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.

Pro-gay marriage group honors Laura Bush's request, removes her from ad campaign  —  Updated, 1:40 p.m. Thursday: The Respect for Marriage Coalition is honoring former first lady Laura Bush's request that they remove her from a newly launched national advertising campaign in support of gay marriage.

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 …

Ed Markey Compares Campaign Finance Ruling To Decision Upholding Slavery  —  “The Dred Scott decision had to be repealed, we have to repeal Citizens United,” Massachusetts Democrat says days after meeting with black clergy.  —  Image by Josh Reynolds / AP  —  WASHINGTON — Rep. Ed Markey …

McCain responds to ‘jerk’ comment at town hall meeting  —  PHOENIX — One day after a confrontation at a town hall meeting in Sun Lakes, Senator John McCain held another town hall in Phoenix.  —  On Tuesday, an audience member of the town hall meeting fired off a string of heated questions about border security.

Sensing weakness, Karl Rove's critics pounce  —  For the first time in a dozen years, Karl Rove's critics smell blood.  —  After his electoral wipeout in November — and motivated by years of resentment that's spilling over — Rove's credibility within his own party is at an all-time low.

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.

Rand Paul returns more money to Treasury  —  (CNN) - Sen. Rand Paul cut another six-figure check to the United States Treasury Wednesday, taking the money he said he didn't need from his office's budget to make a tiny dent in the nation's massive federal debt.

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.

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.

Business and labor make breakthrough in immigration talks  —  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO on Thursday announced a breakthrough in talks on immigration reform, releasing joint principles for a temporary worker program.  —  The nation's largest labor federation …

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 …

Release Detail  —  February 21, 2013 - Donor Controversy Takes Toll On NJ Senator, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Booker Tops Rivera 2-1 In 2014 Senate Race  —  New Jersey voters disapprove 41 - 36 percent of the job U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is doing, a 15-point drop in less than a month …

Drones have killed 4,700, U.S. senator says  —  Just how many people have America's drones killed?  Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has put the death toll at 4,700—the first time an American official has publicly put a figure on the impact of strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles.

DeMint to Cruz critics: Cork it  —  Imagine a new senator who ran a campaign of “no more business as usual.”  No more special interest politics, no more backroom deals — and he won.  He came to Washington, and he delivered.  He didn't stay quiet, he spoke passionately for what he believed in …

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 …

John Kerry: The un-Hillary Clinton  —  John Kerry is no Hillary Clinton — and he's OK with that.  —  In the three weeks since Kerry succeeded Clinton as secretary of state, he's already sent unmistakable signals of his independence with a more assertive, proactive and risk-taking stewardship …

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?

Whistleblower says he was fired for talking to CBS 6  —  RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - The Richmond Police officer who blew the whistle on fellow officers accused of making inappropriate comments about harming President Obama and the First Lady was fired from the Richmond Police Department.