AP - The Iraq war, a defining issue of the 2008 presidential race, has turned into a proxy fight between Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama over credibility and leadership.

AP - It's guerrilla politics at its cleverest.

AP - It's just past 8:30 a.m. on a snowy weekend morning when the unassuming presidential candidate strolls into a hotel conference room.

AP - House Democrats are seeking to boost spending for domestic programs while assuming that a variety of popular tax cuts expire at the end of the decade.

AP - Police rounded up and interrogated several relatives of Radovan Karadzic in the latest attempt to locate the top war crimes fugitive, his brother said Sunday.

CQPolitics.com - Republicans aren’t planning to give Al Gore any award-winning treatment Wednesday during his testimony on climate change before House and Senate committees.

AP - A session of the war crimes trial of six former officials in Saddam Hussein's government was canceled Sunday after a defense attorney who had been ejected last week made an unexpected appearance, court officials said.

AP - Senate Democrats have drafted a $121.5 billion war spending bill that would direct President Bush to begin bringing home troops from Iraq with the goal of ending U.S. combat missions there in just over a year.

AP - A key House panel Wednesday began debating a Democratic budget plan to boost spending for domestic programs while assuming that a variety of popular tax cuts expire at the end of the decade.

AP - Top Senate Democrats moved to rewrite their budget blueprint Wednesday, fearing defections from moderates unhappy with the idea of allowing a variety of popular tax cuts to expire at the end of the decade.

AP - President Bush on Wednesday pledged to New Zealand's prime minister that the United States would 'help in any way we can' to address difficult situations in the Pacific.

Reuters - House Democrats will seek a $20 billion reserve fund for new agricultural spending as Congress overhauls the U.S. farm program, the chairman of the Agriculture Committee pledged on Wednesday.

AP - Outsides experts with more than $50,000 in ties to drug and medical device companies regulated by the Food and Drug Administration would be barred from advising the agency under draft guidelines issued Wednesday.

AP - After William Weaver was convicted of the 1987 murder of a key witness in a federal drug case, the prosecutor told jurors to think beyond Weaver and send a message to drug dealers by returning a sentence of death.

AP - It's kiss and make up for Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson and acerbic broadcaster Don Imus. All because of $600,000 in New Mexico money.

AP - President Bush will meet with executives of the major U.S. automakers at the White House on Monday as he tries to build momentum for his energy plan.

AP - Public housing projects damaged by Hurricane Katrina would not be knocked down until the government has a plan to replace them under a bill the House passed Wednesday.

AP - Indonesia, Qatar and South Africa have proposed amendments to a new U.N. resolution drafted by six world powers that would impose new sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

AP - The White House's limited offer of documents and interviews in the controversial firing of U.S. attorneys fits its track record of secrecy.

AP - Campaign committees for the two major parties continued to carry debt from the expensive 2006 congressional contests, according to their latest financial disclosure reports.

AFP - Armed with an Oscar, tipped as a possible Nobel laureate and hailed as a champion of the environment, Al Gore Wednesday swept back into Congress for the first time since he had to announce his defeat in the 2000 presidential elections.

AP - A new requirement that federal judges promptly tell the public about their expense-paid trips has so far produced no disclosures, a judicial ethics watchdog group said Wednesday.

AFP - Germany has finished writing a declaration to mark the 50th anniversary of the EU and has sent the text to fellow leaders of the bloc to approve, the chief government spokesman said on Wednesday.

AP - The mystery creator of the Orwellian YouTube ad against Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to rival Sen. Barack Obama.

CQPolitics.com - Republican Duncan Duane Hunter stated Wednesday in an interview with a Capitol Hill publication that he is preparing to run for his father’s seat in California’s 52nd District in the 2008 election. And he enters with a unique asset that no one in the candidate field can top: He has the same first and last names as his father.

AP - Congress has moved a step closer to placing a one-year moratorium on Pentagon competitions to outsource military hospital work to private companies. The provision was included in a bill approved 59-0 late Tuesday by the House Armed Services Committee and expected to be considered by the full House later this week.

U.S. News & World Report - The Senate, led by first-term Sen. Claire McCaskill, passed a compromise measure that allows such union rights to be suspended during times of emergency. President Bush has said he will veto the entire bill--a signature effort for the Democrats during the election--if either unionization measure remains.

Reuters - The United States launched a plan on Wednesday to slash world fishing subsides by more than 50 percent in the World Trade Organization's Doha round of trade talks.