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The Obama White House showed every sign yesterday of backing down on a controversial proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who suffered service-related disabilities and injuries. The proposal, a plan to require private insurance companies to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs in such cases, was discussed at the White House Monday in a meeting the President had with David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion. And on Tuesday -- after condemnations of the proposal by Rehbein and the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Veterans Committee -- the...

WASHINGTON – For the first time since last fall's election, Democrats and the Obama administration are backpedaling furiously on an issue easily understood by financially strapped taxpayers: $165 million in bonuses paid out at bailed-out AIG. Republicans, struggling to regain their political footing, are content to let Democrats try to dig their way out of this mess on their own. Professing shock at the bonus payments, Democrats have embarked on a hurry-up effort to impose what amounts to confiscatory taxes on the bonuses, .. ... But the mood is less charitable among congressional Democrats.

x-Fed Chief to Lead New Economic Panel of Outside Experts Who Will Brief Obama President-elect Barack Obama appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilize financial markets. University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, one of Mr. Obama's longest-serving policy advisers, will serve as the board's staff director, along with his duties as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Members of the panel will be drawn from a cross-section of citizens outside the government,...

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities. For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations. Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t...

Bush would accept slight delay in ports deal-Rove Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:19 PM ET WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush would accept a slight delay in permitting Dubai Ports World to acquire a British company that operates six key U.S. ports, senior White House adviser Karl Rove told Fox News. When asked if Bush would accept a slight delay in implementing the takeover of P&O , Rove said: "Yes, look, there are some hurdles, regulatory hurdles, that this still needs to go through on the British side as well that are going to be concluded next...

Ex-president Bill Clinton defended his wife Hillary on Friday for claiming last month that the GOP-led Congress was being run like a "plantation," adding that he thought House Democrats were being treated like "sharecroppers." Asked if he agreed with Mrs. Clinton's comment, the ex-president told WCBS Radio's Peter Maer: "Oh, absolutely I do. And it had no racial overtones." "It was more about the arbitrary and complete exercise of power and control," he contended." Clinton cited an unnamed farmer-turned-congressman from East Arkansas who told him he agreed with Hillary as well. "I wouldn't say we were slaves," Clinton quoted the...

<p>NEW YORK - MSNBC on Monday fired Michael Savage for anti-gay comments.</p> <p>The popular radio talk show host who did a weekend TV show for the cable channel referred to an unidentified caller to his show Saturday as a "sodomite" and said he should "get AIDS and die."</p>

The other day, I read one of those sad headlines: ''Mother of two dies in car wreck.'' There but for the grace of God go I. Yet it occurred to me that whenever a woman comes to public attention in tragedy, she is often described in relation to children. ''Mother of twins dies in fire,'' the headline reads, or ''Grandmother fights off home invaders.'' It is strikingly rare, on the other hand, to see similar headlines for men. ''Father of two killed in drive-by shooting''? ''Grandfather in critical condition after mountain-climbing mishap''? Unlikely. Men are not fathers first and foremost....