From The Heritage Foundation: A lifetime appointment to the federal bench is now selling for $700,000. At least that was the cost for Rhode Island judicial nominee Jack McConnell, who has donated that sum of money to Democrats in the two decades before President Obama tapped him for federal district court. McConnell faces a Senate confirmation vote [...]

From NewsMax.com: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told White House staffers Wednesday morning that he will be leaving the administration and stepping down from his post as President Barack Obama’s top spokesman. According to CNN.com, Gibbs will exit the White House following the president’s State of the Union address to Congress later this month. [...]

From CNSNews.com: President Barack Obama bypassed the Senate Wednesday to make six recess appointments, including a deputy attorney general whose links to the insurance giant American International Group had stalled his confirmation. Obama first nominated James Cole to the No. 2 Justice Department post in May. But Republican lawmakers blocked his confirmation in part because [...]

From NewsMax.com: After a monthslong blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama’s noncontroversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others, according to officials familiar with the deal. Among the [...]

From CNS News: After a monthslong blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama’s non-controversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others, according to officials familiar with the deal. Among [...]

From Michelle Malkin: We’re all pretty much “livin’ on a prayer” these days, so I guess this is a good fit: Actor. Poet. Musician. Performer. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi can now add one more title to his impressive resume: White House appointee. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the White House Council [...]

From CNSNews.com: In an unusual argument from a Democratic administration, the director of President Obama’s National Economic Council, Larry Summers, contended Wednesday that a deal with Congressional leaders to keep taxes low for another two years will not only jumpstart the economy but increase government revenue in the long run. Summers said failure to pass [...]

From Michelle Malkin: My column today shines light on the autocratic agenda of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Readers of Culture of Corruption already know all about this Chicago crony porker’s ties to Rahm Emanuel, Richard Daley, Rod Blagojevich, and Tony Rezko. For a trenchant look at LaHood’s penchant for government coercion and central planning, see chapter one [...]

From Michelle Malkin: My column today is a rejoinder to Maureen Dowd’s plaintive wail aboutRepublican Mean Girls in the NY Times on Sunday. I’ll take a GOP mama grizzly who wants government to leave you alone over a Democrat bully bureaucrat any day. As yesterday’s failed attacks on Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, and Sharron Angle showed, the ladies [...]

From CNSNews.com: Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) seemed to take President Barack Obama head on during a 37-minute self-defense speech on the House floor Tuesday. Meanwhile, the White House backed away Tuesday from what seems to be Obama’s call for Rangel to resign from Congress. “If I can’t get my dignity back here, then fire [...]

From The Heritage Foundation: According to reports, Christina Romer, Chairman of the President’s Council of Economics Advisers (CEA) is calling it quits.  Why does this matter? Another ignored economist leaves Washington with a slightly tattered professional reputation to be received joyously back in the arms of her colleagues in academe having served in a glorious cause—pass [...]

From CNSNews.com: Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said there is “all kinds of pressure” by the Democratic Caucus on Committee Chairman Max Baucus not to call in President Obama’s recess-appointee to run Medicare and Medicaid, Dr. Donald Berwick, for hearings, which are constitutionally mandated. Hatch added that there “must [...]

From World Net Daily: You’ve seen the reports about Van Jones, President Obama’s onetime “green jobs czar,” and Cass Sunstein, his equally volatile “regulatory czar,” and Fox News show host Glenn Beck has put together a list of dozens of such appointees. Now here’s the newest White House promotion: “Health food czar” Sam Kass. “In [...]

From NewsMax.com: Fox News commentator and author Dick Morris is blasting President Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald M. Berwick to head Medicare and Medicaid, saying it will “open the door” to denying life-saving care to patients. Republicans have been sharply critical of Berwick, who is expected to play a key role in implementing the [...]

From NewsBusters.com: Not only does Todd Gaziano (Congressional appointee on the United States Commission on Civil Rights) claim that the 2008 Election Day voter intimidation charge against the Philadelphia New Black Panther Party was ‘open and shut’, but that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandez ordered, ‘Never bring another lawsuit against a black or other national minority, [...]

From Michelle Malkin: Here we go again. I’ve long reported on the danger of illegal alien sanctuary city policies embraced by woefully misguided (at best) and criminally reckless public officials seeking to appease the open borders lobby. One of the countless casualties of this deadly pandering was Houston PD officer Rodney Johnson, who shot and killed during [...]

From The Heritage Foundation: The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its hearing today on [Obama's] nomination of Elena Kagan to be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Kagan is no stranger to the confirmation process; in fact, she devoted one of her few academic writings entirely to the subject,writing: The [...]

From World Net Daily: The Obama administration has announced its appointment of 13 White House fellows – and the first person featured on its short list is a Muslim attorney who specializes in Shariah-compliant transactions. “This year’s White House fellows are comprised of some of the best and brightest leaders in our country,” Michelle Obama [...]

From CNSNews.com: President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2ndCircuit,  Robert N. Chatigny, did legal work as a private defense attorney in 1992 for convicted serial killer Michael Ross and then, in 2005, as a federal district judge, led a proceeding that resulted in a delay in Ross’ execution. [...]

From NewsBusters.org: President Obama’s nominee to the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Robert N. Chatigny, holds a disturbing fringe opinion that sexual sadism should be a legal mitigating factor. In fact, Chatigny put this belief in action while presiding over the case against the “Roadside Strangler” where he did everything in his [...]