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Articles by Stephen Dinan

This undated photo released by the U.S. Marines, shows Sgt. Rafael Peralta, 25. Peralta is being considered for a posthumous Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military award. Peralta was shot during a house-to-house search in Fallujah. Lying wounded on the floor of a home, he grabbed a grenade that had been lobbed in by an insurgent. The blast killed him. "If he wouldn't have scooped up the grenade, the other three of us in the room that day would have been killed," said former Cpl. Robert Reynolds, who was in Peralta's squad. (AP Photo/U.S. Marines)

Panetta says too much ‘doubt’ in Marine’s Medal of Honor case

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Thursday that he denied the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Rafael Peralta because the evidence from his autopsy created more than a reasonable doubt that he was able to knowingly scoop a grenade beneath him — the act his fellow Marines said saved their lives.

December 13, 2012
Sen. Scott P. Brown leaves town quietly after losing his re-election bid last month in Massachusetts. He delivered a farewell address to the Senate on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

Scott Brown makes quiet exit from Senate stage

Sen. Scott Brown entered the chamber in 2010 as the tea-party darling who made Republicans relevant in Washington once again, giving them the 41st vote in the Senate that allowed them to filibuster President Obama's agenda.

December 12, 2012
Peralta

Top medal denied twice to Marine

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has denied the request to give Sgt. Rafael Peralta the Medal of Honor, saying there are still too many questions to accept that he knowingly scooped a grenade beneath himself to absorb its blast and save his fellow Marines.

December 12, 2012
Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, is the Senate majority leader.

Lawsuit aims to be a filibuster buster

Even as some Senate Democrats push to rewrite the rules governing the filibuster, the chamber's attorneys were in federal court Monday trying to defend the very existence of the filibuster against a legal challenge that says it is an affront to democracy.

December 10, 2012
This Oct. 30, 2012 file photo shows water reaching the street level of the flooded Battery Park Underpass in New York. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)

White House says federal bill for Sandy is $60 billion

The White House sent Congress a $60.4 billion emergency spending request Friday to pay for recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which struck the northeastern U.S. five weeks ago, killing dozens and flooding homes and businesses across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

December 7, 2012
**FILE** Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner answers questions Nov. 30, 2012, about averting the "fiscal cliff" for the Dec. 2 episode of CBS' “Face the Nation.” (Associated Press/CBS News)

U.S. borrows 46 cents of every dollar it spends

The federal government borrowed 46 cents of every dollar it has spent so far in fiscal 2013, which began Oct. 1, according to the latest data the Congressional Budget Office released Friday.

December 7, 2012
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (right) of Nevada, seen here Thursday with fellow Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, ridiculed his Republican counterpart for flip-flopping on a measure to give the president more debt-ceiling authority. (Associated Press)

White House won’t sidestep Hill on debt ceiling

Even with year-end budget talks at a standstill, the White House said Thursday it will not do an end-run around Congress and claim constitutional powers to raise the debt ceiling on its own.

December 6, 2012
**FILE** Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat (Associated Press)

Detention bill cleared, but language no clearer

Senators had vowed to use the annual defense debate to clear up lingering questions about indefinite detention of U.S. citizens after last year's go-around — but the bill they cleared this week only added to the confusion.

December 6, 2012
GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, citing terrorism, sponsored legislation to give former U.S. presidents and their wives lifetime Secret Service protection. (Associated Press)

Protection for former presidents advances

The House voted Wednesday to grant all ex-presidents lifetime Secret Service protection, arguing that in a world of terrorist threats, such a precaution has become necessary.

December 5, 2012
President Obama made a recess appointment to enable Richard Cordray (behind him) to begin serving as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mr. Obama made three other recess appointments. (Associated Press)

Court puts doubt on Obama’s appointments in recess

A federal appeals court cast doubt Wednesday not only on President Obama's controversial January recess appointments but on most such appointments, using oral arguments to question whether presidential powers can ever be used unless Congress has officially adjourned for the end of a year.

December 5, 2012
**FILE** Former President Bill Clinton (left) listens to former President George W. Bush speak on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

War on terrorism spurs House to grant presidents Secret Service protection for life

Two decades ago, Congress passed a bill canceling former presidents' Secret Service protection 10 years after they left office, beginning with George W. Bush. But now, with the war on terrorism presenting new dangers and presidents taking more active roles around the globe, the House did an about-face Wednesday.

December 4, 2012
** FILE ** In this March 30, 2010, photo reviewed by the U.S. military, a U.S. trooper stands in the turret of a vehicle with a machine gun, left, as a guard looks out from a tower at the detention facility on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Obama veto possible over Guantanamo

The Senate Tuesday approved a defense policy bill that calls for a fast transition in Afghanistan, orders a study of U.S. military options in Syria such as imposing a no-fly zone, and restricts President Obama's authority to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

December 4, 2012
Sen. Rand Paul

Senate orders study on U.S. no-fly zone in Syria

The Senate voted Tuesday to order President Obama to study what military options the U.S. would have if it wanted to get more deeply involved in the revolt against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

December 4, 2012
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republlican, talks to reporters after private discussions with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on the "fiscal cliff" negotiations at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democrats shrug off Republicans’ ‘fiscal cliff’ counter

House Republican leaders delivered a $2.2 trillion "fiscal cliff" counteroffer to President Obama on Monday that included $800 billion in tax increases, but the White House and congressional Democrats said that still isn't enough revenue to begin negotiating.

December 3, 2012
Scott Veley of Kensington, Conn., holds a Gadsden flag during a tea party protest at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., on April 15, 2010. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Historic town’s clash leaves ‘Tread’ marks

Officials in Culpeper, Va., decided to create a new public relations branding campaign, and tourism officials suggested they go with a new, less "political" emblem. The problem: The town's existing logo — the famous Revolutionary War-era rattlesnake and "Don't Tread On Me" combination — had been "hijacked" by the conservative tea party movement, staffers said.

December 3, 2012
**FILE** Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican (Associated Press)

House passes bill to cancel diversity visa lottery

The House voted Friday to cancel the annual diversity visa lottery and give those immigration visas to high-tech foreign-born who earn advanced degrees from American universities, as Republicans powered through their chamber the first major immigration bill since the election.

November 30, 2012
** FILE ** Sen. Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire Republican, speaks with reporters after a closed-door meeting with U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice about the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya, at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate votes to rewrite detention rules in war on terror

Senators voted late Thursday to rewrite some of the key rules in the war on terror, including prohibiting indefinite detention of U.S. citizens captured at home, and a permanent ban on transferring suspected terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.

November 29, 2012