Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy  —  PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The rise of conservative “tea party” activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans.  They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power.  But they're also waging war …

A Hatchet Job So Bad It's Good  —  In the past, the insurance industry's power has been a major barrier to health-care reform.  Most notably, the industry paid for the infamous “Harry and Louise” ads that helped kill the Clinton plan.  But times have changed.

Exclusive: How Dems set stage for corporate-backed health care campaign  —  At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups …

Don't Call Me a Slut  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Hours after The Daily Beast's Meghan McCain posted a self-portrait on Twitter it made national news and she was a pariah.  But she says it's the media who are the real boobs.  —  On Wednesday I posted a hastily-taken self-portrait on Twitter …

John Edwards, Sarah Palin Both See Favorable Ratings Slide  —  Edwards' popularity down 27 points since January 2008  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Former presidential and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, embroiled in personal scandal, is rated favorably by 21% of Americans and unfavorably by 59%.

No Nobel Results From Obama Foreign Policy  —  About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama's foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five …

A strange, lonely and troubling death . . .  The news of Stephen Gately's death was deeply shocking.  It was not just that another young star had died pointlessly.  —  Through the recent travails and sad ends of Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and many others, fans know to expect the unexpected …

Lieberman says he would vote to let health care reform motion proceed  —  U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., whose vote could be crucial to breaking an expected GOP filibuster on health care legislation, Thursday said he would consider voting to move the bill forward …

The Reality Moment  —  That which can't continue doesn't.  A nation can spend and spend, pile debt upon debt, but eventually there comes a reality moment when some leader emerges to say enough is enough and when decent people, looking around at themselves and their own best nature, respond by demanding a return to responsibility.

C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery  —  WASHINGTON — Is the Central Intelligence Agency covering up some dark secret about the assassination of John F. Kennedy?  —  Probably not.  But you would not know it from the C.I.A.'s behavior.  —  For six years, the agency has fought …

Indicted NY Financier Gave Big To Clinton  —  Raj Rajaratnam Accused in $20 Million Insider Trading Case  —  The New York hedge fund billionaire indicted today in an alleged $20 million insider trading scheme, Raj Rajaratnam, was a major contributor to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton …

Interview Sets Off Skeptics of Balloon Drama  —  Updated |  10:45 a.m. It was, apparently, a heartwarming tale — the 6-year-old Colorado boy who was reportedly carried aloft in a wayward helium balloon on Thursday, only to turn up several hours later after a frantic, widely televised search.

Christie's weight, Corzine's beard: Politics goes skin deep  —  By any standard, what David Rice said to Chris Christie took guts.  —  But Rice was glad afterward that he said it.  —  Ambling up to the Republican candidate for governor last week at an event in Monmouth Junction …

Barney Frank, Predatory Lender  —  Almost two-thirds of all bad mortgages in our financial system were bought by government agencies or required by government regulations.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Recent reports that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will suffer default rates …

Charlie Crist supporters worried  —  The most persistent rumor this week: Gov. Charlie Crist 44 percent Marco Rubio 30 percent in the race for U.S. Senate.  The poll allegedly is the Florida Chamber of Commerce's, but president Mark Wilson isn't calling us back.  —  Is it true?  We have no idea.

A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco  —  Even in San Francisco, Pres. Obama cannot escape protesters.  He held a fundraiser at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco tonight (Thursday) and a crowd turned out across the street on Union Square to let him know what they thought …

Another Goldman executive named to key government post as its profits skyrocket  —  (updated below)  —  Apparently, the U.S. government didn't have enough Goldman Sachs executives in key financial and regulatory positions, so the following happened this week:

GOP 2012: Huckabee 29% Romney 24% Palin 18%  —  Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Republican voters nationwide say former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is their pick to represent the GOP in the 2012 Presidential campaign.  The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds …

Jones Street  —  The anti-Israel organization J Street has been hemorraghing sponsors for its conference as Senators and Congressmen learned of its true agenda.  Just in the last few hours, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Leonard Boswell (D-IA) …

At State, as in the Senate, she often talks softly—but that doesn't mean she doesn't carry a big stick.  —  Hillary Clinton was on the trot again this week, with an itinerary that took her from Zurich to London to Dublin to Belfast to Moscow and a nonstop schedule of diplomatizing on topics ranging …