Stephen Dinan

Parks open to holders of concealed guns

U.S. national parks will open Monday to holders of concealed firearms as a hard-fought law passed last year takes effect, but both sides expect more battles over exactly what the legislation means in practice.

February 22, 2010

‘Tea party’ activists change dynamic at CPAC

On the opening day of the biggest-ever annual gathering of conservatives, the tenuous relationship among conservatives, tea party activists and the Republican Party establishment was repeatedly on display.

February 19, 2010

Cheney in surprise CPAC visit: Obama is ‘one-term’

Fresh off his back-and-forth with the Obama administration, former Vice President Dick Cheney took his fight to the heart of the political right, making a surprise visit Thursday to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

February 18, 2010

GOP ‘tsunami’ predicted for exurbia, South, Mountain States

Former Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, the architect of previous Republican campaign successes, says outer-suburban voters eager to place a check on President Obama and Democrats are swinging back to the GOP and will power a Republican resurgence in New England, while aiding GOP "tsunamis" in Virginia, Colorado and Iowa.

February 18, 2010

Conservative manifesto is call to action, say signers

Leaders of major conservative groups on Wednesday signed a manifesto vowing to push the country to return to constitutional principles, saying they've grown tired of having to accept government expansion at the hands of liberals.

February 18, 2010

One year later, stimulus has mixed record

A year after it became law, the stimulus package costs more than promised, has failed to keep down the unemployment rate and has faced charges of waste and abuse.

February 17, 2010

White House rejects higher stimulus cost estimate

The White House is rejecting the official congressional scorekeeper's estimate of how much the stimulus act will cost.

February 17, 2010

Bayh retirement plan fuels GOP hope

Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana Democrat, said Monday that he will not seek re-election this year, shocking his party and giving Republicans a good chance to win the seat.

February 16, 2010

Indiana’s Bayh announces retirement from Senate

Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana Democrat, stunned the political world Monday by announcing he will not seek re-election this year, leaving open a seat Republicans will have a good chance of winning.

February 15, 2010

Biden, Cheney spar on terror-war strategy

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Sunday that the Obama administration is successfully following the same recipe the Bush administration used in fighting the war on terror as he and former Vice President Dick Cheney traded shots in a long-distance, time-lag debate on the Sunday political talk shows over how to fight al Qaeda and win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

February 15, 2010

Biden, Cheney trade barbs over terror war

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former Vice President Dick Cheney traded verbal barbs over how to fight al Qaeda and win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

February 14, 2010

Dems air plans for curbing political ads

Top Democrats said Thursday they will try to undercut last month's Supreme Court campaign-finance ruling by forcing corporations and unions that want to run political ads to register separate spending accounts, make them disclose how they got money for the ads and guarantee politicians low rates to respond with their own broadcast ads.

February 12, 2010

GOP sees chance to topple incumbents in House

House Republicans are so confident of making major electoral gains this year that they're now daring some senior Democrats not to retire and instead face defeat at the ballot box.

February 11, 2010

Dems seek quick fix on campaign finance

Buoyed by polls showing the public is fed up with money influencing politics, Democrats are beginning to settle on options for curbing the Supreme Court's recent ruling that freed corporations and unions to enter the political fray with unlimited ads.

February 10, 2010

1 million fewer illegals in U.S., study says

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States dropped by nearly 1 million from 2007 to 2009 as the Bush administration ramped up enforcement efforts just as the economy took a dive, according to new figures the Homeland Security Department released Tuesday.

February 10, 2010

Illegal immigration fell sharply in ‘08

The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. dropped by nearly 1 million from 2007 to 2009 as the Bush administration ramped up enforcement efforts and the economy took a dive, according to figures the Homeland Security Department released Tuesday.

February 9, 2010

Obama’s bipartisan call hits wall of dissent

Despite his continued calls for collaboration, just two weeks after President Obama's State of the Union address, the window has closed on the areas of bipartisan cooperation he laid out.

February 9, 2010

Rep. Murtha dies at age 77

Long before he became a national figure for his zealous opposition to the Iraq war, Rep. John P. Murtha was known to every research lab, military base and Defense Department bureaucrat as the go-to man if they needed taxpayer funding.

February 9, 2010

Poll: Special interests more influential under Obama

Contrary to President Obama's promises, voters say special interests have more influence on the political process now than they did a year ago, according to a new poll.

February 8, 2010

Dems finagle $1.9T rise in debt cap

It took legislative acrobatics and some hard swallowing by Democrats, but Congress on Thursday sent President Obama a bill that raises the country's borrowing level by a staggering $1.9 trillion to cover this year's record spending.

February 5, 2010