McCain fields audience question on whether he called wife an expletive  —  A widespread Internet rumor about Sen. John McCain popped up in an audience question today during the Republican presidential candidate's Iowa forum.  —  A member of the audience at the Polk County Convention Complex asked …

Obama's Image Slips, His Lead Over Clinton Disappears  —  Public Support for Free Trade Declines  —  Summary of Findings  —  Democratic voters are not as positive about Barack Obama as they were a month ago.  Somewhat smaller percentages of Democrats describe Obama in favorable terms …

D.C. Madam: Suicide Before Prison  —  Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. Madam,” once implied that suicide was cowardice but, in the end, she seems to have chosen that same path herself.  “She wasn't going to jail, she told me that very clearly.  She told me she would commit suicide …

Washington Post Editorial Board Attempts To Erase Its Pre-War Rush To Invasion  —  Today marks the fifth anniversary of President Bush's “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.  To commemorate the occasion, the Washington Post has trotted out its editorial from May 4, 2003.

Indiana Poll Shows Clinton With Big Lead Over Obama  —  Survey Taker: Pastor Controversy Possibly Big Factor  —  INDIANAPOLIS — A statewide poll indicates a dramatic shift of support from Sen. Barack Obama to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of next week's Indiana Democratic presidential primary …

Bloomberg: Clinton-McCain Gas Tax Break Is the ‘Dumbest Thing’  —  Michael Bloomberg said giving drivers a break from the gas tax is “the dumbest thing I've heard in an awful long time.”  —  I asked him about it right after he delivered his executive budget at City Hall just now.

As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Are Flocking to Small Cars  —  DETROIT — Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.  —  In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact …

Barbara Walters reveals past affair with US senator  —  NEW YORK (AP) - entertainmentminute After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as “exciting” and “brilliant.”

Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama  —  Former journalist Sidney Blumenthal has been widely credited with coining the term “vast right-wing conspiracy” used by Hillary Clinton in 1998 to describe the alliance of conservative media, think tanks, and political operatives …

EXCLUSIVE: MYSTERIOUS CRIMES PLAGUE US ATTORNEY TARGETS  —  The Permanent Republican Majority Part VI  —  MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - In two states where US attorneys are already under fire for serious allegations of political prosecutions, seven people associated with three federal cases …

What The Old Farts Don't Get  —  A reader writes:

On the brink  —  Some of America's most venerable newspapers face extinction, unless they evolve  —  THE New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry's deep malaise.  The Grey Lady's circulation is tumbling …

THE INCOHERENCE OF NANCY PELOSI  —  The Democrats' domestic policies are an incoherent jumble: they want lower gasoline and heating oil prices, but they block the very things, oil drilling and the construction of new refineries, that would actually reduce them.

The Return of the Paranoid Style  —  Less than two weeks before the United States and its allies invaded Iraq, in March of 2003, Sony Pictures released a war movie called Tears of the Sun.  The director was Antoine Fuqua, fresh off the success of 2001's Training Day; the star was Bruce Willis …

This year's May Day rally draws business support, but far fewer protesters  —  A surprisingly small crowd of immigrant workers and their supporters march on City Hall, calling for an end to blanket work-site immigration raids.  —  In numbers that were notably light, immigrant workers …