House Republican leaders turn to moderate Democrats for budget deal  —  Having difficulty finding consensus within their own ranks, House Republican leaders have begun courting moderate Democrats on several key fiscal issues, including a deal to avoid a government shutdown at the end of next week.

Obama Gets Lowest Approval, Reelect Score Ever, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; More Voters Oppose U.S. Involvement In Libya  —  American voters disapprove 48 - 42 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing and say 50 - 41 percent he does not deserve to be re-elected in 2012 …

Washington in Fierce Debate on Arming Libyan Rebels  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is engaged in a fierce debate over whether to supply weapons to the rebels in Libya, senior officials said on Tuesday, with some fearful that providing arms would deepen American involvement …

Why I Won't Vote to Raise the Debt Limit  —  Everyone in Washington knows how to cut spending.  The time to start is now.  —  Americans have built the single greatest nation in all of human history.  But America's exceptionalism was not preordained.  Every generation has had to confront …

Poll: Americans cooling on tea party  —  The tea party might be running out of steam.  —  The approval rating for the 2-year-old movement fell to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it's been since CNN first polled on the tea party in January 2010.

Obama Sets Goal of One-Third Cut in Oil Imports  —  WASHINGTON — With gasoline prices rising, oil supplies from the Middle East pinched by political upheaval and growing calls in Congress for expanded domestic oil and gas production, President Obama on Wednesday will set a goal …

Coburn spars with Norquist over tax breaks for ethanol  —  Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ripped conservative activist Grover Norquist on Tuesday for defending tax breaks that benefit special interest groups.  —  In a letter to Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform …

On Batsignals and Media Matters' Tax Exempt Status  —  While everyone is having a good laugh at Media Matters this morning, something in Howard Kurtz's article struck me as odd.  In “Partisan Organizations Use Sound Bite Warfare”, Kurtz might have provided yet another reason why Media Matters 501(c)(3) status should be re-evaluated.

Michael Barone on Wisconsin: Has the tea party given up?  —  It's not just Wisconsin.  John Kasich in Ohio and Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania have seen their ratings sour too.  But with Walker's polls now negative and the state supreme court election next week looking like a bellwether …

Judge again blocks GOP collective-bargaining plan  —  But Van Hollen assistant says law is in effect  —  By Patrick Marley, Bill Glauber and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison - For the second time in less than two weeks, a Dane County judge Tuesday issued an order blocking …

Man who attempted to assassinate Reagan wants more visits to Williamsburg  —  John Hinckley Jr. is petitioning for more unsupervised visits with family in Kingsmill  —  The accusation of Ronald Reagan's youngest daughter seems prophetic after Tuesday's federal court filing on behalf of John Hinckley Jr.

Schultz: ‘Are You With The Terrorists, Or Are You With The President Of The United States?’  —  What's next: MSNBC hawking “America: Love It Or Leave It” bumper stickers?  —  The new fashion among the liberal network's anchors is to accuse critics of President Obama's Libya policy of being unpatriotic.

American Embarrassment  —  It is always an education to watch our American writhings from overseas.  It is particularly excrutiating watching the Republican Party presidential candidates who, on a daily basis, pronounce some ignorant racist or irreligious twaddle...which—amazingly enough—manages to be heard around the world.

DOMA And Bi-National Couples, Ctd  —  The good news gets dashed: … Dan Savage is crushed.  I am too - for more personal reasons, of course.  Look at this from a heterosexual female point of view.  Let's say you meet and fall in love with a man here on a work or student visa.

On NBC, the missing story about parent company General Electric  —  Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press - The story that General Electric did not pay federal taxes last year was widely reported everywhere but NBC.  —  It's the kind of accountability journalism that makes readers raise an eyebrow …

Did Obama Administration Play Favorites With Energy Loans?  —  Green Firms Financed By Obama Fundraiser Steve Westly Score Millions in Federal Loans  —  When the White House announced the federal government would loan $465 million to Tesla, a California start-up company with plans to develop …

GOP frosh to Harry Reid: You've failed  —  Freshman House GOP members will send a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday ratcheting up the pressure to pass a continuing resolution for the remainder of the fiscal year that “makes reasonable, responsible spending cuts”— and promise to protest daily until he does.

Justice Antonin Scalia ticketed for GW Parkway fender-bender; will he take it to court?  —  Now here's a date in traffic court we'd like to attend: In the matter of Antonin Scalia and the George Washington Parkway pileup.  —  The Supreme Court justice was ticketed early Tuesday for his role in a four-car fender-bender.

Threats Claim Nuclear Bombs Hidden All Over U.S.  —  CHICAGO (CBS 2) - The threats came in the mail and to date, there have been 25 letters that warn of nuclear bombs destroying America.  —  People who got them called the FBI and CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman learned, the Bureau's Chicago office is leading the investigation.

Looking for Luck in Libya  —  There is an old saying in the Middle East that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.  That thought came to my mind as I listened to President Obama trying to explain the intervention of America and its allies in Libya — and I don't say that as criticism.

Why We're Fasting  —  I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry.  —  By doing so, I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living.

Where the Bailout Went Wrong  —  TWO and a half years ago, Congress passed the legislation that bailed out the country's banks.  The government has declared its mission accomplished, calling the program remarkably effective “by any objective measure.”  On my last day as the special inspector general …

Conservatives take on Palin for government-subsidized reality show, Palin calls criticism ‘ludicrous’  —  The company that produced Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's TLC reality show, “Sarah Palin's Alaska,” received $1.2 million in state tax credits for filming in Alaska through …