By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

ARLINGTON, Va. – Strategies for fighting terrorism can be found in Boston’s successful gang-prevention efforts and in the resolution of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, former Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O’Toole said today.

“Whether Republican dissidents in Northern Ireland, gang members in Boston or LA, or young Muslims facing poverty or prejudice in the UK, many of them are totally disaffected. We need to identify the most vulnerable and engage with them,” she said.

O'Toole, who has been chief inspector of Ireland’s national police since 2006, talked about lessons from Boston in her address to a gathering of intelligence analysts and others who use sophisticated data analysis software to track criminals and terrorists.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

An anti-spending group has issued an economic assessment of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney.

The conservative Club for Growth today released its fifth white paper on the GOP candidates.

It is available at the group's website.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Just days after announcing his presidential bid, Mitt Romney says not to expect him to hit the campaign hustings too hard anytime soon.

“Right now, your greatest enemy is overexposure," he told CNN's Piers Morgan in his first major TV interview since his announcement. "People get tired of seeing the same person day in and day out."

"People are going to start focusing on the elections probably after Labor Day," he added. "And until Labor Day hits, I'm going to be pretty quiet."

Being quiet for Romney became easy tonight. In fact, he was supposed to be on the show for the full hour, but his time was more than cut in half to make room for coverage of a scandal involving Representative Anthony Weiner and his tawdry Tweets (almost as a counter-balance, Romney tonight tweeted a photo of him, his wife, Ann, and their son, Matt, eating takeout on a park bench in New York City).

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

About 3,000 Massachusetts Democrats gathered in Lowell this morning for their annual state convention.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

LOWELL — The six Democrats who so far have declared they want to unseat US Senator Scott Brown next year blasted the Republican and mocked his service in "the people's seat" as they rallied delegates today at their party's annual convention.

"Scott Brown didn't make a mark in the Massachusetts Legislature — and he isn't leaving any footprints in the United States Senate,'' said City Year co-founder Alan Khazei. ""We need a senator who leads."

Newton Mayor Setti Warren accused Brown of voting against the interests of Massachusetts men, women, and children.

"This is our senator, who even questions the science of global climate change," Warren said. "Is that someone who represents the values of our state?"

The crowd of roughly 3,000 delegates gathered at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell replied with a robust "no."

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney tonight began a speech to a ballroom full of Christian conservatives by reaffirming his positions against abortion and gay marriage.

“We’re united tonight in a lot of things,” the former Massachusetts governor said at the start of a 13-minute address in a downtown hotel here. “We’re united in the love we have for this great country. We’re united in our belief in the sanctity of human life. We’re united in our belief in the importance and significance of a marriage between one man and one woman.”

Romney, who wrote a portion of the speech on a legal pad during a flight from Boston to Washington late this afternoon, then turned to the economic themes that are expected to drive his recently launched presidential campaign.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The head of Fiat-Chrysler said today that Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney must have been "smoking illegal material" when he argued in 2008 that the US auto industry could be resurrected without federal financial assistance.

During an interview with CNN, Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, said government support was pivotal.

The comment contrasted with a 2008 op-ed column in which Romney urged the federal government not to provide an industry bailout but instead force automakers into a "managed bankruptcy."

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney was headed from New Hampshire to Washington this afternoon so he could speak tonight at the Faith and Freedom Conference.

Just don't expect much talk about social conservative issues, which were the bane of his first campaign for the presidency in 2008.

Instead, advance excerpts show a reprise of the economic focus that permeated Romney's campaign kickoff speech yesterday.

It's part of his campaign's message-management the second time around:

“President Obama said that unemployment wouldn’t go beyond 8 percent. Today it is over 9 percent. We are going backwards, and that is the wrong direction for America. President Obama has failed.

“Unemployment is not just a statistic. Unemployment means kids can’t go to college; that marriages break up under the financial strain; that young people can’t find work and start their lives; and men and women in their 50s, in the prime of their lives, fear they will never find a job again. President Obama has failed these good and decent Americans.
“Sixteen million Americans are out of work or have stopped looking for work. Make no mistake. This is a moral tragedy - a moral tragedy of epic proportion.

"President Obama should have had one central mission when he took office - put Americans back to work! Fight for every job! Because every job is a paycheck and paychecks fuel Americans dreams. Without a paycheck, you can’t take care of your family. Without a paycheck you can’t buy school books for your kids, keep a car on the road or help an aging parent make ends meet.

“The debt we are amassing as a nation and passing on to our children is immoral. It was once said that we should pass a torch to the next generation. Instead, we are passing on an unpaid bill. Throwing more money at our problems is not the answer.”

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Prospective Republican presidential contender Sarah Palin will continue her "One Nation" tour beyond Washington, D.C., and the New England states.

She said this morning that she plans to take her tour to Iowa and South Carolina, two early voting states.

She made the announcement after having breakfast in Portsmouth with US Senator Kelly Ayotte.

While Palin insisted her visit to the Granite State wasn't a poke in the eye to Mitt Romney as her potential rival held two days of events in New Hampshire, news of her visit trumped coverage of Romney’s formal announcement speech yesterday.

"Palin hits the Seacoast," blared a four-column headline in today's New Hampshire Union Leader.

A story about Romney's speech was relegated to Page A3.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrats are converging on Lowell this afternoon for the fun part of their annual convention: the convention-eve parties.

Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray is throwing a bash, while Senate candidates such as Alan Khazei and Marisa DeFranco are holding smaller receptions. The host committee is also having a party organized by former Lowell City Councilor Curtis LeMay.

In addition, there's a Young Democrats bash at the Brewery Exchange.

Stephan Savoia/AP

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney holds a town hall meeting this morning at the Manchester campus of the University of New Hampshire.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. – In the first town hall of his freshly-announced presidential campaign, Mitt Romney this morning continued to offer a sharp critique of President Obama’s handling of the economy.

“Look he’s a nice guy, he’s well spoken - he could talk a dog off a meat wagon - and yet he hasn’t delivered,” the former Massachusetts governor said in a conference room at the University of New Hampshire’s campus here. “We’ve had three years now - at the beginning it was all George Bush - we’re not hearing a lot about George Bush now, by the way, as we’re seeing unemployment at nine percent plus. It went up again today.”

“He can’t keep blaming George Bush,” he added. “This is now his economy.”

It was the first time this year that Romney has faced a group of voters in the unscripted forums that New Hampshire prides itself on. About 100 people showed up to the event, bringing written questions to ask the candidate about issues he has not brought up himself: education, climate change, and abortion.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Mitt and Ann Romney served up her chicken-and-bean chili today before the former Massachusetts governor publicly declared his second campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

STRATHAM, N.H. — Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney today publicly launched his second bid for the presidency with an outdoor speech at a farm in the lead primary state of New Hampshire.

---

1:16 p.m. - "I refuse to believe that America is just another place on the map with a flag," Mitt Romney told the crowd.

"We know we can bring country back," he said, before reprising a line from the movie, "The American President." "I'm Mitt Romney. I believe in America. And I'm running for president of the United States.

The declaration triggered a chorus of "Go, Mitt, Go."

With that, the speech was over.

---

1:12 p.m. - "Turning around a crisis takes bold action," Mitt Romney declares.

He says he will cap government spending at 20 percent of the budget and "finally, finally" balance the budget.

Then, channeling a famous Democrat, President John F. Kennedy, he says his generation will pass a torch to the next generation — "not a bill."

He pledges his primary focus from Day One as president will be job-creation.

"You know, if you want to create jobs, it helps to have actually had a job — and I have," he said.

Of course, Romney has joked that he has been unemployed since leaving the governor's office in January 2007.

---

1:09 p.m. - Unlike President Obama's European-style solutions, Romney is saying he will bring a CEO's acumen to the White House.

He recalls that he balanced the Massachusetts budget without taxes — but fails to mention he also jacked up fees for a variety of services.

And, despite criticism from conservatives and some of his presidential contenders, Romney says his Massachusetts health care plan was "a state solution to a state problem."

---

1:04 p.m. - The speech is not much of a departure from what Mitt Romney has been saying for the past couple years.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Staffers hung a Romney banner.

Romney says he believes in a country of freedom and opportunity, propelled by entrepreneurship.

He complained that a newly inaugurated President Obama traveled the world, "apologizing" for America.

And he said the president is treating Israel "the same way so many European countries have, with suspicion."

---

1:01 p.m. - The audience applauds as Mitt Romney delivers the signature line of his announcement speech: "Barack Obama has failed America."

Three years later, he said, jobs are hard to come by, grocery and gas prices are up.

"It breaks my heart to see what is happening to our country," he said.

---

12:59 p.m. - Mitt Romney is lauding the country's history as a democracy, and a republic, not a monarchy.

"Who is it that rules this great nation?" he said. "You do."

The voters, in 17 months time, will choose who gives the State of the Union speech.

---

12:56 p.m. - Ann Romney is testfying to her husband as a partner, father, and problem-solver.

"That's why I have all the confidence in the world that this man standing next to me will be the next nominee for the Republican Party — and will be the next president of the United States."

---

12:54 p.m. - Ann and Mitt Romney are taking the stage. She will introduce him.

"Thank-you; very generous," Mitt Romney said to Doug Scamman.

As he has said elsewhere this second campaign, Mitt Romney told the crowd, "Old friends."

---

12:53 p.m. - Doug Scamman, a former speaker of the New Hampshire House, is now introducing the Romneys.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

The Scammans' Bittersweet Farm

The Scammans supported John McCain the last time around, and now they are with the proverbial party "next-in-line."

But Doug Scamman is citing Romney's business and civic background as the basis for his support.

"We need somebody in the White House who can work with everybody," Scamman said.

---

12:50 p.m. - The program is beginning with Stella Scamman saying hello and a 12-year-old leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

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12:31 p.m. - Events are running behind schedule, as Mitt and Ann Romney greet their supporters — amid a scrum of TV cameras...

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12:22 p.m. - Former New Hampshire governor and Bush 41 White House Chief of Staff John Sununu is among those on hand.

---

12:11 p.m. - It IS a different kind of campaign the second time around.

Mitt Romney emerged the Doug and Stella Scamman's farmhouse clad in an open collar and lacking a suitcoat, and then he and his wife, Ann, made their way not to the stage for his announcement speech, but to a table of crockpots to serve her recipe of chicken-and-bean chili.

"Who wants some chili?" the candidate said as he served up heaping scoops.

---

12:04 p.m. - Ace campaign photographer Brooks Kraft reports the chili being served in conjunction with the announcement speech is fantastic.

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom says volunteers had 36 crockpots in the campaign headquarters yesterday to cook chili according to Ann Romney's family recipe.

---

11:55 a.m. - They've brought the crowd in front of the stage to provide a populist scene for the announcement speech.

Old Romney hands Eric Fehrnstrom, Peter Flaherty, and Russ Schriefer are working through the crowd of supporters and reporters.

Also here is at least one of Mitt Romney's sons, Josh, a father of five who deals in real estate in Utah.

---

11:40 a.m. - For Republicans who like to criticize President Obama and his use of TelePrompTers, Romney will be speaking from one.

His campaign has also set-up a tripod just below his podium so it can get close-up shots for use in future videos and campaign commercials.

---

11:18 a.m. - It has been hard to blog from the site, with the wind whipping and the excessive glare from the sun as it jumps in and out of the clouds.

Nonetheless, the report begins: A crowd is assembling at the Scammans' farm, including New Hampshire politicos such as Tom Rath and former Massachusetts supporters including House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr. He brought his father-in-law.

Groups of Romney aides, dressed in blue T-shirts with the campaign slogan "Believe in America" are racing around, completing last-minute preparations.

Mitt Romney was doing a handful a pull-aside interviews beforehand, including with the Fox New Channel's Sean Hannity and ABC News correspondent John Berman, whose network broadcasts over WMUR-TV, the dominant television station in New Hampshire.

Romey is slated to begin speaking about noon.

---

10:24 a.m. - The bucolic setting at Doug and Stella Scamman's Bittersweet Farm was leavened with blustery conditions in the aftermath of a tornado-laden weather system that blew through Romney's home state overnight.

Campaign workers had erected tents and sunscreens for a chili cookoff following the speech, but they dismantled them to avoid them going airborne.

In a nod to the setting, hay bales ringed the stage, media riser, and even the speaker stands.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney this morning is planning to announce his presidential bid by delivering a forceful speech that continues to criticize President Obama’s handling of the economy.

The former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital executive will also seek to portray himself as the candidate with the know-how to get the country’s economy back on track.

“When Barack Obama came to office, we wished him well and hoped for the best,” Romney plans to say, according to excerpts of the speech. “Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are poised to continue focusing most of their own attacks on Romney, with plans for conference calls and the release of a new video tagging him as a wishy-washy politician. The video, called "Romney: Same Candidate, Different Positions," is being released this morning by the Democratic National Committee.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick speaks last night in Springfield in the aftermath of tornadoes that swept Massachusetts, joined by Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, Senator John Kerry, and Mayor Domenic Sarno.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD — As Governor Deval Patrick announced yesterday that a UK-based company was adding up to 25 jobs in Massachusetts, the sunshine streaming into the State House Great Hall from the skylights above faded to black.

The governor finished his remarks, answered a couple questions from reporters in the hallway outside, and then headed off to an evening engagement.

In the elevator, he ran into another reporter who had not been at the event. He asked Patrick what he thought of the reported tornado out west, catching Patrick flat-footed.

It was then that he learned of the storms he would later declare had spawned at least two tornadoes and killed at least four people in Massachusetts.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Be sure to return to "Political Intelligence" before noon tomorrow for coverage as Mitt Romney's publicly declares his second campaign for the presidency.

My Globe colleague Matt Viser and I will be on hand at Doug and Stella Scamman's Bittersweet Farm in Stratham, N.H., for the speech and ensuing chili cookoff.

Ann Romney will be offering her signature campaign; does that stack the odds in her favor?

We plan to live-blog the pre-speech activities and announcement itself, wrap up Romney's remarks, and gather video to complement the coverage.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrats plan to focus on Republican Scott Brown and the record he has compiled in the US Senate during their annual convention in Lowell on Saturday.

According to an agenda released this afternoon, the party will also focus on building upon its 2010 achievements, including repelling a national GOP tide by reelecting an all-Democratic congressional delegation, as well as President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign.

The convention gavels to order at 10 a.m. at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell.

It will include remarks by Governor Deval Patrick and the state's other constitutional officers, as well as the four Democrats who have already declared their candidacy against Brown.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney is publicly announcing his second presidential campaign tomorrow in Stratham, N.H., and he'll get down to work fast.

His campaign committee has announced that he will hold a town hall meeting in Manchester, N.H., on Friday.

It will take place at the University of New Hampshire Manchester Campus at 8:30 a.m.

Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Sarah Palin and Donald Trump walk toward a limousine last night after leaving the Trump Tower in New York City.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Sarah Palin’s mystery tour/summer vacation/media scavenger hunt is headed toward Boston, perhaps as soon as this afternoon.

The former Alaska governor, who has been visiting historic sites across the Northeast (and eating pizza with Donald Trump), as part of her One Nation bus tour, spent the morning in New York City, visiting Ellis Island.

Now, reporters for ABC News, CNN, and Real Clear Politics, who have been chasing after her bus, are reporting that she’s headed to Boston en route to New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first presidential primary.

Larry Downing/Reuters

After losing his first bid for the presidency, Mitt Romney is following an Olympian's example with another try.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

For anyone who listened to Mitt Romney during his first campaign for president, it’s no surprise that Olympic speedskater Dan Jansen attended the biggest fund-raiser to date for Romney’s second campaign.

Jansen became an international sports celebrity with his example of picking himself up after defeat and pushing on to victory.

It’s an example the former Massachusetts governor hopes to emulate starting tomorrow, when he publicly kicks off his 2012 White House bid.

Bryan Snyder/Reuters

Caroline Kennedy (center) stands in front of a model of the newly-named USS John F. Kennedy with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus (third from left), daughters Rose and Tatiana (first and second from left), husband Edwin Schlossberg (second from right), and son Jack (far right), during a ceremony Sunday.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

While the dates of Kennedy deaths have been seared into the nation’s consciousness, the famed political family itself has a practice of focusing on birthdays.

It’s a more uplifting orientation, one that allows relatives to remember John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, and other departed family members on the terms in which they entered and served the world — not the tragic events or illness that took them from it.

And so it was on Sunday, while many in the public were enjoying a round of golf, digging into a trashy beach novel, or breaking into provisions for the first barbeque of the summertime season.

JFK’s only daughter, Caroline, traveled to the presidential library named for her father to witness an announcement: The US Navy is going to name its next aircraft carrier in honor of the nation’s 35th president.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

In less than 140 characters, Newton Mayor Setti Warren made a big announcement.

Just after 1 p.m. today, the Democratic Senate candidate announced he and his wife had a son.

"My wife Tassy and I are proud & excited to welcome our son, John David Warren into the world," said the mayor.

The couple already has a daughter, Abigail.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

Senator Scott Brown listens as General Peter Chiarelli speaks to the crowd before the May 22 "Run to Home Base" event for wounded veterans and families at Fenway Park.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Republican Scott Brown may be a US senator now, but that hasn't stopped him from rekindling his roots as a state senator as he tries to stoke support for his 2012 reelection campaign.

Twice in recent weeks, Brown has issued statements condemning local Democrats amid the ongoing federal corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.

Yesterday, he did so after Governor Deval Patrick appeared on the witness stand, though Brown was careful not to single out the most powerful Democrat in the state by name.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrats and their counterparts in Washington are at odds over how best precisely to field a challenger to Republican Senator Scott Brown next year.

Governor Deval Patrick, who controls the Massachusetts Democratic Party, favors an organic process, with the candidate rising from a contested primary field.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is charged with ensuring President Obama has the party majority he needs to pass his legislative agenda, is pointed toward landing a big-name candidate who can clear the field and take on Brown with maximum resources and minimum infighting.

Some of them haven't forgotten that Massachusetts Democrats took the blame when Brown surprised the 2010 state nominee, Martha Coakley, and cost the national Democrats their filibuster-proof majority in the US Senate.

Washington colleague Mark Arsenault and I looked at the dispute for a story in today's Globe.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

DES MOINES – Updated, 5:31 p.m. Mitt Romney returned yesterday to the state that delivered to him a disappointing defeat in 2008, and once again began trying to woo Iowa caucus-goers for his nascent presidential campaign.

“It’s good to be home,” he said to an audience of about 200 here. “Ah, this isn’t exactly home, but it felt like it last time I was around.”

But his first high-profile event in the state – held at the State Historical Building, with about 200 people sitting on fold-out chairs eager to hear from the former Massachusetts governor -- was cut short by burning popcorn that triggered a fire alarm and an evacuation.

Michael Dwyer/AP

Governor Deval Patrick leaves the Moakley courthouse this afternoon after testifying in the federal corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick today traded the State House for the courthouse, testifying during the federal corruption trial of Salvatore F. DiMasi that the former House speaker repeatedly pressed him for a computer software contract and that he told his staff he would support it "if we could do it within the rules."

Prosecutors allege that DiMasi and his codefendants instead got kickbacks for getting the contract approved. Patrick is not accused on any wrongdoing.

The governor also vividly recounted how DiMasi became visibly upset in 2008 and accused the administration of being a leak after the Globe began reporting about the suspect contract.

The governor said the speaker demanded that he issue a statement saying DiMasi had no interest in the contract. Patrick said he refused.

"I said we couldn’t do that, because it wasn’t accurate,” the governor told the jury.

Appearing confident as he adjusted his microphone, the Harvard-trained lawyer smoothly answered questions for about 70 minutes — the first time by a sitting governor since William F. Weld also did so during a corruption case in 1995.

At that time, then-state Senator Henri Rauschenbach was accused of accepting illegal payments from an investment banker. He was subsequently acquitted.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

This is a corrected version of an earlier post. A correction is embedded in the story text below.

WASHINGTON – Despite weeks of speculation and lobbying by consumer groups, there will be no recess appointment of former Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to head the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

That's because, technically, there will be no recess.

Through parliamentary maneuvering this week, Republicans were able to prevent the Senate from officially shutting down during its Memorial Day vacation next week. During the so-called "pro-forma'' session during vacation, President Obama will not have the power to circumvent Senate confirmation proceedings and make appointments to key posts.

Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

Armed US Marshals stood guard today outside the Moakley federal courthouse as Governor Deval Patrick arrived to testify.

By Glen Johnson and Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

The always-secure John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse took on the air of an armed camp this morning, as machine-gun toting US Marshals stood guard as Governor Deval Patrick arrived and departed after testifying in the federal corruption trial of former House speaker Salvatore DiMasi.

On a brilliant spring day cooled by a breeze off nearby Boston Harbor, a string of television trucks lined the street across from the Fan Pier building to broadcast reports morning, noon, and night.

The governor apparently arrived in his official Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, its tinted windows and trip down a side courthouse entrance obscuring its occupants. Aides, however, confirmed his arrival shortly after the trial resumed at 9 a.m.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

DES MOINES – Mitt Romney is planning to announce next week what has been a poorly kept secret for months: he’s running for president.

The former Massachusetts governor is planning to make the announcement in New Hampshire, in an indication of just how vital the Granite State is to his second presidential bid.

Romney is planning to make the announcement next Thursday at an afternoon barbeque in Stratham, NH. It will be held at the Bittersweet Farm, the home of longtime Republican activists and state legislators Doug and Stella Scamman, and the menu is expected to consist of hot dogs, hamburgers, and a chili made from Ann Romney's special recipe.

"I think, by far, he's the most qualified in this race," Stella Scamman, who with her husband endorsed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2008, said last night in an interview. "We're trying to invite a whole bunch of our friends to come and meet him."

The Scammans own a 200-acre farm that has played host to numerous political events in the past, including ones for President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle, and Senator Bob Dole.

Romney's campaign activities have seen a notable uptick in recent weeks, with visits around the country to raise money and stoke a political network that remains largely in tact from his 2008 campaign. Much of his efforts have been around fundraising, with the hopes of scaring away any would-be challengers, but his formal announcement next week indicates a transition into a more aggressive public phase of his campaign.

He is planning to make his first trip of the year tomorrow in Iowa, which will hold the first nominating contest of the year.

So far, though, Romney has placed far more emphasis on New Hampshire, as indicated by his choice to make his formal announcement there next week.

Romney also used New Hampshire as the backdrop for his announcement six weeks ago that he was forming a presidential exploratory, the first step in mounting a run. He recorded a video at the University of New Hampshire and released it on his website.

News of his formal announcement was first reported by the Union Leader in Manchester, and confirmed by a Romney spokeswoman.

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced this week in Des Moines that he was running for president. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former businessman Herman Cain also announced earlier this month that they was running. Several others, including former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, are expected to announce their plans soon.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is also planning a bus tour, starting on Sunday, that will travel from Washington up through New England. Some of her recent activities have stoked speculation that she'll enter the race.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

Jim Cole/AP

Republican Tim Pawlenty addresses employees of Cirtronics today during his first visit to New Hampshire as an official presidential candidate.

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

MILFORD, N.H. — Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty today denounced the federal stimulus program, even though under his leadership his state benefited from billions of dollars of the federal aid.

During his first trip New Hampshire as an official candidate for president, the Republican also said for the first time that he could support Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

Pawlenty said he would publish his own plan with some differences, but, he said, “If that was the only bill that came to my desk and I wasn’t able to pass my own plan, I would sign it.”

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Democrats and some Republicans in the US House of Representatives sought to buck the White House today over the war in Afghanistan, illustrating growing impatience in Congress over the military’s role there since the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this month.

Representative James McGovern, a Worcester Democrat, spearheaded an effort with Republican co-sponsor Walter B. Jones of North Carolina to pass a measure that would require planning for a speedier withdrawal of troops from the nation where bin Laden plotted the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The amendment to the defense authorization bill failed 204-215, but it gained far more than the 162 votes that it received last year when Democrats controlled the House. Both of the chamber’s Democratic leaders, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland , supported it, along with 26 Republicans.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — National Democratic Party leaders are talking to “a number” of potential candidates about running against Republican Senator Scott Brown, and expect a frontline candidate to emerge soon, said the Democratic senator in change of recruitment.

“We believe that the state is one that we will win, and we expect to have a good strong candidate within weeks,” US Senator Patty Murray, Democrat from Washington, told reporters this morning in a briefing. Murray is head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the US Senate and to protect the party’s incumbents.

Brown, who won the Massachusetts seat in a special election in 2010, is a top political target of Democrats, who hold 53-47 advantage in the US Senate. Several Democratic seats could be in jeopardy next year, and the party hopes to defeat Brown to cushion losses elsewhere and maintain its majority.

Several Democrats have announced campaigns against Brown, though most of the state’s big names have passed on the race, such as Governor Deval Patrick. Democratic operatives worry about the ability of lesser-known candidates to compete against Brown, a national political figure with more than $8 million in his campaign account.

Murray declined to disclose names this morning, but speculation has been rampant about a possible campaign by Harvard professor and presidential advisor Elizabeth Warren, who has not ruled out a run.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown pushed a multi-pronged approach to job creation today in an op-ed column for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The Massachusetts Republican called for congressional approval of trade agreements, boosting education, and promoting job re-training are all elements of the plan.

"This year, I have worked across the aisle on a targeted approach to boost our economy," Brown wrote. "As your senator, and a member of the Senate’s Manufacturing Task Force, I will continue to look for common sense economic policies that help create jobs. With the passage of these trade agreements, we can start to tear down some of the barriers holding us back."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Democrat John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today said China must do more to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons and promote human rights given its growing economic power.

Speaking at the start of a confirmation hearing for Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, nominated to be the US ambassador to China, the Massachusetts senator said Locke will face a great challenge if approved by the Senate.

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Representative Barney Frank helped his then-companion land a job at mortgage giant Fannie Mae in the early 1990s at the same time Congress was writing legislation to improve oversight of the lender, according to New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson, who recently wrote a book examining the financial crises.

Frank was a member of the House Financial Services Committee in 1991 when he "actually called up the company and asked them to hire his companion, who had just gotten an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business," Morgenson said during a recent appearance on National Public Radio.

"Of course the company was happy to provide a job for his companion and rolled out the red carpet in a series of interviews with a variety of executives, and it ultimately did hire the man," she said. "And he stayed there for I believe seven years."

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick confirmed he will testify tomorrow in the federal corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, while also defending the government's decision to purchase the type of software that has become the focal point of the case against the former State House leader.

Kicking off his monthly appearance on WTKK-FM, the governor confirmed he would be testifying but refused to say much else about the case.

“I'm going to respect the process," said Patrick. "We’ve cooperated with the process throughout, and I’m going and answer whatever questions they put to me, or do my best to do so, and I want to confine my testimony to the courtroom, because I think that’s what I’m supposed to do. When it's over, we can talk about it.”

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich continues to back away from criticism he made earlier this month of Representative Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare, but at the same time he is stopping short of fully endorsing the plan.

Speaking at Derry Medical Center yesterday, Gingrich delivered an entire speech about health care without mentioning the overhaul, and then declined to take press questions about it.

Later in the day, at the Manchester home of former US Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne, Gingrich said his words criticizing Ryan's plan were "clumsy."

Stephan Savoia/AP

Vice President Joe Biden today marked the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's moon-shot speech by complaining that that the US has sometimes become 'too incremental' in its pursuits and needs similar big dreams.

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Vice President Joe Biden today marked the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's speech about reaching the moon by complaining the United States has occasionally become "too incremental" instead of pursuing similarly big dreams.

The Democrat, speaking at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, recalled being an 18-year student at a Catholic boys school when the newly inaugurated president addressed Congress and laid down a monumental challenge.

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth," Kennedy declared on May 25, 1961.

That goal was achieved in July 1969, nearly six years after Kennedy was assassinated, when the crew of Apollo 11 visited the moon and successfully returned home.

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

DERRY, N.H. — Representative Paul Ryan’s plan to overhaul Medicare is causing controversy in Congress — and likely contributed to yesterday’s defeat of a Republican House candidate in New York’s special election.

But speaking at Derry Medical Center in New Hampshire today, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich delivered an entire speech about health care without mentioning the overhaul, and then declined to take press questions about it.

Gingrich had previously criticized Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program, but the former House speaker backtracked after taking flak from his fellow Republicans.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

When Senator John Kerry is in Washington or traveling the country and the world, his state director, Drew O'Brien, presides over his office back in Massachusetts.

O'Brien family

Edward L. O'Brien

Earlier today, Kerry had a chance to recognize his aide of nearly a decade, noting the passing of O'Brien's father — Edward L. O'Brien of Marshfield — earlier this month.

"Edward O'Brien was an extraordinary blessing to his family and to his friends, but also to the country he loved, when he served in the US Navy in World War II," Kerry said in remarks televised by C-SPAN.

He said Drew O'Brien perpetuated that example by "living the spirit of public service that his father instilled in him and all his family."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Senate has begun debate on its version of the budget proposed for the state's 2012 fiscal year, which begins on July 1.

The Legislature has provided a link to watch live.

Governor Deval Patrick, House leaders and, now, Senate leaders have proposed their respective spending plans.

The House subsequently passed its budget, and now it's the Senate's turn.

Once a plan is approved, House and Senate leaders will appoint members to a conference committee that will be charged with reconciling differences between the plans.

At that phase, Patrick, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Senate President Therese Murray will help shape the outcome.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

HENNIKER, N.H. — Former New York Governor George Pataki today kicked off a New Hampshire advertising campaign aimed at pressuring President Obama and Republican presidential candidates to address the mounting national debt.

“President Obama has the worst fiscal record of any president in the history of our country,” Pataki said, speaking to around 65 people at New England College. “This year, we’ll have the largest deficit than in any year in the history of our country. …It’s not sustainable.”

In a companion interview with the Globe, Pataki said he was reconsidering his decision not to seek the 2012 GOP presidential nomination out of concern over government spending.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard professor and presidential adviser, but will she be a US Senate candidate, too?

Warren fever has ticked up a few degrees with this morning’s New York Times story reporting that Democratic Party officials are trying to persuade Warren to run against Republican US Senator Scott Brown next year. The law professor is currently working to set up a new federal regulatory agency to protect consumers, as called for in Wall Street reform laws.

In a brief interview yesterday, as she was rushing down a hallway after testifying on Capitol Hill, Warren offered the standard non-denial of interest in a Senate run: “I’m working on the consumer protection agency, that’s 14 hours a day, that’s what I’m working on,” she said.

Win McNamee/Reuters

In this Sept. 14, 2001, photo, then-President Bush meets with two men who may now try to run for the job he once held, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former New York Governor George Pataki.

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

HENNIKER, N.H. — Former New York Governor George Pataki, who recently started an organization focused on reducing the federal debt, has not ruled out a 2012 presidential run.

The Republican said last month that he would not run, but he said today the recent decision of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to skip a campaign may prompt him to reconsider.

“I’m not a candidate at this point, but down the road, you never say never,” Pataki said during an interview after a speech at New England College. “I’m not running now. …We’ll see what happens over the course of the next month.”

Another New Yorker, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, is also weighing a campaign.

Mark Wilson for The Boston Globe

Governor Deval Patrick reacts as he gets whacked in the face by a flapping young bald eagle that he helped MassWildlife biologists band. At left, Ralph Taylor, a MassWildlife supervisor, helps Patrick get a grip on the bird. The eaglet was one of three banded from the same nest in a pine tree by Quabbin Reservoir.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick and state environmental officials today banded young bald eagles at the Quabbin Reservoir, a counting mechanism under the state's bald eagle restoration program.

The Quabbin is one of 34 bald eagle breeding sites across Massachusetts.

"It’s great to see the bald eagle making such a strong, steady resurgence here," Patrick said in a statement.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Americans have been pessimistic about the direction of the country for more than two years, yet a vast majority has been consistently happy and satisfied with their own lives during that time, according to polling results published by the Associated Press.

Pollsters often ask voters if they feel the country is on the right track or the wrong track.

Political experts often cite the right track/wrong track results as a measure of the mood of the nation. For example, in an AP poll conducted earlier this month, 45 percent of voters surveyed said the country is on the right track; 52 percent said America is going in the wrong direction. Those pessimistic results are actually an improvement over a year ago, when just 35 percent thought America was going in the right direction. In October 2008, just 17 percent thought America was on the right path.

But little-noted results from the series of AP polls suggest that the level of personal happiness in America has stayed remarkably stable through the recession and the painfully slow economic recovery.

Asked to “think about how things are going in your life in general,” 81-one percent of respondents this month reported being “very” or “somewhat” happy; just 14 percent said they were personally unhappy. Those numbers are virtually identical to results from a year ago, when 80 percent were happy and 14 percent unhappy. In fact, multiple surveys throughout the past two years show a remarkable consistency in the level of happiness in America, with the numbers rarely straying from the polls’ normal margin of error.

Mark Arsenault can be reached at marsenault@globe.com.

By Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- There was plenty of speculation a few months ago that Mitt Romney would ignore Iowa in the 2012 election after a disastrous and expensive outcome there helped seal his fate in 2008.

But while he is not spending near the time or resources this time around – instead focusing more closely on New Hampshire and Nevada -- Romney’s strategy in this GOP presidential primary clearly does include the Hawkeye State. How much may become clearer this week as he travels to Des Moines for the first time since announcing his exploratory committee. He is scheduled to appear at a forum at noon Friday sponsored by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.

The former Massachusetts governor also announced today that he is naming Sara Craig as state director of his campaign. Craig was central Iowa field director for Romney in 2008. Romney named Phil Valenziano as state field director, according to a press release from the Romney for President Exploratory Committee.

Iowa’s caucus votes are very much up for grabs since former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee opted out of the presidential contest this month. Other candidates including Newt Gingrich have been spending far more time than Romney in Iowa. And Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor who is trailing in New Hampshire polls, announced his candidacy yesterday in Des Moines.

A Political Intelligence entry on Sunday incorrectly attributed to Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown a statement about the House Republican budget that appeared on a left-leaning news and opinion website, Talking Points Memo. The entry inaccurately presented the Talking Points Memo statement as a direct quotation by the Republican senator, while the statement was actually Talking Points Memo's interpretation of the senator's position.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

IRMO, S.C. – Mitt Romney this afternoon assailed President Obama for not articulating a clear position on how he would reform Medicare – but then the former Massachusetts governor declined to articulate such a position himself.

The health care program for the elderly has become an increasingly hot-button issue in national politics and is bound to dominate debate in the 2012 presidential race. House Republicans recently passed a plan – spearheaded by Representative Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin – that includes drastic cuts to Medicare.

“Where’s our president’s plan? What would he do?” Romney told reporters today after meeting with small business owners at a plumbing company here. “Is he just going to sit on the side and accuse Paul Ryan of being un-America? I simply can’t understand how the president and his people can attack Republicans who are putting forward constructive ideas, when he hasn’t got an idea of his own.”

Still, Romney would not elaborate on what he himself would do, saying he’s still an undeclared presidential candidate and would give detailed proposals later. “I will be happy to describe my specific plan, but clearly at this stage that’s still a little premature,” he said.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – A Massachusetts native and former Senator Edward M. Kennedy aide was tapped today to take the top post in coordinating the Democratic Party’s national convention.

Stephen J. Kerrigan, who also helped coordinate the Democratic convention when it was in Boston in 2004, has been named as chief executive officer overseeing the 2012 convention in Charlotte, N.C.

“It’s basically everything, start to finish,” he said in an interview.

Kerrigan, 39, grew up in Lancaster, Mass., and graduated from St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury (fun fact: Kerrigan was three years behind future Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray).

At 25, he was elected to the Lancaster Board of Selectmen, and later became Kennedy’s national political director. He was also chief of staff to Thomas F. Reilly, who was Massachusetts Attorney General.

Kerrigan is getting ready to move to Charlotte, where he’ll oversee all operations involving the convention – from security to transportation to housing.

“We’re very excited to bring the 2012 Democratic National Convention to Charlotte where we will re-nominate President Barack Obama,” Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said today in a statement. “The team we’ve put together to lead the Convention embodies the diversity and talent of the Democratic Party, and they’ll work closely with our partners in Charlotte to put on an event that showcases the progress President Obama and Democrats have made on behalf of the American people and our vision for the future.”

The Republicans are holding their convention in Tampa, Fla., and it’s no mistake that the Democrats chose Charlotte for their convention. North Carolina, which Obama carried narrowly in 2008, is expected to be a major battleground in the 2012 election.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney is the focus of the first attack ad of the 2012 presidential race, with an independent group run by former aides to President Obama tagging Romney as both a flip-flopper and a politician who would not protect Medicare.

“Mitt Romney says he's 'on the same page' as Paul Ryan, who wrote the plan to essentially end Medicare,” a narrator says, as dark, black and white images of the former Massachusetts governor flash across the screen. “But with Mitt Romney, you have to wonder...which page is he on today?"

The ad, which also tweaks Newt Gingrich, is going to be running in South Carolina just as Romney makes his first visit of the year to the state tomorrow.

The ad is being run by Priorities USA Action, a political action committee that is headed by President Obama’s former deputy press secretary, Bill Burton. The group can accept unlimited donations and is meant to counter Republican groups that were formed during the 2010 midterm elections. Those groups were criticized at the time by top Democrats, who have filed legislation to curb the influence of outside money in politics.

" President Obama and his team are desperate to change the subject to anything other than jobs and the millions of Americans out of work,” Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney’s presidential exploratory committee, said in a statement. “With 9.6% unemployment in South Carolina, voters are looking for a jobs plan not a smear campaign."

Romney tomorrow is planning to visit South Carolina and meet with business owners. It is his first trip to the Palmetto State this year.

Romney has in fact said that he and Ryan were “on the same page,” although he has not wholly embraced the Wisconsin Republican’s budget plan, which includes drastic cuts to Medicare. Romney said last week that he would at some point present his own plan on reforming the health care program for the elderly sand said it would “not be identical but shares objectives” with Ryan’s plan.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama and Governor Deval Patrick greet the crowd at a fundraiser this evening at the Cyclorama in the South End.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama told a revved up crowd in Boston this evening that he needs to be reelected next year because "we've got more work to do."

At the first of two fund-raisers in Massachusetts, he said, "Change is hard. Change takes time ... We've got more work to do!"

He said that to-do list includes immigration reform.

Photos

Obama's trip to Boston

Obama’s message team

• Obama tells Mass crowd, 'We've got more work to do'
• With Obama's visit, Brookline woman gets her wish - in spirit
• Obama gives commencement speech at Coast Guard Academy
• Herald complains about access to Obama
• Air Force One aborts landing attempt in Conn.
• Donovan Slack tweets while traveling with Obama
• Graphic Areas with most
  support for Democrats
• Graphic States with most
  support for Democratics
• Democratic contributors
  from Massachusetts
• Bay State’s Cutter plays
  key role on Obama team
• A look at Obama’s team
• Princeton’s West
  takes shot at Obama

By Globe Staff

A complaint by the Boston Herald about the limited access its staff would have to President Obama during his visit to Boston today prompted an Obama aide to fault the paper for its coverage of an Obama visit to Boston in March.

On that day, the Herald devoted its front page to an opinion article by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, in which he criticized the administration's job-creation record.

"I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the president's visits,'' White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told the Herald in an email.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney announced this afternoon that a veteran public relations consultant was joining his burgeoning campaign as a senior adviser.

Mark DeMoss is currently president of the DeMoss Group, which is a large Atlanta-based public relations agency that focuses on serving Christian leaders, businesses, and non-profit organizations.

"Governor Romney is uniquely qualified and competent to lead our country out of turbulent economic times and create jobs,” DeMoss said in a statement released by Romney’s exploratory committee. “He has worked in government long enough to know how government works, but not so long that he only knows how to work for the government.”

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — New Hampshire voters will get their first glimpse of another potential GOP presidential contender in coming days when former ambassador Jon M. Huntsman Jr. sweeps through the crucial primary state.

Lauren Victoria Burke/AP

Jon M. Huntsman Jr.

It starts with a Thursday afternoon meet-and-greet in Hanover, then continues Friday with back-to-back house parties in Keene and Hancock, before he speaks at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Concord late in the day.

On Saturday, he delivers the commencement address at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, then participates in photo ops at a gun shop and a country store before speaking before the Windham County GOP.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama poses today with newly commissioned officer Amy Tow of Sugar Land, Texas, (left) and her father at the US Coast Guard Academy graduation in New London, Conn.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

A commencement speech and missed Air Force One landing behind him, President Obama was departing New London, Conn., this afternoon en route to two fundraisers in Boston and Brookline.

The president had a more than hourlong drive to Bradley International Airport before flying on to Logan International Airport.

The campaign events were preceded by the day's "official" appearance, the president's address to graduates of the US Coast Guard Academy. He noted they collectively had the highest GPA of any class in the academy's history.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

When President Obama pulls up tonight at a stately Brookline home for a campaign fundraiser, he will have two hosts in the flesh — Jack and Eileen Connors — and a third in spirit.

Elizabeth Minot Graves was the daughter of George Minot, a Massachusetts General Hospital physician and Harvard Medical School professor who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1934 for his work in developing a treatment for pernicious anemia.

National Park Service

George R. Minot House

In the eyes of Liza Weld Graves, the daughter of Elizabeth Minot Graves, her late mother has been expecting the president.

"My mom died shortly after Obama took office," Liza Graves wrote today in an email from her current house in Sonoma, Calif.

"She had dementia, but was thrilled when Obama was elected, so much so that through her dementia haze, she demanded that my brother call the president-elect to invite him to tea with her father... She was quite upset when we told her this was not to be.

"In an odd way, her wish is being granted tonight," she wrote.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

A trip that will bring President Obama to Boston got off to a rocky start this morning.

Air Force One executed a missed approach as it neared its first destination, Bradley International Airport outside Hartford.

White House Spokesman Nick Shapiro said: "AF1 did a go-round at Bradley International Airport this morning because of weather. They circled around and landed safely a few minutes later, at 10:05 a.m.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

New Hampshire Democrats have announced that Vice President Joe Biden will headline a party fund-raising dinner next week.

He will deliver the keynote address at the annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner on Wednesday in Nashua.

The appearance underscores the battleground nature of the state, which broke Democratic in 2008 but went Republican in leading races last fall.

"We are excited to welcome Vice President Biden to this year's event," Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said in a statement this morning. "Working with President Obama, Joe Biden has played a key role in turning our economy around and getting America on the right track."
 
The announcement was made as the president was en route for his own trip to New England. He was delivering the commencement address at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., before flying to Massachusetts for reelection fund-raisers in Boston and Brookline.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama waves goodbye at Andrews Air Force Base as he departed this morning for New London, Ct., and Boston.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama is coming to Massachusetts later today for a pair of fund-raisers in Boston and Brookline.

He arrived at Andrews Air Force Base at 8:52 a.m. and Air Force One took off at 9:01 a.m., destined for New London, Conn., and a commencement address at the US Coast Guard Academy.

The Globe's White House correspondent, Donovan Slack, is in the traveling pool, riding aboard the presidential jet and getting a front-row seat for his speech at the Cyclorama in the South End and, this evening, at the Brookline home of Boston advertising executive Jack Connors Jr.

John Bazemore/AP

Cornel West, shown speaking last year in Martin Luther King Jr.'s former church, labeled President Obama 'a black mascot' and 'black puppet' during an interview.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Cornel West, a Princeton University professor and leading black intellectual, is harshly criticizing President Obama, a candidate he once supported but now calls “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

West, a former Harvard University professor, said during an interview with the website Truthdig posted yesterday that the president has not been true to his race.

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West said. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white…When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening.”

The White House did not have an immediate comment. West did not respond to messages left at his office.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

President Obama awarded Boston Celtics Hall of Fame player Bill Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Feb. 15.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The First Hoopster will get a salute tomorrow from two prominent members of the Boston Celtics family, Hall of Fame member Bill Russell and current All-Star Ray Allen, according to a top Democrat briefed on the plans.

Both will address the audience tomorrow afternoon when President Obama visits Massachusetts for a fund-raiser at the Cyclorama in Boston, said the Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak in advance of the formal announcement.

The president will then attend a smaller event at the Brookline home of advertising executive Jack Connors Jr.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

LAS VEGAS – Mitt Romney, while clearly buoyed by the $10.25 million his supporters raised today, is nonetheless not ready to rule out what could become another potent financial weapon in his all-but-certain presidential run: tapping into his own personal wealth.

“That’s counsel I’m going to keep with Ann and myself, and that’s all,” he said, referring to his wife. “So I can’t give you any more update than that. We’re just going to keep that to our own counsel.”

The decision could be significant, not only on Romney's pocketbook but also on the contours of the race. During the former Massachusetts governor’s 2008 presidential campaign, he used $42 million of his own funds. One of Romney’s potential rivals -- Jon Huntsman Jr., who comes from a wealthy family – has already ruled out self-financing his campaign.

“If we were to get in the race – no self-financing,” Huntsman told reporters recently in South Carolina. “Unless you can raise it legitimately, you’re not going to win.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

LAS VEGAS – Mitt Romney raised $10.25 million from his National Call Day here today, far exceeding the haul he brought in from a similar fund-raising day in Boston four years ago.

With around 720 supporters placing calls around the country throughout the day, he sought to put on full display one of the most important attributes for his emerging campaign: raising money.

Supporters -- gathered in a conference room at the Las Vegas Convention Center that Romney aides happily noted was the size of two football fields -- began gathering to make calls at 5:30 a.m., asking contributors to give the maximum to his campaign.

Former Olympic speed-skaters Dan Jansen and Derek Parra were on hand, and model Cindy Crawford was featured in the demonstration video teaching volunteers how to use the fund-raising software, dubbed ComMitt.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters today in Pakistan that "there is too much at stake" for the United States and Pakistan to abandon their alliance.

He said he and Pakistani officials have agreed on a series of steps that each side would take to improve relations, but declined to detail what those steps were.

"There are real differences between our two countries, but the bonds that tie us together in the fight against the threat of extremists is stronger than those differences," he said during a news conference in Islamabad.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

In announcing today that he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump made clear that for all his sound and fury, he prefers to make money above solving political problems.

"I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half-heartedly," he said in a statement. "Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector."

Weeks earlier, Trump hinted at his priorities in a less-polished fashion, as he visited New Hampshire with all the atmospherics of a traveling carnival.

Mian Khursheed/Reuters

Senator John Kerry meets today with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the prime minister's residence in Islamabad.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

There's never been a shortage of people willing to lampoon Senator John Kerry, or who have delighted in him being roasted.

Kerry has inflicted some of the damage himself, from trying to register a yacht in Rhode Island in an apparent Massachusetts tax dodge, to heading out windsurfing when presidential campaign advisers said it would underscore the elitist image they were trying to overcome.

Other damage has come from piling-on, all too easy with a person who can spend nearly as much time deciding what brand of beer to drink as it takes to down the first pint.

But those thoughts, emotions, or memories can seem petty when considering the duties he undertook today: representing the United States — and delivering its complaints — in the aftermath of the May 2 raid that found and killed Osama bin Laden while he hid amid a Pakistani military garrison.

Jane Flavell Collins

In this artist's rendering, former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, left, listens as a prosecutor addresses the jury in his federal corruption trial.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown said yesterday the federal corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi highlights the dangers of one-party dominance in Massachusetts and a "go-along-to-get-along" political culture.

Injecting politics into a normally celebratory moment, Brown said in remarks delivered at the Lasell College commencement ceremony: "I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, just as one political party can't be right 100 percent of the time, it shouldn't have 100 percent of the power. Unchallenged power grows arrogant over time. It is what has given us one case of graft after another."

The lone Republican in the Massachusetts congressional delegation, Brown is seeking reelection next year in what has historically been a Democratic state. Democrats have begun lining up to challenge him, and Brown opponents have already started pounding him with advertising campaigns.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Newton Mayor Setti Warren has outlined how far he is willing to go to become the next US senator from Massachusetts: He will shake hands — in the cold — outside Fenway Park, if need be.

“I love the Red Sox — they're doing pretty well," he told former Globe reporter Rick Klein when he appeared on "Top Line," the ABC News online program he now hosts each weekday. "I was at a game a few weeks ago. I’m gonna be out there, and across the state. We've been to cities and towns — that's the kind of campaign I'm going to run, and that's the kind of campaign that will win.”

The comment harks back to January 2010, when fellow Democrat Martha Coakley mocked her then-Republican rival, then-state Senator Scott Brown, for pressing the flesh outside the ballpark when it hosted the NHL's "Winter Classic" on a frigid New Year's Day.

Brown went on to win the campaign and replace the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Coakley went back to being attorney general.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Jim Brett, president of the New England Council and a former state legislator, has been named chairman of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

New England Council

Jim Brett

Brett previously served two two-year terms as a member of the committee under President George W. Bush. He was urged to apply for the chairmanship, he said, by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

“I am very honored and humbled to be chair of this commission," Brett said during an interview.

The Dorchester resident a special perspective to the committee: His late brother, Jack, the eldest of his family's six children, was born with an intellectual disability.

He recalled how doctors advised his mother to institutionalize Jack, but, instead, she replied, "No way. He's coming home with me. And I'm going to have more children."

Brett added: "She taught us to make sure that he’s part of everyone’s daily life. And he taught me about the issues of disability, and the challenges just to function every day. When I got elected, I promised to learn about the situation and be an advocate."

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

"Mitt Romney, Belmont, Mass." penned a Letter to the Editor that appeared in today's Wall Street Journal, responding to a scathing editorial on the newpaper's conservative editorial page the day before.

In it, Romney sought to address some criticisms of the universal health care law he signed while governor of Massachusetts, a measure the Journal had argued raised questions about his fitness to be president.

The 2006 Massachusetts law became the template for the federal universal health care law signed last year by President Obama, which the Journal and others deride as "ObamaCare."

"While I have had my disagreements with the Journal's editorial board, where we find common ground is on the need to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with reforms that empower states to craft their own solutions," Romney wrote. "A one-size-fits-all plan that raises taxes and ignores the very real differences between states is the wrong course for our nation."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- The US House of Representatives passed legislation today to expand offshore gas and oil exploration to New England coastal waters and other areas where drilling is now banned.

The measure, which passed 243-179, is unlikely to advance beyond the House and would garner a veto from President Obama regardless. But the legislation highlights how energy and fuel prices have become one of the biggest political battlegrounds in the sharply divided Congress.

The bill makes no bones about its intent. Entitled the “Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act,” the legislation countered a seven-year moratorium President Obama imposed last year on new offshore drilling. The bill would require the federal government to offer offshore leases in areas believed to have substantial oil and natural gas reserves.

“This legislation ensures that the Obama Administration can no longer withhold valuable energy resources necessary to increase American energy production here at home,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in a statement. Cantor was among nine House members who didn’t vote on the bill.

J.D. Pooley/Getty Images

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney tries to address conservative concerns about his Massachusetts universal health care law with a speech and PowerPoint presentation today in his native Michigan.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Mitt Romney this afternoon tried to rebut conservative criticisms of his Massachusetts health care law as he called for abolishing President Obama’s national plan and replacing it with a new, more state-based reform of the US health care system.

In his first — and perhaps most significant — policy speech of his budding presidential campaign, he gave the strongest defense to date of his signature Massachusetts health care plan.

“A lot of pundits around the nation are saying that I should just stand up and say this whole thing was a mistake, that it was a boneheaded idea and I should just admit it, it was a mistake, and walk away from it,” Romney said. “And I presume that a lot of folks would conclude that if I did that, that would be good for me politically. But there’s only one problem with that: it wouldn’t be honest. I, in fact, did what I believed was right for the people of my state.”

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is drafting legislation that would allow the opposition in Libya to access about $180 million in funds that have been frozen in Moammar Khadafy's overseas bank accounts, according to Libyan opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril.

Kerry announced the legislation Wednesday after a meeting with Jibril, but did not give a dollar amount.

But Jibril, who is being referred to as prime minister of the self-appointed opposition government that has taken charge of the effort to bring down Khadafy, told an audience at the Brookings Institution in Washington the amount of money Kerry is offering might be too little, too late.

He said the rebels need about $3 billion to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in cities besieged by Khadafy's forces and camps of fleeing refugees.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The topic: health care. The concern: It could undermine Mitt Romney's run for president. A key critic: The Wall Street Journal. The response: A speech and a PowerPoint presentation.

That was the tack the former Massachusetts governor took today as he tried to address a key vulnerability in his expected presidential campaign. But it's also the exact tack Romney took in 2006, while he still was governor, as he geared up for his first White House campaign.

In each instance, he tried to mollify conservative critics who argued universal health care cut against their free-market and libertarian beliefs.

The following article was published in The Boston Globe on April 26, 2006:

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Check "Political Intelligence" at 2 p.m. for a live stream of the health care speech being delivered today by expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney's favored communication medium in the run-up to his second presidential campaign has been the op-ed column, with sometimes unexpected results, since expounding in such a sober medium allows him to avoid distracting questions from other elements of the media.

Today, though, he is the focus of a blistering editorial in The Wall Street Journal, which carries the unflattering headline, "Obama's Running Mate."

The editorial, which included a trademark Journal stipple portrait of the former Massachusetts governor, runs across two columns and consumes two-thirds of the space usually allotted to editorials written from a conservative perspective.

John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Democrat Edward M. Kennedy debates with Republican Mitt Romney during their 1994 US Senate race. During that campaign, Romney said he would back a federal health care plan that included a mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance coverage. Such past support is now complicating his planned second presidential campaign.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — As Mitt Romney prepares for a major address on health care here this afternoon, the likely presidential contender is still expected to continue defending what has become a third rail in Republican politics: a requirement from government that people purchase health insurance.

The so-called individual mandate was a core component of the signature health care plan Romney signed into law while governor of Massachusetts, and he has stuck by that decision — even as he has decried it as part of the federal plan signed into law last year by President Obama.

During a question-and-answer period last month in Las Vegas, for instance, Romney used an example of someone without insurance getting in a car wreck and going to the hospital.

“We don’t let them die in the streets,” Romney said. “They go to the hospital and are treated. And guess who pays for that? You. Government. You all are paying for that.”

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

A spokesman for Senator Scott Brown refused to say if he will travel to the CIA to see photos of a dead Osama bin Laden, after the agency offered today to show them to members of a congressional committee upon which the Republican serves.

The only other member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation who would qualify under the same offer, Democrat Niki Tsongas, will decline.

“The congresswoman is convinced that Osama bin Laden was killed and will not be requesting to see the photos,” said spokesman John Noble.

Brown spokesman Colin Reed said, “No comment on this.”

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Representative Barney Frank said today that he expects President Obama to bypass Congress and do a recess appointment to install the director of the new consumer protection agency for financial products.

The prediction follows a threat from Senate Republicans last week that they will block the confirmation of any director unless several measures to limit the agency's power are instituted.

Frank said such measures would allow Republicans to cripple the agency's power to protect consumers and possibly defund it altogether, eliminating one of the cornerstones of the financial regulation overhaul law passed last year. He said they were "acting like thugs" and forcing Obama to bypass the confirmation process.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Democrat Warren Tolman is considering a campaign to unseat Republican Senator Scott Brown next year.

Bill Brett for The Boston Globe

Warren Tolman

Tolman refused to say if those people are dissatisfied with the current field, which doesn't include any of the better-known politicians in Massachusetts. Those who have already declared include Newton Mayor Setti Warren, City Year co-founder Alan Khazei, former lieutenant governor candidate Bob Massie, and Salem immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco.

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

A key witness in the federal corruption trial of former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi took the stand today with a blunt confession: “I don’t want to be here.”

Steven J. Topazio, a private attorney who shared office space and expenses with DiMasi, made the comment as he began undergoing questioning by the prosecution.

Court records say that at DiMasi’s urging, Topazio was paid $5,000 a month to be a local counsel for Cognos, a Burlington software company seeking state contracts, even though he did not perform any work. Topazio allegedly paid DiMasi $4,000 from each check.

"'It's about time we started getting business like this,'" Topazio testified DiMasi told him. "He was excited by it, and I was excited by it."

Yet he added: "I was concerned, because Cognos hadn't sent me any work to do."

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator John Kerry today labeled Osama bin Laden's death "a potentially game-changing opportunity" for a political solution in war-torn Afghanistan.

Kicking off the third of six hearings on Afghanistan and Pakistan this month by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, Kerry said that could "bring greater stability to the region and bring our troops home." The Massachusetts Democrat serves as chairman of the committee.

"Let me be very clear: A precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a mistake and I, for one, would take that option off the table," Kerry said in his prepared remarks. "Instead, we should be working toward the smallest footprint necessary, a presence that puts Afghans in charge — and presses them to step up to that task — at the same time that it secures our interests and accomplishes our mission of destroying Al Qaeda and preventing Afghanistan from ever again becoming a terrorist sanctuary.

"But make no mistake, it is unsustainable to continue spending $10 billion a month on a massive military operation with no end in sight — and the good news is, we don’t have to. I am convinced that we can achieve our core goals at a more sustainable cost, in both lives and dollars," he added.

President Obama has pledged to begin removing some of the 130,000 US troops by July 31.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Matthew J. Lee / Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown, speaking in February at the induction ceremony for US District Court Judge Denise Jefferson Casper, is the focus of Democratic calculations as he heads toward his reelection campaign in 2012.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

(Editor's Note: This post contains math and, even more ominously, math performed by a journalist — with guidance from politicians.)

Newton Mayor Setti Warren was set this morning to personally declare what he stated yesterday in a slick movie: He is a candidate for US Senate next year.

With City Year co-founder Alan Khazei, Somerville activist Bob Massie, and Salem immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco already declared candidates, that all but guarantees a contested Democratic primary in September 2012, even with some dropouts.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney is planning to make a show of force next week in Las Vegas, expecting to bring in around 800 supporters to place calls around the country and display one of the most important attributes for his emerging campaign: raising money.

The supporters will start making calls next Monday around 5:30 a.m. (or 8:30 a.m. on the East Coast), according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Globe. There will be an opening ceremony at 8 a.m.

The National Call Day will be similar to a daylong fundraising event Romney held in Boston during his last campaign, which drew 600 to 800 people and raised more than $1 million.

That event, held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, was meant to highlight his home state, with the Fenway Park anthem “Dirty Water” blaring from the loudspeakers after he spoke.

This time, the event is behind held 2,700 miles away, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The invitation offered group rates at two of the strip’s most luxurious hotels – The Encore by Wynn, and the Venetian (although the group rates don’t seem to offer that steep a discount: A two-night stay in a luxury suite at the Venetian costs $174 through Romney, or $189 through the hotel website).

Regardless, the volunteers should come prepared. There is one reminder at the bottom of the invitation: "Please bring with you: cell phone, cell phone charger, iPad and/or laptop.”

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

Pat Greenhouse / Globe Staff

Mayor Setti Warren, right, marches last year in Newton's Memorial Day parade alongside its grand marshal, Senator Scott Brown, second from left. Warren announced today that he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Brown for re-election next year.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Newton Mayor Setti Warren announced today that he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Senator Scott Brown for re-election next year.

In a heavily produced video, complete with stirring music, the former Kerry and Clinton aide said: "Many of you don't know me; I'm probably about as well known as Scott Brown was at this point two years ago."

Nonetheless, Warren said the race should reduce to a debate about party values.

By Emma Stickgold, Globe Correspondent

Massachusetts Republican Party leaders today filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the League of Women Voters, alleging the nonprofit organization failed to properly file paperwork after it launched a television ad campaign criticizing Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.

"We are calling on the League to immediately reveal their secret donors as the law requires, and to live by the same standards of openness and transparency they have encouraged others to adopt," Massachusetts Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Nassour said in a written statement.

The ads criticized Brown as well as Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, for votes related to the Clean Air Act. Responding to the complaint, Elisabeth MacNamara, the organization's president, defended the ad, saying the ad targeted one particular issue, not the upcoming elections.

"Our ad will stand up to scrutiny because it is about Senator Scott Brown's vote to weaken the Clean Air Act and endanger public health," McNamara said in a statement issued Sunday. "It is not about an election that is 18 months away or a politician who may or may not be on the ballot in that election. The allegation to the FEC is simply a charade, designed to deflect attention away from Senator Brown's vote to block the Clean Air Act."

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Newt Gingrich is planning to formally announce this week that he’s running for president, one of a series of upcoming events that could put the slow-moving Republican presidential field into sharper focus.

The announcement from the former House speaker, who said two months ago that he was exploring to run for president, has been widely expected. He is planning to make the official announcement Wednesday on Facebook and Twitter, although that seems sure to be anticlimactic given that his staff is forecasting the news nearly 48 hours in advance.

Gingrich will also give an interview to Fox News that night, and is planning his first speech as a presidential candidate on Friday at a Republican convention in his home state of Georgia, according to spokesman Rick Tyler. He’ll also head to Eureka, Ill. – which happens to be Ronald Reagan’s hometown -- on Saturday to deliver the commencement address at Eureka College.

Tom Rettig / Worcester Telegram & Gazette

An aide to Scott Brown and a State Police trooper await the Republican senator and Governor Deval Patrick, respectively, before they attended Saturday's funeral in Auburn for Air Force Major David L. Brodeur. The 34-year-old was one of eight American service members shot and killed by an Afghan military officer in Afghanistan on April 27.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

On Saturday morning, Scott Brown joined his Senate colleague, John Kerry, as well as Governor Deval Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray in Auburn for the funeral of an Air Force officer killed by a rampaging gunman in Afghanistan.

In so doing, the officeholders conferred the weight and stature of their respective offices on the event, signaling to the public in deed if not in word that this was a moment worthy of pause amid the motion of daily life.

It’s because of the esteem the public holds for such high office that people also stopped and listened last week when Brown went on television and weighed in on the debate about whether to release photos showing Osama bin Laden after he had been shot to death by US troops in Pakistan.

“Hello, I’m Scott Brown, and I have the honor of representing Massachusetts in the United States Senate.

“Last Sunday night, we heard President Obama deliver the message that Americans have been waiting for since September 11, 2001. It’s a very rare thing when so many people across the world observe the loss of life with something other than regret. But this man, the late Osama bin Laden, had chosen his fate long before in a life filled with cruelty. If he expected mercy when our forces found him that was asking much more than he was ever known to give.

“This was a man who rejoiced in the suffering and death of others, who set in motion all the horror and grief of 9/11 and considered it just a start. He was a teacher of evil, and now, for him, the lesson is over. It ends not in the fulfillment of some fanatical vision, but in the depths of the
Arabian Sea.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — US Senator Scott Brown will deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s weekly address this week, focusing on the killing of Osama bin Laden, American’s continued fight against terrorism and the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Brown’s remarks will be released tomorrow morning, according to the senator’s office.

Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, is a 31-year member of the Massachusetts Army National Guard and currently holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. He had to backtrack earlier this week from comments he made in a TV interview, in which he claimed to have seen a photo of bin Laden’s corpse, which turned out to be a fake.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — The League of Women Voters has offered strong support in the past for disclosing who pays for political advertising, but the voter education group this morning would not name the donors funding its TV ads attacking Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown—at least not this year.

“We comply with the spirit and the letter of the law and report all contributions in our annual reports,” said Elisabeth MacNamara, national president of the League of Women Voters, in a phone interview.

The group’s annual report covering 2011 will be out early next year, she said.

US Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, will meet with constituents tomorrow, May 7, at a town hall meeting in Boston’s Faneuil Hall to discuss national security, job creation, and other key issues affecting Massachusetts and the nation, according to a statement from Kerry’s office.

Doors open at noon. Kerry will begin the meeting at 1 p.m.

By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist

A warning to the good people of Massachusetts: The story that will unfold in the United States District Court in Boston over the next month will be harmful to your psyche. It will confirm every possible fear of how state government works.

To see the three defendants sitting at their separate tables in Courtroom 10 yesterday was to witness pretty much everything bad about Beacon Hill – shameless cronyism, power for the sake of personal enrichment, a hilarious arrogance that they were smarter than everyone else.

Poor Sal DiMasi. He's walking around the courthouse during the too-frequent recesses clutching people's shoulders in that clichéd political way, acting like he's still the House speaker. In reality, he's nothing more than an indigent defendant who piled up $50,000 in credit card debt and three mortgages trying to keep up with the Joneses – or, in this case, the Cashmans. This was the guy presiding over our state budget.

David L. Ryan / Globe Staff

Former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, accompanied, left, by his stepdaughter, Ashley, and, right, his wife, Debbie, arrives this morning for opening arguments in his federal corruption trial.

By Milton J. Valencia and Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The federal corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi began today with a prosecutor declaring "this man found a way to cash in on that office."

Yet a defense attorney took aim at a key government witness, saying, "He's not just a gambler; he's a degenerate gambler."

Addressing a jury of eight men and eight women, Assistant US Attorney S. Theodore Merritt attacked DiMasi after posting a chart outlining the alleged conspiracy — with the former House leader at the top.

Within an hour, one of DiMasi's attorneys, William Cintolo, began the defense case, his voice booming through the courtroom very theatrically. He argued that DiMasi, in the deals under scrutiny, simply advocated for software the state needed, not in a conspiracy to receive bribes.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Democratic Party issued a statement today saying Senator Scott Brown "owes" Massachusetts residents an explanation after the Republican asserted — and then retracted — that he had seen postmortem photos of Osama bin Laden.

“As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Brown owes the people of Massachusetts more details as to what led him to believe that he was shown an authentic photo, and then what led him to feel comfortable enough to speak out publicly about the photo," party Chairman John Walsh said in a statement.

"He needs — right away, today — to provide answers to the following questions: who showed him the fake photo; who told him it was genuine when it wasn’t; and what are the procedures he uses to make sure he has reliable information before he gives voters that information?" Walsh added.

The chairman said the senator needs to “understand that his words matter, and his assertions are taken at face value because of his position."

Brown spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom replied: "With the Sal DiMasi corruption trial going on, I'm surprised that John Walsh has the time to criticize Republicans."

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney continues to dominate in early polls in New Hampshire, holding onto a sizable lead in a state that is crucial for his presidential bid.

The former Massachusetts governor is favored by 35 percent of those polled, giving him a lead of more than 27 points, according to a poll released tonight by WHDH-TV.

None of the other 17 potential candidates included in the poll, which was conducted by Suffolk University, are in the double-digits.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

US Senator Scott Brown said in several televised interviews today that he had seen perhaps the most controversial and closely guarded photos in the world: those showing Osama bin Laden’s dead body.

Brown, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested he had viewed them as part of an official briefing, and he argued that they were too graphic to be released to the public and could enflame terrorists.

Oops.

Brown later acknowledged that he had fallen victim to a hoax, apparently the same doctored images that were making the rounds on the Internet.

‘‘The photo that I saw and that a lot of other people saw is not authentic,’’ the senator said in a one-sentence statement issued hours after the interviews aired.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are urging House appropriators not to support cuts to grants that pay for a range of community services for the poor, the disabled and the elderly.

Nine House members from Massachusetts are among 84 Democrats who sent a letter to the top members of the House Appropriations Committee saying that cuts to Community Service Block Grants would harm vulnerable citizens when the services are most needed. Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat, provided the letter's first signature.

"Severe cuts to CSBGs – the source of funding for community action programs - would hinder, rather than help, our nation’s economic recovery while devastating critical support services for the poor, disabled, children and the elderly," the letter read.

The only Massachusetts member who did not sign was John Olver of Amherst. Olver is a member of House Appropriations and as a policy does not sign letters to the committee, according to a spokeswoman.


Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Anyone hoping for firm clues on whether Mitch Daniels will run for president would have been sorely disappointed.

The Indiana governor this afternoon spoke here in a speech that was much-anticipated, because his timeline for an announcement on his political future is expiring.

“You are here under false pretenses,” he told the crowd at the American Enterprise Institute, which included at least eight television cameras. “I just came for a meal.”

He then spoke for about 30 minutes in a policy-rich speech – complete with a slide-show presentation -- about the education reform that he was implementing in his home state.

UPDATED

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Having seen unreleased photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse, US Senator Scott Brown does not believe pictures of the dead terrorist leader should be made public, the Massachusetts Republican said in an interview on NECN.

“Let me assure you that he is dead, that bin Laden is dead — I have seen the photos,” Brown said hours before President Obama declared he would not release the images.

During an interview with "60 Minutes," the president told the CBS News program that "we don't trot out trophies."

Asked directly if the pictures, which have been described as bloody and gruesome, should be made available for everyone, Brown told NECN: “If it’s to sell newspapers or just have a news cycle story, no, I don’t think they should be released. We’re still dealing with the sensitivities of the Muslim and Arab world. And we still have men and women serving throughout the world.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney’s former campaign chairman in the crucial state of New Hampshire says he won’t be back for a second presidential bid.

Bruce Keough, a 2002 gubernatorial candidate and a former state senator, says he opted against joining Romney’s campaign again because the candidate could not articulate consistent positions on key issues.

"He struggled with that in the last campaign," Keough told Mother Jones, which first reported Keough’s defection. “And to some extent I think he's still struggling with it."

UPDATED

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Newton Mayor Setti Warren, a prospective candidate for US Senate, has booked the same American Legion Post where he announced his mayoral run for an unspecified event next Tuesday.

Aaron Goldman, who handles constituent services for the mayor, said Warren had reserved Post 440 in Newton for a “service breakfast,” but declined to elaborate.

"No comment," Warren told the Newton Tab, which first reported the booking, when the paper asked Warren if he planned to announce he is running against Republican Senator Scott Brown.

Deborah Shah, the mayor’s political director, said, “The mayor is hosting a service breakfast with people in his life who have done things for the community and he wants to honor them. I can’t say anything further at this time.”

Warren is a Navy veteran and a former aide to Senator John F. Kerry. City Year co-founder Alan Khazei and Somerville activist Bob Massie have already announced campaigns.

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick, just back from addressing Wisconsin Democrats, will reprise the role next month in Florida.

The Florida Democratic Party made the announcement today. Patrick will speak June 11 in Hollywood, just south of Fort Lauderdale.

“As Governor, Deval Patrick has focused on common sense solutions to bring jobs to his state. His leadership in implementing Massachusetts’ landmark health care reform law now serves as the national model for bringing affordable health insurance to all Americans,” Chairman Rod Smith said in a statement.

“We are thrilled that Governor Patrick is joining us at our 2011 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, helping us as get ready for the 2012 elections and work to hold (Governor) Rick Scott and his extreme Republican Party accountable," said Smith.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Mary Beth Cahill, once Senator Edward M. Kennedy's chief of staff, has been named director of the United Auto Workers' Washington office, as well as director of its UAW Community Action Program.

Globe file photo

Mary Beth Cahill

In both jobs, she will oversee the UAW’s political program nationally. She will also serve as a senior adviser to UAW President Bob King.

Cahill formerly served as assistant to the president and director of the Office of Public Liaison in the Clinton White House, as well as Kennedy's chief of staff and director of Senator John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

She also spent five years at EMILY’s List, a PAC that supports female candidates and supports abortion rights.

“We are thrilled to have Mary Beth join the UAW leadership team especially in light of the difficult challenges ahead for our union,” King said in a statement. "As we navigate the tough political environment in this era of attacks on American working families and the middle class, and head into national contract talks for the domestic automakers, I’m confident that she will help us elect officeholders who are allies in the battle to save the American middle class."

Cahill is a Massachusetts native and the daughter of a UAW autoworker. She graduated from Emmanuel College with a degree in English and political science, and held a fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2005.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Glen Johnson / Globe Staff

Along with Giordano's pizza, Gold Coast hot dogs are a Chicago institution - even if a bit touristy.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick addressed Wisconsin Democrats on Saturday night, and one sign of the importance he placed in the political message he delivered was evident in the presence of one person: Doug Rubin.

The governor's top local political strategist made the flight out to the land of nice people, dairy farms, and Old Style beer, and his handiwork was readily apparent.

Patrick largely gave what has become his book tour/political stump speech, talking about how much life has changed in his family in just one generation, and how he and his fellow Democrats shouldn't be satisfied until everyone has a good job, a good school, and a clean environment.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Likely presidential candidate Mitt Romney this morning said President Obama deserved to be credited with an “enormous success” for overseeing the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

“We’ll all remember where we were when Osama bin Laden was finally killed,” Romney told reporters this morning, according to an NECN video. “I congratulate the president, the intelligence community, our military. It’s an extraordinary accomplishment.”

“The bad guy took one in the eye,” he added.

Romney, who is considering vying for the role of occupying the Oval Office, was also eager for some more behind-the-scenes details.

“I look forward to hearing more,” Romney said. “How did we find out where he was located? What sources of intelligence were developed over the years? How many blind allies did they have to pursue until they finally found this guy?”

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican who is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said today the strike on Osama bin Laden in Pakistan raises questions about whether the continuing war in Afghanistan is worth the cost.

“With al Qaeda largely displaced from the country, but franchised in other locations, Afghanistan does not carry a strategic value that justifies 100,000 American troops and a $100 billion per year cost, especially given current fiscal restraints,” Lugar said in his opening statement at a hearing on Afghanistan.

Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who serves as chairman of the committee, called the death of bin Laden a "seminal moment." Questions about the future US role in Afghanistan are even more relevant now, he said.

"The death of Osama bin Laden is obviously an event with enormous consequence," he said. "It doesn't end the threat, however, but still it is a major victory in the long campaign against terrorism waged by our intelligence agencies and our military."

Essdras M. Suarez / Globe Staff

Jack Connors and his wife, Eileen, are hosting President Obama at their Brookline home on May 18. The event is the latest example of the advertising executive's expansion from traditional philanthropy work to political fundraising.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

When Vice President Joe Biden wanted to meet the right people in March to set up the fundraising apparatus for his and President Obama's reelection committee, it was Jack Connors who greeted him at his 60th floor office in the John Hancock Tower and then took him down two flights for a reception he put together.

And when Obama comes to Boston in a couple weeks to ask for cash itself, it will be Connors again who welcomes him, this time at his Brookline home.

The president will leave with about $2 million from a dinner that is already sold out.

The back-to-back events highlight Connors's connection to the White House, as well as his expansion from the philanthropy and foundation work that has followed his successful career founding the advertising powerhouse Hill Holliday.

Glen Johnson / Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick inscribed a copy of his memoir, "A Reason to Believe," in Milwaukee on Saturday night before concluding the first phase of his book tour.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MILWAUKEE — Governor Deval Patrick flew home yesterday on a 7:30 a.m. fight from Milwaukee, capping off the first phase of the sales tour promoting his new book, “A Reason to Believe.”

Starting April 12, the memoir’s official publication date, he visited New York, Washington, his native Chicago, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee, as well as Boston, Cambridge, South Hadley, and Great Barrington, Mass.

He was interviewed by Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show, Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” Lawrence O’Donnell on his MSNBC program, Tavis Smiley at PBS, Diane Rehm of NPR, and Bill Maher on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

He also appeared on CNN.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Likely presidential candidate Mitt Romney is not participating this week in the first GOP presidential debate, saying it was too early to begin facing off against opponents.

The debate, being held Thursday in South Carolina and sponsored by Fox News, will feature only a handful of candidates, including former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Senator Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania.

Romney, who is planning to be in South Carolina for a visit later this month, did participate in a forum on Friday in New Hampshire. The candidates were each given eight minutes for prepared remarks, but never appeared on stage with one another.

But he has been coy about whether he would participate in the first debate. On Friday, he told reporters, "Stay tuned," when asked whether he would be there. Today, he definitively said no.

"Gov. Romney will not be participating in this week's South Carolina debate because it's still early, the field is too unsettled and he's not yet an announced candidate," Matt Rhoades, one of his top advisers, said in a statement. "Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party have both been notified of this decision. Gov. Romney is planning to visit South Carolina on May 21st and he looks forward to debating there closer to their primary."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is seeking to refocus the nation's focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the run-up to a scheduled withdrawal of some US forces from Afghanistan, set to begin in July.

On Tuesday morning, Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Princeton University Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, Ronald E. Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy will appear before the committee.

It has already conducted 14 oversight hearings on the war, including the first congressional hearings on reconciliation and the mission in Marja.

The latest hearing was planned before Sunday's surprise announcement about the killing Osama bin Laden.

“The killing of Osama bin Laden closes an important chapter in our war against extremists who kill innocent people around the world." Kerry said in a statement. "A single death does not end the threat from al Qaeda and its affiliated groups and highlights the need to thoroughly evaluate our strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need to make certain we are asking tough questions about the direction and effectiveness of our policy/"

Farah Stockman can be reached fstockman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fstockman.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown just issued a statement saying he requested his annual summer Massachusetts National Guard service period in Afghanistan.

“As a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, I have service obligations that I fulfill each year.

"Following in the tradition of other lawmakers who have completed their military service requirements overseas, this year I have requested to conduct my annual training in Afghanistan.

"Doing so will help me to better understand our ongoing mission in that country, and provide me first-hand experience for my duties on the Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs committees," he said.

Brown has been in the Guard since 1979, but he has never been deployed to a war zone. His service this summer will come around the July set by President Obama for beginning to start removing some of the 132,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Typically such training periods last two weeks. It would not be considered a formal activation of his JAG unit.

The statement was issued about 90 minutes after Brown spoke with the Globe about heading to the war zone.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The Atlantic magazine has a fascinating interview with the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, in which he attempts to deflect criticism of his country's efforts to root out Osama bin Laden from its midst by comparing it to the ongoing search for Boston fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger.

"If Whitey Bulger can live undetected by American police for so long, why can't Osama bin Laden live undetected by Pakistani authorities?" asked Ambassador Husain Haqqani.

Read the full story here.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Just after President Obama made the most important announcement of his presidency, the field of candidates hoping to unseat him began reacting to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

"Welcome to hell, bin Laden," former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said, in one of the bluntest statements.

The shocking news is likely to temporarily divert away from any talk of the economy and high gas prices -- topics that Republican candidates have focused on in recent months. It could also bolster Obama's low approval ratings, and could expose a Republican presidential field that so far lacks a candidate with substantial foreign policy experience.

UPDATED

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown issued a statement this morning saying he has requested to conduct his annual National Guard training in Afghanistan.

“As a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, I have service obligations that I fulfill each year.

"Following in the tradition of other lawmakers who have completed their military service requirements overseas, this year I have requested to conduct my annual training in Afghanistan.

"Doing so will help me to better understand our ongoing mission in that country, and provide me first-hand experience for my duties on the Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs committees," he said.

Brown has been in the Guard since 1979, but he has never been deployed to a war zone. His service this summer will come around the July set by President Obama for beginning to start removing some of the 132,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Brown for Senate

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Brown

About 90 minutes before issuing his statement, Brown said in a telephone interview with the Globe, "I’m going to be going over at some point to do some missions.”

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

After President Obama told the nation last night about the death of Osama bin Laden, senior members of his administration held a conference call to brief reporters on the details of the mission.

Following is a transcript of that call, as provided by the White House, with all but one of the speakers identified as "senior administration officials."

It was led by Tommy Vietor, the chief spokesman for the National Security Council:

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Following are the full texts of statements issued last night by President Obama and Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown after the death of Osama bin Laden:

Jason Reed / Reuters

President Obama strides to the lectern to deliver news already coming into view on the TelePrompTer: Osama bin Laden has been killed.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Bush started the search for Osama bin Laden on Sept. 11, 2001, and President Obama ended it yesterday, and each man took special pride in the accomplishment.

Bush, in a statement posted on the Facebook page of his wife, former first lady Laura Bush, said: "The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done."

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"Justice has been done," the president said in remarks that began at 11:35 p.m.

Obama also went to lengths to detail the circumstances that led to bin Laden's death, as well as his leadership of it, starting with him saying he made it his top terrorism priority since shortly after taking office in 2009.

"Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice," said the president.

Then, in his crescendo, he added: "Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan."

Obama's backers will surely argue that the achievement validates his effort to shift the focus from the war on terror from insurgents and Saddam Hussein's loyalists in Iraq to the Taliban in Afghanistan, part of a campaign pledge he made to target bin Laden, the culprit of the 9/11 attacks.

As a senator, Obama declared he would authorize US forces to go into Pakistan to get bin Laden if that was where he sought refuge. In the end, that is what happened, with uncertain diplomatic repercussions for the country.

The president himself did not have to gloat, the facts potent enough to speak for themselves.

Glen Johnson / Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick addresses the 400 attendees at last night's Democratic Party of Wisconsin Founders Day Dinner.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MILWAUKEE — Governor Deval Patrick addressed Wisconsin Democrats last night.

Here is the full story:

MILWAUKEE — Governor Deval Patrick waded into the national debate over labor rights last night, telling fellow Democrats in the union battleground state of Wisconsin that Republicans “have abandoned any sense of responsibility for our common future in order to win power at all costs.’’

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MILWAUKEE — At least one Massachusetts labor leader wants Wisconsin Democrats to know Governor Deval Patrick is a union friend despite their own political spat back in the Bay State this week.

Just before the governor addressed a Democratic dinner in Milwaukee, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes issued a statement defending Patrick against possible criticism after the Massachusetts House voted this week on a budget that sought to change health insurance programs for municipal workers.

Patrick has filed his own cost-saving proposal, and both he and Senate President Therese Murray have withheld commenting on the details of the House budget.

Glen Johnson / Globe Staff

Copies of Governor Deval Patrick's memoir, "A Reason to Believe," are on sale tonight outside a ballroom where he is speaking to members of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MILWAUKEE — Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is in Wisconsin tonight, addressing state Democrats energized in the aftermath of their collective bargaining dispute with Republican Governor Scott Walker.

Patrick is the keynote speaker at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's Founders Day Dinner, which organizers proudly say sold out at 400 attendees in the aftermath of the Walker fight.

The governor flew into town this morning from Los Angeles, where he appeared on HBO as part of the book tour for his new memoir, "A Reason to Believe." He also was pulling double duty in Wisconsin, holding a book signing after the dinner. In addition, copies were available for purchase at a table outside the ballroom entrance.

UPDATED

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney tread on socially dangerous ground last night as he talked about the need to "hang" a misery index around the neck of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.

Romney almost immediately caught himself, with the English major declaring "metaphorically" speaking, but the mix of nervous laughter with applause indicated at least some in the audience realized its potency.

Romney said: "You remember during the Ronald Reagan/Jimmy Carter debates? That Ronald Reagan came up with this great thing about the 'misery index,' and that he hung that around Jimmy Carter's neck, and that had a lot to do with Jimmy Carter losing. Well, we're going to have to hang the 'Obama Misery Index' around his neck. And, I'll tell you, the fact that you've got people in this country, really squeezed, with gasoline getting so expensive, with commodities getting so expensive, families are having a hard time making ends meet. So, we're going to have to talk about that, and housing foreclosures and bankruptcies and higher taxation. We're going to hang him — uh, so to speak, metaphorically — with, uh, with, uh — you have to be careful these days, I've learned that, with an Obama Misery Index."

A video of the remarks posted on YouTube cuts off at, "you have to be careful," without the final 10 words.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Glen Johnson / Globe Staff

An attendee at tonight's Americans for Prosperity presidential candidate forum in New Hampshire saved his seat with a program.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Five prospective Republican presidential contenders are attending a forum tonight sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a pro-GOP group with ties to billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

Glen Johnson / Globe Staff

Mitt Romney spends $38.52 filling up an aide's Ford Escape while speaking with station owner Tony Chedid about high gasoline prices.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney pulled out his own credit card and spent $38.52 today to fill up the Ford Escape owned by aide Will Ritter, before he blamed high gasoline prices on the country's inability to generate a sufficient supply of energy.

The prospective Republican presidential contender said the Obama administration's reliance on creating green technologies and renewable energy supplies is commendable, but it has also caused price increases because of the expectation that supply of existing fuels will not increase.

He called for more oil drilling and natural gas pipelines, as well as coal production.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Scott Brown is hitting back at a voter education group that began running a critical television spot today, saying the ad "reeks of political demagoguery."

The League of Women Voters’ television spot features a young girl on a respirator, and accuses Brown of siding with polluters when he voted this month for a measure that would have stripped the EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. A similar ad aimed at Democrat Claire McCaskill is airing in her home state of Missouri.

"It is outrageous for an allegedly non-partisan group to use sick children to misrepresent a vote about jobs and government over-regulation. These type of over-the-top distortions have no place in our political discourse,” Brown, a Republican, said in a statement.

Brown and McCaskill's states are the only ones where the ads are playing; both are up for re-election in 2012. The spots have the appearance of issue ads that typically pop up during election seasons that point out how candidates voted on particular issues.

Before Brown's comments, League of Women Voters President Elisabeth MacNamara said the spots were not attack ads, and did not target Brown and McCaskill because of their upcoming elections. She said that “there is an accountability piece” to running them, but said it was not related to their elections. The votes of all 100 senators are available at an accompanying Web site.

“These are not intended to at all attack these particular senators. They are designed to draw attention to the votes that were made by these two particular senators," she said.

Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. – New Hampshire Democrats are preemptively attacking likely presidential candidate Mitt Romney hours before he makes his second public appearance of the year in this crucial first-in-the-nation primary state.

The state Democratic Party this afternoon criticized the former Massachusetts governor for, among other things, planning a campaign appearance this afternoon at a gas station here. The Democrats pointed to a 2-cent-per-gallon increase in a gasoline fee that was implemented in 2003 the Bay State when Romney was governor. The special fee, assessed on gasoline companies and aimed at cleaning up contamination around underground fuel storage tanks, was raised from 0.5 cents per gallon to 2.5 cents per gallon.

To drive home the point, state Democrats released a map showing all New Hampshire gas stations that border Massachusetts. The map is called “Last Stop Before the Romney Gas Tax.”

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Matthew Barzun, a former Lincoln resident who is now US ambassador to Sweden, will give up his diplomatic post to work for President Obama's re-election by overseeing what some have projected could be the country's first $1 billion White House campaign, The Boston Globe has learned.

US Embassy

Matthew Barzun

Barzun, a 40-year-old Harvard College graduate, will serve as national finance chairman for Obama for America, the president's Chicago-based campaign committee. He is replacing Penny Pritzker, the Chicago billionaire who helped raise nearly $750 million for Obama's 2008 campaign.

During the 2012 race, the Obama committee, working in unison with the Democratic National Committee, expects a fierce advertising battle after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on corporate funding of campaign commercials.

"Not only was Matthew Barzun one of the Obama campaign's top fundraisers in 2008, but he also brings strong working relationships with President Obama's supporters from across the country to this race," said a national Democrat who confirmed the appointment today.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Check "Political Intelligence" after 6 p.m. tonight for a live blog from the Americans for Prosperity forum in Manchester, N.H.

Five prospective Republican presidential candidates — Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain — will address Republican activists in the first candidate cattle call in almost two months.

The event kicks off at 7 p.m., when Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina speaks at an hourlong dinner honoring former New Hampshire Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne as “Conservative of the Year."

Lamontagne has become something of a GOP kingmaker in the first presidential primary state, helping to explain the turnout.

At 8 p.m., the broader speaking program begins, with each prospective candidate addressing the audience for eight minutes and then responding to questions from Tim Phillips, president of the AFP Foundation.

There will not be a direct debate, as the candidates are slated to speak in this order: Pawlenty, Santorum, Romney, Cain, and Bachmann.

The gathering is billed as a "Summit on Spending and Job Creation."

The appearance comes as a new poll sponsored by New Hampshire's leading television station, WMUR-TV, finds that President Obama's approval rating has fallen to 44 percent.

The survey also found that 52 percent of respondents disapproved of his job performance.

In one potential head-to-head matchup, Obama lost to Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, by a margin of 50 percent to 43 percent.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – A voting rights advocacy group is taking to the airwaves today with a campaign-style ad criticizing Senator Scott Brown for a vote to curb the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory power.

The League of Women Voters’ television spot accuses Brown, a Republican, of siding with polluters with his vote earlier this month that would have stripped EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. A similar ad aimed at Democrat Claire McCaskill will air in her home state of Missouri.

Brown and McCaskill are the only senators being targeted, and both are up for re-election in 2012. The spots have the appearance of issue ads that typically pop up during campaigns pointing out how candidates voted on particular issues. The ad buy is significant, costing over a million dollars, according to the company that produced it.

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — The New Hampshire Democratic Party announced this morning that it is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Republican Mitt Romney violated campaign finance laws by using large contributions given to a series of state PACs to fund his presidential ambitions.

The complaint asks the commission to investigate and cites a Boston Globe story published earlier this month that outlined Romney's state committee fund-raising system.

By using committees set up in individual states with no contribution limits, Romney was able to get around individual federal contribution limits of $5,000 per year. Through state committees in Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina, and New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor raised large contributions totaling $1.62 million from 43 individuals in 2009 and 2010. That's an average contribution amount of $37,700.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Michael Capuano took aim today at Senator Scott Brown's advocacy for a reconfigured Suffolk County voting district aimed at empowering minority voters, saying his current district already fits that criteria.

"Senator Brown is entitled to share his opinion on redistricting. But he is not entitled to his own facts and the facts could not be clearer," the Somerville Democrat wrote in an email newsletter to constituents and supporters.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

EXETER, N.H. – Members of Congress have talked about the hard choices that must be made to get the country’s debt under control. Now, they’re figuring out just how difficult those decisions are going to be – and the political price that could be paid for making them.

Representative Frank Guinta, a first-term Republican from Manchester, faced a feisty crowd tonight at a town hall meeting in a high school in this quiet town near the seacoast.

The crowd booed at some responses, hissed at others. Audience members yelled and pointed at the congressman, and they yelled and pointed at each other.

Guinta was swept into office last year with a wave of Tea Party-fueled anger – largely over the economy and health care – and, constituents seemed to remind him tonight, he could just as easily be swept out.

It was an indication of the unrest going on throughout the country, as House Republicans attempt to defend their votes to implement drastic budget cuts and curb long-cherished entitlement programs.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- President Obama’s nomination of Leon Panetta as his next secretary of defense and General David Petraeus as CIA director are getting high marks today from both Massachusetts senators.

John Kerry, a Democrat, and Scott P. Brown, a Republican, praised the two men on the day that the president announced the nominations in a reshuffling of his national security team.

“While the country will miss the service of Secretary (Robert) Gates, Leon Panetta and General Petraeus are first-rate public servants whose reputations and records transcend party, and I expect broad approval and swift confirmations,” Kerry, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

Petraeus and Panetta have both served "admirably," Brown said of the two men. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he will participate in Panetta's hearing and vote on his nomination it goes to the full senate for confirmation.

"I look forward to learning more about their views and goals for the future during their confirmation hearings," Brown said in a statement.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama is coming back to Boston next month for a fundraiser on behalf of his newly created reelection committee.

The Democrat is scheduled to appear at a 3 p.m. event at the Cyclorama in the South End on May 18.

A Democratic official who confirmed the trip would not provide further details, but if Obama follows the practice he has used in recent weeks in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, he will attend several events for both mass audiences and more intimate groups while in the city.

The goal is to raise money for the 2012 campaign.

Obama was in Boston last month for an education event at TechBoston Academy in Dorchester, as well as a fundraiser on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

CONCORD, N.H. -- The contrast could not have been clearer. Where Donald Trump flew into this first-in-the-nation primary state yesterday on his personal helicopter, Senator Rand Paul flew in on Southwest – and had coffee spilled on him, to boot.

Where Trump was greeted by a horde of reporters, only a handful came to hear Paul speak before the Merrimack County Republican Committee at a Holiday Inn here. And where Trump is heavy on the style and oftentimes light on the substance, Paul delivered a policy-rich speech in a dry tone.

But not without tweaking Trump today for his insistence that President Obama release his complete birth certificate.

“I’ve come to New Hampshire today because I’m very concerned,” Paul said. “I want to see the original long-form certificate, with embossed seal, of Donald Trump’s Republican registration.”

“Seriously don’t you think we need to see that?” he said, adding that Trump had donated to Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick said this morning he believes he and leading lawmakers will “find our way to something” on an expanded gambling bill, but “we’re not there yet.”

Patrick said he, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, and Senate President Therese Murray continue to negotiate on the issue that ended in finger-pointing last year when the sides failed to reach agreement on bringing casinos to the state, which they all said they supported.

DeLeo, nonetheless, held out for slot machines at the state's four racetracks.

John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

President Obama came to Boston on Oct. 16 to campaign for his personal friend and political ally Governor Deval Patrick.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick, a close personal and political friend of President Obama, today said questions about the authenticity of his birth certificate — and thus his legitimacy as the country's leader — represent "a new low in American politics."

“I hope and I believe that the American people are bigger and better than this," the Democrat said during his monthly appearance on WTKK-FM, his most free-wheeling regular public engagement.

Asked whether he felt race was motivating questions not only about Obama's birthplace but also his academic record, Patrick — like Obama the first African-American to hold his job — said: “I have no idea, but whatever is motivating it, it feels like a new low in American politics, particularly when you consider the extraordinary challenges facing this country and this president, that we would spend our time on stuff like that and attempts to marginalize our president.”

Jim Wilson/Globe Staff

Paul Tsongas acknowledges the crowd as he announces his candidacy for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination during an April 30, 1991, speech in Lowell's Boarding House Park.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Listening to Donald Trump yesterday, speaking caustically and bombastically against the backdrop of a gleaming helicopter emblazoned with the name "Trump," I was struck by the contrast between him and the late Senator Paul Tsongas.

The Massachusetts Democrat announced his candidacy for the presidency 20 years ago Saturday, on April 30, 1991, and the approaching anniversary had prompted me to reminisce in recent weeks about the first White House campaign I covered.

The difference between Tsongas and Trump could not be more pronounced.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert has weighed in on Mitt Romney's suggestion earlier this week that President Obama had engaged in a huge "peacetime" spending binge.

Romney's staff later clarified that in his op-ed piece Monday for The New Hampshire Union Leader, the prospective Republican presidential contender meant to blast the incumbent for the largest expenditures since World War II.

Colbert addressed the situation last night on his satirical pundit program.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON - British Petroleum’s billion-dollar increase in profits during the first three months of this year has added further fuel to partisan debate in Congress over energy policy and tax breaks for oil companies.

A year ago, BP’s Macondo well exploded and toppled into the Gulf of Mexico, triggering one of the worst oil spills in the nation’s history. The company’s announcement today that it had earned $1.1 billion more in profits in the first quarter of this year than the same period in 2010 earned sharp criticism from US Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden. ConocoPhillips also announced about $1 billion more in profits over that period last year.

“When BP makes billions in profits, even after the year they just had, you know it’s time to cap the gusher of tax breaks that have been subsidizing the biggest oil companies for decades,” said Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Donald Trump is well known for having a distaste for one of the most basic human rituals: shaking hands.

"One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands, and the more successful and famous one becomes the worse this terrible custom seems to get,” he wrote in his 1997 book, “The Art of the Comeback.” “I happen to be a clean hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands, which I do as much as possible."

So as he launched on a whirlwind trip to New Hampshire today – to meet with activists, donors, and average voters – it was unclear whether he would change his habits and agree to shake hands with the uncleaned masses.

The answer became clear when he entered the Roundabout Diner and Lounge here, and began grabbing hands like it was his job.

“How are you?” he said, extending his arm to one person. “Nice to see you,” he said to another.

“It was very warm and very strong,” Brian Murphy, a 49-year-old independent from Rye, said of the handshake he received. “I was surprised.”

Trump has been known to stretch the truth a bit, and it was no different on his past position on pressing the flesh.

When a reporter commented that he was getting good at shaking hands, he said, “I have no problem with it. That’s a rumor that the enemies say.”

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

Bill Greene/Globe Staff

Donald Trump spoke to the media in New Hampshire today.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - With his trademark New York bravado, Donald Trump today said "I'm very proud of myself" for supposedly prompting President Obama to release a copy of his birth certificate.

"I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role," the New York real estate mogul and television celebrity told reporters just after the White House announced its release.

The decision came amid lingering suggestions from so-called "birthers" that the president is not a legitimate leader because he allegedly was born in his father's native Kenya and not Hawaii, as the certificate endorses.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Donald Trump's New Hampshire schedule is secret no longer.

The prospective Republican presidential contender is scheduled to arrive at 9 a.m. at the Pease International Tradeport.

After a press conference in a Port City Air hangar (which won't begin until the rotors on Trump's helicopter stop - hair concern?), Trump will head to the Roundabout Diner at the Portsmouth Traffic Circle.

Then, at 10:30 a.m., he's slated to visit the Wilcox Industries Corp. in Newington, where he will go on a tour and meet with employees and guests.

At 12:30 p.m., Trump is the headliner at a fundraiser for the New Hampshire Republican Party, which is providing logistical support for his visit.

Then, at 3:15 p.m., Trump is stopping by Newick's Lobster House for what is sure to be a picturesque photo op.

He is due to fly out at 4:50 p.m.

Before this morning, Trump associates had refused to release his schedule, citing concerns about mischief-makers and "security" worries.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Richard Drew/AP

Donald Trump speaks Monday during an interview with The Associated Press. Today he is making his first visit to New Hampshire as a prospective presidential candidate.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Real estate mogul and television celebrity Donald Trump is making his first visit to New Hampshire today as a prospective presidential candidate.

Just don't ask where.

After a press conference at the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, the New York Republican is going to try to ditch the media pack as he makes a half-dozen secret stops aimed at introducing him to key players in the lead presidential primary state.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Caroline Kennedy will open a new wing next week at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The daughter of the slain president will join Director Tom Putnam for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:30 p.m. on May 4.

In 2001 the National Archives conducted a program review of the library that concluded that "storage problems seen at the Kennedy Library are the worst in the entire presidential library system.”

Congress approved the funding to design and build a 30,000-square-foot addition to the library building on Columbia Point to ensure the appropriate preservation and security of President Kennedy’s papers and historical artifacts.

JFK was born 94 years ago on May 29.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Alan Khazei today officially declared he is running for the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Republican US Senator Scott Brown.

Alan Khazei

"It's official,'' he wrote. “I’m in.''

A two-and-a-half minute announcement video posted on his website offered a more detailed look at his campaign themes.

“As I’ve traveled across our state, I’ve heard from many people who are concerned that opportunity is drying up, that the American dream is in trouble and the system is failing too many Americans,” Khazei says in the video. “It’s stacked in favor of powerful special interests and designed for a time long gone by.”

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Veteran Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi has signed on with Somerville activist Bob Massie in his campaign against US Senator Scott Brown.

Massie has already declared his candidacy for next year's Democratic nomination. City Year co-founder Alan Khazei also announced today that he was running.

In a statement, Trippi noted he began his career on the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign. The strategist also was instrumental in Howard Dean's surprise showing in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary campaign.

“Bob Massie has a remarkable story in which he has demonstrated insight, courage, and tenacity," Trippi said in a statement. "He will defend the American Dream, excite the Democratic base, draw in independents, and take the seat back from Scott Brown, who simply does not represent the values of Massachusetts."

Massie campaign manager Matt Wilson said: “Joe Trippi’s history motivating and engaging the grassroots is second to none. His experience in local, national, and international politics complements Bob’s vision of a better life for all.”

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson and Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

The public phase of the first day of the federal corruption trial for former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has ended.

US District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf addressed a crowd of 250 prospective jurors before they began filling out a 43-question form designed to gauge their impartiality. The questions were sealed from public inspection.

The judge said the answers would be reviewed afterward, and attorneys in the case would be able to raise any questions on Thursday.

Jurors will then call the court and be instructed whether to return Friday for live questioning from both prosecutors and defense attorneys.

David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

The trial of former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, which starts today, has cast a pall over the rest of Beacon Hill. The current speaker, Robert DeLeo, left, is on the witness list, as is Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray. Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, center background, is not.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Deval Patrick railed against the "Beacon Hill culture" when he ran for governor in 2006. Now he's part of a trial with the potential to expose its most unsavory elements.

Patrick is the highest-profile potential witness in the trial of former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, which begins today in federal court as prospective jurors fill out questionnaires. DiMasi, a Boston Democrat, is accused of receiving $65,000 in kickbacks for helping funnel $17.5 million in state contracts to the Burlington software company Cognos.

Richard Vitale, DiMasi's friend and former accountant, and their friend Richard McDonough, are charged with extortion and mail and wire fraud, among other charges, for allegedly misappropriating DiMasi's power as speaker.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Live by the op-ed, die by the op-ed.

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney learned that today, when he made an apparent gaffe in what has become the favored form of communication in his carefully choreographed pre-campaign run-up: the newspaper op-ed column.

The former Massachusetts governor found that when you virtually limit your media exposure to written columns, as opposed to unrestricted media questions, you can control your message — but you also leave no one else to blame when there's trouble.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour announced today he would not be a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

In a statement, he highlighted the grueling personal commitment that had made his wife, Marsha, wary of such a campaign.

"A candidate for president today is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else," Barbour said. "His (or her) supporters expect and deserve no less than absolute fire in the belly from their candidate. I cannot offer that with certainty, and total certainty is required."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Brian Blanco for The Boston Globe

Mitt and Ann Romney arrive at an H&R Block office in Orlando, Fla., on April 15 for a tax-day discussion.

UPDATED

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

None of the best-known potential Republican presidential contenders has yet to formally declare his candidacy, but when they do, it's clear it'll be a two-fer.

Mitt Romney says his wife, Ann, has been the one egging him on to mount a second White House campaign.

Tim Pawlenty doesn't issue a press release without mentioning his wife Mary's assent with the news.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward is speaking Monday at Tufts University.

The Washington Post journalist will be the 14th speaker in the Richard E. Snyder President's Lecture Series.

He will appear at 4:30 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium in the Aidekman Arts Center.

Tickets are free but they must be reserved by calling Laurie Tautkas at 617-627-3416.

Snyder graduated from Tufts in 1955 and is the former chairman and CEO of Simon & Schuster. The lecture series was established in 2004 to attract speakers who have challenged conventional wisdom in their professional work.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama didn't exactly blame the American people for missing the point last night as his poll numbers have plunged, but he did state they have been so focused on their daily lives they haven't focused deeply enough on the broader, more thematic underpinnings of the great recent congressional debates.

Addressing a star-studded fundraiser audience at the Tavern restaurant in Los Angeles that included actors Tom Hanks and George Clooney, Obama said he expected the majority of voters to end up siding with him when they focus their attention on the candidates, the policies they propose, and their personal values during next year's campaign.

Massachusetts listeners can't but hear the echoes of the "values" focus that Governor Deval Patrick offered during his successful reelection campaign last fall, and which he has continued amid his recent book tour.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Those of us who covered the Kerry for President campaign in 2004 felt a special horror in yesterday's news about the two photographers who were killed in Libya.

Getty Images

Chris Hondros

The more closely known to the campaign travelers, though, was Chris Hondros of Getty Images. He rode the Kerry plane often and brought his combat photography skills to the political arena.

Senator John Kerry just issued a statement in which the Massachusetts Democrat recounts many of Hondros's traits and campaign moments:

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Likely presidential contender Mitt Romney today criticized President Obama for not being clearer on the mission in Libya, saying that the United States was entering into a "mission creep" in the war-torn country.

“It is apparent that our military is engaged in much more than enforcing a no-fly zone,” Romney wrote in a blog post on National Review Online. “What we are watching in real time is another example of mission creep and mission muddle.”

“Military action cannot be under-deliberated and ad hoc,” Romney added. “The president owes it to the American people and Congress to immediately explain his new Libya mission and its strategic rationale.”

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

Congressman Edward Markey, a Malden Democrat, and a group of “seniors, working families, and health care providers” will rally in Brighton today against a US House Republican plan to dramatically change Medicare, the health care program for the elderly, and Medicaid, which provides health care to low income people. The rally is 1 p.m. at the Veronica Smith Senior Center.

“Republicans in the House of Representatives are advocating dangerous cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that do nothing to address skyrocketing health care costs or the real causes of federal deficits,” according to a notice for the event sent out by organizers. “Their proposal will cut benefits for seniors, increase premiums and end guaranteed coverage.”

The GOP budget plan would replace the current Medicare system with a program to provide seniors money to buy their own private health insurance, and would transform Medicaid into a Block Grant program for states.

Mark Arsenault can be reached at marsenault@globe.com.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is trying to pick and choose which media outlets he appears in before he makes any formal announcement, but there was no avoiding The Onion today.

The satirical newspaper posted a mock article in which the former Massachusetts governor ostensibly regretted signing the state's universal health care law in 2006.

"Every day I am haunted by the fact that I gave impoverished Massachusetts citizens a chance to receive health care," The Onion "quotes" Romney as saying in the satirical piece. "I'm only human, and I've made mistakes. None bigger, of course, than helping cancer patients receive chemotherapy treatments and making sure that those suffering from pediatric AIDS could obtain medications, but that's my cross to bear."

Again, it's satire. I think.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick, pressed about his aspirations for higher
office during an appearance on national television today, said he would
not run against US Senator Scott Brown, even if President Obama urged
him to do so.

"That conversation is not going to happen, and I've been very clear I
do not want to serve in the United States Senate," Patrick said during
a five-minute interview with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show.

Patrick was appearing on the show to promote his memoir, and Lauer,
who introduced the governor as a "rising star," asked several times
whether the book was a precursor to a run for national office. Patrick
insisted it was not.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown, who has been sharply criticized by environmentalists for a recent vote on air pollution control, wants to reduce energy costs, wean the nation off foreign oil and increase domestic energy production.

With gas prices soaring and families preparing to fill their tanks for summer vacations, the Massachusetts Republican plans to introduce bipartisan legislation in coming weeks intended to decrease gas use, increase efficiency and require energy audits of federal projects.

A video press release from Brown accompanied the announcement, in which Brown said “the status quo is not acceptable when it comes to our energy policy.”

“We must start to develop more of the domestic sources of energy here at home in an environmentally-friendly manner. We need to take an all-of-the-above approach, and this includes wind, solar, hydro, geo-thermal, clean coal, natural as, biofuels, conservation, R & D tax credits -- everything must be on the table,” he said.

He did not mention drilling, which was included in the prepared script of the video.

The raft of three bills will include legislation giving tax-credits to businesses that retrofit their vehicles with hybrid technology; another bill would provide more disclosure of home energy use; and a third would require energy audits of federally funded projects.

Environmental groups criticized Brown after he voted earlier this month in favor of a budget amendment that would have stripped the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases. In addition, Brown was recently caught on camera asking for a campaign donation from billionaire David Koch, whom critics accuse of bankrolling opposition to greenhouse gas regulation. Brown later received a $2,500 donation from Koch Industries’ political action committee.

Asked about the timing of Brown’s legislative announcement, a spokesman said in an email that “Senator Brown believes these proposals are positive first steps toward addressing skyrocketing energy costs.”

Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney wants President Obama to personally meet with officials from Standard & Poor's after the financial agency maintained the country's AAA bond rating on Monday but downgraded its long-term outlook from "stable" to "negative."

“If you will, they downgraded the Obama presidency," Romney said today during an interview on the San Diego-based “Mark Larson Show."

"In my own view, this is not something to be laughed off as the president’s people seem to be doing. The president really ought to personally sit down and meet with S&P. I did that when I was governor (of Massachusetts); I met with the ratings agencies and talked about our future and tried to instill confidence in our future because, look, how they rate our debt and how they rate our future as a nation will affect the interest costs that we end up paying and will affect homeowners and borrowers all over the country," said Romney.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown says people demanding he name the former counselor who allegedly sexually abused him when he attended a Cape Cod summer camp as a 10-year-old "have no clue" about working through such an episode.

The Massachusetts Republican made the allegation in mid-February when released his new book, "Against All Odds." But since then, he has refused to name the camp where the alleged abuse occurred, the counselor he says abused him, or provide authorities with information for a possible prosecution.

The senator has explained that he wants to move on with his life, even as critics suggest remaining silent has allowed an abuser to go unpunished and possibly victimized others.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar is coming to Boston tomorrow to make an undisclosed announcement related to the Cape Wind offshore wind energy project.

He will appear at 10:30 a.m. at Pier 1 of the Charlestown Navy Yard along with Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard K. Sullivan Jr. and and Cape Wind Associates Vice President Dennis Duffy.

Cape Wind is proposed for federal waters nearly five miles off Cape Cod. Over 100 generators spread across 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound would produce up to 468 megawatts of power.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

U.S. Representative John Tierney wants an end to government tax breaks and loopholes that he says cost the government billions of dollars a year, and is hoping that fiscal conservatives will join him in the effort.

The Salem Democrat plans to file legislation in coming weeks called the Tax Equity and Middle Class Fairness Act of 2011 which would end over two dozen so-called “tax expenditures” which divert revenues out of treasury coffers.

Those expenditures include subsidies, tax credits, exclusions and exemptions for individuals and corporations that are difficult to root out of the tax code.

While Tierney calculates that there are some 250 such expenditures in all, the bill targets only about 30 of them; the General Accounting Office would review the rest and report to Congress.

“We found what we though were some obvious ones that we could address in the short term,” he said.

The legislation, which is still being finalized and does not yet have co-sponsors, would eliminate tax breaks for oil, gas and coal companies; write-offs for corporate meals and entertainment; and agribusiness and timber subsidies.

Tierney said that he hopes deficit hawks among House Republicans will join him in the effort, although he doesn’t have any commitments yet.

“I would hope that we’ve get some support on the fiscally conservative side, because it certainly is as fiscally conservative a measure as anything that’s going to be proposed on that,” he said.

Columbia University economics professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, a former chief economist for the World Bank who joined Tierney on a conference call about the legislation, said that the current debate the proposal is timely amid ongoing debate over spending and the deficit.

“Now that the budget issue has come to the fore, this is precisely a good time to address this long-standing problem in our whole fiscal situation,” he said.

Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — US Senator Scott Brown took some ribbing after a liberal blog last month posted video of the Massachusetts Republican asking conservative billionaire David Koch for support in his next campaign—but Brown’s request apparently worked.

Shortly after his conversation with Koch, Brown received a $2,500 donation to his campaign fund from Koch Industries through its political action committee, according to campaign finance reports made public yesterday.

The blog, Think Progress, shot the video of Brown and Koch at a March 4 event at the David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute at MIT. In the video, Brown is seen telling Koch, “Your support during the election, it meant a ton. It made a difference and I can certainly use it again.”

The video was posted March 7. Brown’s campaign reported it received Koch’s contribution on March 11.

Mark Arsenault can be reached at marsenault@globe.com.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown threw out the first pitch before the Patriots Day game between the Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

Then he headed to the NESN broadcast booth and described the jealousy some fellow members of Congress feel over the success of his hometown teams.

"People don't realize when you're in a state where they have no chance of ever winning anything, the amount of jealousy amongst the senators and the congressmen, 'Oh, my gosh, you're from Boston? The Red Sox, the Celtics, the Bruins,' everyone's always in the playoffs, always in the hunt," Brown to play-by-play man Don Orsillo and color commentator Jerry Remy.

"If you're down in Washington or Baltimore, they're not quite there," said the senator, who was dressed in a Red Sox warm-up jacket for the occasion.

Nonetheless, Brown said he has attended some Washington Nationals games with his family and staff, to relax with the former and work on team-building with the latter.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown is taking a tour tomorrow of XL Hybrids, a Somerville-based company that converts standard gasoline engines into hybrids.

The tour will occur from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Afterward, Brown will hold a press conference to discuss his proposed legislation for reducing energy costs.

The Republican is up for re-election. He is back in Massachusetts during the congressional recess.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Potential US Senate candidate Alan Khazei has announced the first event for his campaign exploratory committee.

In a Facebook posting, the Democrat said he would meet with supporters at 6 p.m. on April 26 at the Old South Meeting House in Boston.

"I would love the opportunity to share with you my thoughts on how to get our country back on the right track and also hear your ideas and thoughts," said Khazei. "I look forward to meeting and listening to the voters of the commonwealth to hear their concerns and ideas about the challenges and opportunities facing our state and country."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama's deficit-reduction speech wasn't just about numbers but what kind of country America will become, Governor Deval Patrick said this morning during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" news program.

While Republicans have criticized the partisan nature of last week's address, in which Obama proposed cutting $4 trillion over 12 years, Patrick said the critics glossed over its overarching theme.

“It’s a fiscally responsible but also mutually responsible kind of community, and I support that," the governor told host Christiane Amanpour.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

Amid rancorous debate in Congress over spending and taxes, the White House flipped the switch today on an online system for calculating where tax revenues are being spent.

The White House launched its “Federal Taxpayer Receipt” site on what is typically the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns, although this year taxes are due on April 18. The administration said the site was an effort to increase government openness and transparency.

“Today, we’re hopeful that with this tool for regular Americans, everyday Americans, they can actually see these dollars flowing as easily as one can click a mouse,” said Aneesh Chopra, the White House chief technology officer.

By plugging in the amounts of federal taxes deducted from paychecks, taxpayers can see how much of their taxes go to different parts of the federal government, such as defense, health care and veterans services.

President Obama had called for such a system in his State of the Union speech this year. Senator Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, co-sponsored legislation last month with Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida that would require the IRS to send a receipt to every person who files a tax return.

"I believe that providing Americans with an itemized receipt of how the government is spending their money will help improve transparency and accountability as we work to rein in federal spending and deal with our record debt,” Brown said.

Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, a free-market group that seeks lower taxes, said the site could be helpful in showing how the federal tax system is what he called "one big transfer payment."

"Yes, they'll see considerable amounts for the military and smaller ones for things like highways but many folks will likely see for the first time that much of the money coming out of their paychecks is winding up in someone else's check," he said.

Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

Brian Blanco for The Boston Globe

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, listen today to the tax concerns of local business owner Jason Albu, back to camera, as H&R Block office manager Kathy Severtson, right, looks while the Romneys tour an H&R Block office in Orlando, Fla.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

ORLANDO – Former Governor Mitt Romney this morning criticized President Obama’s deficit reduction plan as “deceptive and intellectually dishonest,” but largely strayed from outlining what his own proposals would look like.

He also did not fully embrace the House Republican plan to curb spending in the cherished entitlement programs Medicaid and Medicare, saying at one point that “it’s essential for us to protect Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as safety nets for the American people.”

Republican presidential candidates have struggled to discuss both the desire to cut spending, and whether those cuts should include the politically popular entitlement programs that make up the largest chunk of spending. Romney said he supported Representative Paul Ryan for bringing the ideas forward.

“I applaud the fact that we are now talking about this issue,” Romney said, in his first public appearance since announcing on Monday that he was forming a presidential exploratory committee. “Chairman Ryan’s plan is not identical, I don’t imagine, to what I’ll be putting forward in a campaign that will potentially go forward. But it’s the right step. We’re on the same page, to put this agenda out there and talk about spending restraint.”

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today of concealing inspection results at U.S. nuclear power plants and limiting the scope and length of reactor inspections.

In a letter to commission Chairman Greg Jaczko, the Malden Democrat protested what he said were limits on inspectors checking U.S. nuclear reactors in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that badly damaged the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

“We should stand prepared to learn from the catastrophe in Japan and plan ahead to address what was unforeseen but occurred anyway, rather than attempting to hide our vulnerabilities from public view,” he wrote.

Commission spokeswoman Prema Chandrathil said the ongoing review of safety at U.S. plants goes "far beyond" physical inspections at plants, and is looking for problems other than just design flaws. Moreover, she said, a report on safety at U.S. plants will be made public at the end of a lengthy review process.

While some findings at plants are generally not made public because of post-Sept. 11 security measures, she said the commission always takes action when warranted.

“In response to the events in Japan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will take any regulatory action deemed necessary, she said.

After last month’s disaster, the commission announced increased inspections of all U.S. nuclear plants to ensure their safety. It has also sent inspectors to aid Japanese authorities.

Markey alleged that the commission’s review of domestic plants is inadequate, and conceals vital information from the public. Inspectors are limited to 40 hours for single-reactor plants and 50-60 hours for multi-reactor plants, according to Markey, which is not enough to full inspect plants.

In addition, inspectors were initially not allowed to look for safety vulnerabilities to unanticipated catastrophic events, he claimed. An outcry from inspectors allowed them to do so, but they were not permitted to note them in writing, putting them instead in a secret database and shielding them from public scrutiny, he said.

“The fact that they plan to keep the most serious vulnerabilities secret raises questions about whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is more interested in public relations than public safety,” Markey said.

Markey, who has held his seat since 1976, cast his 20,000 vote yesterday on the House floor.

Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

Both Massachusetts senators voted against a budget amendment today that would have banned federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood, a measure that was part of a bargain struck last week to avoid a government shutdown.

Scott Brown, a Republican, and John Kerry, a Democrat, were among those voting against the Planned Parenthood resolution, which was defeated 58-42. Both senators went on to vote for the six-month budget measure funding the government through September.

"As I've said before, I believe this particular cut goes too far," Brown said in a brief statement.

Brown’s vote earned praise from Dianne Luby, president of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, who said the amendment would have cut off federal funds for a range of women’s health services, from breast cancer screening to HIV testing.

“Clearly, Senator Brown was listening to his constituents when he cast his vote to protect women’s health,” Luby said in a statement. “He understands that Planned Parenthood is an essential community provider and that cutting off access to critical preventive health services is not smart public health or fiscal policy.”

The vote was included in a pact that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and President Obama reached late last week just before a midnight deadline to fund the government.

During the tense budget talks, House Republicans had sought to ban the use of federal funds for Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions, although federal law already prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions. The issue became a major obstacle to a budget deal long after spending reductions and disagreement over other social issues had been decided.

The Planned Parenthood amendment allowed the measure to receive a debate and a vote in the Senate, where the Democrats have a majority, and its defeat was expected.

Theo Emery can be reached at temery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @temery.

The United Nations confirmed today that last week’s Iraqi army raid of Camp Ashraf resulted in the deaths of 34 Iranian exiles. Camp Ashraf is home to many members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, a group in opposition to Iran’s clerical leaders that had found refuge in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime. The Iraqi government has announced an investigation into the incident.

"The current situation at the camp is untenable,” Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said in a statement that condemned the Iraqi military’s “massacre.” Kerry also called on the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, to help all parties find "a peaceful and durable solution," and permanent homes for the Camp Ashraf residents.

Read Kerry’s full statement below.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

Representative James McGovern, a Worcester Democrat, joined a bipartisan effort to link the escalating budget deficit with the on-going costs of the Afghan war.

"This week we are debating a budget that purports to represent new fiscal restraint, yet continues to borrow tens of billions of dollars for the war in Afghanistan," McGovern said Thursday at an event on Capitol Hill organized by Brave New Foundation, a California-based social justice organization. "I'm tired of being told that we don't have enough money for education or infrastructure or medical research, but we can afford to spend billions of dollars propping up a corrupt regime in Kabul."

McGovern has been working with Representative Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, to introduce legislation as early as May that would require exit strategy from Afghanistan.

"President Obama has said that we will begin to withdraw our troops in July of this year. We must hold him to that promise," McGovern said. "Rather than nation-building in Afghanistan, we need to do some more nation-building right here at home."

The event was part of a Brave New Foundation's Rethink Afghanistan campaign, which seeks to highlight the costs of the war by building a web site that calculates how much an American citizen has contributed to the war's cost.

Farah Stockman can be reached at fstockman@globe.com.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, guided by New Hampshire Republican operative Michael Dennehy, walks through Riley's Gun Shop in Hooksett on the second day of his visit to the lead primary state as a prospective presidential candidate.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

HOOKSETT, N.H. – With a 22-person media contingent outside, and only a handful of prospective voters inside, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour wasn't trying to conceal the message he was sending to New Hampshire voters as he wound down his first visit of the year as a prospective presidential contender.

I'm one of you, he said with deeds as much as words nonetheless spoken with a Southern drawl.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Senator Scott Brown’s communications director is leaving to join Mitt Romney’s emerging presidential campaign, the former Massachusetts governor announced this morning.

Gail Gitcho, who joined Brown just as he took office in February 2010, was previously a regional press secretary during Romney’s 2008 presidential bid. She later was the mid-Atlantic communications director for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and then served as national press secretary for the Republican National Committee.

Gitcho is leaving Brown’s staff at a crucial time, as he prepares to run for reelection in Massachusetts in a race that will draw national attention. She also joins Romney at a crucial time, as he prepares for a second presidential run.

It also highlights the overlap between the advisers for Brown and Romney – two candidates whose political careers and personas are very different but who are advised by many of the same people. Both Massachusetts Republicans will continue consult a trio that has steered campaigns for both before – Eric Fehrnstrom, Peter Flaherty, and Beth Myers.

Globe colleague Glen Johnson wrote three weeks ago about the political tightrope the candidates – and staffs – will have to walk as the campaigns get underway.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Prospective Republican presidential contender Haley Barbour talked guns, the Boston Red Sox, and political issues during a visit this morning to the Chez Vachon restaurant in Manchester, N.H.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Who knew?

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour claimed a New England connection this morning as he confessed to being a Boston Red Sox fan on the strength of his longtime friendship with a former team catcher.

Stopping by a frequent political haunt, the Chez Vachon on the west side of Manchester, Barbour told a table that included Mayor Ted Gatsas that he played on a two-time state high school championship team with future Red Sox player Jerry Moses.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour works with room last night as he stopped by the Bow home of Jayne and Shawn Millerick during his first visit to New Hampshire this year as a prospective presidential candidate.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

BOW, N.H. – Southern charm collided with Yankee skepticism last night as Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour made his first visit of the year to New Hampshire as a prospective presidential candidate.

With his trademark drawl and affable demeanor, Barbour worked a crowd of about 30 people at the home of former New Hampshire Republican Party chairwoman Jayne Millerick, introducing himself by saying simply, "Hi, I'm Haley."

(See my earlier post here.)

Then he was peppered with questions about everything from his views on spending cuts and entitlement reform to US intervention in Libya, as voters in the lead presidential primary state upheld their tradition as vetters-in-chief of would-be commanders-in-chief.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour addressed a house party tonight as he made his first visit to New Hampshire of the year as a prospective presidential candidate.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

BOW, N.H. – Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour tonight told an audience in the lead presidential primary state of New Hampshire he would offer "casual, comfortable, plainspoken commonsense" if he decided to seek the Republican nomination.

He argued that the American people "are tired of happy talk," and need straight information about cutting government spending while also resisting the temptation to raise taxes.

He pledged a decision about his candidacy by the end of the month, as he kicked off a two-day trip that was his first to the state this year.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick today paused his media book tour to offer a strong report card for the Bay State’s 2006 health reform law, and to urge opponents of national health care reform to turn away from trying to repeal the law, and focus on controlling medical costs.

“Health care reform is doing exactly what it was designed to do,” said Patrick, in a short speech on the Bay State’s health reform overhaul. “We do indeed lead the nation in providing health care to our residents.”

Patrick marked the law’s fifth anniversary this afternoon with remarks and a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank. His appearance at the forum came among national media appearances to promote his memoir, "A Reason to Believe." He has appeared on NPR radio, on CNN, MSNBC and Tuesday night sat for an interview on “The Daily Show.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney immediately pounced on President Obama’s deficit-cutting proposal, saying it didn’t go far enough and relied too heavily on tax increases.

“President Obama’s proposals are too little, too late,” Romney said in a statement released minutes after Obama today finished his speech outlining his plan. “Instead of supporting spending cuts that lead to real deficit reduction and true reform of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the President dug deep into his liberal playbook for ‘solutions’ highlighted by higher taxes.”

Obama proposed a menu of options to reduce the deficit, including cuts in defense spending, an overhaul of the tax system, and an end to Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier Americans. The plan would lower the deficit by about $4 trillion over a dozen years.

Obama’s proposal comes in response to a House Republican plan that would cut $5.8 trillion in spending over the next decade. That plan would allow the Bush tax cuts — now set to expire in 2012 — to be extended indefinitely, and Republicans have opposed any proposal to end the tax break.

"With over 20 million people who are unemployed or who have stopped looking for work, the last thing we should be doing is raising taxes on job-creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners across America,” Romney said in his statement.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mviser.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

So when is a would-be president officially a candidate?

It's a hard question to answer, since some of the rules and regulations are gray, and enforcement of them all can depend on whether a prospective candidate faces a complaint alleging their breach.

Right now, the most prominent official candidate for president of the United States is the person who already has the job, Democrat Barack Obama.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Attorney General Martha Coakley today announced a complaint against Christy Mihos, accusing the former GOP gubernatorial contender of campaign finance violations during his 2009-2010 campaign.

In a press release, Coakley said:

In July 2010, Mihos and the Christy 2010 Committee (the Committee) signed a disposition agreement (the Agreement) and agreed to pay a $70,000 fine resulting from various violations of the campaign finance laws found by (the Office of Campaign and Political Finance).

The violations recited in the Agreement included Mihos using approximately $112,000 from his personal accounts to pay for campaign related expenditures; accepting campaign contributions in excess of the $500 annual limit per individual; and failing to keep detailed accounts of expenditures and contributions made and received on behalf of the committee.

The attorney general’s complaint, filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that Mihos is in breach of the Agreement due to his failure to pay the full amount of the fine to OCPF.

The complaint alleges that the Agreement, signed by Mihos, required him to pay a fine of $70,000 to OCPF. Mihos made an initial payment of $35,000 on August 3, 2010. Mihos requested and received from OCPF an extension of time to pay the remaining $35,000. Both parties agreed that Mihos would pay $10,000 of the remaining balance on November 18, 2010, and the remaining $25,000 by February 1, 2011. Mihos paid the $10,000 due on November 18, 2010, but failed to pay the remaining $25,000 balance by February 1, 2011.

After Mihos failed to make the final payment, OCPF referred the matter to the Attorney General’s Office for enforcement. The Attorney General’s Office made additional attempts to collect the money that Mihos owed to OCPF. Mihos failed to pay the remaining balance of $25,000. As a result, the Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of OCPF alleging that Mihos is in breach of contract.

This case is being handled by Assistant Attorney General Sarah Joss of AG Coakley’s Government Bureau.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, setting up a fight with unions, today proposed a $30.5 billion annual state budget that cuts more deeply than Governor Deval Patrick’s proposal and goes further than the governor to strip local public employees of their right to bargain over health care.

House leaders said their plan would cut $94 million more than Patrick’s proposal unveiled in January, and would represent the biggest year-to-year cut in state spending in two decades. The Senate still has not released its proposed budget.

State leaders are grappling with the loss of $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds and a shaky economic recovery.

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Senator John Kerry gestures while Senator John McCain listens on Capitol Hill yesterday as the two introduced legislation aimed at protecting consumer information during commercial transactions.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Senator John Kerry thought so highly of Senator John McCain that the Democratic presidential nominee broached the idea of joining forces with the Arizona Republican on a bipartisan White House ticket.

McCain politely declined, swallowed his pride, and made up that year with George W. Bush, who had savaged him during the 2000 GOP South Carolina primary en route to the presidency.

Bush ended up beating Kerry for a second term.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick endured some friendly ribbing about the state’s health care law and his political future from Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” last night. But Patrick mostly stuck to script and let Stewart make the jokes.

Poking fun at the governor’s declaration that he is guided by conviction and idealism, Stewart said, “This politics of conviction, this idealism, have you ever thought of giving those up to run for national office?”

“I’m not running for anything else,” Patrick said, laughing. “But I haven’t given up those ideals and those values for any job.”

“I look forward to the system corrupting you,” Stewart quipped.

“Not gonna happen,” Patrick shot back in his 8-minute spot on the show, which he flew to New York to tape.

Patrick’s appearance was part of a flurry of national media appearances he is making over the next two weeks to sell his memoir, “A Reason To Believe.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney tonight pushed back against those in his party who are questioning President Obama's citizenship, suggesting his fellow Republicans should put their energy into more substantive issues.

"The citizenship test has been passed," Romney said tonight on CNBC's Kudlow Report. "I believe the president was born in the United States. There are real reasons to get this guy out of office...but his citizenship isn't the reason why."

Several prominent Republicans — including Donald Trump and Sarah Palin — have once again tried to stoke controversy by questioning Obama's citizenship even though his birth in Hawaii has been confirmed by officials in the state.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson said today he will make a "major announcement" on April 21 in New Hampshire.

Since the Republican previously said he would eschew the interim step of forming a presidential exploratory committee, and instead plunge directly into a campaign itself if he were to run, that announcement most likely is of his decision to become a candidate for the 2012 GOP nomination.

The announcement will be made at 9 a.m. at the Capitol in Concord, and his followup schedule only perpetuates the thought that he will declare his candidacy.

He will meet with the media for two hours afterward, lunch with state legislators, and then hold what is billed as a "public kick-off event" in Manchester.

A similar schedule holds for the next two days.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Amid all the fluff and confection of presenting Mitt Romney with cakes celebrating today's fifth anniversary of the Massachusetts universal health care law, state Democrats also produced a video with some meat on its bones.

"Thank You Mitt" contains clips of Romney, then the Bay State's governor, touting the law during appearances on the Fox News Channel and, gasp, MSNBC back in 2006.

The most potentially problematic comment is Romney claiming he "authored" the measure, since many of his fellow conservatives view the law as a precursor to the federal universal health care law enacted last year by President Obama.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

Congress begins a new scramble today to pass a budget bill cutting billions of dollars in spending this year, resetting the clock on the next deadline to keep the federal government running.

Early this morning, aides completed work on an appropriations bill that cuts nearly $40 billion in spending. The committee staff have been working around the clock on the bill since House Republicans, Senate Democrats, and the White House shook hands on a deal that averted a government shutdown last Friday at midnight.

The bargain makes about $27 billion in new cuts on top of roughly $12 billion that have been previously agreed to. While the Obama administration and others have described the broad outlines of the agreement, details only emerged with the release of the bill this morning.

Julie Jacobson/AP

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney appears with Kathy, Dave, and Allie Tyler after touring their Las Vegas neighborhood on April 1. The value of the Tylers' home has decreased by more than $200,000 since 2008.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Former Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld, the Republican who launched a 16-year period of GOP rule on Beacon Hill, favored an expression apparently shared by Mitt Romney, the former governor who concluded their party's era of State House control.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold," Weld would say, quoting a phrase used in everything from the French novel "Mathilde" to "The Godfather" and "Star Trek II."

In announcing his presidential exploratory committee in a deliberately understated way, Romney declared his intentions — on his terms and in his own tone — with a variety of messages for an array of audiences.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney this afternoon announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee, allowing him to start raising money for a presidential bid he has been preparing for almost since the moment he lost the 2008 Republican nomination.

Romney made the announcement in a video posted on a new website. It was taped with little fanfare at the University of New Hampshire following a meeting between the Romney and students who said they were worried about getting a job after graduation.

“I have become convinced that America has been put on a dangerous course by Washington politicians, and it has become even worse during the last two years. But I am also convinced that with able leadership, America's best days are still ahead,” Romney says in the video. “That is why today I am announcing my exploratory committee for the presidency of the United States.”

Romney is planning to open his campaign headquarters next month in Boston – in the same building his last campaign was based, on Commercial Street in the North End. Romney aides declined to say whether he would participate in the first GOP presidential debate, scheduled for May 5 in South Carolina.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Republican Party has landed two high-profile guests for upcoming fundraisers.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus will appear April 28 at the Union Club on Beacon Hill.

There is a $500 charge for a private roundtable discussion at 5:30 p.m. and a $150 charge for a general reception at 6 p.m.

On May 10, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer will appear at the Union Oyster House at 11:45 a.m. There is a $75 charge, including lunch.

Details are available at 617-523-5005.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

David L. Ryan, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney shares a laugh with House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and other Democrats as the Republican signs the state's universal health care law at Faneuil Hall on April 12, 2006.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Northeast Democrats will be at their most creative today and tomorrow, as they aim to tweak Republican Mitt Romney in conjunction with the fifth anniversary of the Massachusetts universal health care law.

New Hampshire Democrats are sending out an email at 9 a.m. today, urging their supporters to flood Romney's official Twitter handle, @MittRomney, with thanks and congratulations for a piece of legislation that is anathema to many of his fellow conservatives across the country.

The 2006 Massachusetts law, signed while Romney was governor of the state, became the model for the 2010 federal universal health care law signed by President Obama, the Democrat he hopes to face in next year's presidential race.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick's planned appearance Monday on NBC-TV's "Today" show is being postponed until later this week.

The date still has yet to be set, but spokesman Steve Crawford said the Democrat fell prey to the crush of recent news, including the near-government shutdown that finally was resolved just before midnight Friday.

Instead, the governor will spend Monday in Boston.

This week is the launch of the book tour for the governor's memoir, "A Reason to Believe."

Patrick is still slated to head to New York on Tuesday for a series of stops, including Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick embarks on his booktour Monday, with a pretty good first stop: A time slot in the 7 a.m. hour on NBC-TV's "Today" show.

It's shown locally on WHDH-TV (Channel 7).

It's still unclear who will interview him, but the governor is expected to talk about his memoir, "A Reason to Believe."

As a friend and political ally of President Obama, he could also expect questions about any government shutdown, the fifth anniversary of the Massachusetts health care law (on Tuesday), and his dust-up with Senator Scott Brown at today's groundbreaking for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

The governor is coming back to Massachusetts after the show, but heading back to New York on Tuesday for a series of stops, including Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Several readers have written in the aftermath of my recent post about the wonderful annual spring White House Garden Tour being offered this weekend.

Maybe.

They have asked whether the tours would be affected by a federal government shutdown, and the answer is yes.

A White House official told me that all tours of the president's home would be cancelled during a shutdown, including garden tours.

President Obama and his family were supposed to vacate the premises this weekend and visit Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, but that trip has been scotched as the administration tries to avert a shutdown at midnight.

If one were avoided, the silver lining for anyone on a garden tour is that they would apparently gain a chance to see the president.

The White House also offers garden tours each fall, typically in October — assuming any shutdown doesn't last that long.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrats plan to mark Tuesday's fifth anniversary of the state's universal health care law with balloons, speeches, and a sheetcake.

For former Governor Mitt Romney.

The tweak is aimed at embarrassing the expected Republican presidential contenders as he continues to criticize the Obama administration's federal universal health care law that is based on his Massachusetts law.

By Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Senator John Kerry today lamented the inability of Washington politicians to reach a compromise on the federal budget and avert a shutdown, invoking the spirit of a great compromiser, the late Edward M. Kennedy.

He said he had planned to be in Boston to attend today's groundbreaking for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate but was unable to leave the Capitol because of the ongoing negotiations.

Kerry called the budget showdown and threat of a government shutdown an "embarrassing moment" for the Senate.

"Generations of young Americans will come to the Kennedy Institute to understand what the United States Senate was intended to be," Kerry said on the Senate floor today. "But 100 Senators don’t need to wait that long. We can do what Ted Kennedy and so many other Senators of both parties used to know how to do – which is find common ground and insist on common sense.”

The full text of Kerry's prepared remarks is below.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce President Thomas Donohue told a group of reporters at a breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor on Friday that the brinksmanship over a tiny slice of the federal budget -- 1.7 percent of total federal outlays -- will press Congress to reluctantly grapple with the bigger issues of entitlements.

"It will be ugly, it will take time, but we will do some good amount of the things on the table for our survival," he said.

The Chamber of Commerce has been urging members of Congress to avoid a government shut down, arguing that it could damage the economy if it lasts more than a few days by delaying the pay checks of federal employees. Donohue said a short shutdown may ultimately not have a negative effect.

"I think we've had shutdowns starting in 1975, about 15 or 20 times to this point. Most of them were very short. One of them was 21 days, but most of them were a day and a half, two days, three days, five days. So, no, I don't think it upsets economic growth that much," said Donohue. "It certainly upsets the people that have to run our government."

The Chamber of Commerce, under R. Bruce Josten, Executive Vice President For Government Affairs, is putting together a coalition to raise the debt limit, but with conditions attached that would reign in federal spending in other ways.

"We have been telling people 'Work it out. Get it done,'" Josten said. "We appreciate the theatrics [of the threatened shut-down]. . .Eventually we are going to get there."

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Vicki Kennedy tosses dirt for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. Joining her are, from left, Senate President Therese Murray, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Governor Deval Patrick, and Treasurer Steve Grossman.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The words and spirit of Senator Edward M. Kennedy were evoked this morning at the groundbreaking ceremony for the educational institute that will bear the late Democrat’s name.

Under glorious skies, hundreds of former staffers, local and national political figures, as well as average citizens, flocked to the groundbreaking for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. It will be built, starting later this summer, on Columbia Point next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Among those in attendance were the senator’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy; children, Edward Jr., Kara, and Patrick; as well as relatives Caroline Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Glen Johnson/Globe Staff

Architect Rafael Vinoly, left, laughs as he shows a mockup of his design for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate to some of the attendees at today's groundbreaking ceremony.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

12:09 p.m. - Speechmaking over, the family is now heading outside to toss dirt.

Thanks for reading.

---

12:04 p.m. - Vicki Kennedy asked the whole family to join her on stage, and standing right in front, in brilliant red, is the senator's first wife, Joan.

Vicki Kennedy said she wants the center to be exciting and dynamic, and cutting-edge, because her late husband was all three.

Among the two dozen family members is Amy Petigout, who recently became engaged to former Representative Patrick Kennedy, the senator's youngest child.

She leaned against her fiance.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is delivering the inaugural Alan D. Solomont Lecture at Tufts University today.

The California Democrat, who served as the first female speaker of the House, planned to reflect on her career and the importance of public service during a 2 p.m. address in the school's Cohen Auditorium.

This lecture is part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff

Vicki Kennedy looks out over UMass-Boston and the site of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The groundbreaking is this morning, and she hopes the center named for her late husband will teach about civic engagement in general and his beloved Senate in particular.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Before Boston sports fans tune into the Red Sox-Yankees Opening Day game this afternoon, Boston political fans will gather this morning for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

While much of the pre-ceremony attention has focused on Victoria Reggie Kennedy's efforts to preserve her late husband's legacy, she is far from the only member of the famous political family who will be on hand.

The senator's three children — Edward Jr., Kara, and Patrick — will attend, as will their aunt, Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy, and his two stepchildren, Curran and Caroline Raclin.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

After Senator Edward M. Kennedy died in August 2009, one of the most wrenching tasks for his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, was dismantling his office on Capitol Hill.

Related

Photos: A look at the Kennedy Institute

• Photos Friends, family attend
  Kennedy Institute gala
• Kennedy Institute to host
  ceremonial groundbreaking
• Obituary: Senator Edward
  Kennedy, 1932-2009
• Special section: Ted Kennedy

One by one, Vicki Kennedy packed up each item and tucked away the memories attached to it.

Within the next three years, she plans to hang that letter up again — this time in a replica of her husband’s office that will be part of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

“It was such a special thing, to go into that office and see that history on the wall and to just feel, really the magic of that, and so we are going to recreate that,” she said during an interview Wednesday.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Senate President Therese Murray vowed today to take swift action on Governor Deval Patrick's proposal to overhaul the state's health care finance system, breaking with House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who wants to delay action until later this year or next year.

During a speech before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Murray said "I agree with the governor that something has to be done soon," and added that "we are getting close ... we are going to do this."

Murray did not offer a specific timeline, but said the Senate would act "in the near future," unlike the House, which she said is proceeding more slowly because a key committee leader is new in the job and lacks experience in such complex policy.

She was referring to Representative Steven Walsh, the new co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Caroline Kennedy on Tuesday in New York City for the signing of, "She Walks in Beauty," a poetry collection she edited. She will be doing the same tomorrow at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Caroline Kennedy will promote a book containing a collection of poems she edited tomorrow afternoon at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The daughter of President Kennedy will deliver an introduction before poets Naomi Shibab Nye and Elizabeth Alexander read from her collection, "She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems."

Afterward, Kennedy will be signing copies of the book.

Public seating for the readings is now closed, but the book-signing will be available to all.

The forum will be webcast live at www.jfklibrary.org/webcast.

The event will run from 4-5 p.m. in the Stephen Smith Hall.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held a second hearing on Libya today, this time with skeptics of the intervention.

After prodding by ranking member Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, Kerry called on Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who told the committee: "We cannot be confident in the agenda of the Libyan opposition."

Today's hearing follows a hearing last week with Under Secretary of State James Steinberg, who painted an upbeat picture of the intervention.

But today, Haass portrayed the intervention as ill-advised. He told the committee that the only sure way to replace the regime of Moammar Khadafy is to introduce ground troops and do nation-building, but that US interests in Libya do not warrant such an investment.

Haass said in his testimony that his views were his own, and not those of the Council on Foreign Relations.

By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – He’s the (soon-to-be-former) ambassador to China and former Republican governor of Utah. And next month – in a move that will generate waves of political interest – he will be stepping more fully into his role as potential presidential candidate with his first public appearance in New Hampshire.

Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc confirmed in a telephone interview this evening that Jon Huntsman Jr. has accepted an invitation to be graduation speaker at the Manchester school on May 21.

"The politics of the state of New Hampshire right now are so rancorous and polemical, and a lot of people like the fact that Huntsman seems to defy that ideological rigidity," LeBlanc said.

With a moderate profile and a resume that includes an ambassadorship under the current presidential administration, Huntsman – if he chooses to run for president – would be competing with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for moderates, independents, and crossover Democrats in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

Huntsman also shares Romney’s Mormon faith, which could be a factor in another early and potentially crucial GOP primary state, Nevada.

LeBlanc said the Huntsman appearance does not reflect any endorsement by him or the university. But if recent history is a guide, a graduation speech at Southern New Hampshire University could be the equivalent of political gold. In 2007, the university’s commencement speaker was Barack Obama, the senator from Illinois.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is giving $45,000 to GOP election committees in the aftermath of President Obama announcing his re-election campaign.

Romney's Free and Strong America PAC is giving $15,000 apiece to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The latter two are charged with electing Republicans to the US Senate and US House, respectively. The RNC, meanwhile, is ultimately charged with helping elect a Republican president.

The former Massachusetts governor said in a statement this afternoon: “President Obama and his big spending allies in Congress have confused priorities for our nation. Instead of focusing on putting unemployed Americans back to work, they have raised taxes, expanded the size and scope of government, and prolonged the recession. I believe that by electing Republicans, we will make America strong and prosperous again.”

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown plans to report over $8.3 million cash on hand for his 2012 re-election campaign when he files a federal finance report on April 15, an aide said today.

The tally includes $1.7 million raised during the first quarter of the year.

By some estimates, Brown may spend up to $25 million on his campaign, in which he is seeking his first full term after replacing the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy in February 2010.

"Finally, Senator Brown, like other senators from Massachusetts and elsewhere, is registering a political action committee, 'ScottPAC,' which will allow him to respond to requests for financial support from other candidates," said spokeswoman Gail Gitcho.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, an expected candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, has the "Free and Strong America PAC,'' while former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, another potential candidate next year, has the similarly named "SarahPAC."

Such so-called leadership committees allow politicians to travel the country and build their national political base, while also developing chits by sprinkling donations on like-minded candidates.

Earlier today, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll announced she would not seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Brown, citing her current job and young family.

But all the potential challengers have cited the money they have to raise as a potentially decisive factor in their ultimate decision to run.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff

Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll worked in her City Hall office on Feb. 9, 2010. She announced today she would not run for the US Senate next year, citing her work in the city and her young family.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll released a statement this morning saying she will not seek the Democrats' 2012 US Senate nomination in Massachusetts.

She had explored a run against the Republican incumbent, Senator Scott Brown, but also been upfront about her concerns over running while leading a city and raising three young children.

Driscoll had been the most prominent woman to publicly express interest in a campaign.

"Plain and simple, I do think the seat is winnable, but there is a time and place for everything," she said in her statement.

Bryan Snyder/Reuters

Howard Dean drew big crowds during the 2004 presidential race, but his campaign was fueled with vast sums of money raised over the Internet. Eight years later, declared and likely 2012 candidates are taking advantage of another digital development - social media - to boost their campaigns.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Tim Pawlenty announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee via Facebook.

President Obama announced he was seeking reelection to the highest office in the country via a YouTube video.

Mitt Romney sent out his retort via Twitter.

Collectively, those developments have highlighted the prominent role social media will play in the 2012 presidential campaign.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Former US Representative William Delahunt has joined the Boston office of a Pittsburgh-based law firm as special counsel.

Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellott LLC announced Monday the Quincy Democrat started Friday and will "provide strategic counsel to firm clients on complex regulatory issues such as healthcare, financial services, and energy and environmental matters."

"After serving in the House for 14 years, Bill Delahunt brings to Eckert Seamans incomparable insight and connections at the busy intersection of business and politics, as well as insight, experience, and seasoned judgment to our clients and their business affairs," Timothy P. Ryan, the firm's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Last month, the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe announced Delahunt will represent the group and its interests — including its ongoing efforts to host casino gambling — at the state and federal level.

Delahunt stepped down in January as 10th District congressman. Previously, he served as Norfolk district attorney.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney today gave a Bronx cheer for the Obama administration's decision to hold trials for the top 9/11 suspect and four alleged co-conspirators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, instead of as planned in New York City.

“An inexperienced and naïve president has finally reversed himself on Guantanamo and terrorist trials; let’s hope he sees the light on his other flawed policies," the former Massachusetts governor said in a statement.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the others will appear before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay rather than before a civilian court on Manhattan.

Another Massachusetts Republican, Senator Scott Brown, lauded the reversal, too.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown today issued a statement in reaction to the Obama administration's decision to forgo a civilian trial in New York City for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects.

Instead, they will appear before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Brown, a military lawyer in the Massachusetts National Guard, had opposed the New York plan and advocated for a Guantanamo proceeding.

UPDATED

By Frank Phillips and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick is making history again with one of his judicial selections, nominating Barbara A. Lenk, an associate justice of the state Appeals Court who is married to a same-sex partner, to a seat on the Supreme Judicial Court.

Mass. Judicial Branch

Barbara Lenk

If confirmed by the Governor’s Council, Lenk would be the first openly gay judge on the state’s highest court. She would also be the only justice who was married as a result of the court’s landmark 2003 ruling that made Massachusetts the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004.

The nomination of Lenk comes after the governor named Roderick Ireland to be the first African-American chief justice of the SJC, and Fernande R.V. Duffly to be the first Asian-American judge on the state’s high court. Patrick has spoken of his desire to make the judiciary and other branches of government more reflective of the state's diversity.

A specialist in civil litigation and First amendment issues, Lenk holds a doctorate in political philosophy from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Tax collections in Massachusetts totaled $1.774 billion last month, an increase of $149 million, or 9.2 percent, from the same month a year ago, the Department of Revenue announced today.

Revenues also were $164 million above the revised March monthly benchmark set in January.

March is the largest corporate and business excise tax collection month of the year.

All told, year-to-date tax collections — three quarters through the 2011 fiscal year — totaled $14.354 billion.

That is an increase of $1.169 billion, or 8.9 percent, from the same period a year ago.

It's also $145 million above the revised FY11 year-to-date benchmark, according to the statement.

State officials agreed in January to a revised FY11 revenue estimate of $19.784 billion.

A link to the full release and attachments is here.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick nominated Fernande "Nan" Duffly to be the state's first Asian-American Supreme Judicial Court member during a news conference on Dec. 21. Patrick was announcing his fifth choice for the state's highest court today.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick has called a State House news conference at 2 p.m. today to announce his fourth nominee to and fifth overall selection for the Supreme Judicial Court.

So far, the Democrat has used largely his appointment power to set precedent and the state's highest court has been his most prominent venue.

After the more traditional picks of Margot Botsford and Ralph Gants to the court, a white female and white male, respectively, Patrick nominated Roderick Ireland as the court's first black chief justice and Fernande "Nan" Duffly to replace him as associate justice. In so doing, she became the court's first Asian-American member.

The expectation is that he may do so again with his fourth new member, perhaps by nominating the court's first openly gay member. The seven-member SJC gained national attention in 2003 when it legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts.

The Patrick administration kept the news on its latest pick tightly held.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney used his Twitter account this morning to respond to the announcement of President Obama's re-election campaign.

"@barackobama I look forward to hearing details on your jobs plan, as are 14m unemployed Americans," @MittRomney said in his cheeky post.

Romney's retort followed Obama's decision to use YouTube to release a video announcing his re-election campaign.

Romney then popped out his Twitter response, before another likely GOP presidential candidate, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, released his own response via YouTube.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty certainly isn't dithering.

No sooner had President Obama's re-election committee released its kickoff video this morning than did Pawlenty's committee release its retort.

In his own YouTube spot, Pawlenty pokes at Obama's new signature phrase by asking, "How can America 'Win the Future' when we're losing the present?"

After showing a series of dark scenes and downtrodden voices, Pawlenty himself says to camera, "In order for American to take a new direction, it's going to take a new president."

Pawlenty, a first-time national candidate, has already announced, via Facebook, the formation of a presidential exploratory committee.

Using another social medium for Obama's announcement and Pawlenty's reaction shows the rise of YouTube as an inexpensive and direct means of communicating with voters.

There's no 30-second commercial to finance, and no reporters serving as a middleman on the message.

The candidates also benefit from follow-up coverage — and links to their spots — that send the message virally.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

As Republicans form presidential exploratory committees, or promise to do so, or hint that one is coming, the incumbent isn't dithering.

President Obama kicked off his re-election campaign this morning with a video featuring average citizens making the case for giving him a second term.

The president's team will follow-up by filing papers official paperwork with the Federal Election Committee and then a fundraising drive. The re-election campaign, as with his 2008 campaign, will be based in his hometown of Chicago.

Obama does not speak in the kickoff film, which opens with a scene featuring "Ed" from North Carolina.

It's no coincidence that someone with a Southern accent, and from a state so coveted by the Democrats they are holding their 2012 convention in Charlotte, is given such a prominent role.

His message also is an appeal to Obama true believers as well as some of his early supporters who may have lost their enthusiasm as the aftereffects of the Great Recession have lingered and, more recently, the president launched military action in Libya.

"I don't agree with Obama on everything, but I respect him and I trust him,'' says Ed.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

Elise Amendola/AP

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino shares a laugh with former mayors Kevin White and Raymond L. Flynn on Nov. 1, 2006, during the unveiling of a statue of White. Flynn showed over the weekend he remains active on the political front - and said he wouldn't object to a statue in his own likeness.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Back when he was mayor of Boston, Raymond Flynn had a trick.

Knowing the city's newspapers and television and radio stations were thinly staffed and often eager for fresh material on the weekends, he'd fill the vacuum — especially on Sundays — with some pronouncement or highly visual act that garnered him and his causes an inordinate amount of coverage on the evening newscasts or Monday paper.

It's a practice still used today by Secretary of State William Galvin, and it's the polar opposite of the Patrick administration's practice of releasing bad news on Fridays — especially in the afternoon — in an effort to minimize attention to it.

Today, Flynn may be 71, but he hasn't lost the range on his jump shot.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

LAS VEGAS – It was billed as a foreign policy address, but it didn’t take long before the most prominent issue that could haunt Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign came up.

The first question from the audience after his 24-minute address before the Republican Jewish Coalition here was not about Israel or unrest in the Middle East. It was about Romney’s health care plan in Massachusetts.

Romney largely defended the rationale of the Massachusetts plan, saying that it helped spur greater health care coverage so uninsured residents wouldn’t simply go to emergency rooms for care.

But he sought to distinguish the plan from President Obama’s national plan by casting it as an issue of states’ rights.

By Michael Bailey, Globe staff

For at least one leader of the Tea Party movement, when it comes to Scott Brown, the party’s long over.

“Brown is a politician, and that is meant in the worst sense of the word,’’ Judson Phillips, leader of Tea Party Nation, writes on a blog today. “He knows self-preservation and self-promotion. He has aligned himself with the [Republicans in name only] crowd, which has no beliefs, other than getting reelected and appeasing whatever base he thinks will help him get reelected.”

The source of Phillips’ anger? Brown delivered a speech yesterday from the floor of the Senate in which he worried aloud about how steep budget cuts could hurt programs for elderly and poor Massachusetts residents. He also wrote in a letter to GOP leaders that the poor and elderly could bear the brunt of the $61 billion in cuts they’re seeking.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Likely presidential candidate Mitt Romney this afternoon toured a depressed neighborhood besieged by foreclosed homes as he continued trying to criticize President Obama’s handling of the economy.

Romney so far has staked his budding presidential bid on economic concerns, but new upticks in the unemployment rates could complicate his case.

“I’m afraid some people are becoming conditioned to unemployment rates above 8 percent,” Romney said today. “Unemployment should be around 4 percent or less. And the idea that we celebrate 8.8 percent, I’m glad for the progress, but my goodness, we’ve got a lot of people out of work.”

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick is holding a meeting with his Council of Economic Advisers after Monday's usual meeting of the State House leadership team.

According to a schedule released this afternoon, the governor is participating in Brockton’s 12th Annual Youth Summit at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Massasoit Community College.

At 12:45 p.m., Patrick is attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Salvation Army’s Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center on Dudley Street in Dorchester.

On Monday, the governor's public schedule calls for a 3 p.m. meeting — in his office — with Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

At 5 p.m., he meetings with the economic council.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senator Scott Brown has a pair of public events in Massachusetts this weekend.

Tonight, he's joining Governor Deval Patrick and other local politicians for the annual “Banned in Boston” benefit for Urban Improv. It describes itself as "an interactive program for young people that uses improvisational theater workshops to teach violence prevention, conflict resolution, and decision-making."

The show starts at 7:45 p.m. at the House of Blues on Lansdowne Street.

Tomorrow, the Republican is the keynote speaker at the annual Pioneer Valley USO fundraiser dinner.

It takes place at 8:15 p.m. at Delaney House in Holyoke.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Between representing Massachusetts in Congress, serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and acting as a semi-official diplomatic envoy of the Obama administration, Senator John Kerry has an additional duty.

In his new capacity as senior US senator from the state, he helps shape the vetting and recommendation process for any new federal judges nominated by the president to serve in Massachusetts.

It is a role held for decades by his former colleague, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and it helped him shape not only the local federal bench, but also who served as US attorney and US marshal for Massachusetts.

In a statement yesterday, Kerry announced that the selection committee that will formally recommend candidates for the two upcoming judicial vacancies at the US District Courts in Springfield and Worcester is now accepting applications.

The committee leader is traditionally appointed by the senior senator, and last month Kerry announced he had selected Boston attorney Joan Lukey to serve as chairwoman. He pledged the panel "will reflect the broader geography of Massachusetts."

Kerry added in his statement: “Joan is already at work beginning a thorough search that will identify the best and brightest legal minds in Massachusetts which will be the basis for a recommendation to President Obama."

He urged citizens across the state to provide input "to make this non-partisan process succeed."

Interested candidates should contact Lukey at Joan.Lukey@ropesgray.com.

All applications must be completed by May 16.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Can the $30 billion Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy has squirreled away in foreign bank accounts be used to reimburse the very nations making war on him right now?

That was a question that came up repeatedly today at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as members from both parties seized on the idea of using Khadafy's nest egg to finance the no-fly zone over his country imposed by the United States and an international coalition.

Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, started it all by asking Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg about the costs of the military operation in Libya.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today presided over a congressional hearing focused on future steps in Libya.

The North African nation has been under assault by an international coalition after its leader, Moammar Khadafy, began using military force against protestors opposed to his authoritarian regime.

Kerry called for institution a no-fly zone, which President Obama initiated.

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — US Senator John Kerry misspoke yesterday in saying that the Internet giant Google was on-board with the senator’s efforts to craft an Internet privacy bill, his office said this morning.

The Massachusetts Democrat has discussed the bill with Google officials but those talks are still ongoing, according to Kerry’s office.

Kerry’s Internet privacy bill has been in the works for months. The official language has not been released, but the goal of the bill is to give consumers more say in how their on-line browsing habits are recorded and used by advertising companies.

Companies on-board with the legislation include eBay, Intel, Microsoft, and HP, Kerry’s office said this morning. Talks with Facebook are also ongoing.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment today.

Mark Arsenault can be reached at marsenault@globe.com.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – Republicans in early-voting states today levied harsh criticisms of their counterparts in Florida for so far refusing to move their primary date, part of an ongoing squabble that could have far-reaching implications for the presidential nominating calendar.

Republican Party leaders in both Iowa and South Carolina today said that national Republicans should consider moving the national convention from Tampa, Fla., unless Florida moves its current primary date.

It is all part of an ongoing disagreement over the nominating calendar, which could prove crucial for which candidate wins. National GOP leaders had been seeking an orderly and extended primary season, in part by punishing states that scheduled their elections before March 1, 2012. They carved out an exemption for four states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

"Or, as I like to call it, the 'People's Library,'" the Republican quipped at the South Boston St. Patrick's Day political roast.

Senator Scott Brown

Brown argued he wasn't filling Kennedy's seat, but "the people's seat."

He will discuss his new memoir, "Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks, and Second Chances," with NECN correspondent Alison King.

This forum will be held from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Reservations are no longer available to the public.

The forum will also be webcast live at www.jfklibrary.org/webcast.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

UPDATED

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney today accused President Obama of inattention to job creation.

The Democratic National Committee responded by criticizing Romney's job creation record while governor of Massachusetts, as well as job losses in the aftermath of corporate acquisitions while he ran Bain Capital

In an op-ed piece appearing in USA Today, Romney called for tax polices that reward savings, investment, entrepreneurial risk-taking, and exports; free, open, and fair access to foreign markets; elimination of what he termed "the federal bureaucratic and regulatory stranglehold on business"; and budget restraints and entitlement reform.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

A Harvard University poll released this morning found President Obama's approval rating rising among the so-called "Millennials" or "Generation Y" that spans from 18 to 29 years old.

The president had an approval rating of 55 percent, up 6 percentage points from a similar survey last fall. Both were conducted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics, which is part of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Among students at four-year college campuses, Obama's approval rating rose even more, from 51 percent last fall to 69 percent now.

Pete Souza/The White House

President Obama surprises a tour group outside the Oval Office on Sunday, Jan. 30. Visitors will have a chance to see the grounds outside during the weekend of April 9-10.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Anybody thinking about a trip to Washington should consider the weekend of April 9-10, when the White House will open its grounds for its annual spring garden tour.

During our family's more than five years living in the DC area, this was a highlight.

Guests get screened at the East Gate, go through part of the East Wing, and then head outside to see the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the South Lawn, and the Rose Garden. The Obama administration also offers a new stop: the Kitchen Garden.

By Theo Emery, Globe Staff

In a final warning to Congress, the outgoing watchdog for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said today the financial reform legislation that Barney Frank helped shepherd to passage has not ended the threat that banks could require future bailouts.

Neil M. Barofsky, the TARP’s special inspector general, spoke about the Dodd-Frank bill to a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on his last day in the position. He cautioned lawmakers that the nation’s largest banks are “bigger and more concentrated and even more dangerous to the system” than before the 2008 crisis.

“The big ticket question that we’re talking about today, does it solve ‘too big to fail?’” Barofsky said of Dodd-Frank. “The answer is certainly not yet, and by all indications… I’m not entirely optimistic that it will.”