The decisions by Senators Christopher J. Dodd and Byron L. Dorgan to retire have brought new attention to the party's challenges in midterm elections.

The announcement by the embattled Connecticut Democrat opens the way for the state's popular attorney general to run.

Senator Byron L. Dorgan will not seek re-election, a sign of the difficulties Democrats will face in midterm voting.

Harold Ford Jr., the former congressman from Tennessee, is weighing a bid to unseat Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand.

On nearly every front, President Obama's goal of lower deficits has gotten harder since his first budget a year ago.

President Obama said the U.S. had the information to uncover a recent terror plot but "failed to connect those dots." He also said he would suspend the transfer of detainees to Yemen from Guantánamo Bay.

If an appeals court ruling is upheld, the Obama administration will have a stronger position when opposing a court order to release a terrorism suspect.

It remains unclear how much leverage the House will have in negotiations given that Senate Democrats cannot spare a single vote without jeopardizing the bill's chances.

2010 will be a year of Republican civil war, and Florida is where the fighting is now fiercest.