CQPolitics.com - With a nearly 80-seat House majority, 60 seats in the Senate for more than eight months, a GOP brand so damaged that the party looked completely incompetent and a charismatic African-American president taking over from a failed two-term Republican president, you'd have thought that Democrats were set up for a pretty decent two years.

CQPolitics.com - Six weeks after the Supreme Court sent shock waves through the political world by lifting long-held bans on corporate and union involvement in federal elections, one district is looking ripe for the new rules to be put into play.

AP - A measure blending highway funding eagerly sought by the states with tax breaks for companies that hire unemployed workers appeared headed for House passage Thursday as Democrats work to send President Barack Obama the first of several promised election-year jobs bills.

AP - A resolution declaring the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians genocide appears likely to be approved by a congressional committee, a move that could alienate Turkey, a NATO ally with a pivotal role for U.S. interests in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

AFP - US President Barack Obama's administration came under bipartisan fire in Congress Wednesday for dragging its feet on implementing three key free-trade pacts, with lawmakers warning of increasing competition from the European Union.

Politico - Obama says that people finally got to know her after her freshman year as first lady.

AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Costa Rica to press Latin American nations on democracy and development.

AP - The largest voting machine company in the country bought its biggest competitor six months ago without advance fanfare. Now the Justice Department is investigating whether to unwind the merger that put a privately held Nebraska company in control of the voting machines in nearly 70 percent of the nation's precincts.

Reuters - Haiti's prime minister demanded more information on Wednesday about foreign aid pouring into the earthquake-stricken country and urged that his government not be sidelined in reconstruction efforts.

AP - Key Western powers have sent a revised proposal for new sanctions against Iran to Russia and China that would target the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard and toughen existing measures against its shipping, banking and insurance sectors, well-informed U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.

Politico - Gibbs sees her role as continuing to make the White House the 'people’s house.'

Politico - The first family says they are big fans of Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce Knowles.

AFP - United Nations relief teams were Thursday to begin their rescue effort in a remote region of eastern Uganda, three days after a landslide left 80 dead and 300 missing.

Politico - The 'Morning Joe” host rips Bickhart for encouraging operatives to use “fear” to solicit donations.

Reuters - A dozen House of Representatives Democrats opposed to abortion are willing to kill President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan unless it satisfies their demand for language barring the procedure, Representative Bart Stupak said on Thursday.

AP - South African President Jacob Zuma pressed Britain on Thursday to loosen European sanctions on Zimbabwe, which he claimed are restricting the effectiveness of that country's power-sharing government.

AP - Private security guards aboard a Spanish fishing trawler fought a gunbattle with Somali pirates on the Indian Ocean Thursday, as confrontations between mariners and brigands off the coast of Africa become more violent.

AP - A senior Senate Democrat says the Pentagon should consider scrapping a potential $1 billion deal with the company formerly known as Blackwater because of 'serious questions' about the contractor's conduct.

Politico - Rep. Sander Levin will take over as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

AP - The Obama administration is urging a House panel not to offend Turkey by declaring that the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians was genocide. But the committee chairman pressed ahead Thursday.

AP - North Koreans are getting better medical treatment as the result of a joint program between the two Koreas that has trained thousands of doctors, provided modern equipment and renovated hospitals, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

AP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday he would move to block private groups from launching war crimes prosecutions against visiting foreign dignitaries, following a controversy inflamed when an arrest warrant was issued for former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

AFP - A top Democratic US lawmaker said Thursday abortion foes are ready to kill President Barack Obama's huge health overhaul unless it meets their demands to block funding for the procedure.

Politico - Senate Judiciary Committee votes to endorse Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s nominee for DoJ legal counsel.

Politico - Speaker says her office was not formally notified.

AP - Keeping up the pressure for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chastised top insurance executives Thursday over proposed double-digit rate hikes she said top the list of reasons that Congress must quickly pass his plan.

AP - Syria on Thursday denied hiding nuclear activities from the world and said Israel was the source of suspicious uranium particles found at a Syrian desert complex bombed two years ago by the Jewish state.

AP - The voting was supposed to be about parking fees and dog taxes. But a populist anti-Islam party made a powerful impact in local elections Thursday while traditional governing parties suffered setbacks in what could be a harbinger of national election results three months away.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit on Thursday voiced support for key Obama administration financial reform goals, including a consumer protection authority, but government watchdogs questioned his earnestness.

AP - Sloppy records make it hard to tell exactly what the United States is exporting to Iran, despite sanctions meant to ensure only humanitarian goods and no military items go there, congressional investigators say.

Politico - Former Pennsylvania Treasurer Barbara Hafer is attempting to tie her Democratic primary opponent in Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District to the ethics woes of the late Rep. John Murtha.

Politico - The Wyoming governor's move dramatically enhances GOP chances of picking the seat.

AP - The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday.

AP - With the 2010 population count looming, the government provided new assurances Thursday that information Americans fill out on their census forms will be kept confidential and not be used for law enforcement.

AP - Two German converts to Islam and two Turks were found guilty Thursday of plotting a thwarted attack that a judge said could have killed large numbers of U.S. soldiers and civilians in 'a terrible bloodbath.'

AP - The U.N.'s top human rights official is condemning domestic violence and the killing of women in the name of honor.

AFP - US President Barack Obama waged an all-out campaign Thursday to drive his historic health care overhaul through Congress, wooing wavering lawmakers and blasting 'unacceptable' insurance rate hikes.

CQPolitics.com - The House will consider the Senate-passed 'jobs' package on Thursday after deciding to amend the bill so it is fully offset in order to address the concerns of moderates in the Democratic Caucus.

AP - A congressional panel approved a resolution Thursday declaring the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians genocide over protests by Turkey, a NATO ally that is crucial to U.S. interests in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Politico - Dems slam brakes on legislation that would force gov't and Hill staffers to pay back taxes.

Politico - GOP scurries to move away from presentation.

AP - Sloppy records make it hard to tell exactly what the United States is exporting to Iran, despite sanctions meant to ensure only humanitarian goods and no military items go there, congressional investigators say.

AP - The House ethics panel is reviewing a complaint against retiring New York Rep. Eric Massa by a male staffer who reportedly felt uncomfortable in a situation with Massa that had sexual overtones.

AP - Barack Obama is 'The Joker.' Nancy Pelosi is portrayed as Cruella De Vil, and Harry Reid as Scooby Doo — all part of a Republican Party pitch to top fundraisers.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — California is broke, its 12.1 percent unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation, housing prices have plunged, home foreclosures have skyrocketed and a drought is threatening the state's dwindling water supply. There also are plenty of other issues for would-be U.S. senators to debate, including the battered economy and a massive effort to overhaul the nation's health care system.

CQPolitics.com - Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) will not be leaving Congress on Monday, as he announced earlier this week, but will instead stay through the upcoming House vote on a health care overhaul.

AP - A rash of ethics lapses has given Democrats an election-year headache: how to convince skeptical voters that they're any cleaner than Republicans they accused of fostering a 'culture of corruption' in 2006.

Politico - The departure comes after a House Foreign Affairs Committee calls the killing of Armenians genocide.

AP - The 217-201 roll call Thursday by which the House passed legislation giving companies that hire the unemployed a temporary payroll tax break.

AP - In a March 2 story, The Associated Press reported in a headline that the government adopted a formula that would double the number of older people classified as living in poverty.

AP - For a short time Thursday, Washington buzzed over a rumor reported exclusively by an online gossip Web site with no particular Supreme Court expertise that Chief Justice John Roberts was considering stepping down.

AP - President Barack Obama is unveiling his revised version of a health care bill at the White House. It's expected to include several Republican proposals.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Unethical behavior by lawmakers helped Democrats win control of the Capitol in the 2006 elections, and the same issue could come back to haunt the party this November.

Politico - Rove writes in his book that he thought Gore's camp leaked Bush's DUI on the eve of the 2000 election.

Politico - Republicans have wind at their backs headed into the midterms, but cash in the bank would be better.

Politico - Hope remains that senators will deliver Obama a sweeping financial reform package within weeks.

Politico - Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt plans to announce his retirement Friday, he told the Boston Globe in an exclusive interview. Delahunt, a seven-term congressman from Quincy, had been publicly mulling leaving Congress at the end of this term for some time, and he had also recently come under fire over his handling of a 1986 shooting case he handled when he was the Norfolk County District Attorney.

CQPolitics.com - Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) will announce on Friday that he won't run for re-election to an 8th term in November, becoming the 16th House Democrat to announce plans to leave at the end of this Congress.

AP - With a simple click, U.S. travelers buying airline tickets via some travel agencies and Internet sites can now donate $2 or more to fight AIDS in developing countries.

Reuters - The tax on banks proposed by the Obama administration would be passed along to consumers, a leading Republican lawmaker said on Thursday, citing a nonpartisan budget analysis.