Same-sex marriage has made its way to the West Coast: OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed into law a bill that legalizes gay marriage in Washington state, making it the nation’s seventh to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed. It’s a historic moment, but same-sex couples can’t walk down the aisle just [...]

We may have to deal with the debt ceiling again before the November elections.

Ezra Klein notes that one of the items in the President’s new budget includes giving the U.S. Mint the authority to explore the use of cheaper metals in U.S. coinage. That’s a good thing, because we’re apparently losing money on at least two of them: The Mint’s primary cost driver is the price of metal, [...]

House Republicans are now offering to extend the Payroll Tax Cut without offsetting spending cuts or tax increases, which has been the issue holding up an extension since December: Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Congressional Republicans are offering to drop their demand to finance a 10-month extension of the payroll tax cut with spending reductions, three [...]

Four years ago, Mitt Romney won the Michigan Republican Primary quite handily. It wasn’t really a surprise, of course, since Romney’s father had been Governor there back in the day and Michigan was considered as much “Romney Country” as Massachusetts was even though he hadn’t lived there in many years. According to a new poll [...]

It’s the beginning of the end for Newt Gingrich, but it’s unlikely he’ll recognize that fact.

Buzzfeed’s Matt Stopera posts some Facebook updates from people who, for some reason, could not tell Oprah Winfrey and Whitney Houston apart. This one is may favorite: I’m really not sure what to say.

Newt Gingrich may soon find it very hard to compete against Mitt Romney, or even Rick Santorum, now that the man who was funding his SuperPAC with multimillion dollar donations has decided it’s time to close the checkbook: Newt Gingrich was just days away from the Jan. 31 Florida Republican presidential primary when he told [...]

I wholly agree with James Joyner’s statements earlier today about the general uselessness of any straw poll, including the one conducted annually at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which this year was won by Mitt Romney. Which is why I find Rick Santorum’s whining about the process rather amusing: A groggy Rick Santorum, donning suit [...]

At the very least, nominating Santorum would let the GOP test a hypothesis that’s been debated for years.

If the reaction at this year’s CPAC is any indication, Mitt Romney still has some work to do to seal up his party’s base.

Late yesterday, the nation’s Catholic Bishops came out with a statement that noted at least two strong objections to the revised contraceptive coverage plan unveiled yesterday by the White House: Hours after calling the Obama administration’s contraceptives compromise a “first step,” the Catholic bishops said Friday night they have “two serious objections” to the new [...]

A new poll shows Santorum surging ahead of Mitt Romney nationally

Yesterday, rumors swept the Internet, primarily via Twitter, that the new leader of North Korea had been assassinated in Beijing: The claim that Kim, supreme leader of North Korea since the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December, had died apparently stemmed from a message sent out by a man who works near [...]

Tony Manfred at Business Insider reports on some statistics from the NCAA on the likelihood that a college athlete will become a professional athlete: Even if your kid is good at sports in high school, gets a scholarship, and excels in college, there’s almost no way they are going to go pro. Scott Soshnick of [...]

The Obama Administration’s proposed solution to the impasse over contraceptives is unlikely to end the debate.

There must not be any serious problems left for the Arizona State Legislature to worry about, because they are presently considering a bill that would bar teachers and professors from using bad language: In what has to be the most hilariously unconstitutional piece of legislation that I’ve seen in quite some time, senators in the [...]

Are the American people tuning out of politics altogether?

ABC News’s Jake Tapper is reporting this morning that the Obama Administration will be offering a compromise of some form regarding its controversial new rule requiring employers to provide coverage for contraceptives to their employees: With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance that [...]

William F. Buckley Jr. was once quoted as saying that he’d rather be ruled by the first 400 names in the Boston telephone directory than the faculty at Harvard. Apparently, most Americans feel the same way: The public’s perception of Congress has sunk to yet another new low, with 43 percent of likely voters believing [...]

One analyst sees a way that the current GOP race could indeed lead to a brokered convention.

Andrew Kaczynski at Buzzfeed uncovers this video from 2008 when Rick Santorum not only endorsed Mitt Romney, but campaigned with him: As conservatives gather here at CPAC, it’s a pretty good refection of how much things have changed in four years. Back then, Mitt Romney was the conservative hero fighting against John McCain and Mike [...]

Are culture war issues about to make a comeback in the 2012 campaign?

It was just under a year ago that the last American veteran and the last combat veteran of World War One passed away, and over the weekend that last known veteran died in England at the age of 110: The last veteran of World War I was a waitress, and for 90 years no one [...]

It may be time for Republicans to start worrying about turnout in their primaries. With the exception of the South Carolina primary, voter turnout in all the primary and caucus contests this year has been down from 2008 levels, and yesterday’s numbers were among  the worst of all: Missouri 2008 Turnout —- 588,720 voters 2012 [...]

Yep, more gridlock.

Once again, a government entity thinks the average person is too dumb to take care of themselves.

There are some signs that the Obama Administration may be looking for a way out of the controversy it has found itself in with Catholics and other religious groups: The White House may be open to compromising on a new rule that requires religious schools and hospitals to provide employees with access to free birth [...]

A victory for proponents of same-sex marriage today in the Ninth Circuit.

The Obama Campaign is being criticized for agreeing to play the SuperPAC game like everyone else does.

What may have been the best chance for Democrats to hold on to Ben Nelson’s Senate seat has apparently slipped away: OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Former Sen. Bob Kerrey said Tuesday he will not run for the Nebraska Senate seat he gave up more than a decade ago, shutting down hopes for a bid both [...]

As they did four years, ago the New York Giants will get a parade in New York City today. Some are wondering when Iraq War vets will get theirs.

If the polling is accurate, Rick Santorum may do well in the contests tonight in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado: Rick Santorum could be headed for a big day in today’s contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. Missouri looks like a probable win for Santorum. He’s at 45% there to 32% for Mitt Romney and 19% [...]

Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana had some egg on his face this morning: Meet John Fleming, the unfortunate Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana who made that wonderful and all-too-common mistake of thinking that an Onion article was real and telling his Facebook followers to read it. Fleming’s Facebook status was posted by Literally Unbelievable, a Tumblr that collects images of Facebookers who [...]

For the third year in a row, the Super Bowl was the most-watched television program in history: NEW YORK—For the third consecutive year, the Super Bowl set a record as the most-watched television show in U.S. history. The Nielsen Co. said Monday that an estimated 111.3 million people watched the New York Giants beat the [...]

Was Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad a political message, or just a well done commercial?

Will the Obama Administration’s decision on contraceptive coverage by the Catholic Church have an impact in November?

The NFL and NBC probably thought that hiring a headliner for the halftime show who was born before the Super Bowl even existed would keep the controversy to a minimum, but they were wrong: The NFL and a major television network are apologizing for another Super Bowl halftime show. There was no wardrobe malfunction, nothing [...]

Trying to open a new business can be a massive and costly headache.

I speculated last week that, notwithstanding the American public’s rather obvious war wariness,  making the public case for military action against Iran wouldn’t be all that difficult given the three decades of antipathy between the United States and the Islamic Republic that started with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. A new poll from The Hill would [...]

The Nevada GOP has finally released the final certified results from Saturday’s caucus: (CNN) – Mitt Romney won Saturday’s Nevada caucuses with his highest portion of a state’s vote yet, just over 50%, according to certified results released Monday by the Nevada Republican Party. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who also won the state’s GOP [...]

As long as I can remember, George Will’s response to any question about the Super Bowl on ABC’s This Week has been some variation on pointing out that baseball season is just around the corner. Given that Will has written several books on the game, and has been a regular presence at Nationals games since [...]

Former Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra, now a candidate to replace Debbie Stabenow as one of Michigan’s Senators, apparently thinks it’s a good idea to run this ad during the Super Bowl on Michigan’s NBC affiliates: This ad truly has it all. The racially stereotyped Asian woman speaking accented English, the dumb names, and yet the [...]

There’s no question that Mitt Romney won the Nevada Caucuses last night, but that’s about all we know because the most populous county in the state has only turned in about half of its votes so far: The voting ended half a day ago. The networks have called the race. The GOP presidential candidates have [...]

Last night, we saw the beginning of the end of the Newt Gingrich campaign whether he realizes it or not.

If you can remember back four short weeks ago to just before the Iowa Caucuses, you’ll recall that in late December Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum started coming out of nowhere in Iowa to surpass Newt Gingrich, who had been rising in the polls since early December. Santorum ended up winning the Iowa Caucuses by the [...]

Today’s New York Times is reporting that Sheldon Adelson, who’s given millions of dollars to the pro-Gingrich SuperPAC Winning Our Future, isn’t necessarily wedded to backing the former Speaker forever: LAS VEGAS — Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive keeping Newt Gingrich’s presidential hopes alive, has relayed assurances to Mitt Romney that he will provide [...]

With the attacks on Syrian civilians seemingly getting worse by the day, the United Nations Security Council took up a resolution that would back efforts by the Arab League to bring an end to the crackdown, an effort that collapsed in failure as both Russia and China exercised their veto power: UNITED NATIONS — A [...]

Someone took a clip of a Romney/Gingrich debate exchange, added in a classic comedy routine, and had a little fun:

The tinfoil hat crowd has made its way back into the mainstream.