This image provided by Scibner shows the cover of the joint memoir of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, titled "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope." The book, written with "The Last Lecture" co-author Jeffrey Zaslow, is coming out on Nov. 15.

In a new joint memoir by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband Mark Kelly, the former astronaut wonders why House Speaker John Boehner failed to visit his wife in the hospital while he was in Houston for a basketball game.

Giffords has been recovering from injuries sustained in January when she was shot in the head as a gunman opened fire outside of an Arizona grocery store, where Giffords was holding a community event. Six people were killed in the incident, which injured Giffords and thirteen others.

In the couple's new memoir, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," Kelly points out that Boehner's only contact with his wife had been a "simple get-well card" after the shooting - even though he made a trip to Houston for an NCAA tournament game in April.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul

/ John Huff

Updated 6:30 p.m. ET

Although he campaigns on his disdain for government involvement in the private sector, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Wednesday said that he would preserve health care entitlements, including the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled, while trying to transition Americans into medical savings accounts.

"Probably the worst thing that we ever did was make medical care the responsibility of the government," Paul said at a meeting of the Republican Congressional Health Care Caucus. "I don't think our federal government should be any more involved in medical care delivery than they should be in delivering education to our children."

The House member from Texas, who was for many years a practicing physician, recalled the days before Medicare and Medicaid were created in the 1960s, when government was only accountable for the care of veterans -- and even there, government did a poor job, he said.

But Paul noted that as president, he would not immediately cut health care benefits, especially for the elderly and children. Instead, he wants to transition out of the current system by allowing people to set up personal medical savings accounts and letting young people opt out of Social Security.

And the court's decision could have a significant impact on the president's re-election prospects.

The Obama administration expressed confidence Monday that the controversial law will be upheld by the court and emphasized the need to put the matter "to rest once and for all."

"If we're going to have a fully functional system by 2014...it's important to put this to rest once and for all," Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary, told reporters on Monday. "We are confident that the law is constitutional, will be upheld as constitutional."

And when asked the same day if Mr. Obama was "worried" about the timing of the decision, White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said, "he's not."

Delivering a message that seemed almost nostalgic in a year when the most partisan rhetoric is being rewarded, the former House speaker told an audience at the Heritage Foundation that Congress should get back to the old-fashioned business of making legislative deals - sometimes across party lines.

His former congressional colleagues shouldn't shy away from voting for Democratic legislation "if the Democrats introduce a good idea," Gingrich said.

Like most of his rivals in the Republican presidential contest, Gingrich opposed the deal to raise the debt ceiling. But Gingrich's objections are not just about the dollars and cents. The long-time Georgia lawmaker suggested that Congress abdicated its responsibility in leaving the task of closing the nation's budget gap to a 12-member special committee appointed by House and Senate leaders.

This story originally appeared on RealClearPolitics.

After showing off his righteous indignation over the course of a dozen presidential debates this year, Newt Gingrich has the routine down pat.

When a moderator asks a question that Gingrich deems to be intellectually second rate, or intended to trigger infighting among the Republican candidates, the former House speaker replies in a manner designed to capitalize on his outrage and the easy accolades that come with lambasting the referee.

"I wish you would put aside the gotcha questions," Gingrich reprimanded Fox News' Chris Wallace during a debate in Iowa back in August, one of his earliest such moments.

Republican presidential candidate and former House speaker Newt Gingrich is an outspoken critic of the mortgage giant Freddie Mac, but the now government-controlled firm paid him between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees, Bloomberg reports.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the agreement, Bloomberg reports that from May 1999 until 2002, Gingrich was paid a self- renewing, monthly retainer of $25,000 to $30,000. Additionally, the former speaker was reportedly paid $600,000 for a two-year contract starting in 2006. The total is more than five times the figure Gingrich had previously acknowledged.

White House hopeful and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on Wednesday slammed rival Newt Gingrich for working with Rep. Nancy Pelosi when he was speaker of the House in the 1990s.

Bachmann launched a new website, nosurprises2012.com, which aims to highlight the differences between the conservative lawmaker and her seven rivals for the Republican nomination for president.

"This highlights just one of the many examples where former Speaker Newt Gingrich had positions that are really against what the people in the primary states are looking for," Bachmann said on CBS' "The Early Show." (watch above)

Republican primary voters tend to be more conservative than Republicans as a whole and are certainly more conservative than general election voters.

"He was standing with Nancy Pelosi to advocate for a national sales tax on energy. That's not what we need right now in our economy. He was also the chief author of the individual health care mandate and that is what is (now) known as Obamacare. No one wants to see that either," she said, referring to conservative primary voters who oppose the president's signature legislative achievement.

Republican presidential hopefuls at the CBS News/National Journal Debate, from left to right: Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

/ AFP/Getty Images

For Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, the CBS News/National Journal GOP debate Sunday on national security and foreign policy was a chance to reverse the growing perception that Mitt Romney has a lock on the nomination. 

According to the CNN/ORC poll, which surveyed voters Nov. 11 - Nov. 13, Romney and Gringrich are now leading the race to the nomination. The former House speaker had a big bounce upward in the polls, going from 8 percent in early October to 22 percent this week, while Perry remained in the back of the pack. 

Cain dropped from 25 percent to 14 percent in the last 30 days, due to the ongoing sexual harassment claim saga and his lack of mastery of foreign policy issues. Romney, who so far has been deemed most likely GOP candidate to beat President Obama in 2012, dropped a few percentage points to 24 percent month-over-month, but leads in this poll over the last month.

Perry went on a well-orchestrated PR offensive in the wake of last week's widely-mocked debate gaffe, doing a spate of television interviews and even showing up on CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman to read a top-ten list. The damage control effort, in which Perry offered a consistent and clear message, was seen as far superior to rival Herman Cain's initial, inconsistent response to the revelation that he had been accused of sexual harassment in the past.

One top staffer told Hotsheet that Perry emerged from the interviews energized and optimistic; he went on to a better-than-expected performance in the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate on Saturday, avoiding gaffes and memorably vowing to have foreign aid allotments start at zero in his administration.

Now Perry is vowing a "complete overhaul" of Washington that would end lifetime appointments for federal judges; cut Congressional salaries and budgets in half to create a "part-time, citizen Congress"; back legislation to require a two-thirds majority for a tax increase; cap federal spending to 18 percent of GDP; pass a balanced budget amendment; and privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (He would also, of course, get rid of those three federal agencies -- Commerce, Education, and, ahem, Energy.) This follows Perry's proposal for an optional flat tax that would be an effective tax cut for the highest-income Americans. 

Rick Perry: Make Congress a part-time job

AP

Updated 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Pouncing on a remark by President Obama that has generated considerable outrage in the conservative press, Mitt Romney accused the commander-in-chief of "disparaging" his fellow citizens.

"Sometimes I just don't think that president understands America," the Republican presidential contender told a crowd of about 150 people at a sign-making factory here. "This week, or was it last week, he said that Americans are lazy."

The reference was to a comment Obama made Monday to a group of executives about the need for the nation to more aggressively sell itself as an investment destination. "We've been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades," the president told CEOs gathered in Hawaii for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. "We've kind of taken for granted -- 'Well, people would want to come here' -- and we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America."

Romney questioned whether Obama "gets what's happening in this country."

Tipping his hand about his primary strategy, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney reportedly told a group of campaign donors Monday that he thinks he will likely lose in Iowa, win in New Hampshire and seal the nomination by winning Florida's high-stakes primary.

Campaign donors who attended a private Tallahassee fundraiser told the St. Petersburg Times that Romney predicted a tea party favorite would win the Iowa caucus, and that he was sure he would win the New Hampshire primary. He also told the crowd he could spend nothing in Iowa and come in fourth or spend a little and finish second or third. He guessed that Republicans might split the first three events (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina), which would make Florida particularly important.

"Clearly they are competitive in Iowa, but you never know how it's going to come out there," one of the event hosts, state Rep. Will Weatherford, told the newspaper.

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition presidential candidate forum, in Des Moines, USA

/ Nati Harnik/AP/dapd

In an appearance on the Fox News program "Fox and Friends," Gingrich was asked about fliers that are being distributed in Iowa by evangelicals that raise the issue of adultery during his first and second marriages. "Is Nothing Sacred to Newt?" asks the flier, circulated by a group called Iowans for Christian Leadership in Government. It concludes with, "If Newt Gingrich can't be faithful to his wife, how can we trust him to be faithful to conservative voters."

Gingrich said on Fox, "I'm very open about the fact that I've had moments in my life that I regret. I've indicated that I've had to go to God and ask forgiveness and seek reconciliation." The former House speaker said he now has "a very close marriage with Callista," and maintains close relationships with two children from earlier marriages and his grandchildren.

Christi Chandler, left, and Stacy Hawsey, both of Madison and supporters of the Personhood Amendment promote their initiative as they waver signs at drivers in the midst of last minute campaigning, Nov. 8, 2011 in Madison, Miss.

/ (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Personhood USA, the national group behind the effort to outlaw abortion by having a fertilized human egg declared a "person," is working to get the issue on the ballot in at least six states for the voting next fall.

"We're already collecting signatures in Oregon, Montana and Florida for 2012," said spokeswoman Jennifer Mason. In addition to those states, she said they have contacted state officials in Ohio, California and Nevada to begin the ballot initiative process. And she said they are eyeing another attempt in Colorado, where they have failed twice before.

While the loss in Mississippi was a setback, Mason said the high profile fight in the off-year election has galvanized opponents of abortion. She said Personhood USA offices were flooded by hundreds if not thousands of calls from supporters across the country in the hours after the defeat in Mississippi.

Newt Gingrich, speaks at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate, Nov. 12, 2011 in Spartanburg, S.C.

/ AP

This post originally appeared on Slate.

Newt Gingrich, who may be on his way to becoming the Republican front-runner, is going to find this piece stupid. Fundamentally stupid, frankly. It might be the biggest abomination since Chamberlain's appeasement. That's the way the former speaker sees most things. Talk of tax increases is "maniacally stupid," he said in Iowa yesterday, where he also called the deficit supercommittee "one of the dumbest things" he's ever seen in Washington. In the (10 and counting) Republican presidential debates, Gingrich has routinely treated the moderators the way Oliver was treated when he asked for a second bowl of mush.

This is all in character for a man who built his career in part by dismantling opponents of both parties. He didn't just do battle with Democrats--he dethroned their leader, Jim Wright. Among his own party, Gingrich also criticized those lawmakers he considered too accommodating of the other side, such as then-House Minority Leader Bob Michel. When he was speaker, Gingrich's treatment of his fellow Republicans led to a failed coup attempt.

But as a presidential candidate, Gingrich has been sweet as pie to his rivals. In Saturday's debate he was given a chance to attack Mitt Romney and he refused (watch the video). He was given a second chance and he didn't take it, calling Romney "a friend who is a great business manager." He not only has resisted attacking his opponents on the debate stage, he has praised almost all of them. In the Las Vegas debate, denouncing Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan seemed to be the ante for participation. But Gingrich stood up for him.