BREAKING FROM NBC: White House official calls gays part of “Internet left fringe”  —  UPDATE FROM PAM: … And let me just add that if we're all insignificant children who don't understand politics, and who the White House doesn't worry about, then why did a White House official feel the need …

Insurance Group Says Health Bill Will Mean Higher Premiums  —  Report Issued Before Key Committee Vote  —  After months of collaboration on President Obama's attempt to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday …

Heckuva Job, Barack  —  This was Barack Obama's chance.  —  Here was an opportunity to cut himself free, in a stroke, from the baggage that's weighed his presidency down — the implausible expectations, the utopian dreams, the messianic hoo-ha.  —  Here was a place to draw …

CREATING A MONSTER.... The right-wing “Tea Party” activists are, obviously, deeply opposed to the Obama White House's policies and the Democratic agenda in general.  But Alex Isenstadt reports that they're not especially pleased with the state of the Republican Party, either.

Democrats Must Attack to Win in 2010, Strategists Say  —  New Jersey Republicans complain that Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, has turned nasty to gain ground in his re-election bid this year.  Republicans elsewhere should brace themselves.  —  That is because Mr. Corzine's strategy …

Sharpton to NFL: Block Limbaugh  —  Rev. Al Sharpton pleaded with the National Football League on Monday to deny conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh the opportunity to buy the St. Louis Rams franchise.  —  In a letter sent to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Sharpton wrote that he was …

WaPo Page A1 breaking news: Conservatives are horrible ogres, Part 99,999  —  The Sunday edition of the Washington Post featured a massive, front-page article by Ann Gerhart decrying the “incivility” of conservatives.  “The nation's political discourse seems sour, angry, even dangerous,” Gerhart frets.

Moneyball  —  Geithner and Summers go to tennis camp.  —  For the handful of people in charge of saving the U.S. economy, it's been a grueling season.  The last eight months have featured endless back-and-forths, tense stalemates, and spirited confrontations.

Two Prominent Men in Sex Scandals, but Only One Feeding Frenzy  —  David Letterman must have been in denial.  —  Here he was, the savvy satirist, the court jester for the post-irony generation, apologizing again for “having had sex with women who had worked on this show”— a phrase guaranteed to give journalists heart palpitations.