  The Czechs formally withdrew from the missile-defense partnership with the US, prompting one lawmaker in Prague to complain that “the current administration doesn't take the Czech Republic seriously.”

Your morning jolt: Atlanta office left $13,000 in drawer, says Newt Gingrich  —  GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich this morning pushed back against his former staff, accusing his Atlanta office of neglecting $13,000 in checks to his campaign.  —  Gingrich may want to be careful.

AMA to reconsider support of health insurance requirement  —  Faction contends key tenet of overhaul legislation is “a matter of individual responsibility to be encouraged by the use of tax incentives and other noncompulsory measures”  —  A divided American Medical Association …