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Washington (CNN) – Wait a minute: Don't ask me, ask Tiger!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, invoked the embattled golfer's name Thursday afternoon in an effort to sidestep questions when a group of reporters approached ready to pepper him about the latest developments regarding Afghanistan and health care reform.

"Get the answers from Tiger Woods," Reid, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, said even before reporters could ask him a question.

When an aide warned Reid that his quip would "end up on the CNN Web site," the smiling majority leader repeated his previous directive.

"Ask Tiger, not me," Reid said as he walked away from the closed-door briefing he had just received on Afghanistan.

(CNN) – A political organization that opposes illegal immigration announced Thursday that it will no longer support commentator and former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs.

After being a vocal critic of proposals for federal amnesty for illegal immigrants, Dobbs appeared to soften his stance late last month in an interview with Telemundo, a Spanish-language television network.

Dobbs told Telemundo he is one of the Latino community's "greatest friends."

"What isn't working is a penalty to those who are in this country illegally for whom we can both be building a bridge to the future in which there is legalization and at the same time constructing an environment in which everyone is clear and unequivocal about the need for boarder security and a regulated flow of immigration," Dobbs also said in the interview.

At the time, Dobbs maintained that his position on immigration has not changed despite what appears to be a more moderate stance.

But the political action committee that has supported Dobbs disagreed, announcing on its Web site Thursday that it now opposes him.

"Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is withdrawing support for Lou Dobbs after years, including the suspension of websites calling on Dobbs to run for President due to the perceived change in Mr. Dobbs's stances on immigration issues," the organization wrote.

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Washington (CNN) - The White House is being accused stonewalling as Congress investigates the party-crasher security breach at President Obama's first state dinner last week.

At issue: Whether the White House is protecting Social Secretary Desiree Rogers from testifying about how Tareq and Michaele Salahi were able to crash the first White House state dinner. The couple did not have an invite but were allowed in.

Rogers' office planned the dinner.

Members of Congress put pressure on Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan Friday for the grate crashing fiasco. Sullivan said his agency will take the heat for the incident.

"This is our fault and our fault alone," he said. "There's no other people to blame here. ... Look at me and blame me," he told the House Homeland Security Committee.

Lawmakers praised his candor, but bluntly declared that Rogers should be facing tough questions too.

Full story

Related: White House 'stonewalling' on security breach, Republican says

(CNN) – A special House panel considering an impeachment measure against South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford decided Thursday that their review will not include most of the state ethics charges filed against the governor last month.

South Carolina state lawmakers voted to throw out 28 of the 37 civil charges filed by the state Ethics Commission, most of which involved Sanford's purchase of business class tickets with taxpayer money and his use of campaign funds.

State House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, who is overseeing the special impeachment panel, said the ethics charges do not rise "to the level of serious misconduct or a serious offense" that would merit removing Sanford from office.

Harrison's subcommittee is still evaluating Sanford's use of state-owned aircraft along with the original impeachment resolution, which focuses on whether Sanford broke the law by secretly leaving the state in June to visit his mistress.

One of Sanford's attorneys, Ross Garber, applauded the decision.
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Washington (CNN) - Just about every blockbuster movie is followed by a sequel, or two. The tea party cross country caravan, it appears, is no different.

A Tea Party Express official tells CNN that they're planning a third national tour in late March and early April that will culminate in the nation's capitol on April 15, tax deadline day.

Levi Russell, a spokesman for the group, which is organized by the conservative political action committee Our Country Deserves Better, says the slogan for the tour is "just vote them out."

Russell says that with the crucial 2010 midterm elections just months away, the tour will spotlight members of Congress who they consider the worst offenders when it comes to fiscal policy. While both Republicans and Democratic lawmakers will be targeted, Russell acknowledges that more Democrats than Republicans will be on their scopes.

Russell tells CNN that tour is expected to kick off on March 27 in Searchlight, Nevada, which is the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He adds that the three Republican candidates running to challenge Reid in next year's election are planning to attend the rally.
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(CNN) – Connecticut Republican Tom Foley announced Thursday that he is dropping bid for the GOP's 2010 Senate nomination in his state. Instead, Foley also announced, he has decided to run governor of Connecticut.

In explaining the switch, the business executive and former ambassador to Ireland said in a statement on his campaign Web site that advisers had initially suggested he run for governor.

"At the time, though, Governor Rell, whom I respect very much, was preparing to run for re-election," Foley said.

But things changed when Gov. Jodi Rell, Connecticut's Republican executive, announced that she would not seek re-election next year.

"Many of the same people who a year ago said the Governorship is where I could best serve Connecticut, have called to re-iterate that to me," Foley said on his Web site Thursday.

After also receiving many e-mails and speaking with "more than one hundred people – including many who are currently serving in [Connecticut] state government," Foley said he decided to switch races.

Foley added that he will be "assembling a policy team . . . to evaluate options and make recommendations for solving the problems we face."

The Connecticut Democratic Party immediately took aim at Foley after his announcement.

"Over the next few months, assuming Tom Foley doesn't drop out of this race, too, we look forward to hearing what he believes he has to offer the people of this state on any number of issues they find themselves facing," Colleen Flanagan, the state party's Communications Director, said in a statement.

Washington (CNN) - Sen. Bob Corker said Thursday that his daughter is fine but "really sore" after being pulled from her car and thrown to the ground in a carjacking in the nation's capital Wednesday night.

The Tennessee Republican said his 22-year-old daughter, Julia, stopped the family's 2005 Chevy Tahoe not far from their apartment - just nine blocks from the U.S. Capitol building - to help someone she thought needed directions.

"A gentleman appeared, opened the door, grabbed her by the neck," the senator said. "She kicked to try to get away ... and he threw her on the pavement and drove away."

Corker credited the vehicle's OnStar system with helping to locate it, and the suspects were taken into custody a short time later in a parking lot in Seat Pleasant, Maryland.

"It's pretty incredible how quickly they were able to apprehend" the suspects, the senator said. The two people in the car were taken into custody by police in Seat Pleasant after OnStar determined their exact location and showed that the vehicle was not moving, Corker explained.
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Washington (CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, scrapped plans late Thursday to turn the Senate's attention to an amendment that would ban federal funds from being used for abortions after the author told Reid he was not yet finished crafting it.

The decision to delay action on the controversial amendment from Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, came after Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is co-sponsoring the amendment, complained that Reid was rushing debate on it.

"He (Nelson) is being pushed very hard by his side to bring it up before it's ready to be brought up," Hatch said. "To do really good legislation around here, you need to make sure people who agree with you are on board and the outside groups feel good about it. There's a lot of work I need to do and he needs to do."

Nelson said he did not feel rushed by Reid and blamed the delay on the complexities of writing the highly technical abortion language.

A Reid aide said the majority leader has not decided which amendments will be debated next on the Senate floor in place of the Nelson amendment.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, said Reid told him his amendment to permit the re-importation of prescription drugs, as a way to drive down the cost of medicines, could be considered as early as Friday or sometime this weekend.

Reid said Thursday he is planning to hold floor votes over the weekend.

Washington (CNN) – The John McCain of 2009 is singing a different tune than the John McCain of 2008.

On Thursday, the Arizona senator hammered the AARP on the Senate floor and on his Twitter account for supporting a proposal by Senate Democrats to cut millions from Medicare to help pay for health care legislation.

"I call on seniors to cut up their AARP cards and send them back to them!" McCain tweeted Thursday afternoon.

Endorsing Democrats in the health care fight seems to have changed McCain's thinking on the AARP, the nation's most influential senior lobby. During his 2008 presidential bid, the Republican nominee praised the group's leadership in some key policy battles.

"I say God bless AARP for everything they are doing, not only for the present generations of Americans, but for future generations," McCain told an AARP audience in September of last year. "That's your duty, that's your strength, and that's why I love to see you at every town hall meeting. And that's why I always try to let you talk."

McCain thanked the group for working with him on what he called "the big fights," citing tobacco legislation and campaign finance reform. "This organization has been an incredibly valuable contributor to the important discourses I just mentioned, and it's been there for decades, for decades," he said at the time.

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Washington (CNN) - House Democrats said Thursday they're planning to use money intended to bail out banks, Wall Street and other financial institutions to pay for their jobs bill, a package they aim to vote on by the end of the
year.

"I think the TARP funds are appropriately used to create jobs to reduce the deficit," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at her weekly news conference, referring to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

It's unclear if the proposal would tap unused TARP funds or money repaid to the Treasury by banks who got bailout money. Democratic sources say leaders are discussing those details with the Obama administration.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been looking at a series of proposals to address the record unemployment numbers in recent weeks and are now focusing on an initial package that Congress could vote on before leaving for the holiday break.

But the speaker stressed that "this is not the be-all" and said Congress will work on a broader economic proposal early next year.
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Abortion is the political hot potato that could derail health care reform entirely.

It caused major disagreements in the House – and the Senate is now wrestling with how to address the issue. Democrat Ben Nelson says he will introduce an anti-abortion amendment... and that he won't vote for the health care bill unless this language gets added.

Nelson and others aren't satisfied with Majority Leader Harry Reid's current plan – that is to forbid including abortion coverage as a required medical benefit – but to allow a new government insurance plan to cover abortions and let private insurers that get federal money offer plans that include coverage for abortion.

In the House – a group of anti-abortion Democrats added restrictions that would forbid any health plan that gets federal money from paying for abortions – except in the case of rape, incest or to save the mother's life. Also under the House bill, a new government insurance plan couldn't offer abortions – and women would have to buy separate coverage for abortion services.

To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion, click here

The director of the U.S. Secret Service said Thursday 'appropriate procedures were not followed' at the White House dinner. (Photo Credit: Getty Images/File)

Washington (CNN) – The director of the U.S. Secret Service acknowledged to a House committee Thursday that "appropriate procedures were not followed" when a Virginia couple not on the guest list entered the White House before a state dinner last week.

Mark Sullivan, testifying at a Homeland Security Committee hearing, said a preliminary investigation into the incident has been completed, and the guards involved have been placed on administrative leave with pay. He said that once the extent of culpability is determined, he would take "appropriate action."

"I regret ... that established protocols and procedure were not followed," Sullivan said, calling the breach that began at the White House entry checkpoint "unacceptable and indefensible."

The couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, contend they were told they could attend the program to honor India's prime minister, but the White House says they were not invited and were not on the official guest list for the exclusive affair - President Barack Obama's first state dinner.
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(CNN) – President Obama called on business leaders Thursday to help the administration kickstart hiring as policymakers contend with rising unemployment that’s weighing down the economy.

Some 130 executives, economists, small business owners and non-profit officials are gathering for the afternoon jobs summit at the White House on the eve of the government's November unemployment report. The nation is expected to have lost another 114,000 jobs, with unemployment remaining at 10.2%, the highest in 26 years, according to an economists' survey.

"I'm not interested in taking a wait and see approach when it comes to creating jobs," Obama said.

The employment picture is certainly grim. Nearly 16 million Americans are out of work, one-third of whom have been unemployed for more than six months. There are now six workers competing for every job vacancy.

President Obama and some lawmakers are searching for a way to stem this unrelenting loss of jobs, which is casting doubt on effectiveness of many of his economic programs, from his $787 billion stimulus plan to his $75 billion foreclosure prevention initiative.

Just how much Washington can do to boost hiring remains to be seen.

Full story

Washington (CNN) – In its first votes on amendments to the massive health care bill, the Senate approved a Democratic amendment Thursday to provide women with low cost mammograms and other preventative tests and rejected a Republican counter amendment that sought to prevent government boards from having influence over which screening tests for women would be covered.

The amendments were prompted by the recent uproar over a controversial recommendation by a government task force that some women should not receive annual mammograms to detect breast cancer. Democrats wanted to assure women that health care reform won't lead to a rationing of such care and Republicans wanted to make the point that it will.

The votes came on the fourth day of debate on health care reform,, which has been dominated by partisan rhetoric and gridlock. A second series of votes is planned Thursday afternoon on another hot-button issue: whether almost $500 billion in cuts to Medicare in the Democratic bill will mean a reduction of care for the nation's seniors.

A motion by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain would force the bill back into committee to be stripped of its Medicare cuts. Last year's GOP presidential nominee and other Republicans argue it's impossible to cut that much spending from the Medicare program without hurting seniors.

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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) - The latest U.S. strategy for the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan will be a "fiasco" that will lead only to more dead Americans, the Taliban insurgency said Thursday.

President Barack Obama laid out plans to dispatch another 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan this week, along with an expected contribution of at least 5,000 more from NATO countries. But the Taliban, the Islamic militia now battling U.S. and allied troops there, said the plans Obama laid out aren't new and won't resolve the conflict.

"Throughout the history of Afghanistan, the Afghans have not been subjugated through deceit, ploys, material power, troop reinforcement and military might of the foreigners," Taliban leaders said in a statement released Thursday. "Therefore, the reinforcement of the American troops and other tactics will not have impact on the status quo. But the reinforcement will provide better opportunity for the mujahedeen to launch offensives."

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 pushed out the Taliban, which had allowed the al Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington to operate from its territory. The goal of the buildup Obama announced Tuesday night is to turn back the Taliban resurgence, bolster the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and allow American forces to begin withdrawing in July 2011.

But the Taliban said Obama's plan "will fail like it did previously. It will face fiasco."

Washington (CNN) - Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, who ran the Justice Department's day-to-day operations, announced Thursday he will soon resign after less than a year in the key post.

Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed the news of the unusually early departure, but gave no indication of any differences between himself and his deputy.

Holder called Ogden "an effective and diligent advocate for the American people."

"I am sorry to see him go, and I thank him for his service to the department and to the nation," Holder said.

Ogden said he would return to his Washington law firm when he steps down on February 5. He said that would provide Holder time to identify his successor and ensure a smooth transition.

"The goals I hoped to achieve when I accepted this position either have been or soon will be fulfilled," Ogden said in a prepared statement. "The Department is in good hands, and I feel I can now return to the private practice I have missed these thirteen months," he said.

Ogden held the position which Holder occupied under former Attorney General Janet Reno.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke got an endorsement from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd at the start of his confirmation hearing Thursday, even as Dodd called for a removal of some of the central banks current powers.

Dodd said Bernanke and the Fed deserved credit for the steps taken in the financial crisis of a year earlier to stop the economic crisis from becoming significantly worse than it did.

"I believe you are the right leader for this moment in the nation's economic history and it would send the right message to markets," Dodd said during his opening statement.

But the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, was far more critical of Bernanke in his opening statement, telling Bernanke "I fear now our trust and confidence (in the Federal Reserve) was misplaced." He did not say whether he would vote for or against confirmation, though.

Full story

Washington (CNN) -- The Republican National Committee will begin running radio ads in parts of Pennsylvania Thursday, a day before President Obama heads to Allentown to make remarks on the economy.

The 60-second ads will run for two days, an RNC official tells CNN. The committee is expected to announce the radio ads soon.

"Earlier this year, President Obama and Arlen Specter passed a $787 billion stimulus package that has created more growth in government instead of creating jobs for Pennsylvanian families," RNC Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement that will accompany the news advisory announcing the buy. "Nearly 11 months after their big-government spending experiment, unemployment in Pennsylvania has only continued to rise. President Obama and Arlen Specter spent $787 billion in taxpayers' money, and have nothing to show for it. To make matters worse, they want a second stimulus. As President Obama and Washington bureaucrats roll into Allentown, they need to tell Pennsylvania families why the economy has gone from bad to worse under their watch."

The president is holding a jobs forum at the White House on Thursday, where he will meet with representatives from the business and financial industries as well as labor unions. Friday to president heads to Allentown, the first stop of what the Administration terms a "White House to Main Street" tour that will take Obama to cities and towns across the country.

See full script after the jump.

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Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama's plan to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan while setting a goal of beginning a U.S. withdrawal in July 2011 was sharply questioned by both conservative and liberal critics on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Most Republicans backed the president's decision to send more troops.

They claimed, however, he was playing politics by setting an "arbitrary" withdrawal deadline while insisting that any transfer of responsibility to the Afghan government will ultimately be based on conditions in that country.

They also argued he had inadvertently strengthened the hand of Taliban and al Qaeda extremists by allowing them to know when a U.S. departure from the war-torn country would begin.

Several members of the Democratic caucus, on the other hand, expressed unease with the president's decision to send thousands of additional troops over the next several months. They questioned whether the war is winnable.

Obama's blueprint was closely examined during appearances before two key committees by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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