Joe the Plumber is here, and he ain't happy  —  Samuel Wurzelbacher of Ohio, aka Joe the Plumber, arrived in Sderot at noon Sunday to show local and foreign reporters how to do it right.  —  “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he told foreign reporters.  —  “You should be patriotic …

Bush Lead During Weakest Economy in Decades  —  Eight-Year Period Is Weakest in Decades  —  President Bush has presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades, according to an analysis of key data, and economists across the ideological spectrum increasingly view …

Golden Globes glow with language like that &*%$#@ Blagojevich  —  Usually it's pop culture rubbing off on politics.  —  But Sunday night it sounded like the other %#$&+* way around.  —  As our LATimes.com colleagues Rachel Abramovitz and Tom O'Neil note elsewhere on this site and elsewhere here …

Former top Bush officials back Holder  —  Two more former top Bush Justice Department officials have endorsed the nomination of Eric Holder for attorney general, the latest in a growing list of GOP backers for Holder.  —  In letters obtained by Politico and expected to be released shortly …

From the White House Briefing Room, a Swan Song  —  President Bush's last press conference opened with cordial words for the reporters who have covered his remarkable eight years in office.  —  Acknowledging that relations have been strained at times - that some had “misunderestimated me …

Iran warns Hamas not to accept Egyptian truce proposal  —  Iran is exerting heavy pressure on Hamas not to accept the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire with Israel, an Egyptian government official said on Sunday.  —  The official told The Jerusalem Post by phone that two senior Iranian officials …

8 days to Inauguration — BREAKING: Gay bishop to pray at inauguration-week kickoff — Obama plans ‘significant reform’ in bailout terms as he and Bush prepare to ask Congress for the remaining $350B  —  BULLETIN, from Dana Perino: “As we start our final full week here in the White House …

Obama Plans to Keep Estate Tax  —  Democrats Want to Freeze Levy at Current Levels Instead of Letting It Expire Next Year  —  President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders plan to move soon to block the estate tax from disappearing in 2010, suggesting the levy might outlive the …

Obama, Top Aides Lobby for Rest of Bailout Funds  —  Top Aide Heads to Hill to Press Senators  —  President-elect Barack Obama and his team stepped up efforts yesterday to get Congress to approve spending the remaining $350 billion of the controversial $700 billion financial rescue package that was passed last year.

Land mines ahead for Hillary  —  Hillary Clinton, ever the preparation junkie, is cramming for Tuesday's confirmation hearing — intent on downplaying old disagreements with Barack Obama and parrying questions about her husband's overseas entanglements, aides say.

Say No To...  Along with the emancipation of women, sexual liberation has become very much a part of politics around the world.  To the conservatives, both these issues challenge ‘family values’.  —  But what if there were no families?  What if we say no to reproduction?

Who Runs for Senate if Voinovich Retires?  —  Is Sen. George Voinovich planning to retire?  —  Rumors that the second-term Republican from Ohio would step aside ran rampant over the weekend, and GOP operatives acknowledged privately that they expected Voinovich to leave the Senate in 2010 …

Caroline Kennedy is ‘impressive’ at Brooklyn pol confab  —  Caroline Kennedy met in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Sunday with a group of key black lawmakers who came away “impressed” with the U.S. Senate hopeful.  —  A day after meeting with Gov. Paterson, Kennedy pushed her candidacy …

Bush Tells His Party To Be ‘Open-Minded’  —  President Bush called for a “compassionate” Republican Party and warned against the GOP becoming “anti-immigrant” in one of his last interviews as president, defending his vision of the party, which has become unpopular among some Republicans.

Obama's Cheney Dilemma  —  Cheney pushed for expanded presidential powers.  Now that he's leaving, what will come of his efforts?  The new president won't have to wait long to tip his hand.  —  From the magazine issue dated Jan 19, 2009  —  Dick Cheney, who will step down as vice president on Jan. 20 …