Hartford Courant: Politics

Gov. Rod Blagojevich exercised what is left of his power Tuesday with a stunning but probably futile move: appointing someone to the U.S. Senate seat that federal prosecutors accuse him of trying to sell.

President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to lead a full-scale marketing blitz to pass the massive new stimulus package that he says is needed to revive the slumping economy and put the nation on the course he laid out during his campaign.

Wall Street staged a big advance in the next to last session of 2008 Tuesday after Washington's latest lifeline to the auto industry bolstered hopes that the government will do whatever is necessary to cut the recession short.

Each time George W. Bush won the presidency, some people swore they would move to Canada. Most of it was just talk. But there are those who actually made good on their threats. So now that Bush is leaving the White House, will the expats be coming home?

Congressman-elect Jim Himes has chosen a chief of staff to run his new office on Capitol Hill and a district director to supervise the work in his southwestern Connecticut district.

A multimillionaire friend of former Gov. John G. Rowland has agreed to pay a $2,000 fine to settle an ethics enforcement case concerning his attempt in 2000 to use his friendship with Rowland to help close a business deal, the Office of State Ethics announced Monday.

On the heels of last week's announcement of a new $14 billion contract for additional Virginia-class submarines, some members of Congress are seeking support from President-elect Barack Obama for producing eight more of the submarines.

A newly elected Republican state senator is Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton's choice to be the city's part-time economic development director.

Spiraling violence between Israel and Hamas has raised new obstacles to President-elect Barack Obama's ambitious Arab-Israeli peace initiative and his broader effort to improve relations between the U.S. government and the Muslim world, Mideast experts and American officials said Sunday.

President-elect Barack Obama's transition office is ready to release an internal review of all contacts his staff had with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office over the Senate seat that Obama has vacated and that the governor is accused of putting up for sale.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has written off $13.1 million in personal funds she lent her failed presidential campaign, new disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times admitted Monday it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid as "appalling" and "not very democratic."

Sarah Palin lost the election, but to many, her light hasn't dimmed. Even here in liberal Connecticut, she has a devoted circle of fans.

Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons has said he's planning to leave state government, less than a month after lawmakers voted to make major changes to his business advocacy post.

Most Americans are optimistic about the policies that Barack Obama will pursue when he becomes the country's 44th president next month, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Obama Chief Of Staff Mum On Ties To Blagojevich

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is legendary in Illinois political circles for not picking up the phone or returning calls, even from important figures like the state's senior senator, Dick Durbin.

President-elect Barack Obama's selection Saturday of a Harvard physicist and a marine biologist for science posts is a sign he plans a more aggressive response to global warming than did the Bush administration.

Citing imminent danger to the national economy, President George W. Bush ordered an emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in rescue loans and demanding tough concessions from the deeply troubled carmakers and their workers.

President George W. Bush suddenly saw that he could very well be the 21st century's Herbert Hoover. Bush offered Thursday what he dubbed "reflections by a guy who's headed out of town" to a friendly American Enterprise Institute audience at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

President-elect Barack Obama signaled Thursday that he plans to put Wall Street on a tighter leash, saying that he'll soon reveal plans to intensify and perhaps restructure regulation of the financial sector.