Democrats brace for end of Virginia winning streak

The Democrats' decade-long push into Virginia — a national bragging point that they were moving into the once-solid Republican South — may be coming to an end. Polls suggest that the GOP could win the Virginia governor's office on Nov. 3, a year after Barack Obama carried the state.

California's GOP governor candidates have contributed to Democratic campaigns

Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner and Tom Campbell constitute the entire GOP gubernatorial field to become California's next governor. In the past, all three have made contributions to Democratic candidates, a fact that has some Republicans wondering where their candidates' loyalties really lie.

Senators ask Obama to review personality-disorder discharges

At issue is whether the Pentagon is avoiding treating soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder by claiming they had a personality disorder before they were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan and discharging them from the military. Four senators wrote Obama this week, remding him that as a senator he fought for better mental-health care for troops.

S.C. GOP chairmen apologize for using Jewish stereotype

Two county Republican Party chairmen have apologized for using a Jewish stereotype in a newspaper column, and S.C. GOP Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd said that's enough for the two leaders to keep their positions. Edwin O. Merwin Jr. and James S. Ulmer Jr. were writing to defend U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint's opposition to congressional earmarks.

Democrats' ethics problems spark GOP election hopes

New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, the powerful chairman of the tax-writing House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee, is feeling the heat from Republican efforts to make him a symbol of Democratic Party ethical wrongdoing, an issue that the GOP hopes will help it regain a sizeable number of seats in next year's mid-terms elections.

No yelling this time, but GOP foes mock Obama's Nobel win

One month to the day after Republican Rep. Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" his South Carolina GOP colleagues Friday mocked President Barack Obama for winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Sen. Lindsey Graham quipped: "It was probably an award for not being George W. Bush."

In GOP race to replace Brownback, U.S. Rep. Moran leads

A new Survey USA poll shows Rep. Jerry Moran pulling ahead of Rep. Todd Tiahrt in the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Kansas.

Obama orders feds to cut energy use, emissions

President Barack Obama on Monday ordered the federal government -- the nation's largest energy user -- to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce its impact on the environment. Obama's edict is the first time a president is requiring the federal agencies to reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Senate health care bill may be finished, but divisions remain

Both houses of Congress are poised to start a historic debate on sweeping legislation to overhaul America's health care system, yet despite months of committee deliberations, some major issues remain unsettled. The Senate Finance Committee, set for final approval of its proposal, has exposed sharp divisions among Democrats about the extent of government involvement in health insurance and how to pay for any changes; Republicans are all but universally opposed to the Democrats' terms.

Now even an Olympics bid becomes fodder to knock Obama

When President Barack Obama decided to go to Denmark, he hoped to win international support Friday for the U.S. bid for the 2016 Olympics to be in Chicago. The moment he signed on, however, he also generated a storm of criticism from the right at home.

Michael Moore tells Democrats: 'Find your spine' on health care

Sans video camera, filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday turned his megaphone on the current health care system and those Blue Dog Democrats he claims are "dogging" the health care debate.

GOP equates Democrat's words to Wilson's, demands apology

A freshman Democratic congressman from Florida who said on the floor of the House of Representatives that Republicans want Americans to "die quickly" as part of their health care plan defiantly refused Wednesday to apologize to GOP lawmakers, who claim that his comments breached House rules.

80 percent agreement on health care? No way that's true

President Barack Obama has said this repeatedly: Members of Congress agree on "about 80 percent of what needs to be done" to overhaul America's health care system. Democratic congressional leaders have echoed that claim. No one, however, can offer specifics about what that 80 percent entails.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has a big following on Twitter

If you're not on Twitter, you probably missing some details of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's life. Since joining the social networking site last year, the governor has drawn 1.15 million followers. Schwarzenegger now ranks fourth in the Twitter world among politicians, after President Barack Obama, former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain.

Kansas Sen. Brownback accused of hypocrisy over stimulus project

Democratic leaders in the Kansas Legislature are accusing U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback of hypocrisy over federal economic-stimulus spending for a rail spur, claiming he is trying to take credit for something he opposed. The funding for the rail spur was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill passed in February and backed mainly by President Obama and congressional Democrats. Brownback voted against the bill and spoke in opposition to it in the Senate.

Bush enjoys being 'retired guy'

Former President George W. Bush just wants to be a good neighbor and contribute to his community. Eight months after he and his wife, Laura, traded the White House for a home in Dallas' Preston Hollow neighborhood, Bush is working on memoirs, planning a presidential library and enjoying a less hectic life. His new title, he says, is "retired guy."

Many in S.C. think Sanford should quit

South Carolina residents agree on one thing about Gov. Mark Sanford — they are tired of the speculation about the embattled governor's future. In more than two dozen interviews conducted last week, nearly all of those asked condemned Sanford's actions, and a majority said he should resign. But removing the governor is not nearly so popular an option.

Wilson's shout reopens South Carolina's racial wounds

South Carolina's bitter history of racial politics has drawn national attention before, from Strom Thurmond's segregationist White House run in 1948 and the black daughter he never acknowledged to the Confederate flag flying at the statehouse and Bob Jones University's ban on interracial dating.

There's no denying Obama's race plays a role in protests

While protests focusing on the president are an occupational hazard of living in the White House, some of the criticism of Obama has the unmistakable stench of racism. For example, a recent poster making the rounds shows Obama outfitted in full African witch doctor gear, complete with headdress, above the words "OBAMACARE coming to a clinic near you." But would it have been different had Hillary Clinton won?