All Politics
- Michelle Obama drops Christmas gift hint. Should Barack buy it?OK, it's a tough one. Michelle Obama is on record asking for Christmas pajamas at an event with kids. The president says he worries about buying her clothes. It could be worse, like LBJ's gift to the pope.
- Hillary Clinton 2016: Does timing of announcement matter?Hillary Rodham Clinton can wait until spring, as she is reportedly planning, because she's universally known and can raise money quickly. But waiting could mean growing energy on the left for Elizabeth Warren.
- Why three Obama nominees are so controversialA procedural maneuver by two tea party senators gives 23 Obama nominees, some highly controversial, an unexpected chance for confirmation in the last hours of the 113th Congress.聽
- Is Elizabeth Warren really truly not running for president?Elizabeth Warren said again on Monday that she's not running, emphatically. Lots of liberal Democrats hope she changes her mind. But unless Hillary Clinton defies expectation and declines to run, that's highly unlikely.
- Three reasons why Republicans don't want Jeb Bush in 2016Will Jeb Bush run for president in 2016? Some conservatives hope that he won't because he's too "liberal" on some key issues.聽
- Torture: Dick Cheney all in on 'enhanced interrogation'On 鈥淢eet the Press鈥 Sunday, former Vice President Dick Cheney wouldn鈥檛 budge on the Bush administration鈥檚 program of what a Senate report says was torture of terrorist suspects. 鈥淚 would do it again in a minute,鈥 he said.
- Who is the architect of Obamacare? Well, we know who isn't.MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, who has said some controversial things about Obamacare, also said he isn't the author of the law. But folks like him 鈥 not legislators 鈥 are just the sorts of people who do write laws.
- Why the terrible, awful, nobody-likes-it spending bill could be a good thingThe Senate passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill Saturday, avoiding a government shutdown. Both liberals and conservatives dislike the bill, but that could be its charm.
- Republicans divided over Senate torture report. Dick Cheney in the spotlightSupport for the Senate Intelligence Committee report on harsh interrogation of terrorist suspects has divided mostly along party lines. But within both parties there are dissenting voices as well.
- Obama bucks fellow Democrats: A sign of things to come?President Obama's compromise with Republicans on the budget infuriated liberal Democrats. But this could be the new reality as Republicans take over Capitol Hill.
- Federal budget deal for 2015: What's in it for you?Here are 12 ways that the spending provisions and 'riders' in the budget bill, passed Thursday by the House, affect many Americans.
- Monitor BreakfastWhy House Intel chairman disagrees with CIA chief on interrogation methodsHouse Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers told reporters at a Monitor-hosted breakfast that the efficacy of torture is both knowable and proven.
- Spending bill fallout: Elizabeth Warren now Ted Cruz of the left?Elizabeth Warren defied leaders of the Democratic party by lobbying against the spending bill over one specific principle objection 鈥 a move pundits are comparing to Ted Cruz's rogue filibuster of Obamacare funding.聽
- What messy budget vote says about Boehner's ability to control his caucusThe $1.1 trillion spending bill narrowly passed 219 to 206 Thursday night, after rebellious hard-liners on the right and angry liberals on the left fought all the way to a nail-biting, if successful, conclusion.
- Congress鈥檚 real reason for passing a budget? The smell of 'jet fumes''Jet fumes' is shorthand for lawmakers鈥 fierce desire to get to D.C.-area airports. It often drives legislative business 鈥 and that鈥檚 not a good trend, a former senator says.
- Budget bill: Why one Wall Street provision stirs the deepest controversyThe House and Senate are scheduled to vote on a proposed $1.1 trillion budget bill Thursday, just hours before the deadline.
- Most millionaires want Hillary Clinton for president. Why that's bad news for herHillary Clinton is the top 2016 president of choice for American millionaires, according to a new CNBC survey. The runner-ups?聽Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
- Torture: John McCain鈥檚 unique, brutal perspectiveSen. John McCain, who spent more than five years as a POW in North Vietnam, where he was tortured, continues to oppose 'enhanced interrogation' as detailed this week in the report by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Not many fellow Republicans agree with him.
- In a first, more Americans support gun rights than gun control, poll findsBy a margin of 52 percent to 46 percent, Americans say protecting gun rights is more important than gun control, according to the Pew Research Center. Opinion has shifted markedly since the Sandy Hook massacre two years ago.
- Why Dick Cheney calls the CIA torture report 'a bunch of hooey'聽Former Vice President Dick Cheney, an advocate of 'enhanced interrogation' by the CIA, also said that the Senate report's聽conclusion that the CIA misled the White House about its interrogation techniques 'is just a crock.'