WASHINGTON - A Senate analysis of intelligence-gathering activities leading up to the invasion of Iraq is certain to rekindle an election-year debate on the justification of going to war.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's CIA director-nominee, Gen. Michael Hayden, to face what undoubtedly will be the toughest public questioning of his 37-year government career at a Senate confirmation hearing.

At least two people don’t think Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign, Gonzales and the only person whose opinion in this matter counts, President Bush.

What does it mean to be called a conservative?

“Just think, if the state of New York had done the right thing, there’d be two more firefighters who would be with us and enjoying Christmas with their families.”

WASHINGTON - President Bush urged the Senate on Thursday to follow the House lead and approve a White House plan for detaining and interrogating terrorism suspects, saying, "The American people need to know we're working together to win the war on terror."

President-elect Barack Obama's win is so cataclysmically historic one knows not where to begin. First, his victory signifies the death of the Old South and President Nixon's infamous "Southern Strategy," which the GOP has used successfully for almost four decades to win presidential elections.

December 7, 2004

Jay Ambrose: Here's my plea to Republicans. Don't be Bart Stupak. Don't stand up like King Kong, thumping your chest in defiance of an administration you think has gone wrong, and then, when the pressure builds and a deception offers you a way out, run off like a chimp chased by a roaring lion.

WASHINGTON -- The key U.S. assertions leading to the 2003 invasion of Iraq - that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was working to make nuclear weapons - were wrong and based on false or overstated CIA analyses, a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report asserted Friday.

WASHINGTON - CIA Director George Tenet said Tuesday that the al-Qaida terror group is seriously damaged but has spread its radical anti-American agenda to other Islamic extremist groups that now pose the greatest threat to the United States.

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bluntly accused the CIA on Thursday of misleading her and other lawmakers about its use of waterboarding during the Bush administration, escalating a controversy grown to include both political parties, the spy agency and the White House.

WASHINGTON - As the Senate begins its final debate on Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, the conservative jurist already has won enough commitments from senators to become the nation's 110th justice and likely tilt the high court to the right.

For the last four decades, the laws of the land were all about dropping the hammer on crime by locking away criminals for a very long time.

“Oh, I smell the rats. The IRS raises the mileage rates? Of course they had to. With all of the politicians who are out of work, they are going to have to drive farther.”

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders have agreed to ease drug laws that were once among the harshest in the nation and led a movement more than 30 years ago toward mandatory prison terms.

LOS ANGELES - Gerald Ford, the only unelected president in United States’ history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.

NEW YORK - After successive harrowing Election Nights in 2000 and 2004, there were no muffed calls by TV networks, no screwy exit polls, no real twists and turns - only the sense of history as Barack Obama became the first black man elected president.

John McCain stands as the latest challenger to test the time-honored rule of thumb that an Arizonan simply cannot be elected president. Consider the results of presidential candidates Barry Goldwater in 1964, Morris Udall in 1976, Bruce Babbitt in 1988 and McCain himself in 2000.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Max Baucus on Wednesday brought out the much-awaited Finance Committee version of an American health-system remake — a landmark $856 billion, 10-year measure that starts a rough ride through Congress without visible Republican backing. Related: Flake votes to scold Wilson for outburst

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing a defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hope to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff pleaded not guilty Thursday in the CIA leak scandal, marking the start of what could be a long road to a trial in which Cheney and other top Bush administration officials could be summoned to testify.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff pleaded not guilty Thursday in the CIA leak scandal, marking the start of what could be a long road to a trial in which Cheney and other top Bush administration officials could be summoned to testify.

February 16, 2005