Why I secretly recorded Mitch McConnell  —  Earlier this year, I secretly made an audio recording of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican on the planet, at his campaign headquarters in Kentucky.  The released portion of the recording clocks in at less than 12 minutes, but those few minutes changed my life.

With Bachmann not running, Jim Graves pulls out of 6th District race  —  As of today, Jim Graves is going to indefinitely suspend his campaign for Congress from the 6th District.  —  Translation: He is not running.  He is dropping out of politics to concentrate on his family and his business.

The Fake Story About the IRS Commissioner and the White House  —  White House records show Douglas Shulman signed in for 11 visits, not 157, between 2009 and 2012.  —  This building is technically the White House, too.  It's called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.  (Whitehouse.gov)

Tea party speaker presents proof Grover Norquist is a secret Muslim: ‘He has a beard’  —  A speaker at a tea party event in Texas recently suggested that that anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist was a secret Muslim because “he has a beard.”  —  In a video posted by the Far North Dallas Tea Party on Thursday …

No same-sex marriage vote until November: 'I've never been sadder,' sponsor says  —  SPRINGFIELD — Gay and lesbian couples who want to legally marry in Illinois willl have to wait.  —  His voice breaking with emotion, state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) tearfully said he will not call …

Pro-immigrant groups balk at Gang of Eight's goal of winning 70 votes  —  Pro-immigrant advocates are pushing back against the Gang of Eight's strategy to win 70 votes or more for comprehensive immigration reform, fearing it would require too many concessions to Republicans.

Why the Boomers Are the Most Hated Generation  —  F. Scott Fitzgerald's flappers also grew up in a time of plenty, but they were allowed to age out of their sybaritic image.  What makes the Boomers different?  —  Pity the baby boomers, blamed in their youth for every ill and excess …

G.O.P. Sizes Up Obama as Midterm Target  —  WASHINGTON — His name won't be on any ballot in 2014.  Or ever again, for that matter.  —  But plenty of Republicans are still eager to wage a midterm campaign against President Obama, convinced that the spate of recent troubles dogging …

Attorney General Holder says he'll protect journalists' rights  —  Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. pledged Thursday to take concrete steps to address concerns that the Justice Department has overreached in its leak investigations and said officials would seek procedural and possibly legislative changes …

The drawdown diet: Marines steamed by loss of hot meal at Afghanistan base  —  Marines at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan will lose a key daily meal starting Saturday, causing some to forgo a hot breakfast and others to work six-plus hours without refueling on cooked food, according to Marines at the base and Marine Corps officials.

Cowboy-style cap gun gets 5-year-old suspended from school in Calvert County  —  A kindergartner who brought a cowboy-style cap gun onto his Calvert County school bus was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend the orange-tipped toy, which he had tucked inside his backpack on his way to school, according to his family and a lawyer.

Judge orders Google to comply with FBI's secret NSL demands  —  A federal judge tells the company to comply with the FBI's warrantless National Security Letter requests for user details, despite ongoing concerns about their constitutionality.  —  A federal judge has ruled that Google must comply …

Retired Justice warns against ‘politicians in robes’ … Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made a plea for preserving the impartiality and independence of the American judicial system in a lecture Thursday at Elmhurst College.  —  O'Connor, who addressed a crowded audience …

Donors To GOP Group Drew IRS Scrutiny  —  At the same time the Internal Revenue Service was targeting tea-party groups, the tax agency took the unusual step of trying to impose gift taxes on donors to a prominent conservative advocacy group formed in 2007 to build support for President George W. Bush's Iraq troop surge.

Another Obamacare Train Wreck Not Happening  —  Federal exchanges look like they'll have plenty of insurance options  —  One of these days, a dire prediction about Obamacare will come true.  Today isn't it.  —  The Administration on Thursday released new information about the “Federally Facilitated Marketplaces.”

Join Wall Street.  Save the world.  —  This is Jason Trigg, a programmer who went to work for a hedge fund because he figures it's where he can earn the most - and thus give the most away.  (Photo by Gretchen Ertl/For The Washington Post)  —  Jason Trigg went into finance because he is after money — as much as he can earn.

Romney Planning to Rejoin National Dialogue  —  Months After Election Loss, He Will Host Event in Utah for 200 Friends and Campaign Supporters  —  More than half a year after his election loss, Mitt Romney is putting a tentative foot back onto the public stage.

More trouble for the IRS  —  The new acting IRS chief acknowledged Friday that an upcoming audit would find improper spending at an agency conference, opening up a new trouble spot for an agency already embattled over its treatment of Tea Party groups.  —  Danny Werfel, the acting commissioner …

It's 2013, and People Are Still Getting Worked Up About Interracial Couples in Ads Cheerios spot gets cheers and jeers By Tim Nudd  —  It's another one of those things that shouldn't be a story but is—an ad from a major U.S. brand featuring an interracial couple and their daughter.

Noonan: An Antidote to Cynicism Poisoning  —  Restoring public faith will require a full investigation of the IRS's politicization.  —  The Benghazi scandal was and is shocking, and the Justice Department assault on the free press, in which dogged reporters are tailed like enemy spies, is shocking.

Republican Congressman Says McCain Was Partly Responsible For The Benghazi Terror Attacks  —  Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) accused Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Wednesday of being complicit in the terror attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year and the deaths of four Americans …

Obama's Data Team Totally Schooled Gallup  —  In the new issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, I have a short feature about how Google's (GOOG) executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, is investing millions in a new company with Dan Wagner and two dozen other veterans of the Obama campaign's data analytics team.

Woody Harrelson: I'm an anarchist  —  Who needs government?  Actor Woody Harrelson says we'd be “just fine” without it in the latest issue of Details magazine: