RNC Chairman Michael Steele, hosting Bill Bennett's talk show last week, offered his view that Mitt Romney's main political problem in 2008 was the bias against Mormons in the Republican "base":

[R]emember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitch, Mitt, because they thought he was back and forth and waffling on those very economic issues you’re talking about. So, I mean, I hear what you’re saying, but before we even got to a primary vote, the base had made very clear they had issues with Mitt because if they didn’t, he would have defeated John McCain in those primaries in which he lost.

California's projected budget deficit has grown as large as $21.3 billion through next June due to a sharp economic decline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disclosed Monday in a letter to the Legislature.

The latest projection means lawmakers will consider deep spending cuts in education, corrections and welfare, as well as borrowing and new fees, to bridge the gap.

The announcement comes less than three months after the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger closed $34 billion of a then-$40 billion state budget deficit with tax hikes and spending cuts and asked voters to eliminate the rest in next week's special election.

General Motors is open to considering moving its headquarters from Detroit, selling off U.S. plants and even renegotiating parts of its restructuring plan with its major union, the new chief executive said Monday.

Senior leaders of al Qaeda are using sanctuaries in Pakistan's lawless frontier regions to plan new terror attacks and funnel money, manpower and guidance to affiliates around the world, according to a top American military commander.

Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said in an interview that Pakistan has become the nerve center of al Qaeda's global operations, allowing the terror group to re-establish its organizational structure and build stronger ties to al Qaeda offshoots in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa and parts of Europe.

Officials in the governor's office say a politically powerful union may have had inappropriate influence over the Obama administration's decision to withhold billions of dollars in federal stimulus money from California if the state does not reverse a scheduled wage cut for the labor group's workers.

The officials say they are particularly troubled that the Service Employees International Union, which lobbied the federal government to step in, was included in a conference call in which state and federal officials reviewed the wage cut and the terms of the stimulus package.

Politico on Saturday accused Greta Van Susteren of being Todd Palin's "host AND handler" at a pre-White House Correspondents' dinner brunch, and the Fox News host is none too pleased.

This was at least the second time in two months Politico has implied an improper alliance between Van Susteren and the Palins, and the "On the Record" host wasn't going to let them get away with it.

As one of the GOP’s top targets in 2010, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been making an aggressive push to improve his standing at home. He’s been fundraising, traveling the state and making the case to Nevadans that he has the seniority and clout to keep delivering.

But Reid may have found the ultimate trump card: President Barack Obama.

The administration’s decision last week to kill a proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain is the latest in a string of moves the White House has taken to help Reid in his runup to next year’s election.

Gibbs grabs onto the former VP's weekend remarks on torture and Limbaugh at Monday's press briefing.

"If the vice president thinks that's a way of growing and expanding the Republican Party, then we're happy to leave them to those devices."

Counties suffering the most from job losses stand to receive the least help from President Barack Obama's plan to spend billions of stimulus dollars on roads and bridges, an Associated Press analysis has found.

Although the intent of the money is to put people back to work, AP's review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide reveals that states are planning to spend the stimulus in communities where jobless rates are already lower.

One result among many: Elk County, Pa., isn't receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with its 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.

Altogether, the government is set to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than it will in communities with the highest.

The White House on Monday pushed up its forecast for the U.S. budget deficit for this year by $89 billion, reflecting the recession, a raft of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts.

A fresh estimate of the deficit showed it coming in at $1.84 trillion — representing a massive 12.9 percent of gross domestic product — in the current 2009 fiscal year that ends on September 30. A prior White House forecast released in February projected a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of GDP.

The report may add to the political challenges facing President Barack Obama as he seeks to push through a new healthcare plan and other big domestic initiatives.

High U.S. budget deficits are being driven by an economic crisis that President Barack Obama inherited, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said on Monday.

Orszag, writing in a blog posting, also said that the administration's latest budget deficit estimates — which were revised upward by $89 billion and $87 billion for this year and next, respectively — reflect the latest data on tax receipts, federal bailouts and other government costs

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said Friday he no longer holds the same views he held when he voted for the federal Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriage nearly 13 years ago.

Harkin described his own evolution on the issue during a taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” which airs this weekend.

“We all grow as we get older, and we learn things and we become more sensitive to people and people’s lives,” Harkin said. “And the more I’ve looked at that, I’ve grown to think differently about how people — how we should live. And I guess I’m at the point that, you know — I’m to that point of live and let live,” Harkin said.