He has returned to where he did not wish to return. Back to walking the spotted white marble corridors of the Russell Senate Office Building. Back to Room 241, which says "Senator John McCain -- Arizona" on the door, and where a trickle of people stroll in on this morning in hopes of getting his...

By a narrow margin, a House Democratic advisory committee recommended Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.) to be the next chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, rejecting the current chairman, Rep. John D. Dingell (Mich.), who has been a longtime ally of the now-struggling auto industry.

The Obama administration will soon inherit a $35 billion federal housing agency that was a weak backbencher during the housing crisis and moved too late to do much to keep millions of families from going into foreclosure.

Manuel A. Diaz Current job: Mayor of Miami Credentials: The Cuban-born lawyer ran for mayor in 2001, pledging to manage the then-bankrupt city like a business. He balanced the books and won reelection in 2005. He is the outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The Republican National Committee yesterday highlighted the role of attorney general candidate Eric H. Holder Jr. in controversial 2001 pardons, but GOP senators avoided direct attacks on Barack Obama's leading choice to lead the Justice Department.

Bill Clinton has agreed to a series of concessions requested by officials representing Barack Obama's presidential transition team, moving his wife one step closer to potentially becoming the next secretary of state.

Thomas A. Daschle, a former Senate majority leader and a confidant of President-elect Barack Obama, will be nominated as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and will take on a broader role as the administration's health policy chief, said several sources close to the transition...

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), whose handling of immigration issues brought her accolades from fellow governors, is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to serve as secretary of homeland security, Democratic sources said late Wednesday.

Thomas A. Daschle Born: Dec. 9, 1947, in Aberdeen, S.D. Education: BA, South Dakota State University, 1969 Family: Married to Linda Hall Daschle, a lobbyist representing primarily aviation companies; three children from a previous marriage, Kelly, Nathan and Lindsay. Career highlights: After beco...

After pledging more than $1 trillion to rescue financial markets, President Bush has fought against a series of proposals for additional bailouts by Democrats and emphasized the benefits of free markets.

Nearly every aspect of the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout program has sparked fierce debate except for one: the need to establish a strong watchdog agency as swiftly as possible.

The Bush administration is "close" to finalizing a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be harmed by agency projects, according to the Interior Department.

Evo Morales, the charismatic but controversial president of Bolivia, this week came to Washington for the first time, saying he hoped for a fresh start with President-elect Barack Obama while defiantly reiterating the policies that have led to the near-collapse of his relations with the Bush...

Poland's foreign minister said yesterday that his country will wait for the Obama administration to make up its mind on basing missile defense interceptors in his country and will not lobby to have the project proceed.

Second of two articles The pressure on Henry M. Paulson Jr. in early September was greater than at any other time during his tenure as Treasury secretary. As he pored over the books of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he discovered that they were about to collapse and that the financia...

Eric H. Holder Jr., a former Justice Department official who was President-elect Barack Obama's campaign co-chairman, is the leading candidate to serve as the next U.S. attorney general, according to Democratic sources familiar with the choice.

The chieftains of Detroit's Big Three automakers made a desperate appeal to skeptical lawmakers yesterday for $25 billion in emergency loans to forestall the possible collapse of the domestic auto industry, offering to cut their own salaries in exchange for government aid.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) easily won a vote yesterday to remain chairman of a key committee and will stay in the Senate Democratic caucus despite his high-profile criticism of President-elect Barack Obama and his support of Sen. John McCain during the presidential campaign.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) defeated Sen. Ted Stevens, ending the tenure of the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, after the counting of more ballots yesterday gave him a larger lead than the number of votes still untallied, Alaska elections officials said.

Democrats in the Senate called on President Bush to halt any effort by his administration to place political appointees in career jobs just weeks before his team leaves office.