Evan Bayh: An ordinary politician  —  My impression of Evan Bayh was that he was a major deficit hypocrite.  Despite spending all his time talking about the need to reduce spending, he'd voted for all the major spending increases in recent years.  When I looked into it, that wasn't true …

52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection  —  52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll.  —  44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority …

Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right  —  SANDPOINT, Idaho — Pam Stout has not always lived in fear of her government.  She remembers her years working in federal housing programs, watching government lift struggling families with job training and education.

4 Dem Senators Pressure Reid to Use Reconciliation for Public Option  —  Posted by Stephanie Condon Four Democratic senators, including two facing potentially challenging election campaigns this year, are asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation, a procedural maneuver requiring …

Scalia: “There Is No Right to Secede”  —  The right of a state to secede from the nation is way outside my personal injury wheelhouse.  But it has become a source of conversation on professorial and political blogs, and the concept has generated interest from the Tea Party movement.

Paterson Aide's Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny  —  David W. Johnson has worked for Gov. David A. Paterson for much of his adult life.  He began as a young, ambitious intern from Harlem when Mr. Paterson was a state legislator.  He rose to be Mr. Paterson's driver, serving as a kind of protector and scheduler.

Bill Keller Explains Why The New York Times Held the Story of Captured Taliban Commander: Transcript  —  HEADLEE: So explain the delay, the White House called you and asked you not to print the story?  —  KELLER: Well, actually, we called them, Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins had the story pretty …

Obama's disco-era jobs bill  —  WASHINGTON (Fortune) — The ghost of Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency is hovering over President Obama as the Democrats try to pass a jobs bill in time for this year's elections.  So why is the centerpiece of the measure — a tax break for companies that make new hires …

BROWNS PROPOSE GAME WITH OBAMA  —  Hoops for Haiti, featuring President Barack Obama and Ayla Brown?  Maybe.  AP photo composite by POLITICO  —  Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his daughter, Ayla, say they're serious about their proposal to play hoops with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Amy Bishop was charged with assault in 2002 IHOP dispute  —  In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.

U.S. Backs Construction of Reactors  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic audience of union officials in Lanham, Md., on Tuesday, underscored his embrace of nuclear power as a clean energy source, announcing that the Energy Department had approved financial help …

Keith Olbermann Defends MSNBC Against Charges Of Lack Of Diversity  —  Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night on his MSNBC show was about the undertones of racism within the Tea Party movement, and like he often does, he posted a portion on his Daily Kos blog.

Foreign demand for Teasury securities falls  —  Foreign demand for US Treasury securities falls by record amount as China reduces holdings  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The government said Tuesday that foreign demand for U.S. Treasury securities fell by the largest amount on record in December …

Obama Selects Heads of His Deficit Panel  —  President Obama is going to name Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, as the co-chairmen of a bipartisan commission to recommend how to reduce high deficits …

McCain race catnip to talk show titans  —  Early polls suggest Arizona Sen. John McCain leads former Rep. J.D. Hayworth by a healthy margin in the GOP primary.  Among conservative radio talk show hosts, however, McCain is losing by a landslide.  —  As McCain gears up for a vigorous challenge …

Another case of TSA overkill  —  Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.  —  Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

What's Obama's beef with India?  —  It's easy to figure out why President Obama has little use for Israel and England.  Israel is the bete noir of most contemporary left-liberals and England was the colonial overlord of Kenya.  —  But what has Obama got against India?

Kennedy Miniseries Stirs Controversy  —  A new mini-series about John F. Kennedy's presidency that is being prepared by the History channel does not yet have a cast or a premiere date.  Not a frame of footage has been shot.  It does, however, have prominent critics who want it brought to a halt.

U.S. netminders told to ditch helmet slogans  —  VANCOUVER (Reuters) - U.S. netminder Jonathan Quick will be ordered to remove the slogan ‘Support Our Troops’ from his helmet for contravening Olympic rules on political propaganda, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) said on Monday.

Oh, Canada for HRC if Pres. Palin?  —  From NBC's Courtney KubeSecretary of State Hillary Clinton could not escape U.S. politics during her trip to Saudi Arabia.  Early this morning during a town hall meeting with students at Dar Al Hekma College, a student asked Clinton if she thinks Sarah Palin …

Exxon Hits Peak Oil... Reserves  —  Exxon Mobil (XOM) announced today that in 2009 the company's proven reserves increased by 133% of the amount of oil produced.  —  Exxon now has 23.3 billion oil-equivalent-barrels of reserves comprised of about half liquids and half gas.