The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr launched a Libertarian Party presidential bid Monday, saying voters are hungry for an alternative to the status quo who would dramatically cut the federal government.

His candidacy throws a wild card into the White House race that many believe could peel away votes from Republican Sen. John McCain given the candidates' similar positions on fiscal policy.

Wearing a flag lapel pin, Sen. Barack Obama emphasized his patriotism and support for a strong and humane military Monday, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton implored West Virginians to sustain her hopes of somehow denying him the Democratic presidential nomination.

New polls Monday predicted landslide wins for Hillary Clinton in two looming primaries, despite pressure for her to cede to Barack Obama's mathematical stranglehold on the Democratic White House race.

As Congress moves to aid distressed US homeowners, the prospect of a new rescue is drawing fire from a diverse array of activists, economists and consumers opposing what they call a bailout.

Hillary Rodham Clinton began her presidential quest armed with talent, tenacity, fame, money, connections and a team that knew how to win.

Many people believed her victory in the Democratic nomination battle was a sure thing. Her ultimate failing may have been in believing it, too.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was just warming up the crowd in a cramped and muggy middle school gymnasium when she switched her pronouns.

"All the kitchen table issues that everybody talks to me about are ones that the next president can actually do something about," Clinton said Sunday night, "if he actually cares about it."

The word hung in the air only for a moment.

He's a Republican, for starters. He describes himself as "older than dirt." And he makes no apology for an Iraq war that is especially unpopular on college campuses.

Doesn't sound like a recipe for winning the hearts of young voters. And yet John McCain has vowed to make a serious play for the 18- to 29-year-old crowd that's often identified with "Obama-mania."

Did U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain vote for President George W. Bush in 2000?

Liberal Internet blogger Arianna Huffington says McCain told her he did not. But the Arizona senator says he did vote for Bush, a fellow Republican, in 2000 and campaigned for him all over the country after his own attempt to win the party's nomination failed.

No constituency is more eager to see a woman win the presidency than America's feminists, yet — despite Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic candidacy — the women's movement finds itself wrenchingly divided over the Democratic race as it heads toward the finish.

Word of what some on Capitol Hill fear may become the next major congressional scandal is beginning to leak out.

The Justice Department apparently is investigating allegations that lawmakers illegally have used their staffs for campaign purposes or to handle such personal chores as cleaning legislators' homes and fetching their dry cleaning.

It appears that Barack Obama has survived a tough couple of weeks. In the words of some, he's shown that "he can take a punch."

But, frankly, I think Senator Obama is still getting kid gloves treatment from a press corps that tilts left.