New Boston, New Hampshire (CNN) - Former Sen. Rick Santorum offered a robust defense of Israel and faulted presidents Bush and Obama for their dealings with Iran in a minutely-detailed foreign-policy speech Thursday.

His comments came after a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran appeared to have continued its efforts to construct a nuclear weapon.
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(CNN) - A Democratic incumbent state senator conceded a tight race in Virginia Thursday, leaving the commonwealth's Senate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with the Republican lieutenant governor breaking tie votes.

The result represents a big win for the GOP in Virginia, where Republicans control the three highest state offices, as well as the House of Delegates. Previously Democrats held a majority in the state Senate, which is now split 20-20.
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New Boston, New Hampshire (CNN) - The day after Rick Perry's embarrassing mental slip at a GOP debate, former Sen. Rick Santorum waded into the hubbub at a town hall in New Hampshire.

It was unclear whether Santorum meant to ding the Texas governor.
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(CNN) - President Obama’s ubiquitous assistant and body-man Reggie Love is getting ready to leave the White House at the end of the year.

Never far behind the president, Love is the man responsible for keeping the leader of the free world on schedule and can often be seen carrying bags full of briefing books and background papers as the president walks ahead unencumbered.

Washington (CNN) - The White House agreed Thursday to turn over some documents demanded under subpoena by a House panel investigating the collapse of solar energy firm Solyndra, Republican investigators said.

White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler initially balked at complying with the House Energy Committee's subpoena, calling it too broad.

(CNN) - Fighting concerns about Rick Perry's candidacy after the presidential candidate forgot part of his plan in a debate, Anita Perry insisted on Thursday that her husband isn't the forgetful kind.

"Everybody forgets something every now and then, but he remembered our anniversary last week," she said Thursday at a campaign event in Duval County, Florida.
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Phoenix (CNN) - Republican presidential candidates crisscross the country searching for votes. But some are going out of their way to make a stop for the vote of one person: Joe Arpaio, the controversial sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.

"They don't come see me because I'm tall, dark and handsome. They come for my endorsement," Arpaio told CNN.

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN)– Some of Iowa's Republican Party county chairmen and women offered forgiving words for Rick Perry's "oops" moment in Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, but virtually all of those contacted by CNN said the gaffe does not bode well for Perry 's campaign.

Perry has staked much of his candidacy on winning Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses on January 3, having visited the state numerous times since getting into the Republican race.
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Troy, Michigan (CNN) – Mitt Romney avoided questions Thursday about Rick Perry's now infamous mental lapse in the previous night's debate, instead focusing on his Michigan roots in a play for voters in a state that will be both a primary and general election battleground.

As the former Massachusetts governor worked the crowd after a rally inside a Polish Cultural Center in the Detroit suburb of Troy, he repeatedly declined to weigh in on Perry, who awkwardly failed to remember the third of the three federal agencies he would eliminate as president.
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(CNN) - Protesters disrupted Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's foreign policy speech in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Thursday, causing Bachmann to briefly leave the stage until the disturbance was over.

About a dozen protesters stood up and delivered a coordinated message, in a call-and-response format, which drowned out the Minnesota congresswoman's remarks.
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