Politics News

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The two men who supposedly exemplified a different kind of politics are engaged in an increasingly bitter campaign as character attacks are emerging to compete with issues like the troubled economy.

WASHINGTON - John McCain is once again trying to dress the political wound that never heals: his role in a 1980s banking scandal that is featured in a new Barack Obama attack video.

WASHINGTON - John McCain's campaign is criticizing Barack Obama for his ties to a former radical who engaged in violent acts four decades ago, but McCain himself was closely connected to a private group that supplied aid to rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra affair.

CINCINNATI - As Wall Street reeled and global markets plunged, President Bush on Monday said the U.S. economy is going to be "just fine" in the long run. But he cautioned that the massive rescue plan will take time to work.

MIDLAND, Texas - President Bush almost made it through his two terms without visiting his boyhood hometown. He broke the more than 7-year, 8-month streak on Saturday for a quick and lucrative fundraising stop in this West Texas oil patch.

Text of President Bush's statement Friday on Congress passing a $700 billion bailout bill for the financial industry, as provided by the White House:

With exactly four weeks to go before Election Day, CQ Politics' Balance of Power scorecards for the Senate and House of Representatives establish one certainty -- that the Democrats will maintain control of both chambers when the 111th Congress is sworn in come January -- and the very strong likelihood that the Democrats will expand the majorities they won by dominating the 2006 elections.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama warmed up on Monday for a potentially crucial debate by unleashing another volley of personal attacks on each other's character in an increasingly ugly White House race.

WASHINGTON - The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Monday rejected House Democrats' demands to force two of President Bush's top aides to cooperate with an investigation about the firings of nine federal prosecutors in 2006.

WASHINGTON - An advocacy group ranks California, Connecticut and Oregon at the top of a list of states improving energy efficiency to respond to high prices, energy security and global warming.

WASHINGTON - Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

NOUAKCHOTT, (AFP) - Mauritanian opposition parties were set Tuesday to defy a ban on demonstrations to keep up pressure on the military junta, which let pass an African Union deadline to reinstate the ousted president.

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. mission monitoring a cease-fire between Georgia and the separatist Abkhazia region should be extended for four months to explore whether to continue U.N. involvement following the Georgian-Russian war, the U.N. chief said Monday.

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday endorsed efforts to reach out to members of the Taliban or other militants in Afghanistan who may be considered reconcilable, much like what has happened in Iraq.

PHOENIX - An anti-abortion group has won a long legal fight to force Arizona to issue "choose life" license plates, and the proposed new plates could be available to the group's members within several months.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by EchoStar Communications Corp. against a judgment ordering it to pay nearly 74 million dollars to TiVo Inc. for patent infringement.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for a new trial for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted in the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - As a state senator, Democrat Barack Obama awarded $75,000 in government grants to a Chicago social service organization led by a rabbi who is also his wife's cousin, records show.

WASHINGTON - The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Behind in the polls, Republican John McCain on Monday called Democratic rival Barack Obama a liar as he leveled his harshest criticism yet, and said the campaign boils down to one basic question: Who is Obama really?