The Obama administration is ramping up rhetoric against House GOP members, suggesting Republican congressmen are deliberately holding up key economic legislation to improve their chances in the 2012 elections.

Administration adviser and former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that House Republicans may want the economy to remain weak, thus increasing the likelihood of an anti-incumbent wave next November. At stake, he says, are bills to extend the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits, as well as measures to provide tax cuts to encourage hiring in certain industries.

"At some point you get to ask yourself, ‘Are they not dealing with these things because, quite frankly, they just don't want to see this economy get better because they want to see an election that might turn out better for them?'" Gibbs posited on NBC's "Today."

Gibbs, who left his Press Secretary post in February and now plays an as-yet undefined advisory role to the administration, echoed the sentiments of his former boss, who made a similar suggestion in Cannon Falls, Minn. Monday. (read more)

2012 GOP candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann has some harsh words for her fellow Minnesotan, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, striking back after days of jabs from the Pawlenty camp over the congresswoman's health, record and viability in the presidential race.

In a campaign email to supporters Sunday afternoon, Bachmann defended her "real world" successes and excoriated Pawlenty for "leaving a multi-billion-dollar budget mess" in Minnesota, which led to a government shutdown in the state early July.

"Real world actions speak louder than the words of career politicians," the statement concludes. Full email below:

Bachmann on Experience: "I have a lifetime record of success and action in the real world."

Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has issued the following statement in response to comments made by former Governor Tim Pawlenty on a Sunday morning news program:

"These are serious times that require serious solutions -- not more of the same. Being right on the issues is critical -- it is what the American people demand. Executive experience is not an asset if it simply means bigger and more intrusive government. (read more)

Texas Rep. Ron Paul's decision not to run for his thirteenth term in Congress is apparently music to the ears of some of his stalwart supporters-but not in the way you may think.

A slew of Libertarian Party candidates have announced their intentions to vie for the Republican's seat, which he has held since 1997. Paul is running for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination and is considered the most libertarian-leaning candidate in the field, and in fact was the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 1988.

"Dr. Paul has served honorably for 12 terms as 'the Libertarian' representative in Congress," Libertarian Party of Texas Chair Pat Dixon said in a statement released Wednesday.

"The Libertarian Party is proud to offer the voters of District 14 a representative in Congress who will continue to uphold the same principles to which Dr. Paul has remained committed, and that are completely absent in the Republican and Democratic parties."

Competing for the job is Jefferson County party chair Amy Jacobellis, Texas State Libertarian Executive Committee member Eugene Flynn and Bob Smither, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat former Rep. Tom DeLay's resigned amid scandal in 2005.

Paul's 14th district is slated to be remapped before next year's elections to include more Democratic areas. Under the plan, his district would go from an R+18 district to an R+9 district.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is putting to rest predictions that he will be the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, for now.

Appearing on "Fox and Friends" Tuesday morning, Rubio squashed Fox News Contributor Dick Morris's suggestion on Monday night's "Hannity" that whomever gets the Republican presidential nod should pick Rubio, "no question."

"That's a nice compliment, but it's not true," Rubio said. "I'm not the vice presidential nominee; I will focus on my job as the Senator from Florida."

"I'm not the vice presidential nominee," the senator, a Tea Party darling, continued. "This is the job I wanted. It's the job I ran for."

In the Senate, he said, "I can make a difference."

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann returned to her birth state of Iowa Saturday, less than a week after the three-term congresswoman announced her candidacy for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination there.

Marshalltown and Des Moines, Iowa were the latest stops on Bachmann's bus tour of early primary states, which kicked off in South Carolina Tuesday. Bachmann is scheduled to spend the Independence Day holiday in her birth state before hitting New Hampshire next week.

In the days surrounding her official announcement, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been asked if she is a "flake," called a "Barbie with fangs," faced fears from within her party that she would be "Palinized," and taken heat for incorrectly claiming legendary actor John Wayne was born in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa.

Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume said Monday on "The O'Reilly Factor" that Bachmann's tongue may get in the way of her chances in the 2012 race. "She has a tendency to say things that, you know, may not have the additional attraction of being true, and while they may not in and of themselves be particularly important declarations, they're the kinds of things that may catch voters' eye and make people wary of her."

Bachmann refused to lend credence to these doubts in a round of morning show interviews Tuesday, dismissing her misstatements as simply human and disregarding media scrutiny as part of the job. (read more)

One's a handsome 50-something former governor with a large, attractive Mormon family, moderate conservative views, and a pesky connection to the Obama administration to combat.

The other's a handsome 60-something former governor with a large, attractive Mormon family, moderate conservative views, and a pesky connection to the Obama administration to combat.

And both are running for president.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman are candidates in a growing field of contenders for the 2012 GOP nomination, but they may have more of a challenge convincing voters they aren't political twins separated at birth than edging out other hopefuls with their campaign platforms and promises.

Huntsman's profile reads like that of the quintessential American politician. Born in 1960, Huntsman was a boy scout who grew up to serve as an Asian affairs emissary for the Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 administrations. He became the governor of Utah in 2005, an office to which he was reelected in a landslide before resigning in August, 2009 to accept an appointment as Ambassador to China for President Obama. (read more)

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich blasted President Obama Wednesday morning for a joke about "shovel-ready" stimulus projects the president made at a jobs forum Monday.

"Every American who is unemployed-14 million-and every American whose home is currently worth less than their mortgage-one out of every four Americans-should be enraged that the President of the United States, in the middle of the ... Obama depression, is so insensitive, so uncaring that he doesn't realize the failure of his policies is causing pain to millions of human beings in this country," Gingrich said in an appearance on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning.

"I think it is frankly a disgraceful comment on how out of touch with reality Obama is, that he could joke about the failure of his policies," the former House speaker continued.

Gingrich's comments are some of the most forceful yet from Republicans, who for two days have railed against Obama's economic agenda, citing remarks in which the president, chuckling, admitted some stimulus projects were "not as shovel-ready as we expected." (read more)

Gary Johnson is frustrated with his exclusion from next week's Republican primary debate in New Hampshire, and now he's letting the world know.

"It's really elitist," the former New Mexico governor said on the Fox News LIVE web show, referring to CNN's decision to invite only potential candidates who poll higher than two percent nationally to their June 13 debate - some of whom haven't even officially declared an intention to run.

"When we look at it that, [in] about half the polls that they conducted my name wasn't even on that list," Johnson argued.

"It's parsing hairs," he added of the 2 percent threshold. "This is a shut door here."

Johnson cites similarly low polling at this stage in the races of former President Bill Clinton, 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and former President Jimmy Carter-all Democrats who eventually won their party's nomination. (read more)

The White House hosted more than 200 Congressional Republicans Wednesday to iron out a plan to address the deficit and debt limit. But at least one GOP congressman refused to attend.

Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry "respectfully declined" President Obama's invitation to join the House Republican Conference, expressing his dissatisfaction with the president's leadership on the budget and deficit in a statement released as the meeting got underway.

"I don't intend to spend my morning being lectured to by a President whose failed policies have put our children and grandchildren in a huge burden of debt," Landry writes.

"Until the President produces a responsible deficit reduction plan, I'm not going to the White House to negotiate with myself," the statement continues. "Our conference has put out for months where we would start the process. The President has done nothing..." (read more)