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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

Dems hit Pawlenty for paid speech on healthcare  —  Democrats went after Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty on Thursday for giving a paid speech on healthcare reform.  —  Pawlenty will address insurance executives as the annual convention of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) in San Francisco.

Newt Gingrich Demands Apology From NBC For Airing Story On His Wife  —  After suffering a mass exodus of senior staffers last week, rumors began to circulate that Newt Gingrich's campaign had been seriously derailed by his wife, Callista.  On tonight's On the Record, Gingrich got a chance …

Boehner says House could move to cut off funding for Libya  —  House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday said the Obama administration failed to answer all his questions about the U.S. mission in Libya and raised the possibility that the House would move to cut off funding for the operation.

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.

Possible Al-Qaida Hit List Targets Specific Americans  —  An al-Qaida-linked website has posted a potential hit-list of sorts.  It has the names and photos of several U.S. officials and business leaders.  The site prompted the FBI to send out a new terror bulletin.

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.

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 …

Mufti of Lebanon: Palestinians are ‘trash’, not welcome  —  Sheikh Qabbani tells visiting Palestinian delegation for refugees, “We've hosted you and no longer want you... You will never be victorious.”  —  Talkbacks (37)  —  The mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani …