Behind the scenes of a GOP meltdown  —  Things were so bad for Speaker John Boehner Thursday night, support for his Plan B tax bill so diminished, the limits of his power with his own party laid bare, that he stood in front of the House Republican Conference and recited the Serenity Prayer.

Obama Picks Kerry for Secretary of State, Official Says  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts as secretary of state, a senior administration official said, succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton and putting in place the first member of his second-term national security team.

U.S. on alert for Islamist ire to ‘Zero Dark Thirty’  —  Film depicts harsh interrogation methods  —  Could the release of “Zero Dark Thirty” provoke violent protests against the U.S. in response to the film's searing depictions of “enhanced interrogation” — the coercive …

Chuck Hagel Is Criticized Over Gay Rights Record  —  WASHINGTON — Chuck Hagel, the former Nebraska senator on President Obama's short list for defense secretary, came under fire again on Thursday, this time for his record on gay rights and remarks he made 14 years ago about an openly gay nominee for a diplomatic post.

Bloomberg: No One Has ‘Defended the Second Amendment as Much as I Have’  —  Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have risen to become the country's chief critic of lax firearm laws, but on his weekly radio show, he argued that has nothing to do with the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A conservative case for an assault weapons ban  —  If we can't draw a sensible line on guns, we may as well call the American experiment in democracy a failure.  —  An assault weapon similar to the type used in the Newtown, Conn. shooting.  (Joe Raedle / Getty Images / December 18, 2012)

Huelskamp holds heated exchange with Scarborough on gun control  —  Talk show host Joe Scarborough and Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kanses) engaged in a heated discussion Friday over gun control.  —  Scarborough and Huelskamp both shouted over one another after Huelskamp said those arguing …

FIRST ON CNN: Mark Sanford plans to run for Congress  —  Richmond, Virginia (CNN) - Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is launching a political comeback that may begin within days.  —  Sanford is planning to run for the Congressional seat he held almost a decade ago …

Michael Moore: Americans' desire to own guns stems from racial fears  —  Friday night, on the heels of last week's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., the left-leaning Current TV is planning to air progressive filmmaker Michael Moore's ten-year-old Columbine documentary …

Mosque arsonist tells court: ‘I only know what I hear on Fox News’  —  An Indiana man convicted of setting fire to a mosque in Ohio told a judge on Wednesday that he committed the crimes because Fox News and conservative talk radio had convinced him that “most Muslims are terrorists.”

Obama calls on Americans to help fight gun violence  —  President Obama urged Americans to keep pushing for efforts to combat gun violence, as he thanked hundreds of thousands of people for voicing their concerns to the White House over the course of the week since the Newtown shooting.