Exclusive: How Dems set stage for corporate-backed health care campaign  —  At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups …

BREAKING: Dems Go Nuclear on Obamacare  —  House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) held a hearing this morning to certify that H.R. 3200 — the main House Obamacare bill which was the subject of all the town hall rage in August — has met all requirements to pass as a “budget reconciliation” measure.

Meghan McCain twitter photo backlash leads to apology  —  Republican firebrand Meghan McCain's skimpy pajamas have her conservative followers all atwitter, forcing the daughter of failed 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain to apologize for posting a racy photo of her décolletage.

FOX News vs. White House: Round three  —  In Glenn Beck's pursuit of every member of the Obama administration who ever hung a Che Guevera poster on his college dorm wall, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has become a new target for.... Well, for criticizing FOX News.

Newt Gingrich endorses Dede Scozzafava in NY-23 House race  —  Washington — In a major coup for her campaign, Republican Dede Scozzafava today will pick up the endorsement of Newt Gingrich, one of the nation's leading conservative figures and the architect of the “Republican Revolution” in the mid-1990s.

HuffPo, Rick Sanchez retract phony Limbaugh quotes  —  No harm in admitting the lie now that his NFL bid's dead.  First, via the Standard, comes this belated HuffPo postscript to a post that's three years old: … And now here's Sanchez, kinda sorta apologizing — on Twitter …

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.  —  HAMMOND, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.  —  Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish …

John Edwards, Sarah Palin Both See Favorable Ratings Slide  —  Edwards' popularity down 27 points since January 2008  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Former presidential and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, embroiled in personal scandal, is rated favorably by 21% of Americans and unfavorably by 59%.

The Reality Moment  —  That which can't continue doesn't.  A nation can spend and spend, pile debt upon debt, but eventually there comes a reality moment when some leader emerges to say enough is enough and when decent people, looking around at themselves and their own best nature, respond by demanding a return to responsibility.

No Nobel Results From Obama Foreign Policy  —  About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama's foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five …

Michigan Dem responds to GOP charges about Muslim interns  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is blasting charges by a group of Republican lawmakers that a Muslim activist group has planted interns on Capitol Hill in an effort to alter national security legislation.

Glenn Beck Cries AGAIN On Air, Pining For A Simpler Time In America (VIDEO)  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Glenn Beck was in the middle of pining for a ‘simpler time’ in America when he decided the best way to illustrate this idea was to show two advertisements from said 'simpler …

$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan  —  The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan.  —  The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week.

U.S. Considers a New Assessment of Iran Threat  —  Amid Pressure After Latest Nuclear Revelations, Spy Agencies Rethink a 2007 Judgment That Weapons Effort Had Been Halted  —  WASHINGTON — U.S. spy agencies are considering whether to rewrite a controversial 2007 intelligence report …

Charlie Crist supporters alarmed with Rubio  —  The most persistent rumor this week: Gov. Charlie Crist 44 percent Marco Rubio 30 percent in the race for U.S. Senate.  The poll allegedly is the Florida Chamber of Commerce's, but president Mark Wilson isn't calling us back.  —  Is it true?

Obama Criticized as Too Cautious, Slow on Judicial Posts  —  President Obama has not made significant progress in his plan to infuse federal courts with a new cadre of judges, and liberal activists are beginning to blame his administration for moving too tentatively on what they consider a key priority.