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Congress passes extension of payroll tax cut

Congress passed a $150 billion economic package Friday, extending for the rest of the year a payroll tax holiday for 160 million workers and unemployment benefits for millions of others.

On a 293-132 vote, a bipartisan House coalition supported the compromise plan to keep giving workers a small amount of extra cash with each paycheck while also providing a continued cushion for the unemployed.

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New Ethics panel members named to probe Rep. Maxine Waters after recusals

Updated 3:18 p.m.

A half-dozen members of the House Ethics Committee have recused themselves from the troubled investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and been replaced by a new team, a sign that the stalled probe is set to restart.

Newt Gingrich’s risky Super Tuesday strategy

Newt Gingrich is handing Rick Santorum a golden opportunity to prove himself as the true anti-Romney conservative before Super Tuesday.

So far, the former House speaker’s campaign has shown little inclination to play in the three states that will hold their contests before March 6, a risky strategy that could pretty easily backfire.

Santorum reports millions in income as Washington consultant

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, whose humble coal-country biography is central to his political message, made more than $3.6 million in recent years as a Washington consultant and claimed a German luxury sedan as a business expense, according to tax returns released by his campaign.

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In Mormon files, researcher Helen Radkey seeks to cause a headache for Romney

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney has major headaches named Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

This month, he also had Helen Radkey.

At 1:55 p.m. on Feb. 8, Radkey, an excommunicated Mormon who spends her days combing through databases at the church’s Family History Library, ­e-mailed Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, named for the famed Nazi-hunter.

Romney’s work on Olympics, Mass. projects reveals complex history with earmarks

DETROIT — Mitt Romney is escalating his attacks on GOP presidential rival Rick Santorum as a Washington insider who sought more than $1 billion for wasteful projects during his time in the Senate.

But Romney has a complicated relationship with federal funding. As the head of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, he led an aggressive effort to win hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid for the struggling Winter Games. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney requested millions in federal earmarks for state transportation projects. He once boasted about his prowess at winning taxpayer money.

Newt Gingrich demands TV stations pull ads

Newt Gingrich wants ads off the air, Chris Christie vetoes gay marriage, the Maine results are in doubt and January fundraising numbers are in.

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Tea Party faces a turning point in 2012 Senate races

The tea party referendum has officially begun.

Despite the success of tea party candidates all over the country in 2010, many top GOP Senate candidates have avoided the same kind of tough insider-outsider primary matchups that made the summer of 2010 so interesting. The latest is New Mexico Republican Heather Wilson, a moderate whose more-conservative opponent dropped out of the race this week.

Top Sarah Palin aide blasts ‘Game Change’ movie as ‘fiction’

A top aide to Sarah Palin says the upcoming HBO movie documenting the 2008 presidential campaign is a work of fiction based on “manipulating history.”

In a statement provided to The Washington Post, SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford said HBO’s “Game Change,” which is based on a popular book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and debuts next month, is likely to be riddled with falsehoods.

Candidates Romney, Santorum, Paul converge on Idaho

BOISE -- In 2008, Idaho was barely a blip on the Republican radar. With a May primary and four electoral votes up for grabs in the general election, the GOP contenders treated this state like flyover country four years ago.

Georgians against Newt could spell trouble for Gingrich

Victoria Wilcox is from Peachtree City, Ga., the city about an hour south of Atlanta where Newt Gingrich is bringing his campaign Friday night.

A 57-year-old writer, Wilcox has been leaning toward Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential primary for some time, but she “definitely checked out the other candidates.”

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine endorses Rick Santorum, rescinding support for Mitt Romney

Ohio attorney general and former Sen. Mike DeWine endorsed former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum in Columbus Friday afternoon.

DeWine had previously endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. He is the most high profile defection from Romney’s campaign so far.

Foster Friess aspirin joke shows danger to candidates of outside political groups

An incendiary remark by Rick Santorum’s biggest financial backer illustrates one of the key dangers posed by a new breed of outside political groups: their ability to cause problems for the candidates they’re trying to help.