CINCINNATI — The fight between President Obama and his rivals got personal Thursday over the administration’s $447 billion jobs bill, as the president called out the nation’s two most powerful Republicans by name in an appearance on their home turf. Obama visited the dilapidated Brent Spence Bridge that connects the home states of House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Read full article > >

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Obama pushes jobs bill on GOP rivals’ turf

Congressional leaders have worked out a deal for a four-year extension of several key provisions of the Patriot Act , with a little over a week remaining until the current measure extending the counterterrorism surveillance law is set to expire. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reached an agreement Thursday on a clean extension — one with no amendments attached — of three major Patriot Act provisions until June 1, 2015, according to a senior Democratic aide. The Senate will take up the measure first, with the vote on ending debate slated for next Monday and a final-passage vote possible Wednesday. The House would then follow suit by the end of the week. Read full article > >

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Leaders forge deal on four-year extension of Patriot Act provisions

Sorry, Harry Reid: It looks like the Senate might vote on repealing health-care reform after all. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to force a vote this week, proposing an amendment Tuesday afternoon to reauthorization of the Federal…

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Senate to Vote on Health-Care Repeal

Washington began last week to come to grips with the new order of things, a regime in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell holds as much sway as the president of the United States.

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The GOP’s lame-duck hardball

It was an odd but intriguing experience to sit at a press breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor last week and listen as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly rebutted one of my recent columns, implicitly endorsed the message of another and sent a disquieting signal about the prospects that might follow a Republican victory in the midterm elections.

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Mitch McConnell comes to the Senate’s defense