Is Obama overplaying sequester hand?  —  President Barack Obama's greatest adversary in the latest budget battle isn't the Republican leadership in Congress — it's his confidence in his own ability to force a win.  —  He has been so certain of his campaign skills that he didn't open a line …

As Sequester Deadline Looms, Little Support for Cutting Most Programs  —  OVERVIEW  —  As the March 1 deadline for a possible budget sequester approaches, a new national survey finds limited public support for reducing spending for a range of specific programs, including defense, entitlements, education and health care.

The D.C. Dubstep  —  On July 26, 2011, Jack Lew, then the White House budget director, went to Harry Reid's office for a budget strategy session.  According to Bob Woodward's book, “The Price of Politics,” Lew told the Senate majority leader that they had come up with a trigger idea to force a budget deal.

Is Senator Ted Cruz our new McCarthy?  —  Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz's prosecutorial style of questioning Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for Defense Secretary, came so close to innuendo that it raised eyebrows in Congress, even among his Republican colleagues.

Oscar Predictions, Election-Style  —  Twice before, in 2009 and 2011, I sought to predict the Academy Award winners in six major categories based on a mix of statistical factors.  My track record?  Nine correct picks in 12 tries, for a 75 percent success rate.

For the First Time in My Life, I Am Ashamed of My Country  —  RUSH: To be watching all of this, to be treated like this, to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it's being insulted?  It just makes me ashamed... Panic here, fear there: Crisis, destruction, no meat inspection …

America's New Mandarins  —  The paths to power and success are narrowing.  So is the worldview of the powerful.  —  Yesterday, I wrote about the silliness of requiring a file clerk to have a college degree.  This morning, a friend sent me the following note about the narrowing of opportunity in modern America:

Papal resignation linked to inquiry into ‘Vatican gay officials’, says paper  —  Pope's staff decline to confirm or deny La Repubblica claims linking ‘Vatileaks’ affair and discovery of ‘blackmailed gay clergy’  —  A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI …

Aurora Victim's Mom Calls McCain Town Hall ‘Appalling’  —  The mother of a young man killed in the Aurora, Colo. movie theater massacre told TPM on Thursday she was appalled at the way Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) handled her question about an assault weapons ban at a town hall event in Phoenix.

Colbert hopes jokes don't ‘sully’ sister's congressional bid  —  Comedian Stephen Colbert said Thursday that he hopes his late-night television persona parodying conservative talk-show hosts doesn't “sully” his sister's congressional bid in South Carolina's first district.

Can Democrats Mess With Texas in 2016?  —  AUSTIN, Texas — From its modest headquarters on the first floor of a local union building about five miles from the State Capitol, the Democratic Party of Texas is trying to turn demographics into destiny.  —  With white, non-Hispanic voters …

Sequester of Fools  —  They're baaack!  Just about two years ago, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairmen of the late unlamented debt commission, warned us to expect a terrible fiscal crisis within, um, two years unless we adopted their plan.  The crisis hasn't materialized, but they're nonetheless back with a new version.

Obama calms fears over Supreme Court action on voting rights  —  President Obama said people won't lose the right to vote if the Supreme Court strikes down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.  —  Speaking Thursday to “The Black Eagle” radio show, Obama said listeners shouldn't worry …

Ann Coulter Battles Stossel, Calls Libertarians ‘Pussies,’ And Gets Booed By Room Full Of Students  —  What do you get when you invite outspoken conservative firebrand Ann Coulter to debate outspoken libertarian John Stossel in front of an audience of 1,000+ libertarian students?  —  Fireworks, that's what.

Magistrate Grants Bail for Pistorius  —  PRETORIA, South Africa — After four days of combative hearings, a South African magistrate on Friday granted bail for Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, in a case that has horrified and fascinated the nation and much of the world.

Pelosi to GOP: You oppose minimum wage hike at your peril  —  As I reported here yesterday, Democrats are drawing up plans to run hard on Obama's proposal to raise minimum wage in the 2014 Congressional elections.  What few people remember is that there's precedent for this …

Holtz-Eakin and Roy: The Critics Are Wrong About the Future of Free-Market Health Care Reform  —  Earlier this week, the two of us—Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Avik Roy—published an op-ed for Reuters in which we outlined a market-based plan for entitlement reform and universal coverage that builds …

Noonan: Government by Freakout  —  Obama's scare tactics aren't much of a long-term strategy.  —  The president's sequester strategy is like Howard Beale in “Network”: “Woe is us. . . . And woe is us!  We're in a lot of trouble!”  —  It is always cliffs, ceilings and looming catastrophes with Barack Obama.

Hikes in health insurance premiums fall; administration credits healthcare law  —  The number of double-digit hikes to health insurance premiums has fallen dramatically because of President Obama's healthcare law, the Health and Human Services Department said Friday.