AP - Barack Obama is "The Joker." Nancy Pelosi is portrayed as Cruella De Vil, and Harry Reid as Scooby Doo — all part of a Republican Party pitch to top fundraisers.

AP - Texas Gov. Rick Perry latched onto the rising wave of anti-Washington ire and rode it to an easy Republican primary win over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, once seen as the candidate who could block his march toward four more years in the state's highest office.

AP - The end game at hand, President Barack Obama took command Wednesday of one final attempt by Democrats to enact bitterly contested health care legislation, calling for an "up or down vote" within weeks under rules denying Republicans the ability to kill the bill with mere talk.

AP - The leaders of a new Pentagon study promised Congress on Wednesday an honest assessment on whether allowing gays to serve openly might cause troops to lose their edge in battle.

The Christian Science Monitor - President Obama’s call Wednesday for an “up-or-down vote” on healthcare reform may not sound like fighting words, but for Senate Republicans, it’s a call to arms.

AP - California needs an elder statesman who can broker deals to lead it out of its current fiscal morass, not an autocratic CEO who is used to giving orders, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown said Wednesday.

AP - Debra Medina was hardly the ideal candidate in Tuesday's Republican primary: She didn't raise much money and came under fire for suggesting the U.S. might have been involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Still, she won nearly one out of every five votes, harnessing some support in the nascent tea party movement.

AP - Putting a lone senator's cantankerous challenge behind it, the Senate is back to work on a $100 billion-plus bill reviving popular tax breaks and extending longer and more generous jobless benefits through the end of the year.