Warner's Statement: "I Have Decided Not To Run For President"  —  Nine months ago, I left the office of Governor in Virginia.  I was immensely proud of what we had accomplished.  We faced historic challenges and got real results.  —  Upon leaving office, I committed all my time and energy …

Intelligence failure cited in Korean crisis  —  Recent U.S. intelligence analyses of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs were flawed and the lack of clarity on the issue hampered U.S. diplomatic efforts to avert the underground blast detected Sunday, according to Bush administration officials.

Army chief declares war on Blair: 'We must quit Iraq soon'  —  The head of the Army is calling for British troops to withdraw from Iraq "soon" or risk catastophic consequences for both Iraq and British society.  —  In a devastating broadside at Tony Blair's foreign policy …

BREAKING—New House polls will show looming Democratic landslide  —  I usually despise blog posts with the word "BREAKING" in the title, in all caps, but in this rare case I actually am the person breaking the story, so I think it is justiifed.  —  The new Majority Watch from Constituent Dynamics will be released in a few minutes.

A "Deep Blue Sea" in the 2006 Midterms?  —  Small Craft Advisory becomes Gale Warning for GOP  —  Just a few weeks ago, President Bush and the GOP appeared to be staging a remarkable comeback that would have enabled the Republicans to retain their congressional majorities.

Baker's Panel Rules Out Iraq Victory  —  WASHINGTON — A commission formed to assess the Iraq war and recommend a new course has ruled out the prospect of victory for America, according to draft policy options shared with The New York Sun by commission officials.

HOW ROVE TWISTED FOLEY'S ARM:  —  It seems increasingly clear that the GOP congressional leadership, eager for every safe incumbent in the House to run for re-election, looked the other way as evidence accumulated that Mark Foley had a thing for pages.  Holding onto his seat became more important …

When will the right recognize the cost of conceding Web 2.0?  —  WASHINGTON - If you doubt the Internet is causing a sea change in politics, just ask "independent" Senate candidate Joe Lieberman, who came out on the wrong end of a blogger-fueled campaign for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut.

Senate Report: Five Nonprofit Groups Sold Clout to Abramoff  —  Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued today.

Lawyer: Gov't workers got fake diplomas  —  SPOKANE, Wash. - At least 135 federal employees, including a White House staff member and National Security Agency employees, bought bogus online college degrees from a diploma mill, a lawyer in the case against the mill operators said.

Where I stand on Iraq  —  Sen. Clinton says how Bush went wrong and offers her prescription for the war  —  We have to deal with the Iraq we have, not the Iraq we wish we had.  And the Iraq we have is a deteriorating, violent conflict that, if not technically a civil war, is about as close as you can get.

Christopher Hitchens Has Gone Mad  —  The latest New Yorker has a (sadly offline) profile of Christopher Hitchens by Ian parker.  It's not clear to me why Hitchens, whose day of influence has decidedly passed, merits a profile, but it's hard to argue when the material is this good.

Times Editorial Page Editor Steps Down  —  Gail Collins, the first woman to run the editorial page of The New York Times, is stepping down Jan. 1 and will be succeeded by Andrew Rosenthal, the deputy editor of the page.  Ms. Collins is taking a leave of absence from the paper to write a book …

Will Voters Pull the Trigger?  —  The old theater adage demands that if you show a pistol in Act 1, you'd better fire the gun in Act 3.  That same wisdom applies to politics.  —  The voters have been pointing a symbolic gun at the Republican regime in Washington for many months now.

POLL: OPPOSITION TO IRAQ WAR GROWING IN SOUTHERN STATES  —  Region's attitudes marked by "sadness," reluctance to endure future war costs  —  DURHAM, N.C. - Despite strong early support for the Iraq war in the South, the region's opposition to the war now matches national levels …

U.S. brings first treason case in over 50 years  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California-born convert to Islam, accused of making a series of al Qaeda propaganda videos, became on Wednesday the first American charged with treason since the World War Two era, U.S. Justice Department officials said.