Sen. DeMint (R-SC) vows political death for Republicans who vote to increase the debt limit at all. Agreement or no agreement.

What to make of President Obama’s surprising decision to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

One of the original architects of the SPR tells TPM: “I hate to say it because I’m a supporter of the President, but I can’t see it as anything more than a brazen political act to convince people he’s doing something about gas prices.”

Benjy Sarlin has more on the bewildering move.

The GOP-controlled House takes up two Libya resolutions midday today. Susan Crabtree on what to expect.

Newly elected Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has some serious splainin’ to do. After spending nearly $9 million of his own money to get elected in November, Johnson received $10 million in “deferred compensation” from his company.

That’s seems kind of fishy on its own. But it gets better — or worse, if you’re Johnson and his lawyers. Read More

You must see this chart. Debt crisis? If Congress simply does nothing, the deficit disappears on its own by the middle of this decade. Look at the chart.

Private prisons use big bucks to sell politicians on the joys of mass incarceration.

A fun parlor game. Who’s the least popular newly elected Republican in the country? Have your answer? Now look at the graph. Bonus if you can guess which newly elected Republican governor has had the most rapid fall since November.

Gingrich tells reporters his campaign is not as dead as it seems.

Pataki says he may need to get into the presidential race if no strong candidate emerges.

Glenn Beck to visit Auschwitz, figure out, “how did this happen.”

Not a moment too soon since he seems to need a lot of education about just what happened. “Poland, I didn’t know this when I first started doing my research.” Beck said, “Poland rose up, a lot of Poles rose up, to try to help the Jews but they had nothing left. They had no arms.”