Specter Will Vote Against Employee Free Choice Act  —  UPDATE: Senator Specter ended speculation on where he would come down on the Employee Free Choice Act by declaring, on the Senate floor, that he would oppose the legislation until the economy improves.  —  “The problems of a recession …

Dems propose cutting Obama budget by billions  —  CNN Congressional Producer  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hours before President Obama was to hold a prime-time news conference — in part to boost his $3.6 trillion budget plan — a key Democratic senator Tuesday unveiled a scaled-down budget proposal.

Obama skips major papers  —  During President Obama's second East Room news conference, he took questions from 13 reporters over about an hour — that's the same as during his first presser on Feb. 9.  —  But in quite a departure from the first presser — and White House protocol — Obama skipped over the nation's top newspapers.

K-Lo & Crew: Only Republicans Should be Honored at Catholic Colleges  —  Right-wing Catholics are furious that President Obama is [defiling the sanctity of] delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame.  —  K-Lo called it “disgraceful,” grunting, “They took a giant step away …

U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

Dems Hammer GOP's New “Too Many Ideas” Strategy  —  Dems are opening fire on the GOP in response to our story below, which quotes Mitch McConnell's spokesperson saying that the GOP will start attacking the Obama administration for throwing out too many ideas on the economy, with not enough cohesion.

Obama's 2nd press conference live-blog  —  9:05 pm — The press conference is over, not having gone the full hour.  Obama didn't make any news either way.  There won't be any new controversies coming out of this press conference, which is the first way of measuring the success or failure of these staged events.

Open for Questions: President Obama to Answer Your Questions on Thursday  —  Today, the President invited everyone to use a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov called “Open for Questions” to ask a question about the economy and rate other questions up or down.  Then, on Thursday morning …

Ehud Barak to Join Netanyahu Cabinet  —  Kadima Leader Tzipi Livni has spent weeks resisting Benjamin Netanyahu's pleas that she enter his cabinet, citing the fact that she has no desire to be moderate window-dressing for a hard-right administration that's overtly opposed to a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Treasury rewards waiting  —  Maybe it was worth the wait.  —  Judging from preliminary details, the US Treasury's plan to rescue the financial system is a lot savvier about the relationship between financial markets and the macroeconomy than are the usual-suspects: critics from both left …

Culture Shock  —  What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble.  —  Last May, Conor Friedersdorf, a twenty-eight-year-old recent graduate of NYU's Journalism School, decided he was going to save conservative journalism.

A major difference between conservatives and progressives  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  One of the linchpins of the Bush presidency, especially during the first term (and well into the second, until he became a major political liability), was the lock-step uncritical reverence …

Money For Nothing  —  Jilted Wall Street donors should rethink future political donations.  —  An honest politician, as an old saw has it, is one who stays bought.  If this is true, then we have the most dishonest bunch of officeholders ever, and it may lead Wall Street to reconsider its donations in the future.

Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence  —  Editor's note: Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University.  —  CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) — Over the past two years, drug violence in Mexico has become a fixture of the daily news.

Possible delay for 20th CD race?  —  The AP is reporting that a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit could delay next week's special election in the 20th CD.  —  Here's the story:  —  ALBANY — A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit could delay next week's special election in the 20th Congressional District …

The GOP's Cheney Problem  —  The least popular vice-president in memory is not helping the Republicans regroup - according to this piece from the Hill.  But Cheney is not giving these disgraceful and classless interviews to help the GOP.  He's giving them because it is beginning to dawn …

On Campus: The Pro-Palestinians' Real Agenda  —  During a recent visit to several university campuses in the U.S., I discovered that there is more sympathy for Hamas there than there is in Ramallah.  —  Listening to some students and professors on these campuses, for a moment I thought …

The 1966 Election's Warning to Obama  —  It was a historic tidal wave of rejection.  Symbolized by, of all things, housewives boycotting supermarkets.  And the active participation of seven future presidents of the United States.  —  The 1966 “off year” or congressional elections …

Coleman won't rule out federal appeal  —  Former Sen. Norm Coleman is still considering taking his election lawsuit to the federal court if he's unsuccessful in reversing Al Franken's 225-vote lead in the Minnesota Senate recount.  —  Speaking to reporters at the Capitol …

Contender for TARP Job Drops Out  —  WASHINGTON — The leading candidate to run the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout program has withdrawn his name from consideration, according to people familiar with the matter.  —  Frank Brosens, a hedge-fund manager and big Democratic donor …

Obama statement excerpts released  —  The White House has released advance excerpts of the President's opening remarks tonight.  —  Obama will tell Americans: “[W]e've put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to attack this crisis on all fronts.  It's a strategy to create jobs …