GOP senators block Ted Cruz move to hold up Loretta Lynch vote  —  Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's strategy of blocking a vote on President Barack Obama's attorney general nominee until the White House relents on immigration executive actions ran into a brick wall Wednesday: his own GOP colleagues.

Sources: HHS' Obamacare Contingency Plan Is To Ask States To Contract Exchange Work To The Feds  —  Something odd has been happening with the Supreme Court battle over the legality of subsidies for Obamacare's federally-organized health insurance exchange.  The Obama administration has been claiming …

Boehner's sea of troubles  —  The TV drama “House of Cards,” with all of its fictional backstabbing, looks lame compared to the current, real-life political drama on Capitol Hill starring Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).  —  The Speaker has the biggest GOP caucus in Congress since the 1920s.

Marco Rubio's house of horrors  —  A Tallahassee home co-owned by a scandal-plagued ex-congressman is the locus of questions about the senator's finances and judgment.  —  TALLAHASSEE — The brick-fronted tract house with a satellite dish and a yellow fire hydrant in front looks …

Op-Ed Michael Douglas finds Judaism and faces anti-Semitism  —  Last summer our family went to Southern Europe on holiday.  During our stay at a hotel, our son Dylan went to the swimming pool.  A short time later he came running back to the room, upset.  A man at the pool had started hurling insults at him.

A Post-Netanyahu Republican Foreign Policy  —  As Israelis prepare to go to the polls tomorrow, it's dawning on a lot of American observers that a defeat for Benjamin Yetanyahu's government—not exactly “likely,” but certainly a decent possibility—could represent a turning point in American as well as Israeli politics.

Al Gore should run for president  —  Democrats need a debate about where their party goes next.  Obamacare's passage marked the rough completion of the social safety net that liberals began constructing during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency.  The end of the Iraq War drained Democrats of their foreign policy fervor.

What Jeb Bush is like in person  —  HUDSON, N.H.—Being with former Florida governor Jeb Bush for his first trips to Iowa and New Hampshire last weekend and this one, I found his demeanor to be completely different from those of the dozens of other candidates I have covered in these two states as they tested the presidential waters.

Story Highlights  —  PRINCETON, N.J. — Thirty-seven percent of Americans now view the Republican Party favorably and 39% view the Democratic Party favorably.  This is the only time since Gallup began tracking the party's images this way in 1992 that neither party has achieved at least 40% favorability from the public.

Chinese company pledged $2 million to Clinton Foundation in 2013  —  Shares -  —  Watch Julianna Goldman's full report at 7:30 a.m. ET on “CBS This Morning.”  —  A CBS News investigation has found that at least one foreign company with close ties to its government has been giving generously …

Santorum On Putting Bibles In Public Schools: ‘Yes We Can!  Yes We Can!’  —  Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) issued a passionate call for Bibles in public schools on Saturday during an appearance at a convention of social conservatives in Orlando, Florida.

The U.K. vs. the U.S. minimum-wage debate: What can we learn?  —  In a recent lecture at the London School of Economics, Prof. Alan Manning, a British economist who has done extensive research on the impact of the national minimum wage in the United Kingdom, said something that caught my ear.

Huckabee Pursues Unconventional Ways to Fund a Campaign  —  In a wood-paneled study lined with books and framed family photos, the prospective presidential candidate looks into the camera.  “I'm Mike Huckabee,” he says with all the folksy charm that propelled a career as a preacher, politician and broadcaster.

First on CNN: Scott Walker hires GOP strategist Liz Mair team for online outreach  —  (CNN)Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's political action committee has hired prominent Republican strategist Liz Mair to lead online communication efforts, CNN Politics has learned, taking yet another step toward building …