Politics - Politico

Sen. Joe Lieberman’s threat to filibuster any health care bill with a public option could kill health reform this year — and embolden Democratic challengers who’d like to send him packing in 2012.

If Sarah Palin were running for president, this is where she’d come: The outskirts of a second city in the conservative heartland of Western Michigan, where thousands gathered Wednesday to see her, shake her hand and have her sign their copies of “Going Rogue.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled his $848 billion health reform bill Wednesday to broad support from fellow Democrats — and the move quickly turned up the pressure on the last few wavering moderates to support the plan, which includes a sizable chunk of deficit cutting.

In Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities in Ukraine, American political consultants who worked against one another in Iowa and New Hampshire and then in the general election are facing off again in a somewhat surreal Eastern European replay of the 2008 campaign.

Mounting evidence that independent voters have soured on the Democrats is prompting a debate among party officials about what rhetorical and substantive changes are needed to halt the damage.

House passage of a sweeping anti-abortion amendment has set off a wave of soul-searching and finger-pointing among abortion rights activists — many of whom thought they’d found a safe harbor when Democrats won the White House and big majorities in Congress last year.

Once-potent national security issues, which have taken a back seat to economic and health care concerns in the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections, have suddenly resurfaced to unsettle some of the most closely watched congressional races in the nation.

A provocative interview with Matt Continetti:

BEIJING — Greeting the Japanese emperor at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace last weekend, President Barack Obama bowed so low that he was looking straight at the stone floor. The next day, Obama shook hands with the prime minister of repressive Myanmar during a group meeting. The day after that, the president held a “town hall” with Chinese university students who had been selected by the regime.

Charlie Crist is getting killed by a hug.

Sarah Palin may claim to scorn elites, but her new book will ring familiar to its Beltway readers.

Five months after Sen. John Ensign admitted to having an extramarital affair with a staffer, the scandal is still in the headlines — in large part because the husband of his onetime lover keeps making them.

In a much anticipated interview with television host Oprah Winfrey that aired Monday, Sarah Palin tamped down speculation that she might run for president in 2012 and took shots at CBS News’ Katie Couric, who conducted a series of interviews with the former Alaska governor that seriously damaged Palin’s standing in 2008.

Taxpayers currently provide deep subsidies for health insurance plans that cover abortion — a little-recognized fact responsible for much of the angst over an anti-abortion amendment attached to the House health care bill.

After all the controversy over the public option, people might think that everyone can sign up right away if Congress passes health reform.

First Lady Michelle Obama will take her mentoring program on the road Monday, gathering in Denver, Col., with cabinet members, A-list celebrities and local officials to highlight the need for hands-on involvement in young women's lives.

Top industry executives piled into Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters over the weekend to hear California’s Barbara Boxer, New Mexico’s Jeff Bingaman and other Democratic senators discuss some of the most pressing policy issues on Capitol Hill.

SHANGHAI, China – President Barack Obama made no effort to conceal his irritation when his press corps used the first question of his maiden Far East trip to ask what was taking him so long on Afghanistan.

Hanging in the balance are millions of Catholic swing voters who moved decisively to the Democrats in 2008 and who could shift away just as readily in 2010.

Sarah Palin’s new book isn’t even on shelves, but it's already a phenomenon. 

Greg Craig said Friday that he was not asked to step down as White House counsel and that his decision was unrelated to the difficulties in closing Guantanamo Bay prison or other policy issues.

Top aides to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign hit back at Sarah Palin Friday and Saturday, calling the former vice presidential nominee’s soon-to-be-released book “revisionist and self serving” “fiction.”

Incoming White House counsel Bob Bauer is widely respected as a skilled and pugnacious lawyer and has the unquestioned trust of President Barack Obama’s inner circle and a deep knowledge of the ways of Washington.

President Barack Obama plans to announce in next year's State of the Union address that he wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 – and will downplay other new domestic spending beyond jobs programs, according to top aides involved in the planning.

President Barack Obama announced on Friday that White House counsel Greg Craig will resign and named as his replacement Robert Bauer, a Democratic election lawyer who also has served as Obama’s personal lawyer.

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska — President Barack Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan will include a plan for “how we’re going to get folks out” after a secure environment can be passed to the Afghan government, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

The Republican National Committee will no longer offer employees an insurance plan that covers abortion after POLITICO reported Thursday that the anti-abortion RNC's policy has covered the procedure since 1991.

As rival cable networks cash in on commentary, CNN is betting big on straight news.