Under mounting pressure to act, the Bush administration said Friday it was ready to step in and prevent the U.S. auto industry from collapsing after the Senate refused to pass a rescue bill endorsed by the White House and congressional Democrats. The most obvious source of help was the Wall Street bailout fund. ...more

December 12, 2008

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could still appoint someone to fill Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat despite charges that he tried to barter it away for cash or a plum job in what prosecutors call "a political corruption crime spree." ...more

December 10, 2008

Congressional Democrats on Monday sent the White House a draft of a roughly $15 billion auto bailout they aim to bring to a vote this week, but White House officials gave a cool initial response. ...more

December 8, 2008

Facing severe cutbacks in state services as the recession deepens, the nation's governors pressed their case on Capitol Hill on Monday, asking for at least $40 billion to help pay for health care for the poor and disabled. ...more

December 2, 2008

Nineteen months after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared the war in Iraq "lost" and just nine months after Speaker Nancy Pelosi asserted the war has been a "failure" because it had not brought political change leading to reconciliation, it can now be said conclusively that both were wrong. ...more

November 27, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars. ...more

November 22, 2008

Leaving The Senate President-elect Barack Obama officially resigned from the Senate on Sunday, removing himself from any official role in the lame-duck session of Congress that convened this week. ...more

November 22, 2008

The $25 billion rescue plan for the auto industry, desperately sought by Detroit's beleaguered Big Three, collapsed Thursday as Congress drew the line at one more bailout and Democrats said they wouldn't even consider it until the companies produced a convincing plan for rebuilding their once-mighty industry. ...more

November 21, 2008

Barack Obama is likely to choose Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano for the job of secretary of homeland security, top Obama advisers and several Democrats said Thursday as the shape of the president-elect's Cabinet begins to emerge. ...more

November 20, 2008

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has accepted President-elect Barack Obama's offer to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Democratic officials said Wednesday. ...more

November 19, 2008