LYNN CHENEY IN CNN SITDOWN, SLAPDOWN: DO YOU WANT AMERICA TO WIN?  —  Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, took on CNN Friday evening during an interview with anchorman Wolf Blitzer.  —  Transcript:  —  CHENEY: You made a point last night of a man who had a bookstore in London where radical islamists gathered.

In Clean Politics, Flesh Is Pressed, Then Sanitized  —  Campaigns are filthy.  Not only in terms of last-minute smears and dirty tricks.  But also as in germs, parasites and all the bacterial unpleasantness that is spread around through so much glad-handing and flesh-pressing.

Is There Progress Through Loss?  —  A national election, a national decision.  —  A year ago I wrote a column called "A Separate Peace," in which I said America's leaders in all areas—government, business, journalism—were in some deep way checking out.  They saw bad things coming …

Democrats Get Late Donations From Business  —  Corporate America is already thinking beyond Election Day, increasing its share of last-minute donations to Democratic candidates and quietly devising strategies for how to work with Democrats if they win control of Congress.

Deterring Kim Jong Il  —  Graham Allison charges that the Bush administration's issuance of vague threats has been precisely the wrong approach to North Korea. … There are two problems with this approach.  —  First, Allison is simply wrong on the first of his three C's of deterrence policy.

Rogich linked to all players but Mazzeo  —  GOP political guru key player in scandal  —  If Chrissy Mazzeo is to be believed, her claims appear to point to a wide-ranging attempted cover-up centering around Republican political guru Sig Rogich, one of the most powerful figures in Nevada, and national, politics.

Bloomberg Sends Troops to Help Lieberman  —  In the Lieberman campaign office in Hartford are, from left, Korinne Kubena, Ariel Dvorkin, Crystal Cook and Brian Honan.  All but Ms. Cook are on loan from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City.  —  In his battle for re-election …

Tangled Webb  —  Cognitive dissonance in Virginia. … Yowie.  We don't often hear rude talk like that up here in Arlington, Virginia, straight across the river from Washington, D.C. Here the leafy, winding streets are lined with Priuses and Volvos and the bumper stickers say "Visualize World Peace" and "Goddess Power."

Exclusive: Former Employee Says Gibbons Knew of Her Illegal Status  —  Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons is facing more tough questions on a whole new issue.  These questions revolve around an illegal immigrant whom Gibbons and his wife Dawn employed as their housekeeper and babysitter.

DEATH COMES FOR THE CUBAN TYRANT  —  Last Wednesday, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro may have slipped into a coma.  —  On Saturday, his sycophant, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, flew into Havana (scroll down), possibly to bid a final farewell to his Cuban master.

Keeping false hope alive for Dem war plan  —  You can turn off CNN, stop e-mailing me The New York Times editorials and stuff a sock in Keith Olbermann's piehole.  You've done it.  You've closed the deal.  —  I'm ready to vote Democrat.  —  Yes, the man who proudly ran Pat Buchanan's campaign …

Kennedy-KGB collaboration  —  History has long since vindicated Ronald Reagan's Cold War policy.  Even Sen. Ted Kennedy, whom no one would accuse of harboring pro-Reagan sympathies, had to admit that Mr. Reagan "will be honored as the president who won the Cold War."  But opinions have not always been so united.

Rep. Porter releases phone records, denies wrongdoing  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Rep. Jon Porter on Friday denied ever breaking fundraising laws by calling donors from his congressional offices.  He released phone records and copies of his schedules for days when a former staffer claims he did break the rules.

Letterman vs. O'Reilly...Round Two...Fight!  —  David Letterman didn't try to hide the fact last night that he just plain doesn't like Bill O'Reilly.  He wasted no time bashing FOX News and doing what few people can do — ridiculing O'Reillys ratings (Letterman's audience is more than 2x as large .)

Prosecutor Yet to Interview Rape Accuser  —  DURHAM, N.C.  —  The district attorney prosecuting three Duke lacrosse players accused of raping a woman at a team party said during a court hearing Friday that he still hasn't interviewed the accuser about the facts of the case.