AP - The two men who supposedly exemplified a different kind of politics are engaged in an increasingly bitter campaign as character attacks are emerging to compete with issues like the troubled economy.

AP - It's one of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's most surefire applause lines, a vow to veto pork barrel spending like the road and bridge projects that lawmakers hold dear.

AP - Nearly two decades later, John McCain is still haunted by his role in the Keating Five scandal.

AP - Tuesday night's presidential debate offers Republican John McCain one of his last best chances to stop Democrat Barack Obama's recent surge in the race and turn it in his favor.

AP - Sarah Palin's promise for a new era of government openness as the reform governor of Alaska started to crack even before Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign built a wall of protectiveness around her.

AP - GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.

AFP - The US Supreme Court Monday refused to hear arguments for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther accused of killing a police officer who has become an icon for anti-capital punishment campaigners.

AP - Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, Congress was told Monday.

AP - Alaska Republicans are asking the state's highest court to block an abuse-of-power investigation into vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's firing of a state commissioner before a potentially embrassing report on the matter is released.

AP - The McCain and Obama presidential campaigns traded accusations of mudslinging Monday in the wake of new ads dredging up infamous events from 20, 30, even 40 years ago.