Jon Ward

America’s recession is exposing societal fault lines, as various groups fight over increasingly smaller pieces of the pie. Tensions are particularly flaring between government workers and employees of private businesses. (more)

Former House Speaker and possible Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich will use quotes from French existentialist Albert Camus and British intellectual George Orwell to argue Thursday that President Obama should not set a deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan. (more)

White House budget director Peter Orszag has gone after Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Road Map” plan before, critiquing the Wisconsin Republican’s vision for solving America’s entitlement and debt crisis earlier this year, when releasing President Obama’s budget. (more)

Democrats have said they are running against George W. Bush this fall, or at least his policies. But on Wednesday, they’ll announce that they’re really running against the Tea Party. (more)

Democrats in Washington will argue that the debate coming in September over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans – or whether to let them expire for families making more than $250,000 a year – is one they relish. (more)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday released a summary of the draft energy bill that Democrats hope to pass in the next week or so. You can read the full summary here. (more)

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Independent, will not be present Tuesday for the vote on the DISCLOSE Act, a spokeswoman told the Daily Caller, virtually ensuring that the bill will not pass. (more)

Rep. Paul Ryan, the fast-talking, number-crunching Republican from Wisconsin, caused a stir last week when he called out his own party for not offering Americans a substantive alternative to Democrats in this fall’s elections. (more)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Monday that he believes the U.S. should maintain a large troop presence in Afghanistan with no timeline for withdrawal, and specified that there may be a need for even more than the 100,000 boots on the ground included in President Obama’s ongoing surge. (more)

President Obama sought Friday to refocus the news cycle on a trifecta of victories for him this week, after the bungled firing and attempted rehiring of Shirley Sherrod dominated the media and overshadowed his accomplishments. (more)

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Thursday waived off complaints by business leaders that President Obama’s health care and financial regulation laws are creating uncertainty and freezing job creation, arguing that the administration has actually provided “a lot of clarity” for the private sector. (more)

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he had apologized to Shirley Sherrod and offered to rehire her at the USDA, after firing her on Monday for remarks that were interpreted to be racist but were later deemed to have been taken out of context. (more)

House Minority Leader John Boehner on Wednesday criticized the decision by conservative media personality Andrew Breitbart to air only a small portion of the video showing USDA official Shirley Sherrod making racially charged remarks earlier this year, which led to her firing. (more)

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an early morning statement Wednesday that he was reconsidering his decision to fire Shirley Sherrod, a USDA official from Georgia, over racially tinged remarks, after the White House weighed in late Tuesday in support of such a move.  (more)

A Department of Agriculture official who was forced to resign Monday over racially tinged comments accused the White House of pushing her out before they had fully understood her comments or even seen them in their full context, as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People withdrew their condemnation of the woman and called on the administration to reconsider her firing. (more)

British Prime Minister David Cameron urged the American people Tuesday not to assume that oil giant BP persuaded the Scottish government to release the Lockerbie bomber from prison a year ago, saying the company deserves blame for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but that there is no evidence of wrongdoing in an attempt to gain access to oil fields off Libya’s coast. (more)

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Benjamin Todd Jealous said late Monday he was "appalled" by the actions of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod, who resigned earlier in the day after video surfaced of her speaking at an NAACP event about discriminating against a white farmer seeking government help. (more)

Republicans in Congress may not be offering much in the way of alternatives to Democratic policies, preferring to play it safe politically and avoid giving the party in power targets to shoot at. (more)

First Lady Michelle Obama said in an e-mail to supporters Sunday that President Obama's health care law passed this year makes her life easier and gave a detailed sales pitch for how many free services will now be offered to many Americans. (more)

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent a memo late last week to contractors warning them about the Washington Post's article on the growth of top-secret agencies and contracting activity. (more)