All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Did Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., "flake out," or did the Obama administration err by choosing him as Commerce Secretary?

That’s the question "Washington Unplugged" guest moderator John Dickerson of Slate asked at the top of his roundtable discussion with Politico's Eamon Javers and CBS News' Political Director Steve Chaggaris.

"I think he had a change of heart," Chaggaris answered.

Gregg said he'd "thought about it over the last 10 days and realized, I can't work with these guys. I don't agree with them about a lot of this stuff, especially on the stimulus."

Politico's Javers cut the former Commerce Secretary appointee little slack.

"Whether Gregg had good intentions or not ...

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CBSNews.com's weekly politics webcast, "Washington Unplugged," is back this Friday with a new round of high-profile guests and insider commentary. Tune in Friday afternoon right here.

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg's withdrawal from consideration to become Commerce Secretary marks the fourth appointee of President Obama to have failed to cross the finish line. What really happened in the lead up to the announcement, and what is the White House's reaction? White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton will be on hand to explain.

And "Washington Unplugged" has a guest moderator this week: John Dickerson, Slate Magazine's chief political correspondent. Having covered the Bush White House and Capitol Hill, John will bring both energy and experience to the show.

After we get the story from the White House, Dickerson will turn to CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason, who will ...

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Christina Ruffini is a CBS News broadcast associate based in Washington.

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Up until about fifth grade, I didn't give a hoot about Valentine's Day. Back then, boys had the cooties, chocolate gave me a tummy ache and the best jewelry was still made out of candy.

Through out elementary school, the fourteenth of February meant just two things: First, that I would get to waste a large portion of the day gluing sparkles and lopsided hearts onto a shoe box and second, that as per the official holiday party rules, I would be receiving a cheap paper valentine from every single member of my class.

The festivities were blissfully heterogeneous. No one was singled out. We all ended our day overflowing with benign tokens of cardboard affection - pleasant puppies whispering: "I ruuuv you," cuddly cats telling us we were "Puuuurrrrfect," etc.

Criminal vowel usage aside, all was well with the world.

Then I turned 10 ...

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If you missed our marathon coverage from Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day, we compiled a little reel of highlights - and a bunch of behind-the-scenes moments from our set in Washington that you definitely didn't catch last week.

You'll see some cameos from Colin Powell, Russell Simmons, Jesse Jackson and more! It was a long day, but we had a lot of fun. Check it out below:

Mark Knoller is a White House correspondent for CBS News.

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Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush was in the Oval Office at 6:55 a.m. this morning.

He made some phone calls, talked to National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and took a call from his former Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Mr. Bush then talk a last walk around the South Lawn, and is now spending his last moments in the White House with his family until the Obamas arrive just before 10 a.m.

Perino herself was in the press room giving out her last supply of M&M's with the presidential seal and Mr. Bush's signature on them.

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Click Here For All Of CBSNews.com's Special Inauguration Coverage

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Complete Inaugural Coverage

Christina Ruffini is a CBS News broadcast associate based in Washington.

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During Tuesday’s festivities, when cabs are scarce, limos are expensive and buses are downright confusing, everyone from the Metro police to the sandwich artists at Subway seem to agree that if you can’t walk it, the rails are your best bet for inauguration transportation.

As someone who rides the train for an hour everyday, twice a day, five days a week and occasionally on weekends, I have become nauseatingly familiar with the unwritten rules of the rails. They are not difficult to figure out. Anyone who is paying the slightest bit of attention to their surroundings or has a modicum of respect for their fellow human beings should be able to deduce the basics.

For example, when heading into a station - or trying to escape from one - people usually stand on the right side of escalator. This is not some en mass form of street performance art. It is so that the lazy, the high-heeled, the elderly and the injured can get out of the way of the running-lates, the highly caffeinated, and the ambitious showoffs who feel the need to climb what are literally some of the tallest moving stairways in North America. Stand right, walk left, and keep you luggage, purses or overcoats on your side of the stair. Nobody likes an escalump.

Once on the train, please do hold on. There is nothing worse than ...

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Complete Inaugural Coverage

Christina Ruffini is a CBS News broadcast associate who works in Washington, but lives in Maryland. Also a starving graduate student, Ruffini has become an expert in a variety of parasitic behaviors that include grocery shopping in the kitchens of friends, scrounging for paper products in public restrooms and finding free places to crash.

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When it comes to lodging in the land of Lincoln, your chance of finding a decent, well-priced place to stay during Barak Obama’s inauguration are getting slimmer than Amy Winehouse on a weekend purge.

More than 95,000 hotel rooms have been booked in the greater D.C. metropolitan area, private apartments are being rented out in droves, and couch-surfing has reached near epidemic levels. Even roach-riddled broom closets are going for $600 a night.

However, if you are one of the many procrastinating patriots still in desperate need of a dwelling, you are not completely without options.

You could go on Craigslist and agree to pay an exorbitant fee to lease the flat of some random district denizen who will probably show up in the middle of the night and throw you into his basement well.

Or, if you've seen "Silence of the Lambs" too many times, you could take a cue from the city’s many residence-less residents, and think inside the cardboard box. Oversized Rubbermaid containers also make excellent ...

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You've seen him assaulted with a shoe, but care to see President Bush "hung?" That's a scenario Mr. Bush decided was worthy of a joke this morning in Washington.

"I suspected there would be a good-size crowd once the word got out about my hanging," the president said at the unveiling of his portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait by Robert Anderson – a classmate of Mr. Bush at Yale – will be hung in the exhibition “America’s Presidents," and available for viewing starting tomorrow.



White House correspondent Mark Knoller writes: "Since the gallery now has portraits dating back to George Washington, he noted the symmetry - from George W. to George W."

Mr. Bush also noted that the artist said he had a lot of trouble with Mr. Bush's mouth "and I told him that makes two of us," the president said ...

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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You hear it from nearly everyone you meet on Election Day: "Hi. Did you vote?"

Answer no and you’re most likely in for an argument.

"Why not?"

"Don’t you know it’s your duty to vote?"

And my personal favorite: "If you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to complain about the outcome!"

Without revealing whether I voted or not, I can certainly think of reasons a person could choose not to vote ...

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Jill Jackson is a Capitol Hill field producer for CBS News.

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton paid House Democrats a visit this morning on her second day back at work after suspending her long-fought presidential campaign. The meeting, held in the basement of the Capitol, was closed to the press. But reporters could hear round after round of applause erupt from the room and ran from entrance to entrance trying to catch Clinton on her way back to the Senate side.

After a long goodbye with members, Clinton, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and House leadership headed straight for the cameras staked out around the corner. A very enthusiastic Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomed Clinton back and said that "because of her campaign, the Democratic Party is more energized, is much more prepared to win in November and, more important than that, is much more prepared to govern come January."

As House Speaker, and chair of the Democratic Convention in August, Pelosi refused to endorse Clinton or Obama through the entire race for the Democratic nomination. But Pelosi had nothing but praise for Clinton today, saying that Democrats are unified behind Clinton's message. Pelosi said she told members at the meeting that "Sen. Clinton has emerged from this election the most repected American figure for now and a long time."