Bunning poised to retire  —  Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, the most endangered Republican up for reelection in 2010, appears headed for retirement after giving his leading GOP rival the blessing to prepare to run for his seat next year.  —  Bunning's retirement would be a huge victory …

Biden says avoid planes, subways; puts out clarifying statement  —  Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.”

A Chrysler Creditor Finds Himself Torn  —  Geoffrey Gwin is wrestling with the knowledge that the retirement plans of some 80,000 Americans may rest in his hands.  —  “I am in turmoil,” says Mr. Gwin, principal of the Group G Capital Partners LLC hedge funds in New York.

Our Obligation to Investigate  —  In President Obama's inaugural address, he declared that “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.  Our founding fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man …

Obama and Churchill  —  Obama followed Bush last night in using Winston Churchill as his example of a war president:  —  “I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens …

Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild  —  Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.  —  As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked …

Win By Losing?  —  Via Ed Kilgore, Ed Rogers from the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations makes the point that it's basically never good to lose a Senator: … I do think it's always worth considering an alternative.  I think it's very possible that Democrats could “gain so much power” …

Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana  —  ABC News-Washington Post Poll: 49 Percent Support Gay Marriage, New High  —  Support for gay marriage, legalizing illegal immigrants and decriminalizing marijuana all are at new highs.

Palin and the bear  —  Coming soon to a cable TV station near you: TLC just released a YouTube video of a recent interview with Sarah Palin that has an unfortunate image of the Governor relaxing on a bear rug in her office.  Seriously:  —  I've defended Sarah Palin after recent media criticism.

Obama's 100 Days Press Conference Draws 28.8M Viewers  —  Last night's primetime press conference to mark Barack Obama's 100th day in office was viewed by 28.8 million people in the U.S., according to The Nielsen Company.  The event pulled an 18.8 household rating on 10 TV networks.

Senate Rejects Bankruptcy Bailout for Troubled Homeowners  —  ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports from Capitol Hill: On the same day that the White House announced that overextended Chrysler would go into a “quick” bankruptcy — its loans rewritten by a judge to emerge for life another day …

Condi Rice Pulls A Nixon: When the President Does It, That Means It is Not Illegal  —  Condoleezza Rice was recently speaking at Stanford when students asked her an excellent question on waterboarding and torture.  They have her answer on tape and it isn't pretty.  Condi Rice absolutely pulls a Nixon.

New GOP ad: Do you feel safer?  —  House Republicans are using images of the Pentagon burning on 9/11 and President Obama's “bow” to the Saudi leader in a video that accuses the president of making America less safe in his first 100 days.  —  But the new video has already created blowback …

Elizabeth Edwards write about husband's affair in book … Campaign cad John Edwards' cheating ways made his wife, Elizabeth, sick to her stomach - literally.  —  After the former presidential hopeful confessed his betrayal, Elizabeth Edwards writes in her new book, “I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up.”

The Threat Of Christianism  —  “There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs.  There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being.  But like any powerful weapon …

Fox Cancels Beltway Boys  —  It's the end of the road for The Beltway Boys, Fox News Channel's Saturday evening political chat with newsmen Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke.  Whispers hears that the show has run its course.  No replacement has been named.  —  Theirs was a fun mix …

Anita Dunn Heads to the White House  —  Anita Dunn, a Democratic media consultant and senior adviser to President Barack Obama during the fall campaign, has been named the interim communications director at the White House, according to several sources familiar with the decision.

Your Year in Wiretaps  —  Marc Ambinder notes that the federal government's annual wiretap report—that's Title III criminal wiretaps, not the foreign intel surveillance covered by FISA— is out, and the headline figure is that there was a 16 percent decline in wiretap orders over the previous year.