SEC Said to Vote 3-2 to Sue Goldman Sachs Over CDOs  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission split 3-2 along party lines to approve an enforcement case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to two people with knowledge of the vote.  —  SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro sided …

Romney Backs Rubio, Says Education Veto Was the Last Straw [Robert Costa]  —  Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, is in Tampa today to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, a former Florida house speaker.  In a joint interview …

This Is Apple's Next iPhone  —  You are looking at Apple's next iPhone.  It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS.  We got it.  We disassembled it.  It's the real thing, and here are all the details.  —  While Apple may tinker with the final packaging …

Tancredo: Send Obama ‘back’ to Kenya  —  Former congressman Tom Tancredo's speech at the National Tea Party was a misstep that gave organizers their only lasting, negative coverage.  At a Sunday afternoon tea party rally in Greenville, S.C., where he was the keynote speaker, Tancredo stepped in it again.

Top GOP Officials Writing Off Crist  —  Top GOP officials in DC now believe it is a virtual certainty that FL Gov. Charlie Crist (R) will bolt the GOP and run instead as an independent, sources tell Hotline OnCall.  —  Over the weekend, Crist pulled TV advertisements that had been running in key markets …

THE THEOCRATIC WING OF THE GOP.... A certain former half-term governor appears to be drifting even further away from the American mainstream.  Over the weekend, appearing at an evangelical Christian women's conference in Louisville, Sarah Palin rejected the very idea of separation of church and state …

Tea partiers in two camps: Palin vs. Paul  —  Tea party activists are divided roughly into two camps, according to a new POLITICO/TargetPoint poll: one that's libertarian-minded and largely indifferent to hot-button values issues and another that's culturally conservative and equally concerned about social and fiscal issues.

It's the demand, stupid  —  Christina Romer remembers the first time she really had to walk Barack Obama through the scope of the mounting recession.  “As I was briefing the President-Elect by phone, I found myself saying, ‘I am so sorry, the numbers are horrible.’ The President-Elect replied, 'It's not your fault.

Senate committee subpoenas gov't over Fort Hood shooting  —  “The purpose of the Committee's investigation . . . is to answer questions that are critical to our government's ability to counter homegrown terrorism,” Sens. Lieberman and Collins wrote in a letter accompanying the subpoenas. .

LEAVE THE 19TH AMENDMENT ALONE.... I like to think I can take a joke, and appreciate political commentary intended as humor, but this item from Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wasn't amusing.  The headline read, “Time to repeal the 19th Amendment?”

Top Qaeda Leaders in Iraq Killed in Raid  —  BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi intelligence officers have located and killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced on Monday.  —  Mr. Maliki said the intelligence team also killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi …

An alarming outbreak of ‘regime’ amnesia  —  Time's Joe Klein got some attention over the weekend when he said, on “The Chris Matthews Show,” that statements from Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are “right up close to being seditious.”  What received less attention was the statement immediately following Klein's …

North Carolina Democrats' votes against health care push labor to form party  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — A political rebellion is brewing inside an old funeral home near the state Capitol here.  Frustrated liberals and labor organizers are taking aim at the Democratic Party, rushing to gather enough signatures …

The Obama Effect  —  One argument many of us made in favor of the election of Barack Obama was that he would instantly help the US recover from its nadir of global reputation in the Bush-Cheney pre-emptive war-and-torture era.  No, I sure didn't argue that this would change everything overnight …

The Beholden State  —  How public-sector unions broke California  —  The camera focuses on an official of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California's largest public-employee union, sitting in a legislative chamber and speaking into a microphone.

Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor  —  The People and Their Government  —  By almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.  A new Pew Research Center survey finds a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government …

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests  —  Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, a BBC World Service poll suggests.  —  For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative.

Secret prison revealed in Baghdad  —  Forces under the office of Prime Minister Maliki held hundreds of Sunni men at the facility.  The U.S. fears that the news will stoke instability.  —  Reporting from Baghdad  —  Hundreds of Sunni men disappeared for months into a secret Baghdad prison under …

Militia movement will be packing heat at rally on the Potomac  —  Daniel Almond, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, is ready to “muster outside D.C.” on Monday with several dozen other self-proclaimed patriots, all of them armed.  They intend to make history as the first people to take their guns …

Iran unveils air defense system as U.S. defends policy  —  At Iran's annual Army Day parade, various air defense and missile systems are displayed and touted.  U.S. officials, responding to a leaked memo, say Iran policy is not being reassessed.  —  Iranian navy troops march during …

Hillary's second husband  —  Bill Clinton, speaking to NBC, contemplates the notion of appointing Hillary to the Court:  —  I think she'd be a great Supreme Court judge.  But I think she probably thinks that it'd be better if he appointed somebody younger.  Although if you look, I mean, my mother-in-law's 91.

FBI says 66-year-old man arrested after March threat against Rep. Brown-Waite  —  A 66-year-old man was arrested Sunday for threatening Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) last month, the FBI said.  —  The man, Erik Lawrence Pidrman, was arrested by FBI and local law enforcement agents Sunday afternoon.

Iranian cleric: Promiscuous women cause quakes  —  BEIRUT - A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear immodest clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.  —  Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation …

Elena Kagan's Achilles' Heel  —  Hungry Beast Giving Beast Women in the World  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Obama's potential Supreme Court pick banned military recruiting at Harvard Law.  Peter Beinart on how that stance has damaged liberals—and why conservatives are right to bash her for it.

McCain tacks right on immigration  —  Sen. John McCain has endorsed a tough Arizona anti-immigration bill that will let police arrest people who aren't carrying identification, the latest move in McCain's rightward shift in advance of a tough Republican Senate primary this summer.