Stephen Dinan

Obama wants Honduran leader reinstated

President Obama on Monday called the coup that ousted Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras "not legal" and joined with the voices of leaders across the Americas in demanding that democracy be respected.

June 30, 2009

High court rules for Conn. white firefighters

In a major reverse-discrimination case, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that white New Haven, Conn., firefighters were discriminated against when the city threw out a promotion test because not enough minorities did well on it.

June 29, 2009

Obama: Iran dialogue to suffer

President Obama on Friday called the postelection crackdown in Iran "outrageous" and flatly refused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request for an apology. One leading Iranian cleric, meanwhile, called for protest leaders to be executed.

June 27, 2009

Obama dismisses Ahmadinejad apology request

President Obama, in response to Iranian President Ahmadinejad's demand he apologize for meddling, said the regime should "think carefully" about obligations to those beaten, shot and killed in the post-election marches.

June 26, 2009

Obama says climate bill just the beginning

President Obama on Friday said the global warming bill the House is debating today is only a start, not the end of efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions.

June 26, 2009

Obama pushes immigration bill

President Obama told lawmakers Thursday he wants to sign an immigration bill this year or early next year even though they don't have the votes yet to pass it -- and just in case they fail, the administration is ramping up talk of other actions it's taken to help immigrant rights.

June 26, 2009

Democrats trade Gore for Obama

With House Democrats rushing to a vote on their global warming bill this week, President Obama ratcheted up the pressure, calling the vote of paramount importance and demanding support from wavering Republicans and Democrats.

June 25, 2009

Emanuel: Republican votes not needed

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday that bipartisanship doesn't mean actually winning Republican votes, it means the president has to try.

June 25, 2009

ABC, GOP spar over Obama coverage

President Obama took his health care argument directly to television viewers Wednesday - or at least to one network's viewers.

June 25, 2009

WH rescinds July 4 invites to Iranians

The White House has rescinded the invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at U.S. embassies around the world.

June 24, 2009

Obama seeks to lift sagging agenda

Acknowledging that his $787 billion economic stimulus package has not worked as well as he'd expected, President Obama on Tuesday said Americans should not be satisfied with the pace of the recovery, even as he found himself on the defensive over Democratic health care reforms.

June 24, 2009

Obama signs tobacco bill, raps ‘special interests’

Add Big Tobacco to the list of the vanquished.

June 23, 2009

Obama signs anti-smoking bill

Citing his own smoking addiction he picked up as a youth, President Obama signed legislation Monday to give the Food and Drug Administration broad powers in stopping the way tobacco companies sell their products.

June 22, 2009

Obama finds no stimulus waste

It's been four months, and still President Obama has yet to criticize publicly a single project from the $787 billion economic stimulus spending package, despite his Feb. 20 pledge that if federal or state agencies tried to slip any bad spending through, he would "call them out."

June 22, 2009

Dem. strategy memo: Stop global warming talk

A new strategy memo by a top party pollster is telling Democrats that when talking about fighting global warming, they should play down the actual global warming part — and drop the talk of "cap-and-trade" altogether.

June 18, 2009

Bachmann fears ACORN role in census

Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will not fill out anything more than the number of people in her household.

June 18, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Minn. lawmaker vows not to complete Census

Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household.

June 17, 2009

Paging through Sotomayor’s open-book life

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's open-book life has been a story of overcoming challenges, from an underprivileged upbringing in the Bronx to struggles against perceived discrimination to a mammoth battle against a mischievous cricket outside her Princeton dorm-room window.

June 16, 2009

Senator says billions wasted on stimulus

Self-appointed waste-watcher Sen. Tom Coburn says he's already identified as much as $5.5 billion in wasteful or bad projects among the economic-stimulus expenditures on tap.

June 16, 2009

Pay-go’s promise routinely broken by Washington

The pay-as-you-go rules President Obama is resurrecting as a solution to runaway federal spending have been repeatedly violated by Congress and the White House, allowing hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent without the required spending cuts or tax increases.

June 11, 2009