New York's Junior Senator, Doggedly Refusing to Play the Part  —  WASHINGTON — If there were a chutzpah caucus in the United States Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York would be its natural leader.  —  On a fund-raising swing through Chicago this fall, she told donors to pressure …

The ObamaCare Buck Finally Stops  —  President Obama says blame the government, not President Obama.  —  President Obama has found someone to blame for the Affordable Care Act's rolling failures besides Republicans.  ObamaCare is the government's fault, not his.

Rand Paul Says Wife is Against a 2016 Run  —  There's at least one member of Sen. Rand Paul's family who isn't quite on board just yet with a 2016 run — and that's his wife.  —  After a speech at the Detroit Economic Club today, Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky …

Lazy Journalists Aren't to Blame for Death of Print  —  This week's announcement that New York magazine was becoming a biweekly was greeted, in my profession, with the sort of cheer that might herald the announcement of a sewer line backup or a mid-honeymoon appendectomy.  —  New York magazine is very successful.

Obama: Diplomacy Best Approach to Iran Nuke Crisis  —  President Barack Obama said Saturday he believed the chances for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran are 50/50 or worse, yet defended diplomacy as the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.

Obama has shown how a future GOP president can gut Obamacare  —  BARACK OBAMA OBAMACARE REPUBLICAN PARTY  —  I owe Mitt Romney an apology.  —  During the 2012 Republican presidential primary season, I repeatedly criticized Romney — and personally challenged him during his editorial board meeting …

Doctors boycotting California's Obamacare exchange  —  WATCHDOG OBAMACARE CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE HEALTHCARE.GOV HEALTH CARE EXCHANGES  —  An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate …

Third Way Op-Ed Writer Says Elizabeth Warren's Backing Of Social Security Plan Was The ‘Final Moment’  —  Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy and a co-founder of Third Way, said Friday morning that Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) backing of a plan to expand Social Security compelled …

South Carolina Sheriff Refuses To Lower Flag For Mandela  —  Rick Clark, the sheriff of Pickens County, S.C., vowed on Friday to defy President Obama's order that U.S. flags be lowered to half staff in honor of deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela.  —  Clark made his promise …

Is This 36-Year-Old Veteran the Future of the GOP?  —  Two Ivy League degrees.  Two tours of duty.  Can Tom Cotton win the Senate for the GOP?  —  HOT SPRINGS, Ark.—On a recent late-fall Saturday, Barbara Deuschle, a local restaurant owner, was recounting her first impression of her congressman …

Those Media Hysterics Who Said Obama's Presidency Was Dead Were Wrong.  Again.  —  It's been a pretty good week for the Obama administration.  The bungled healthcare.gov Web site emerged vastly improved following an intensive fix-it push, allowing some 25,000 to sign up per day, as many as signed up in all of October.

Slowly They Modernize: A Federal Agency That Still Uses Floppy Disks  —  WASHINGTON — The technology troubles that plagued the HealthCare.gov website rollout may not have come as a shock to people who work for certain agencies of the government — especially those who still use floppy disks, the cutting-edge technology of the 1980s.

Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system  —  Physicist doubts work like Higgs boson identification achievable now as academics are expected to ‘keep churning out papers’  —  Peter Higgs, the British physicist who gave his name to the Higgs boson …