Reuters - Israeli and Palestinian leaders began direct peace negotiations on Thursday, sitting down for U.S.-brokered talks even as hard-liners on both sides vowed never to accept a deal.
Time.com - Nine weeks before the midterm elections, Barack Obama finds himself on the wrong side of the polls. Where did all that adoration go -- and is a Republican sweep next?
AP - Is the tea party the new Republican Party? The grass-roots network of fed-up conservative-libertarian voters displayed its power in its biggest triumph of the election year: the toppling of Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's GOP primary. Political novice Joe Miller is the fifth tea party insurgent to win a GOP Senate nominating contest, an upset that few, if any, saw coming.
AP - Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina exchanged feisty jabs on taxes, the economy and their records in Congress and corporate America during the first debate in their Senate race.
CQPolitics.com - With Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceding the Alaska GOP primary Tuesday night to lawyer Joe Miller, some Democrats now believe they have a chance to pick up a seat in a state no one thought could be in play in a cycle where Democrats are facing a significant loss of seats.
AP - Colorado gubernatorial hopeful Dan Maes' murky past in law enforcement in neighboring Kansas has become the latest distraction in his gaffe-ridden campaign.
McClatchy Newspapers - BAGHDAD — The U.S. military Wednesday marked the end of its combat mission in Iraq amid a series of conflicting messages that underscored the mixed feelings many here, both American and Iraqi, have toward a seven-and-a-half-year effort that cost tens of thousands of lives but left the political outcome undecided.
The Upshot - An Arizona man is in trouble with his homeowners' association over flying the Gadsden flag, which features a coiled rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread on Me." The flag has been adopted by members of the tea party movement for its association with the American Revolution, but Andy McDonel tells the New York Times that [...]
Politico - Brewer, who gained national notoriety for signing the country's toughest immigration law, awkwardly paused twice during the opening statement of the Clean Elections Debate broadcast.
AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is calling on Israel to end Jewish settlements in the West Bank and other areas that the Palestinians want to be part off their own state.
AP - President Barack Obama says the killing of four Israelis in the West Bank was a "senseless slaughter" that won't stop the U.S. from seeking peace in the Middle East.
AP - Massive street protests planned for next week won't dent the French government's resolve to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, the labor minister said Thursday.
Reuters - With a diplomatic push from U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli and the Palestinian leaders will start direct peace talks on Thursday shadowed by skepticism on all sides and fresh violence in the volatile West Bank.
The Atlantic Wire - Daniel Henninger on 'If Saddam Had Stayed' The Wall Street Journal columnist looks back from the president's recent Iraq speech to one he made in 2002, then a state senator, in which he called the potential conflict a "dumb war." Back then, Obama argued that Saddam Hussein
was a bloody dictator, but one that could be contained and did not pose
an immediate threat to the U.S. Henninger then asks: what would the world look like if Obama's "'smarter' view had prevailed?" In answer, he paints a dark scenario in which Saddam moved to join Iran and North Korea in developing nuclear weapons, thereby "incentivizing Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan" to pursue them as well. By deposing Saddam, Henninger writes, the U.S. took out at least
one of the "nuclear-obsessed madmen off the table and gave the world
more margin to deal with the threat that remains."
CQPolitics.com - The prospect of finally fixing America's public schools looks better now than ever, but there's still a chance that this golden economic and moral opportunity could slip away.
McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — The Democrats are likely to lose 47 seats and control of the House of Representatives in November's elections, a top political analyst says in a new forecast Thursday.
CQPolitics.com - Sen. John McCain's victory in the Aug. 24 Arizona Republican primary was fueled partly by transfers of $7.5 million from his 2008 presidential campaign compliance fund -- an account GOP Congressional strategists are now eyeing as they look to finance a growing list of competitive midterm races.
McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — As Mideast peace talks opened Wednesday at the White House, President Barack Obama condemned the killings of four Israeli settlers Tuesday by Palestinian Islamist militants and vowed, "This is not going to stop us."
Longtime Maryland Sen. Ulysses Currie, one of the most powerful and popular figures in the General Assembly, was indicted Wednesday on charges that he took more than $245,000 in bribes to use his position and influence to do favors for a grocery chain.
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, the Texas Democrat who broke scholarship eligibility rules set by a black lawmakers group by awarding about $31,000 to her relatives and an aide's children, said Wednesday she didn't shortchange others to benefit her own family.
The list includes the talk radio host who called a female senator a "prostitute" for cutting a deal to benefit her state, the male challenger who referred to his female rival "attractive" and "probably a good mother," and the TV host who noted that the candidate's wife looked like an angry woman.
At critical turns in his political career, President Obama has used his substantial rhetorical skills to enhance his political standing or deflect problems. That's why the tension inherent in his Oval Office address on Tuesday night spoke volumes about the political condition of his administration.
CHICAGO -- Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan is seeking to have elements of his conviction thrown out based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sharply curtailed an anti-fraud law employed by prosecutors nationwide to convict politicians and executives.
The number of illegal immigrants entering the United States has plunged by almost two-thirds in the past decade, a dramatic shift after years of growth in the population, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Saying it is "time to turn the page" on one of the most divisive chapters in American history, President Obama declared the U.S. war in Iraq over Tuesday night, telling the nation that he was fulfilling his campaign pledge to stop a war he had opposed from the start.
"Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury" is sure to set tongues wagging as Michael Joseph Gross explores the "sad and moldering strangeness" of Sarah Palin's life in the new to the Web October issue of Vanity Fair.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) concedes her primary race Tuesday night, becoming the third senator to lose re-nomination this year and the second to lose a primary.
WASHINGTON -- Claiming no victory, President Barack Obama formally ended the U.S. combat role in Iraq after seven long years of bloodshed, declaring firmly Tuesday night: "It's time to turn the page." Now, he said, the nation's most urgent priority is fixing its own sickly economy.
The release of a U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea since January satisfied the main goal of a trip to Pyongyang by former president Jimmy Carter. But Carter's mission was also noteworthy for what did not happen - a meeting with Kim Jong Il.
President Obama is promoting the decision to end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday as a fulfillment of his campaign promise to draw the war to a close. But some of the president's detractors are using the same moment to question the wisdom of doing so.
MADISON, Wis. -- A Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor has begun running ads in which he dons boxing gloves and vows to "go the distance" against the likely Democratic nominee, who was viciously beaten outside a fairground last year and left with serious injuries.
INDIANAPOLIS When Brad Ellsworth won his U.S. House seat in Indiana four years ago, he was hailed by Democrats as the future of their party: a telegenic former sheriff with moderate instincts and an ability to appeal to a diverse electorate. It was candidates such as Ellsworth who enabled the Dem...
A few weeks before organizing a massive rally on the Mall that had the feel of a religious revival, Glenn Beck sought the blessing of some of the country's most prominent conservative Christian leaders.
Conservative Fox News host Glenn Beck, a frequent critic of the mainstream news media, has launched his own news site, The Blaze. The site appears to be modeled after the Huffington Post and not surprisingly, features stories with a conservative bent about some of Beck's favorite issues, such as...
Under pressure to revive the faltering recovery, President Obama said Monday that he and his economic team are discussing "additional measures" to bolster growth and spur hiring, including "further tax cuts" to encourage businesses to create jobs.
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck voiced sharper criticism of President Obama's religious beliefs on Sunday than he and other speakers offered from the podium of the rally Beck organized at the Lincoln Memorial a day earlier.
Top aides to President George W. Bush seemed unconcerned amid multiple warnings as early as 2002 that the White House risked losing millions of e-mails that federal law required them to preserve, according to an extensive report obtained by The Federal Eye and set for release on Monday.
NEW ORLEANS - President Obama marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday with a solidarity visit to this city still recovering from the devastating storm, pledging to "stand with you and fight alongside you until the job is done."
On Thursday, some of the country's most respected environmental groups - in the midst of their biggest political fight in two decades - sent a group of activists to Milwaukee with a message.
Top aides to President George W. Bush seemed unconcerned amid multiple warnings as early as 2002 that the White House risked losing millions of e-mails that federal law required them to preserve, according to an extensive review of records set for release Monday.
A sea of people rallied at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday as conservative commentator Glenn Beck and other heroes of the "tea party" movement honored Americans serving in the military and called for the nation to turn back to God and to protect the traditional values that they said make the country exceptional.
Five months after the adoption of the sweeping new health-care law, momentum is building to modify and possibly repeal one of its funding sources, raising questions of whether this is the first of many such modifications to a law the Democrats hoped to keep intact.
It has long been said that any political coalition large enough to aspire to majority status is an organization of factions, conflict and contradictions. That description defines the Republican Party today as it looks toward the November elections and beyond.
Thousands of people joined the Rev. Al Sharpton and other leaders Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963. The event, billed as "Reclaim the Dream," included a five-mile march that culminated at the Mall, where conservative talk sho...
Updated 1:39 p.m. Attendee: "There are a lot of divisive issues in this country that need to be addressed in the way Dr. King addressed them and [Obama] has failed to do that."
In the collective memory of many Americans, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life is frozen in time in a single moment 47 years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
A growing number of Republicans are breaking with the party's traditional stance to publicly state their support for same-sex marriage, a shift strategists say stems as much from demographics as from the renewed focus on economics and the "tea party" movement.
The permit issued for Glenn Beck's rally Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial is one of about 3,000 issued annually by the National Park Service for rallies, cultural events, weddings and photo shoots on the Mall and other Washington area national parks and historic sites.
JACKSON, WYO. - With the economy faltering, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Friday he was prepared to take dramatic steps to boost the recovery but only if conditions get worse than he now expects.
The Obama administration is moving to release thousands of illegal immigrants detained at facilities across the country if the immigrants have a potential path to legal residency.
Alaska mayor Joe Miller and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are still locked in a tight primary fight. (Results on Wednesday showed Joe Miller holding a slim lead of about 1,900 votes, but a winner won't be declared until election officials count as many as 10,000 absentee ballots.) In the meantim...
Glenn Beck has billed his "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday in part as an opportunity to focus attention on those who have served in the military.
Amid growing concern over retaining their Senate majority, Democrats are skipping the pretense of running positive ads and, in many cases, taking the unusual step of going negative with their first campaign commercials.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson, says he wishes he hadn't apologized for telling lies about the former Alaska governor because he's "never lied about anything."
DES MOINES - Politics is as much a mainstay of the Iowa State Fair as the deep-fried food and the cows sculpted out of butter. But the crowds searching for a remote corner under the grandstand this week were not headed for one of the presidential hopefuls who routinely drop by. They were interes...
Supporters of same-sex marriage have a new and unexpected advocate: Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and manager of President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A special investigation has concluded that Gov. David Paterson's testimony about his plans to pay for World Series tickets last year was "inaccurate and misleading" and warrants consideration of criminal charges by a prosecutor.
Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University, has studied political activism for decades. But two years ago, he thought he was participating in a unique political movement, one not organized against an idea or a war - like most he has seen or been involved with - but in support of a...
NEW YORK -- Rep. Charlie Rangel heaped praise on President Barack Obama in a televised debate Thursday in which he sought to align himself closely with the president after pushing back on his suggestion that the embattled congressman step aside.
The Obama administration sided with major utility companies in a Supreme Court case about climate change on Thursday, angering environmentalists who say that the administration's broad argument could hurt their ability to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or even to bring other lawsuits.
The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.
With the economy rapidly weakening, some senior Democrats are having second thoughts about raising taxes on the nation's wealthiest families and are pressing party leaders to consider extending the full array of Bush administration tax cuts, at least through next year.
The news today that Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is launching $500,000 worth of new TV ads in Arizona targeting Democratic Reps. Ann Kilpatrick, Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords is the latest indication that conservative group will be a major player in the November midterm elections.
Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the former campaign manager for George W. Bush's 2004 re-election bid, has told his family and colleagues that he is gay, according to The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder.
Gov. Charlie Crist is the man in the middle in Florida's high-stakes race for the Senate, a candidate without a party whose hopes of moving from Tallahassee to Washington depend on his ability to fend off a squeeze play from his Democratic and Republican rivals.
This week, the top Republican in the House, Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio), pledged that the party would spend $50 million assisting House candidates in the midterm elections. The National Republican Congressional Committee has been outraising its Democratic counterpart for the past four ...
If there had been any doubt that this is a year when no incumbent can afford to be caught off-guard, it has been put to rest by the ambush of Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's Republican primary.
Full coverage of the 8/28 rallies here. When Fox News and talk radio host Glenn Beck comes to Washington this weekend to headline a rally intended to "restore honor" to America, he will test the strength - and potentially expose the weaknesses - of a conservative grass-roots movement that remains...
W. Craig Fugate's corner office at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is sparse: a few family photos, a couple of blue and orange mementos from his beloved University of Florida Gators, and not much else.
NEW YORK -- Fox News Channel chief White House correspondent Major Garrett said Wednesday he's leaving the network after eight years to join the National Journal as a congressional correspondent.
The 43-year-old bearded Alaskan who shocked the political world overnight by pulling ahead of Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the state's Republican primary fashions himself as a rugged individualist who campaigned on weaning Alaska off its dependence on federal largess.
WASILLA, ALASKA -- On a recent afternoon here, Karen Adams wheeled a shopping cart packed with meat, pineapples and cereal boxes around a supermarket as she talked about Sarah Palin's presence in Alaska.
Back when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) made her surprise endorsement of Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) little-known primary opponent in June, both Palin and Murkowski denied that there was any bad blood between them.
WASHINGTON -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has asked the Supreme Court to throw out a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination over pay for female workers.
It was an amazing night -- and morning -- as the final primary day of the summer delivered a series of upsets in Senate, gubernatorial and House races.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, once seen as another Republican incumbent threatened by a conservative grass-roots insurgency, won his primary Tuesday night by trouncing former congressman J.D. Hayworth.
a voters sent a mixed message to wealthy candidates running for office by handing businessman Rick Scott an upset victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary while dealing billionaire investor Jeff Greene a crushing defeat in the Democratic Senate race.
Florida voters sent a mixed message to wealthy candidates running for office by handing businessman Rick Scott an upset victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary while dealing billionaire investor Jeff Greene a crushing defeat in the Democratic Senate race.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) appeared to be at risk of becoming the third Senate incumbent ousted in a primary this cycle as her underfunded challenger, attorney Joe Miller, took a stunning and unexpected lead in the race early Wednesday.
In Arizona, Sen. John McCain trounced former Rep. J.D. Hayworth in the state's Republican primary, a victory that virtually ensures the 2008 GOP presidential nominee will return to the Senate for a fifth term next year.
PHOENIX -- Sen. John McCain routed conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth on Tuesday in the Republican primary in what could be the final campaign for the former GOP presidential nominee.
WASHINGTON -- Veteran Sen. John McCain sailed to nomination for a fifth term Tuesday over an Arizona challenger with tea party support, but big-spending political novice Rick Scott beat an insider in Florida's Republican gubernatorial primary as voters split on the merits of establishment candidates...
AUSTIN, TEX. - Former U.S. House majority leader Tom DeLay will get his long-awaited trial in Texas ahead of two co-defendants, a judge said Tuesday, five years after prosecutors first accused him of illegally funneling campaign money.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Florida's Republican voters have chosen wealthy newcomer Rick Scott over career public servant Bill McCollum as their candidate for governor.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Rep. Kendrick Meek is the Democratic nominee for Senate, overcoming billionaire Jeff Greene's massive television and mail onslaught to win a bitter Florida primary.
Two weeks after BP's Macondo well blew out in the Gulf of Mexico, the federal government's Minerals Management Service finalized a regulation intended to control the undersea pressures that threaten deepwater drilling operations.
In barring the Obama administration from funding human embryonic stem cell research, U.S. District Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth this week added to a 23-year history of confounding presidents of both political parties from the bench of the politically sensitive court in the nation's capital.
At a recent hearing, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin warned the State Department's top refugee official that Iraqis who had worked for the U.S. military would be in increasing jeopardy during the American drawdown.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to deliver a stinging rebuke on Tuesday of President Obama's 2009 stimulus legislation-- arguing that despite more than $800 billion in spending, the program has left behind states like Ohio, which continue to endure double-digit unemployment.
Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008.
Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008.
Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek crushed billionaire self financier Jeff Greene in the Sunshine State's Democratic Senate primary, setting up a three-way battle in the fall with former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) and Gov. Charlie Crist (I).
VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. -- The White House says President Barack Obama will have no further comment on the mosque near Ground Zero in New York and the administration will not get involved in talks about relocating the controversial facility.