What Crazy Fascist Executive Orders Might Obama Use to Take Away Your Freedoms?  —  The Drudge Report is America's leading source of hyperlinks to Alex Jones articles, so I'm not sure why this splash page so shocked Washington.  (Apparently there are reporters who still use Drudge as a sort of homepage?

Obama Will Keep His “Heat Shield”  —  Eric Holder is the Obama Administration's indispensable man.  —  Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images  —  Eric Holder may be the least popular member of the Obama cabinet.  He is at the center of many of the Administration's ugliest fights with left and right …

Giffords gun control group wants $20 million for 2014 elections  —  (Reuters) - A new gun control group led by Gabrielle Giffords, the former U.S. congresswoman wounded in a Tucson shooting rampage, wants to raise $20 million for the 2014 congressional elections, matching …

Inaugural Benediction To Be Delivered By Pastor Who Gave Vehemently Anti-Gay Sermon  —  The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced Tuesday that the President Obama has selected Pastor Louie Giglio of the Georgia-based Passion City Church to deliver the benediction for his second inauguration.

Robert Bork's Tragedy  —  Even before Robert Bork died last month, he had achieved something close to martyrdom.  In the quarter-century since the Senate rejected his Supreme Court nomination, successive generations of conservative lawyers and activists have carried the torch …

A GOP Strategy for the Debt-Ceiling Fight  —  The House should pass a bill pairing spending cuts with a dollar-for-dollar debt-ceiling increase.  —  President Obama says he won't negotiate with Republicans over his proposed more than $1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling as a matter …

Bill Clinton to receive Father of the Year award … Former President Bill Clinton hailed President Obama during remarks at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.  (Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  Former president Bill Clinton can add Father of the Year …

Cornyn: Why I can't support Hagel  —  Editor's note: John Cornyn, a Republican, is the senior United States Senator from Texas.  —  (CNN) — To the surprise of many, including me, President Barack Obama has nominated former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel to be his next defense secretary.

Boehner takes flak from defense hawks on sequester stance  —  House Republican defense hawks are pushing back strongly against Speaker John Boehner's claim that he has GOP support to allow steep automatic budget cuts to take effect if President Obama does not agree to replace them with other reductions.

The Biggest Myth About The Platinum Coin Option  —  The biggest and weirdest myth out there about the $1 trillion platinum coin is the idea that it would require a large quantity of platinum to make one.  The National Republican Campaign Committee, for example, is out there warning that …

Virginia Poll: Armed school guards wanted  —  Bucking the national trend, Virginia voters, by a wide margin, want an armed guard in every school, but they do strongly back an assault weapons ban, according to a poll Thursday.  —  A Quinnipiac University poll found that Old Dominion voters favor putting …

Virginia Democrat Wants To Roll Back Key Environmental Rules: 'I'm Not Going To Be Here' To Suffer Consequences … As Virginia's state legislature considers whether to lift a decades-old ban on uranium mining in the Commonwealth, Senate Democratic Leader Richard “Dick” Saslaw has been among the most vocal proponents of such a move.

Obama's Pick for Treasury Is Said to Be His Chief of Staff  —  WASHINGTON - President Obama will announce on Thursday that he intends to elevate his chief of staff and former budget director, Jacob J. Lew, to be his next secretary of Treasury, according to officials familiar with the decision.

Why U.S. Spending Cuts Won't Kill Too Many Jobs  —  The U.S. began the year with an awkwardly arranged deal that raised taxes.  I hope it doesn't end the year without a deal to limit spending.  —  The U.K. may have embraced austerity too soon, but the U.S. is far enough along in its recovery that it can begin balancing its books.

Group Pushing Deficit Cuts Has Deep Business Ties  —  When Jim McCrery, a former Louisiana congressman, urged lawmakers last month to pursue entitlement cuts and tax reform, he was introduced on television as a leader of Fix the Debt, a group of business executives and onetime legislators …