Obama Said to Name Jack Lew to Replace Geithner at Treasury  —  Obama Said to Name Lew Tomorrow to Replace Geithner  —  President Barack Obama plans to name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew tomorrow as his choice for Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, a person familiar with the process said.

Why President Obama is picking fights with Congress  —  Barack Obama is looking for a few good fights.  —  Obama, the same president who campaigned twice on breaking the cycle of conflict in Washington, sees the utility — even the necessity — of rattling Republican cages as he plunges …

McConnell to take lead in entitlement talks, with Boehner in back seat  —  Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is poised to play a bigger role in negotiations to reform entitlement programs in the wake of the tax deal he helped forge last week.  —  Lawmakers see the passage of a bill …

Revealed: The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics  —  A month after President Obama won reelection, America's most powerful liberal groups met to plan their next moves.  Here's what they talked about.  —  It was the kind of meeting that conspiratorial conservative bloggers dream about.

Biden: Obama Considering ‘Executive Order’ to Deal With Guns  —  Vice President Joe Biden revealed that President Barack Obama might use an executive order to deal with guns.  —  “The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence.

In U.S., Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation  —  In 2012, 47% identified or leaned Democratic, 42% Republican  —  PRINCETON, NJ — An average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican.

President Obama poet Richard Blanco's ‘queer shame’ pain  —  The poet tapped Wednesday to appear at President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony has written frankly about the challenges and hostility he faced growing up as a gay man, recounting how his own grandmother thought of him as the …

Rage Against the Coin  —  (From Talking Points Memo).  —  Well, the trillion-dollar-coin thing — deal with the debt ceiling by exploiting a legal loophole to have the Treasury mint one or more large-denomination coins, deposit them at the Fed, and use the cash in the new account to pay bills — has really taken off.

At 100, still little love for Nixon  —  Richard Nixon would have turned 100 Wednesday, but about the only people marking the occasion are historians, family members and loyalists from the disgraced 37th president's administration.  —  And even they're slowly dying off.

Scalpers hawking members' inaugural tickets online  —  Free presidential inauguration tickets given out by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and other lawmakers are being hawked online for thousands of dollars.  —  The scalping of the tickets technically is not illegal …

Piers Morgan and Guests Discuss Shooting Alex Jones  —  Daily Beast writer Buzz Bissinger says Piers Morgan should “pop” Alex Jones with a semi-automatic weapon.  —  Infowars.com  —  CNN and the gun grabbing media are now calling for Alex Jones to be shot the day after his heated appearance with Piers Morgan.

Transcript of Nate Silver's ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Reddit  —  Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight took questions Tuesday on the popular social news site Reddit's “Ask Me Anything” section.  What follows is an edited transcript, with the questions and answers sorted into several subject areas.

Why Republicans Won't Bargain With Obama Again  —  James Capretta, writing at National Review, lays out what looks like the emerging Republican strategy on the debt ceiling.  Rather than take up President Obama's offer to cut Social Security and Medicare in return for higher revenue through tax reform …

DC Sex Workers Prepare for Huge Influx of Inauguration Partiers  —  If you require the services of a stripper or dominatrix over inauguration weekend, be prepared to pay extra.  —  Image by Shutterstock  —  When Steve Baker talks about the inauguration, he gets a little giddy.

NATIONAL TAXPAYER ADVOCATE DELIVERS ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS; FOCUSES ON TAX REFORM, IRS FUNDING AND IDENTITY THEFT  —  WASHINGTON — National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her 2012 Annual Report to Congress, identifying the need for tax reform as the overriding priority in tax administration.

EXCLUSIVE: Cuomo Close To Announcing Sweeping New Gun Control Laws  —  YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A deal to give New York one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation is being negotiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, sources said Tuesday, is hoping to announce the plan Wednesday during his State of the State speech in Albany.

Chuck Hagel Expanded On ‘Aggressively Gay’ Slur In 1998  —  Then-Sen. Chuck Hagel's remark to the Omaha World-Herald in 1998 that Clinton ambassadorial nominee James Hormel was “openly aggressively gay” was only a part of what Hagel told the paper about his opposition to Hormel's nomination.

Ferry Crashes in Lower Manhattan, Dozens Injured  —  A rush hour commuter ferry with more than 300 passengers aboard crashed Wednesday as it approached a Wall Street pier, injuring more than 50 people, police said.  —  Officials had initially said the injuries were minor …

Images of NRA, Congressional Republicans on the decline  —  PPP's newest national poll finds that the NRA's image has declined over the last three weeks following Wayne LaPierre's controversial press conference the week before Christmas.  —  The NRA now has a negative favorability rating …