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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Gov. Rick Perry’s effort to reach out to Latino voters with Tequila joke seems to have fallen flat.