Politics - Politico

A week after President Barack Obama issued new orders for the war in Afghanistan, the White House is retroactively pulling away the curtain in front of his decision-making process, dispatching top officials to the Sunday shows to discuss it and offering top newspaper reports details for tick-tocks. Here’s what we know about his administration and war plan that we didn't know seven days ago: Full Story »

Senate Democrats in search of a health reform compromise Sunday zeroed in on a new alternative to a government-run insurance plan — signaling that the chances a final bill will include a pure public option are diminishing. Full Story »

A long reconstruction of President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan “surge” deliberations, splashed on the front page of Friday’s Los Angeles Times, featured the sort of journalistic candy that is the rarest treat on the White House beat: a behind-the-scenes anecdote (from the Situation Room, no less) – with an actual quote from the president. Full Story »

No one doubts that George Stephanopoulos can rise before dawn, read all the major papers, and grill Robert Gibbs at the top of the 7 a.m. hour. Full Story »

A series of embarrassing e-mails stolen from a British climate research center last month has wreaked havoc in the obscure academic circles of climate science. Full Story »

To hear the talk at the White House jobs summit, President Barack Obama has dozens of job-creating ideas to pick from when he sketches out his plan in a speech Tuesday. Full Story »

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Saturday dismissed calls for the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate his recommendation that the White House consider his girlfriend for a top federal prosecutor’s position in Montana. Full Story »

President Barack Obama will meet Sunday with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill, as a group of moderate and liberal senators weighed a new public option compromise in hopes of striking a deal by early in the week. Full Story »

For years a certain strain of conservative thought has held that there was one sure hedge against economic depression, civil disorder and liberal rule – gold. Now that belief has led to a kind of harmonic convergence between ideology and commerce. Full Story »

President Barack Obama is heating up his efforts on climate change, with decisions that have some Democrats in Congress starting to sweat. Full Story »