RNC fires staffer behind controversy  —  A Republican National Committee staffer who accompanied a group of young donors to a bondage-themed West Hollywood club and then expensed the nearly $2,000 tab has been fired by the committee, POLITICO has learned.  —  RNC chief of staff Ken McKay announced …

Rove Gets Branded ‘War Criminal’ At Book Signing  —  BEVERLY HILLS (CBS) ― About 100 fans came out to hear Karl Rove at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills Monday night to discuss his book “Courage and Consequences: My Life As a Conservative In The Fight,” — but the fight wasn't contained to his book.

CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings  —  CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year.  —  The trend in news ratings for the first three months of this year …

Insurance industry agrees to fix kids coverage gap  —  WASHINGTON — After battling President Barack Obama's health care overhaul the better part of a year, the insurance industry said Monday it won't try to block his efforts to fix a potentially embarrassing glitch in the new law.

Beck guest host Doc Thompson: Tanning salon tax makes health care reform a ‘racist law.’  —  The recently passed health care reform act includes a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning salons to help pay for expanded insurance coverage for millions of Americans.  Radio host Doc Thompson …

The Hutaree militia and the rising risk of far-right violence  —  The arrests of members of a Michigan-based “Christian” militia group should convince doubters that there is good reason to worry about right-wing, anti-government extremism — and potential violence — in the Age of Obama.

Obama Gets Aggressive  —  White House Seeks to Rally Supporters With Aggressive Tone Against Opponents  —  President Barack Obama, after a year of fitfully searching for compromise, is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters …

Marine's father ordered to pay Westboro's court costs  —  Church members had conducted anti-gay protests at the funeral of Marine who died in Iraq  —  From Baltimore Sun staff and wire reports  —  Lawyers for the father of a Marine who died in Iraq and whose funeral was picketed …

“How Should Conservatives Deal with the Left's Disrespect and Lack of Empathy?”  [UPDATED]  —  Dr. Helen: … [my emphasis]  —  Good stuff.  And not just because some of it sounds eerily familiar.  —  Of course, to be fair, the “right” exhibits its share of intolerance — which …

The Sandra Bullock Trade  —  Two things happened to Sandra Bullock this month.  First, she won an Academy Award for best actress.  Then came the news reports claiming that her husband is an adulterous jerk.  So the philosophic question of the day is: Would you take that as a deal?

Census Returns Way Down in Republican Parts of Texas  —  File this under “problems that we really should have seen coming”: conservatives, egged on by the likes of Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), declining to return census forms and possibly shrinking the political power of states like Texas.

Health care law too costly, most say  —  Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government's role in health care too far, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, underscoring an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats.

Lo, the Mideast Moves  —  BRUSSELS — The passage of the U.S. health care bill is a major foreign policy victory for President Barack Obama.  —  It empowers him by demonstrating his ability to deliver.  Nowhere is that more important than in the Middle East.

Large Hadron Collider Finally Smashing Properly  —  PASADENA, Calif. — After 16 years and $10 billion — and a long morning of electrical groaning and sweating — there was joy in the meadows and tunnels of the Swiss-French countryside Tuesday: the world's biggest physics machine …

Searchlight vs. L.A.: Rival Rallies Reveal Stark Right/Left Divide  —  On March 27, 2010, thousands of people gathered in the small town of Searchlight, Nevada, for a political rally.  —  Just 250 miles away and seven days earlier, there was another political rally of similar size in Los Angeles on March 20, 2010.

McCain: Obama could cave and repeal healthcare  —  Political pressure might become so intense that President Obama would agree to repeal major portions of the healthcare bill he signed into law recently, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said today.  —  Even if Republicans win Congress in 2010 …

Henry Waxman's War on Accounting  —  Accounting basics: when a company experiences what accountants call “a material adverse impact” on its expected future earnings, and those changes affect an item that is already on the balance sheet, the company is required to record the negative impact …

Pro-Life Democrats Who Switched Vote for Health Bill Request Billions in Earmarks  —  The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks — and one watchdog group wants …

Obama: Tea Party features ‘core group’ against him  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he believes the Tea Party is built around a “core group” of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist.  —  But beyond that, Obama tells NBC he recognizes the movement involves …

GOP senators say they can work with Dems despite healthcare battle  —  Republican senators say they can work with Democrats, despite dire predictions that the healthcare fight would make cooperation impossible.  —  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned that using reconciliation to block …

Health premiums could rise 17 pct for young adults  —  CHICAGO — Under the health care overhaul, young adults who buy their own insurance will carry a heavier burden of the medical costs of older Americans — a shift expected to raise insurance premiums for young people when the plan takes full effect.

Bud Day endorses Charlie Crist  —  Not everyone in Northwest Florida plans to vote for Marco Rubio, a U.S. Senate candidate who has become the darling of conservative Republicans across the state.  —  Col. Bud Day, Fort Walton Beach attorney and Medal of Honor winner, has publicly endorsed …

Half of Commercial Mortgages to Be Underwater: Warren  —  By the end of 2010, about half of all commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater, said Elizabeth Warren, chairperson of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, in a wide-ranging interview on Monday.

SARKOZY ON HEALTH CARE DEBATE: 'IT'S DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE'.... French President Nicolas Sarkozy, once a European darling to American conservatives, has been keeping an eye on the U.S. debate over health care.  Speaking at Columbia University yesterday, the French leader expressed some astonishment at what he saw.

Companies Push to Repeal Provision of Health Reform  —  An association representing 300 large corporations urged President Obama and Congress on Monday to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul that prompted AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies to announce substantial charges for the current quarter.