Christie: Gingrich ‘embarrassed’ GOP  —  Gov. Chris Christie called Newt Gingrich an embarrassment to the Republican Party.  —  “I think Newt Gignrich has embarrassed the party, over time,” Christie (R), who endorsed Mitt Romney, said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.  “Governor Romney never has.”

Giffords to step down from Congress  —  U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will step down from Congress this week to focus on her recovery, her staff announced Sunday.  —  “I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week,” Giffords said in a video message.

Gays “Make God Want to Vomit”: Meet Santorum's Honorary Florida Chairman  —  Rick Santorum's first stop in the Sunshine State is the church of a gay-bashing, Islamophobic pastor.  —  While the network news shows spend this Sunday marveling over Newtmentum in South Carolina …

'God'-awful OWS mob steals sacred item from church  —  There's no longer room at the inn at a Manhattan church that's sheltering Occupy Wall Streeters after a holy vessel disappeared from the altar last week.  —  When the Rev. Bob Brashear prepared for Sunday services at West Park Presbyterian Church …

An open letter to Republican leaders  —  Dear Govs. Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, John Kasich, Bobby Jindal; Sens. Jon Kyl, Marco Rubio and Jim DeMint; and Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and Mike Pence (R-Ind.):  —  You've each declined to run for the presidency or even endorse one of the final candidates.

Joe Paterno, Longtime Penn State Coach, Dies at 85  —  Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major-college football coach, and who became the face of Penn State University and a symbol of integrity in collegiate athletics only to be fired during the 2011 season amid a child sexual-abuse scandal …

Showtime at the Apollo  —  FOR eight seconds, we saw the president we had craved for three years: cool, joyous, funny, connected.  —  “I, I'm so in love with you,” Barack Obama crooned to a thrilled crowd at a fund-raiser at the Apollo in Harlem on Thursday night, doing a seductive imitation as Al Green himself looked on.

Romney partially caves on tax returns  —  Watching Mitt Romney discuss his willingness to disclose his tax returns, it's been hard not to marvel at the rapid evolution.  It was only about a month ago when he was asked whether he'd release his tax returns, and Romney replied, “I doubt it.”

U.S. lawyer for Megaupload.com withdraws  —  (Reuters) - Content-sharing Internet service Megaupload.com has lost the help of one of the best-known U.S. defense lawyers as it begins to fight charges of copyright infringement, a person familiar with the matter said.

A Good Candidate Is Hard to Find  —  THERE are 300 million people in the United States of America.  There are millions of political activists, volunteers, organizers and would-be officeholders.  There are hundreds of thousands of elected officials.  Yet somehow, out of all this multitude …