Could it be that Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, is something less than thoroughly committed to the legal doctrine that abortion is an option guaranteed to women by the U.S. Constitution? A memo written by Kagan when she was a policy advisor to President Bill Clinton urged the President to support a compromise ban on partial birth abortions, referred to in news reports simply as "late-term abortions." News of the memo, reported May 10 by the Associated Press, and the dearth of other information about Kagan relating to the issue, has some "pro-choice" activists looking for a clearer picture of how Kagan might rule on efforts to place any limits on the option to abort by whatever procedure is agreed upon by a woman and her physician.

Sen. Robert F. Bennett of Utah has become the first congressional incumbent to be defeated this year. Given that distinct and dubious honor by the delegates at the Utah Republican Convention on Saturday, Bennett would still rather be his party's nominee for U.S. Senate, as he has been for his past three elections.

Evangelist Franklin Graham said the Obama White House was behind the decision to bar him from speaking at a National Day of Prayer event at the Pentagon because of his comments about the Muslim religion. After the 9/11 attacks, Graham called Islam a "very evil and wicked religion." More recently, the Associated Press reported, he has said he finds Islam offensive and wants Muslims to know that Jesus Christ died for their sins. U.S. Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins said on April 22 that Graham's remarks were "not appropriate."

Buoyed by the popular backlash against "ObamaCare" and polls showing strong support for GOP candidates, Republicans in the Granite State promised to "Take Back New Hampshire" Saturday as about 300 delegates gathered at Bow High School, just a few miles south of the state capitol in Concord.

A Republican who became the leader of the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court, 90-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens, has announced he will retire at the end of the current term, after more than 34 years on the nation's highest tribunal. Nominated by Republican President Gerald Ford, who said he wanted "the finest legal mind I could find," Stevens was quickly confirmed by a Senate vote of 98-0, and was sworn in as Associate Justice on December 19, 1975.

The New Hampshire Sunday News of January 3 of this year ran a front-page feature story on the state’s senior U.S. Senator, Judd Gregg, the “deficit hawk.” But those paying close attention may have a hard time reconciling such a description of the Republican solon after his 17 years thus far in the Senate.

It may be considered a strange case of “Back to the Future,” halfway around the world. Twenty years after the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the apparent demise of Soviet communism, the United States appears to be emulating pre-Bolshevik Russia. Without knowing exactly how or why, America has become the land of the “czars,” men and women appointed by some undefined process, often of dubious legality, literally to rule over various segments and activities of our political, social, and economic life. America has a Science Czar, a School Safety Czar, a Car Czar, and even a Czars Czar.

Accusing Democrats in Washington of running "a Ponzi scheme on the Potomac," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty made his first foray into New Hampshire since he campaigned for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008, speaking Wednesday night at a fundraiser for Republican state Senate candidates in Concord.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, often talked about as a possible Republican candidate for President in 2012, should cut his ties to controversial civil rights activist Al Sharpton, National Legal and Policy Center President Peter Flaherty said. As reported on the Internet news magazine Newsmax, Flaherty has called on Gingrich to terminate his association with the fiery black preacher after Sharpton had spoken out against conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh's involvement with a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League.

When the Raymond, New Hampshire, selectmen refused permission to a local resident to hold a yoga class on the town green in honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace, they may not have anticipated the decision would draw gun-toting libertarians and others to the site to show support for First and Second Amendment rights.