Democrats Resisting Obama on Social Security  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama is eager to seek a bipartisan solution to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party's left and from Democratic Congressional leaders …

Santelli Claims The White House Is Threatening Him: ‘My Kids Are Nervous To Go To School’  —  CNBC's Rick Santelli appeared on at least two radio programs today to promote his “rant” against President Obama's housing program.  On G. Gordon Liddy's radio program, Santelli called attention …

Assessing Obama's Job Approval at the One-Month Mark  —  Receives solid approval, but not extraordinary in historical terms  — USA - Government and Politics - Presidential Job Approval - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama remains …

Official: Obama likely to name Locke to Commerce  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior administration official says that President Barack Obama's likely third pick for Commerce secretary is former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.  —  The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made.

Well Before the 2012 Season, Obama Kicks the GOP a Political Football  —  One month into the Obama presidency, the race for the 2012 GOP nomination appears very much underway.  —  Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, before heading to the National Governors Association annual meeting that started …

Obama's talks helos with McCain  —  President Barack Obama opened Monday's economic summit by taking aim at the “casual dishonesty” of Bush administration budgets Monday, saying he'll abandon accounting “tricks” used to hide the ballooning deficit and pledging to cut a $1.3 trillion federal shortfall in half during his first term.

No rest for Rahm at the movies  —  A surprised fellow moviegoer passes on word that Rahm Emanuel took time out Saturday night to see The Wrestler at the E Street Cinema last night with a Secret Service Agent.  —  It was not a quiet night out.  —  “The guy sitting next to Rahm …

HSR LIE JUST WON'T GO AWAY.... Once a claim makes its way onto the approved list of Official Republican Talking Points, it's there to stay.  Even after a claim has been exposed as completely false — sometimes, especially after it's been proven false — GOP figures will just keep repeating it.

The 10 most influential D.C. Twitterers  —  When you talk about Twitter, you might as well be talking about the Snuggie: People around you swear that it's actually useful, but you can't help thinking it silly and declaring, “I just don't get what all the buzz is about.”

Meltdown on MSNBC: The Leg Tingle Is Gone?  —  I can hardly believe what I'm watching on MSNBC right now.  Chris Matthew is almost critical - no, not even almost, he's flat out critical of President Obama on the economic front.  He mentions an earlier conversation with CNBC's manic stock analyst Jim Cramer …

The Myth Of The Filibuster: Dems Can't Make Republicans Talk All Night  —  Hoping for a C-SPAN spectacle of GOP obstruction, some impatient Democrats are urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to call Republicans on their filibuster bluff.  —  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer …

AIG Seeks More US Funds As Firm Faces Record Loss  —  American Insurance Group, the insurance giant that is 80-percent owned by the US government, is in discussions with the government to secure additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday, when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, CNBC has learned.

Hey, lady, your $800,000 house is NOT my problem  —  Repeat after me: Property value-preservation is not a civil right.  —  Craig Meister at the Examiner.com points me to this typical CNN sob story clip of a bus driver named Minta Garcia who is demanding that President Obama halt all foreclosures.

Say what?  —  I've been following the Franken-Coleman legal proceedings pretty closely and everything I've read suggests that Franken is getting the better end of it and will be certified in the next few months.  So where the hell does this come from? … Update: Murray did take this question from me, I'll give her that at least.

CBS News' New Right-Wing PR Chief: “I Never Said Democrats Are Evil”  —  CBS News kicked up a big controversy over the weekend when the news broke that the network had hired as its new public relations chief one Jeff Ballabon, a conservative Orthodox Jew who helped Bush's reelection campaign in 2004.

Major stock market indexes fall to 1997 levels  —  NEW YORK - Wall Street has turned the clock back to 1997.  Investors unable to extinguish their worries about a recession that has no end in sight dumped stocks again Monday.  The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 251 points …

Sanford Offers Unemployed South Carolina Resident ‘Prayers’ Instead Of Stimulus Funds  —  Following the lead of a number of his fellow Republican governors, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has given some indication that he will not accept some of the money slated for South Carolina …

Cuomo Has More Questions for Thain  —  John A. Thain, the former chief of Merrill Lynch, faced six hours of questioning last week with the attorney general of New York.  —  But it was not enough.  —  A New York state judge ruled on Monday that Mr. Thain must return to the attorney general's office …