The B Word  —  O.K., here it comes: The unthinkable is about to become the inevitable.  —  Last week, Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, and John Lipsky, a top official at the International Monetary Fund, both suggested that public funds might be needed to rescue the U.S. financial system.

Washington Insider with Ronald Kessler  —  Obama Attended Hate America Sermon  —  Contrary to Senator Barack Obama's claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” …

McGreevey aide says he had sexual trysts with ex-governor, wife  —  A former aide to James E. McGreevey said today that he had three-way sexual trysts with the former governor and his wife before he took office, challenging Dina Matos McGreevey's assertion that she was naive about her husband's sexual exploits.

White Male Vote Especially Critical  —  Questions Remain Over Obama's Ability to Appeal to Demographic  —  In the fierce campaign between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, a battle dominated by questions of race and gender, white men have emerged as perhaps the single critical swing constituency.

We will never have a perfect model of risk  —  The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war.  It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities.

Cheney to Meet With Iraqi Leaders  —  BAGHDAD — Vice President Dick Cheney opened a new U.S. push for political unity in Iraq on an unannounced visit Monday, just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.  —  Cheney landed at Baghdad International Airport …

Obama's Brother in China  —  So there I was, a couple of weeks back, sitting under a mango tree in western Kenya, when Senator Barack Obama's half-sister Auma says to me:  —  “My daughter's father is British.  My mom's brother is married to a Russian.  I have a brother in China engaged to a Chinese woman.”

Iraq war's cost: Loss of U.S. power, prestige, influence  —  WASHINGTON — It was a decision that only President Bush had the power to make: At about 9 a.m. on March 19, 2003, in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing of the White House, he gave the “execute order” …