House Republicans Cheer Boehner's Refusal to Negotiate on Cuts  —  WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner, the man who spent significant portions of the last Congress shuttling to and from the White House for fiscal talks with President Obama that ultimately failed twice to produce a grand bargain …

Lawmaker Makes Lewd Remark to Teenage Girl  —  Connecticut state Rep. Ernest Hewett (D) made an inappropriate remark to a 17 year old girl testifying about a program that helped her overcome her shyness and get over her fear of snakes, the New London Day reports.

Covert Malaysian Campaign Touched A Wide Range Of American Media  —  Outlets from Huffington Post to National Review carried pieces financed by the Malaysian government.  An international campaign against Anwar Ibrahim.  —  Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (R) talks …

State Department Report: Keystone XL Is Environmentally Sound  —  The State Department released an environmental impact assessment on the Keystone XL pipeline Friday afternoon, concluding that the project is environmentally sound and “is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate …

If you might want to insult Harvard down the line, go elsewhere  —  If you think Harvard is a revolutionary communist hotbed, don't apply.  If you think Harvard is full of “pinheaded” professors, don't enroll.  And if you think Harvard pollutes the minds of its students …

Disastrous Predictions and Predictable Disasters  —  How's that austerity doing?  —  Joe Weisenthal is wrong.  He writes that the unfolding economic disaster in Europe is what everyone predicted.  Not so.  It's what he predicted, it's what I predicted, but it's not at all what many people were predicting.

Judd: ‘Is there an elephant in the room?’  —  (CNN) - Ashley Judd was fully aware she was under the Washington media spotlight Friday when she spoke about public health issues at George Washington University.  —  “I'm a lot more nervous than y'all are, I promise,” she told a group of students who were asking questions at the event.

A Cheer or Two for Sequestration  —  From left, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and House Speaker John Boehner speak at a news conference on Tuesday in Washington.  —  A lot of liberals I read are very hot to trot with the idea that Congress should just repeal sequestration tout court.

More than 700 pages of healthcare rules released  —  The Obama administration on Friday released more than 700 pages of new regulations to implement portions of the Affordable Care Act.  —  The four rules, which are scheduled for publication in mid-March, finalize both major and minor parts …

A reader representative for The Post  —  The world has changed, and we at The Post must change with it.  We have been privileged to have had the service of many talented ombudsmen (and women) who have addressed readers' concerns, answered their questions and held The Post to the highest standards of journalism.

Noonan: Obama Is Playing a New Game  —  He seems to think the way to win is by trying not to make a deal.  —  Everyone has been wondering how the public will react when the sequester kicks in.  The American people are in the position of hostages who'll have to decide who the hostage-taker is.

Obama: I Can't Use ‘Jedi Mindmeld’ On Congress To Fix Sequestration  —  Asked why he doesn't just sit down with congressional leaders until a sequestration deal is reached, President Obama said Friday that he can't lock lawmakers in a room.  —  “I am not a dictator, I'm the President,” Obama said.

Ben Bernanke, Hippie  —  We're just a few weeks away from a milestone I suspect most of Washington would like to forget: the start of the Iraq war.  What I remember from that time is the utter impenetrability of the elite prowar consensus.  If you tried to point out that the Bush administration …

CPAC's Empty Chairs  —  The sponsors and organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) are voluntary associations that are of course entitled to advocate conservative causes as they see fit, including by controlling who is and who is not invited to participate in the conference.

President Obama's real agenda  —  “Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go,” President Obama said last week, flanked by uniformed firefighters and law-enforcement officers.  “Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids.”

Watch This Robotic Dog Throw Cinder Blocks With Its Head  —  Flesh-and-blood dogs merely fetch.  The robotic pooch that Darpa funded can throw.  —  Boston Dynamics' BigDog started life as a headless four-legged robot capable of hauling soldiers' gear along rough and uneven terrain.

Sean Hannity Launches Islamophobic Attack Against Keith Ellison  —  Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity launched an Islampophobic attack against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) during his Fox News show on Thursday night, implying that the Muslim Congressman is a racist and an anti-Semite.

BREAKING: Solicitor General asks Supreme Court for time to participate in Prop 8 argument  —  Plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case.  Attribution: LGBTQ Nation  —  The Solicitor General of the United States, who filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court yesterday in Hollingsworth v. Perry …

John Doe probe of Scott Walker office closed with no new charges  —  By Sharif Durhams and Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel  —  The nearly three-year-old John Doe investigation into aides and associates of Gov. Scott Walker is closed, the judge who is overseeing that probe said Friday.

Sequester Real Talk: The 3 Dumbest Things About This Truly Dumb Law  —  Washington's addiction to manufactured crises is the result of one party's stubborn economic ignorance — time for the press to call it out.  —  Reuters  —  The sequester is happening, people.