A résumé check: Is Chuck Hagel up to the job?  —  There's not much on Chuck Hagel's résumé that screams secretary of defense.  —  He's not a former White House chief of staff, like Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld.  He never ran the CIA, like Leon Panetta or Robert Gates.

Some Unions Grow Wary of Health Law They Backed  —  Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration's health-care overhaul when it was up for debate.  Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour.  —  Union leaders say many of the law's requirements will drive …

At Hill hearing, Wayne LaPierre tries to manhandle facts and logic  —  Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's chief executive, arrived for his hearing on Capitol Hill in the organization's trademark fashion: violently.  —  When he and his colleagues stepped off the elevator …

Dominican prostitute: Sen. Bob Menendez ‘likes the youngest and newest girls’  —  In a little-noticed email published online Wednesday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a young Dominican woman wrote nine months ago that she slept with 59-year-old New Jersey Democratic …

Chinese Hackers Infiltrate New York Times Computers  —  SAN FRANCISCO — For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees.  —  After surreptitiously tracking …

Gayle Trotter Opposed Law To Protect Women Before Testifying On Guns For Moms  —  Gayle Trotter, the conservative activist who became the breakout star of Wednesday's gun violence hearing in the Senate with her adamant cry that women need assault rifles to defend themselves …

Worth Reading  —  Here's a really meaty and interesting essay in the new and relaunched TNR about gun ownership and what gun owners want.  What Gun Owners Really Want by Walter Kirn.  —  There's a lot there.  But one point resonated with me because it's a flip side of something I was trying …

IGNORE LENA DUNHAM'S ‘GIRLS’ AT YOUR OWN PERIL, CONSERVATIVES  —  There's plenty about Girls to annoy conservatives, yet this often creepy, usually skeevy, critically-acclaimed HBO series is also a test for conservatives.  —  Will we finally heed Andrew Breitbart's warnings about the importance …

Geraldo Rivera ‘truly contemplating’ NJ Senate run as Republican  —  Television personality and radio host Geraldo Rivera announced Thursday he's “truly contemplating” a run for Senate in New Jersey.  —  “I mention this only briefly, fasten your seatbelt,” Rivera said on his radio show.

Marco Rubio's bad deal  —  In Washington, a new gang has been born.  The Gang of Eight on immigration is here to tell us that we have succeeded in not enforcing the law so persistently and thoroughly that now we have to give up all pretense.  —  The Gang of Eight wants to amnesty …

Majority Says the Federal Government Threatens Their Personal Rights  —  Views of Congress: Problem Lies with Members, Not the System  —  OVERVIEW  —  As Barack Obama begins his second term in office, trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high.

Why We Took Cocaine Out of Soda  —  Social injustice and “a most wonderful invigorator of sexual organs”  —  1894 ad for Vin Mariani, art by Jules Cheret  —  When cocaine and alcohol meet inside a person, they create a third unique drug called cocaethylene.  Cocaethylene works like cocaine, but with more euphoria.

Obama's GDP headache  —  Today's news of a 0.1 percent shrink in the 4th Quarter Gross Domestic Product is ambiguous in terms of the economics — the fall was largely due to a drop in government spending and some shuffling of private inventories.  —  Nonetheless, the politics are unambiguously terrible for Barack Obama.

PERSONAL INCOME AND OUTLAYS, DECEMBER 2012  —  Personal income increased $352.4 billion, or 2.6 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $331.3 billion, or 2.7 percent, in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $22.6 billion, or 0.2 percent.