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Those ever-vigilant, ever-principled, non-partisan politicos known as Democrats were caught with their hands in the cookie jar in Pennsylvania. Twelve of them, to be exact. Philly Daily News: A SORDID TANGLE of corruption, cash and sex rocked the Statehouse yesterday in a political scandal that left one current and one former legislator and 10 current and former staff members facing criminal charges. Among the accusations leveled by two state grand juries: Former top legislative staffer Mike Manzo got his lover, a twenty-something former rural beauty queen, a $29,000 job and $7,000 bonus mostly for doing her schoolwork. State Attorney General...

The list of issues on which Barack Obama has flipped now that the primaries are over is long and growing rapidly: # He says he believes in a Second Amendment right to bear arms. # He now opposes late-term abortion. # He suddenly is a devotee of using faith-based institutions to deliver public services. # He now says that he won’t raise Social Security taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. In the primary, he said he’d eliminate the threshold entirely, including on people making as little as $100,000. # He recently opposed the Fairness Doctrine for talk...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A technical glitch on an unrelated piece of legislation forced Democrats Wednesday to jerk their election-year fiscal blueprint from the House floor. The nonbinding budget plan has already been delayed by more than a month when congressional leaders discovered Wednesday that they had failed to send to President Bush a portion of the farm bill. He vetoed the rest of that measure Wednesday and the House overrode the veto. In short, the glitch on the farm bill needs to be fixed before the budget can pass or else the boost to farm and food programs can't be...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio's attorney general has resigned amid the scandal of a sexual harassment investigation in his office and his extramarital affair. Marc Dann has been under pressure of possible impeachment and announced he was stepping down on Wednesday. The 46-year-old Democrat at first refused to resign, despite demands by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and others within his party. Dann admitted May 2 to an extramarital affair with an employee that he said contributed to an atmosphere leading to sexual harassment claims against a top aide. Three aides were forced out in the harassment investigation, which showed managers encouraged...

<p>Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been linked to a prostitution ring, the New York Times is reporting on its Web site. He not expected to continue his term, multiple sources in the state Legislature tell CBS 2, setting off one of the largest scandals in modern New York state political history.</p>

<p>Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning. He is set to make an announcement . . .</p>

WASHINGTON -- Democrats, facing rejection today of a proposal co-sponsored by Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold to cut off money for the Iraq war, are planning to shift their emphasis to the war's toll on the American economy to rebuild anti-war momentum.In recent months, violence in Iraq has declined, and the Baghdad government has made small steps toward political reconciliation, including plans to hold provincial elections on Oct. 1. While Democratic voters remain largely against the war, the security improvement has helped to cool anxiety among Republicans and stave off legislation demanding that troops start coming home. The Senate was expected...

Obama is a product of the corrupt Chicago Machine. One of the key players in this corrupt machine is Tony Rezko - a Syrian real estate developer/slumlord who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the machine and to Obama's law firm and to Obama's various campaign funds - and was VERY connected to the governor of Illinois. We've covered it previously HERE. NOW, THERE'S NEW NEWS: The real estate agent who sold Obama the house he now lives in - for more than a million bucks - was a pal of Rezko, someone he'd been pressuring the guv to...

Not all the nation's ills can be blamed on President Bush, Democratic candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday as he called on Americans to change the nature of politics and institute more openness in government. Part of the problem here is not just George Bush and the White House," Obama told a crowd of hundreds gathered at a park in Cedar Falls.

DAILY KOS CO-AUTHOR FINED $30K FOR UNETHICAL STOCK TOUT Wed Aug 08 2007 19:12:23 ET Prominent liberal blogger Jerome Armstrong has agreed to pay nearly $30,000 in fines in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that Armstrong touted the stock of a software company, without disclosing that he was being paid to do so, the NY TIMES reports. Armstrong is the co-author of _Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics,_ with Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos. He is also the founder of the Democratic activist site MyDD.com. Under the agreement, Armstrong neither...

“Speak Out in Public On Memorial Day, get your friends, kids, co-workers, neighbors, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers, and anyone and everyone you know together to show your support for the troops and end the war. Bring “Support the Troops! End the War!” signs. Invite any local speakers who you think share our message of patriotic responsibility. Be sure to check with your local authority for any permits you need for public gatherings. Contact local media to publicize your event. Make sure you conduct yourself respectfully-both for those serving in Iraq and the memory of the brave servicemen and women that...

NEW YORK After a surge of support earlier in the year after the Democrats took control, public approval of the job Congress is doing has slid again, and now stands even lower than President Bush's weak 33%. A Gallup poll released today pegged the approval rating for Congress at 29%. This is down from last month's 33% and well below the year's high of 37%. Of course, more Democrats than Republican give a thumb's up but even there only 37% of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing right now. That's down 6% since last month. This may reflect...

Al Gore, who has reversed his political fortunes to become a potential contender in the 2008 presidential race, made an emotional return to Congress Wednesday in an appeal for an even more dramatic rescue—saving the planet. Gore—who is one of voters' top choices for the Democratic presidential nomination even though he says he's not running—implored lawmakers to adopt a list of policy prescriptions to stop global warming. Fresh off a triumphant Academy Awards appearance in which his climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he testified before House and Senate panels about a...

The most outspoken critics of the $124 billion wartime spending bill in the House are facing withering support in their fight to defeat it. California Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Lynn Woolsey said that many of their liberal colleagues were caving under pressure from Democratic leaders who, according to at least one congressman, have threatened to block requests for new funds for his district. They also cited MoveOn.org's endorsement of the measure Monday as a blow to their efforts. "For people who are undecided and looking for a reason to vote for the supplemental, MoveOn is going to make a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq on Friday, opening an an epic confrontation between Congress and commander in chief over an unpopular war that has taken the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops. The vote on the nonbinding measure was 246-182.

DURHAM, N.H. -- In his first stumble, White House hopeful Barack Obama on Monday took back words from the day before, when he said the lives of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were "wasted." Following his Springfield launch on Saturday, Obama wrapped up a three-day swing in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, ending at a University of New Hampshire rally where he assailed the "trivialization of politics" where "it is all about who makes a gaffe." In this case, that would be Obama, the Illinois Democrat. During his first press conference as a presidential candidate at...

PRIME Minister John Howard has blasted US presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying his policy of withdrawing troops from Iraq will destabilise the entire Middle East. Senator Obama, who is aiming to be the first black American president, has vowed to withdraw US forces if elected. But first, he must secure the Democratic nomination by overcoming his chief rival, Hillary Clinton. Senator Obama has introduced a bill to remove US combat forces from Iraq by March 31 next year - but the legislation has virtually no chance of becoming law while George W Bush is president, and the presidential election is...

What a mess: A Feb. 9 front-page article about the Pentagon inspector general's report regarding the office of former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith incorrectly attributed quotations to that report. References to Feith's office producing "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" and that the office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda" were from a report issued by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in Oct. 2004. Similarly, the quotes stating that Feith's office drew on "both reliable and unreliable reporting" to produce a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq "that was much stronger than that assessed...