Michele Bachmann Becomes Fifth GOP Candidate To Reject Donald Trump Debate  —  ABC News' Michael Falcone reports:  —  DES MOINES — Another one bites the dust.  —  Michele Bachmann has officially said “no” to the Donald Trump-moderated Newsmax debate scheduled for later this month.

Rick Perry's Anti-Gay Iowa Ad Divides His Top Staff … 2012 Election , Log Cabin Republicans , Elections 2012 , Rick Perry , Video , Iowa Caucuses , Fabrizio Perry , Iowa Caucus 2012 , Perry Ad , Perry Dadt , Rick Perry 2012 , Rick Perry Ad Campaign , Rick Perry Don't Ask Don't Tell …

Dems' payroll tax cut extension goes down again in Senate  —  Senate Republicans blocked the latest installment of President Obama's jobs plan — a bill to extend the payroll tax cut — for the second week in a row on Thursday.  —  The bill, titled the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, was shot down 50-48.

Tweets from Congressional Staffers Describe On-Job Drinking in Office of Congressman Larsen  —  For young men and women with ambitions toward a career in politics, working in a Congressional office can be a heady, almost dreamlike experience.  Left unsupervised, the combination of youth indiscretion …

Iran shows film of captured US drone  —  The BBC's James Reynolds says the video appears to support Iran's claims  —  Iranian TV has shown the first video footage of an advanced US drone aircraft that Tehran says it downed near the Afghan border.  —  Images show Iranian military officials inspecting …

2012 Republican Race: The Field May Not Be Closed  —  Conventional wisdom is that the Republican presidential field is set, and that it is much too late for a new candidate to enter the race.  —  In years past, that would be absolutely correct.  Over the last few decades …

The Coming GOP Gingrich Freakout  —  Today's question is: will the Gingrich balloon deflate like all the previous Not Mitt balloons?  —  The answer is: yes of course-but given that these balloons take typically 6-8 weeks to shrivel, the impending Gingrich bust may not arrive soon enough to save Romney.

Sensenbrenner floats impeachment of Obama admin. officials as ‘Fast and Furious’ response  —  Wisconsin Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee where Attorney General Eric Holder testified on Thursday, suggested that impeachment …

VIDEO: Bill O'Reilly Hits Community Organizer with Umbrella, Tries to Get Him Arrested  —  Anyone who has watched the footage of Bill O'Reilly's infamous meltdown on the set of Inside Edition knows that the Fox News personality has a hot temper.  But you would expect the Fox News personality …

Virginia Tech Police officer, one other, killed on campus  —  A Virginia Tech police officer was fatally shot Thursday during a routine traffic stop on the Blacksburg campus and a second person was found slain in a nearby parking lot after the gunman fled, the university reports.

Lines Redrawn, Longtime Allies Fight for a Seat  —  LOS ANGELES — Democrat-on-Democrat warfare has returned to the San Fernando Valley.  —  After a tiff over the redrawing of their adjacent Congressional districts a decade ago, Representative Brad Sherman and his fellow California Democrat …

Meet Josh Block: Lobbyist For Foreign Human Rights Abuser  —  A Politico article yesterday on CAP's Middle East posture cited Josh Block, who described CAP's bloggers as writing “borderline anti-Semitic stuff.”  In a leaked email to a right-wing listserv, Block, now senior fellow …

Judges Hear Arguments on Prop 8 Trial Video, Judge Vaughn Walker's Same-Sex Relationship  —  Today a 9th Circuit Court panel heard oral arguments on two ancillary issues in the long-running legal battle to decide the fate of Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage …

A Liberal's Lament on Kagan and Health Care  —  Should Elena Kagan recuse herself in the ACA case?  —  Elena Kagan was appointed by Obama from within his administration shortly after health care reform passed.  Should she hear the case before the Supreme Court?

Senate Stops Consumer Nominee  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday blocked President Obama's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as filibustering Republicans who oppose the powers of the new agency successfully challenged one of the administration's main responses to the financial crisis.