Poll shocker: Scott Brown surges ahead in Senate race  —  + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email + Bio  —  Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate …

Bankers Without a Clue  —  The official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — the group that aims to hold a modern version of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, whose investigations set the stage for New Deal bank regulation — began taking testimony on Wednesday.

What Karl Rove got wrong on the U.S. deficit  —  For its Topic A feature last Sunday, The Post invited a panel of political operatives to offer their advice to the Democratic Party on strategy for 2010 [Sunday Opinion, Jan. 10].  Improbably, one of the operatives asked was Karl Rove …

Conan's Exit Confirmed  —  Blogs and Stories  —  The late-night nightmare is almost over.  Conan O'Brien is leaving NBC and receiving a payout—and he'll be free to appear on another network before his contract expires, Kim Masters reports.  —  The NBC-Leno-Conan war is close to ending, according to a knowledgeable source.

Cynicism on the excise tax  —  “Unions get a special two-year exclusion from the [excise] tax,” comments Megan McArdle.  “Presumably, the unions plan to go back and get their exclusion extended every few years.”  Tyler Cowen agrees with her, commenting that this will “increase the rate of unionization …

Limbaugh stands by his Haiti remarks, tells critical caller she's a ‘bigot’ with ‘tampons in her ears.’  —  Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh controversially said that President Obama was going to try to use the devastating Haitian earthquake to boost his credibility with the …

‘Very angry’ Dem sounds alarm  —  Democrats moved closer to a final deal on health care reform Thursday — and for some vulnerable members, the end can't come soon enough.  —  In an emotional talk with other Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee this week, North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy …

Unions agree to compromise on ‘Cadillac tax’ for healthcare  —  In a ‘milestone’ agreement with the Obama administration, labor leaders back a plan to limit the reach of the tax on high-end health plans and postpone it for union contracts.  —  Reporting from Washington …

Pentagon Report on Fort Hood Shooting Details Failures  —  WASHINGTON — The military's defenses against threats from inside its own ranks are outdated and ineffective, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Monday as he described the findings of an Army review of the Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.

One year out: President Obama's fall  —  What went wrong?  A year ago, he was king of the world.  Now President Obama's approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president's second year.

Testing the Waters: Santorum Makes It Official — By: Kathryn Jean Lopez  —  In a letter that went in the mail yesterday to his PAC, the America's Foundation, Rick Santorum talks about his concerns about Barack Obama's first year of “Change we can't afford.”

The Underlying Tragedy  —  On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California.  Sixty-three people were killed.  This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Black activists sing Reid's praises  —  Senator's re-election event scheduled before brouhaha over ‘Negro dialect’ comment  —  It felt more like a religious revival than a political rally, with shouts of “Amen” filling the air.  A choir of third-graders raised their voices in song before a Baptist preacher led a prayer.