Iran Is Found To Be a Lair of Al Qaeda  —  Intelligence Estimate Cites Two Councils  —  WASHINGTON — One of two known Al Qaeda leadership councils meets regularly in eastern Iran, where the American intelligence community believes dozens of senior Al Qaeda leaders have reconstituted …

Democrats Maneuver To Force Iraq Votes  —  Senate Democratic leaders are planning a rare all-night session tonight, employing theatrics and scheduling votes that they hope will chip away at Republican resolve to back President Bush's Iraq war strategy.  —  Majority Leader Harry M. Reid …

On Tour to Highlight Poverty, Edwards Tries to Shift Race's Focus  —  From the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans to the Mississippi Delta to this town where Martin Luther King Jr. began his Poor People's Campaign almost four decades ago, John Edwards's message has been the same …

Romney spent $300 on makeup 'consulting'  —  What kinds of things do you think of when you hear "communications consulting"?  —  Speechwriting?  Message strategy?  —  Well, "communications consulting" is how presidential candidate Mitt Romney recorded $300 in payments to a California company …

The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped  —  Correction Appended  —  On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog — or the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company.  —  Or so thought John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods Market, who used a fictional identity …

Scaife-Owned Newspaper Calls for Iraq Troop Withdrawal — Questions Bush's 'Mental Stability'  —  NEW YORK The Pittsburgh newspaper owned by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife yesterday called the Bush administration's plans to stay the course in Iraq a "prescription for American suicide."

Belabor the Point  —  Democrats find one government office they want to cut back.  It's the one that exposes union corruption.  —  The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law.

2008 Nomination Contests Holding Steady With Clinton and Giuliani on Top  —  No further decline in McCain's support despite rough patch on campaign trail  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A new Gallup survey, conducted July 12-15, 2007, finds little change from earlier this month in public preferences …

No Magic Bullets For Iraq  —  Leave Washington in the winter, return in midsummer.  First you'll be surprised by the heat, then by the humidity.  Then you'll be surprised by the certainty.  —  Out in the world, there are shades of gray.  Here inside the Beltway, there are black-and-white solutions.

Bush to Bolster Abbas and Seek Peace Talks  —  President Bush announced an initiative on Monday to shore up the Palestinian president and to begin building a Palestinian state, signaling that his administration will use its remaining months to make a major push for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Libertarians and the War  —  Ron Paul doesn't speak for all of us.  —  While the number of Americans who self-identify as "libertarian" remains small, a substantial proportion agree with the core stances of limited constitutional government in both the economic and social spheres …

Read the "confidential memo" from the Minnesota Republican Party that is the basis of CREW's FEC complaint  —  CREW filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint today against the Republican Party of Minnesota and its former treasurer, Marina Taubenberger, alleging multiple egregious violations …