AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons.

U.S. News & World Report - House Democrats set the stage this morning for what promises to be a bruising battle over the EPA budget and the direction of the agency itself in a House environmental subcommittee hearing.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani acknowledged his differences with the party's conservative base on Friday but said bigger principles should be at stake in the race for the White House.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eliot Cohen, a supporter of the U.S. decision to invade Iraq but a critic of the post-war occupation, will become a top aide to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the State Department said on Friday.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons.

AP - President Bush, who wants his legacy engraved with his education policy, lobbied Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law — and do it this year.

AP - Senators left town Friday with little to show for a week of debate on a massive anti-terrorism bill and squabbling over whether to let federal airport screeners join unions and risk a veto of a Homeland Security bill by President Bush.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela does not plan to sign an anti-drug accord with the United States, local media quoted Venezuela's top anti-drug official as saying on Saturday, days after Washington criticized Caracas for failing to crack down on drug traffickers.

AP - Second-term presidents often find comfort in foreign policy and overseas travel as they lose clout at home. A statesman-abroad strategy, however, will not work particularly well for President Bush on a six-day Latin American trip designed to signal a revitalized U.S. commitment to the region.

CQPolitics.com - It would be an overstatement to say that former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., scheduled for Friday, is a make-or-break moment in his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

AP - Conservative stalwart Newt Gingrich has done nothing to lay the foundation for a presidential run except talk, yet he ranks third among Republicans in most national polls.

CQPolitics.com - The Federal Election Commission today unanimously approved an Advisory Opinion permitting Senator Barack Obama to solicit and receive contributions designated for the 2008 presidential general election while retaining the option of refunding those contributions and accepting public funding should he become the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Reuters - At their first gathering since November's election thumping, conservative activists on Thursday found little to cheer about in a 2008 Republican White House field they largely viewed with skepticism and distrust.

AP - Conservative stalwart Newt Gingrich has done nothing to lay the foundation for a presidential run except talk — yet he ranks third among Republicans in most national polls.

AP - Mitt Romney won the most support for the Republican presidential nomination in a straw poll of GOP activists attending an annual conference.

Bloomberg - March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain said they'll accept public funds -- and spending limits -- for the 2008 presidential election if they win their party nominations and their opponents agree to do the same.

AP - Kosovo's former prime minister pleaded innocent Thursday at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to charges of involvement in the murder, rape and torture of Serbs and suspected Serb collaborators in the province's 1998-99 war.