(CNN)– A state judge in the Alaska Superior Court has ruled against Senate candidate Joe Miller's challenge of write-in ballots. The ruling states that there is no proof of election official fraud, or that "there would be a sufficient change to the election results if these claims were true."

The ruling order is stayed until December 13 to allow for an appeal, but the Alaska Division of Elections has asked a federal judge to lift the stay and allow them to certify the Senate results in favor of Lisa Murkowski.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Friday enlisted former President Bill Clinton to help sell a compromise tax package negotiated with Republicans to reluctant Democrats.

After meeting with Clinton at the White House, Obama brought him to the briefing room to tout the proposal to reporters, even backing off after a brief introduction to let Clinton do the talking and take questions.

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(CNN) - In case you haven't tuned into C-SPAN Friday, you might have missed that Sen. Bernie Sanders has been talking. And talking. And talking.

Summoning his inner Frank Capra, the Vermont independent has been speaking on the Senate floor virtually non-stop since 10:24 a.m. ET - all in an effort to show his opposition to the temporary extension of the Bush-era tax cuts that President Obama and Republicans have agreed to.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Senate will ratify a new arms control treaty with Russia this year, staying in session however long it takes to get it done, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted on Friday.

Gibbs made his prediction on the same day that Maine's two moderate Republican senators - Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins - declared their support for the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START. Previously, GOP Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana backed ratification of the treaty.

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Washignton (CNN)–After meeting Friday with President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton told reporters he supported the tax and benefits package negotiated with Republicans because "I don't believe is a better deal out there."

Washington (CNN) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, will join several leading Democratic, Republican and other independent political leaders in the launch of a new group that hopes to find non-partisan solutions to some of the nation's problems and to impact the next Congressional session.

The organization, known as No Labels, kicks off Monday in New York with a series of panels discussing some key political problems in America and how it can help find common ground.
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(CNN) - Who will be blamed if tax cuts expire on December 31st? According to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll, it depends on how you slice it.

The political furor surrounding President Barack Obama's deal with Republicans in Congress gives few hints about whether the proposal will succeed or fail. If the measure which includes an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for two years for all Americans, an extension of unemployment benefits for 13 months for the long term unemployed, and lowers the payroll tax by two percentage points for a year, fails and tax cuts are allowed to expire, a new poll says that there will be blame enough to go around.
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(CNN) – Ken Mehlman, the former Republican National Committee Chairman who last summer announced he was gay, says it's time the GOP publicly support same-sex marriage.

Mehlman's new position – once all but unthinkable from the man who ran former President George Bush's 2004 reelection bid – comes more than three months after he shocked many in Washington with his announcement.
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Washington (CNN) - A majority of Americans support a measure that would give legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children if they join the military or go to college, according to a new national survey.

But a Gallup poll released Friday also indicates wide partisan and generational divides over the issue.
Fifty-four percent of people questioned in the survey say they would vote for the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for thousands of young adults currently living in the country illegally, with 42 percent saying they would vote against the bill and four percent unsure.
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Washington (CNN) - They make for strange political bedfellows. Some on the right are joining their usual adversaries on the left in their anger at the proposed tax cut deal.

Many conservative activists are particularly upset that the measure would add almost $900 billion to the deficit - although they all support the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, arguing those would spur economic growth.
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