Leading Republicans Move to Stamp Out Challenges From Right  —  WASHINGTON — As conservative activist groups stirred up trouble for establishment Republican Senate candidates in 2010 and 2012, party leaders in Washington first tried to ignore the insurgents, then tried to reason with them …

Obama to Dems: It's time to worry  —  The election is coming, the election is coming!  —  That's the message coming from President Obama as he tries desperately to rouse Democrats out of a midterm election stupor that could cost his party control of the Senate — and bury his agenda once and for all.

A Rand Paul rout in CPAC straw poll  —  NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Rand Paul handily won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, one gauge of the Republican base's mood less than two years before the 2016 primary season kicks off.

Little R-S-P-E-C-T  —  WASHINGTON — IF you can't spell it, you can't get it.  —  President Obama pulled a Quayle Thursday night at a White House performance by the women of soul and muffed the title of Aretha Franklin's anthem.  “R-S-P-E-C-T,” he said, looking a bit confused and eliciting laughter.

Disparate Theories on Fate of Jet as Search Grows  —  SEPANG, Malaysia — As military aircraft and a flotilla of ships from a half-dozen nations combed the waters south of Vietnam on Sunday for signs of a jet with 239 people onboard that vanished a day earlier, the authorities …

Has the Conservative Political Action Conference Purged the Kooks?  —  The annual conservative confab was notable for who wasn't there.  —  Pete Marovich/Mct/ZUMA  —  In the bowels of the National Harbor convention center in suburban Maryland on Thursday, a nonprofit called Empact America …

Mitt Romney gathers top advisers for campaign reunion in Utah  —  Is Mitt Romney getting the band back together?  —  The 2012 Republican presidential nominee has invited his debate prep advisers and senior campaign aides to his mountaintop chalet in Park City, Utah, for a weekend of skiing later this month …

Clinton Super PAC ‘Ready For Hillary’ Gets Readier  —  Hillary Clinton's shadow presidential campaign is shifting into overdrive with the ‘Ready For Hillary’ Super PAC's website getting a makeover  —  This weekend is a big one for the juggernaut Hillary Clinton for President shadow campaign.

Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney  —  In our first year in Washington, our son disappeared.  —  Just shy of his 3rd birthday, an engaged, chatty child, full of typical speech — “I love you,” “Where are my Ninja Turtles?”  “Let's get ice cream!”  — fell silent.  He cried, inconsolably.

Crist: Democrats ‘ought to strengthen up’ and support Obamacare  —  (CNN) - Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who's looking to get his old job back - this time as a Democrat - argued Sunday that Democrats need to “strengthen up” and own Obamacare in this year's midterms.

Is US losing new cold war?  —  If there is a new cold war with Russia, many observers believe the U.S. is losing it.  —  First under President George W. Bush and now under President Obama, the U.S. and Vladimir Putin's Russia have engaged in a series of foreign policy battles — and Putin has repeatedly got his way.