What's next — giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to David Duke?  —  So that the right-wing, faux-outrage crowd does not have a meltdown, let me be clear: I am sorry to hear talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh has cancer.  Any decent person should hope he has a full recovery.

TV Ratings: State of the Union Falls in Early Broadcast Numbers  —  Preliminary figures show the annual address down by double digits versus 2019.  —  The State of the Union address drew a considerably smaller audience on the broadcast networks than it did a year ago, at least in the preliminary ratings from Tuesday.

How Mitt Romney Decided Trump Is Guilty  —  Mitt Romney didn't want to go through with it.  —  “This has been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my life,” he told me yesterday afternoon in his Senate office.  Roughly 24 hours later, Romney would deliver a speech announcing …

Beyond the Partisan Fight, a Wealth of Evidence About Trump and Ukraine  —  Regardless of the Senate's verdict, the impeachment inquiry, President Trump's own words and other revelations yield a narrative establishing his involvement in the pressure campaign.

Biden concedes Iowa was ‘a gut punch’  —  SOMERSWORTH, N.H. — Joe Biden is no longer denying his surprisingly weak performance in Iowa.  —  “I'm not going to sugarcoat it.  We took a gut punch in Iowa,” Biden said Wednesday, before cracking a joke about Iowa's botched caucuses.

I believe the president, and in the president  —  George T. Conway III is a lawyer in New York and an adviser to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC.  —  I believe the president, and in the president.  —  I believe the Senate is right to acquit the president.

This Is No Way to Beat Trump  —  Watching the Iowa caucus this year was a new experience for me.  Before the ascendancy of Donald Trump, I was an establishment conservative, one of those liberal New England Republicans whose tribe is now only of blessed memory.

Senator Doug Jones Statement on Impeachment Decision  —  “As this chapter of history draws to a close, one thing is clear: our country deserves better than this.  We must find a way to come together, to set aside partisan differences, and to focus on what we have in common as Americans.”

She Shunned Islam And Was Embraced By Trump World.  They Took Her Money, Then Turned On Her.  —  Rabia Kazan, a Turkish national who used to be a Trump fanatic, made a big donation to the president's campaign.  But she's not a US citizen.  —  A former rising star in MAGA world recently renounced …

Pentagon officials stunned by White House decision to block Ukraine aid, new emails show  —  Washington (CNN)Days before the July 2019 call between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, US officials were still working to expedite the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles to the country …

Record economic optimism under Trump, better than Reagan, Clinton, Obama  —  Economic optimism has reached a 44-year high and economic gloom a record low under President Trump in the latest survey that shows people in the United States are cheering their best personal economy in decades.

Bloomberg Used Box to Boost Height as NYC Mayor, Documents Show  —  The Bloomberg campaign was quick to shoot down President Donald Trump's claim that the Democratic presidential candidate plans to use a box to boost his height at Friday's Democratic debate.

Why I'm Voting to Acquit President Trump  —  Impeachment will end in the Senate.  It's time to take up consensus issues.  —  Mr. Portman is a Republican senator from Ohio.  —  On Wednesday I will join a majority of my Senate colleagues in opposing the impeachment of President Trump brought by the House of Representatives.

Kill the tradition: NH and Iowa should not vote first  —  A hundred years ago, New Hampshire blazed a trail as the first among 20 states to hold a 1920 presidential primary election.  It is a tradition that has endured for the century since, and will repeat on Feb. 11 — a fact owed not just to custom …

How much of Trump's rising approval numbers can be attributed to differential nonresponse?  —  Josh Marshall writes: … Marshall goes through several natural explanations (economic prosperity, trade agreements, acceptance of Trump's behavior), and then continues: … That's right.

What's in that bag marked ‘Bag Full of Drugs,’ sir?  —  The answer may not surprise you  —  It started, as these stories often do, with a routine traffic stop.  When a backup officer arrived, early on Saturday evening, he just happened to be a deputy with a drug-sniffing dog.