Marriage Equality Is a Conservative Cause  —  The party of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan has now lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections.  The marketplace of ideas will render us irrelevant, and soon, if we are not honest about our time and place in history.

If No Deal is Struck, Four-in-Ten Say Let the Sequester Happen  —  Deficit Reduction: Focus Mostly on Spending But Keep Taxes in Mix  —  OVERVIEW  —  After a series of fiscal crises over the past few years, the public is not expressing a particular sense of urgency over the pending March 1 sequester deadline.

Crowd Cheers After McCain Tells Aurora Victim's Mother She Needs ‘Straight Talk’ (VIDEO)  —  Constituents at a town hall hosted by Sen. John McCain Wednesday in Phoenix cheered after the Arizona Republican told the mother of an Aurora, Colo. shooting victim that an assault weapons ban could not get through Congress.

Key House Republican: Don't Even Think About A Path To Citizenship  —  Immigration reform's chances in the House are looking bleaker after one of the top Republicans tasked with shepherding a bill to passage ruled out a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Obama thanked Carter's grandson, who found ‘47%’ tape  —  (CNN) - President Barack Obama expressed gratitude last week to former President Jimmy Carter's grandson, who had a role in leaking secretly-recorded video of Mitt Romney's infamous “47%” comments, James Carter said Thursday on CNN.

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us  —  1. Routine Care, Unforgettable Bills  —  When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Biden To NRA: It's Over, The Politics On Guns Have Changed  —  Vice President Biden told an audience Thursday in Connecticut that things have changed in the gun violence debate — the politician who has to worry now is the one who votes against new regulations on firearms purchases, rather than the one who votes for them.

EXCLUSIVE: Cornyn asks president to withdraw Hagel [Updated]  —  This post has been updated.  —  Right Turn has learned that a third of Senate Republicans, led by Minority Whip John Cornyn (Tex.), have called on President Obama to withdraw Chuck Hagel's nomination as defense secretary …

Congressman Says Americans Need Guns To Protect The Nation From Sharia Law  —  Tea Party Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told a conservative radio show on Thursday that the GOP must oppose gun regulations to protect the country from the threat of “Sharia Law.”

Joe Biden's Shotgun Advice Could Land Jill Biden in Jail  —  Felony aggravated menacing, reckless endangering charges could result from shooting gun in air  —  Vice President Joe Biden might want to have a talk with his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, before he makes another public statement about guns.

Rush Limbaugh Is “Ashamed” Of His Country For The First Time In His Life  —  The conservative radio star blames insults to his intelligence and a “fear and panic” strategy rolled out by Democrats, Republicans and the media in response to proposed spending cuts.  —  View Video ›

On issues, public is more aligned with Obama than GOP  —  SETTING A NATIONAL AGENDA: WHAT NEEDS TO GET DONE THIS YEAR?  —  In a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll, Americans were asked how urgent it was for President Obama and Congress to pass major legislation on some top issues this year.

Blaspheming Saint Romney  —  Until around the time Todd Akin blew up his Senate race, the conventional wisdom in campaign world was that if Romney won, he'd carry the House and the Senate as well.  That supposition underlay the GOP's entire substantive agenda from tax reform to entitlement cuts to repealing key provisions of Obamacare.

Double Ultrasound Bill In Indiana Passes Out Of Senate Committee  —  Video, Double Ultrasound, Double Ultrasound Bill, Double Ultrasound Indiana, Indiana Abortion Bill, Indiana Double Ultrasound, Indiana Double Ultrasound Bill, Indiana Mandatory Ultrasound Bill, Indiana Ultrasound …

A BAD IDEA GETS WORSE  —  Ed Kilgore is a good man.  He's been very kind to the blog since its toddlerhood.  Which makes it something of a surprise that he's trying so very hard to kill me.  He calls attention to this horror in the New York Times and then steps back, as if to distance himself …

Jackson Graft Case Further Indicts Black Caucus  —  Corruption: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s guilty plea to fraud charges raises fresh questions about the Congressional Black Caucus.  It's a group with many laudable goals, but why do so many in it succumb to corruption?

Oops: Top Republican Senator Inadvertently Embraces Roe v. Wade  —  CHARITON, Iowa — During a town hall on Wednesday, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee embraced the reasoning behind the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing a woman's choice to get an abortion …

When solitude is torture  —  “Zero Dark Thirty,” a nominee for Sunday's Oscar for Best Picture, reignited debate about whether the waterboarding of terrorism suspects was torture.  This practice, which ended in 2003, was used on only three suspects.  Meanwhile, tens of thousands …

Islam or death?  Egypt's Christians targeted by new terror group  —  A group of Christian priests from a local Coptic church in Egypt were told to convert to Islam or face death, according to an Arabic news site.  —  The incident, which comes in the midst of continued persecution and pressure …

New entry in the AP Stylebook: husband, wife  —  The following entry was added today to the AP Stylebook Online and also will appear in the new print edition and Stylebook Mobile, published in the spring:  —  husband, wife Regardless of sexual orientation, husband or wife is acceptable …