Pelosi Puts Weight Behind Murtha in Leader Bid  —  Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in line to become Speaker in January, is throwing her support to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) in the race for Majority Leader, a move that will be an early test of her influence and will weigh heavily on Murtha's contest …

Democrats say will push for Iraq withdrawal  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats, who won control of the U.S. Congress, said on Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months, but the White House cautioned against fixing timetables.

Democrats Push for Troop Cuts Within Months  —  Democratic leaders in the Senate vowed on Sunday to use their new Congressional majority to press for troop reductions in Iraq within a matter of months, stepping up pressure on the administration just as President Bush is to be interviewed …

Lieberman a Wild Card in Iraq Policy  —  Senator Says Bipartisan Effort Is Needed for a Successful End  —  Voters seemed to be speaking loudly and clearly about Iraq last week when they elected war critics such as Bernard Sanders of Vermont, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and James Webb of Virginia to the Senate.

Rove Remains Steadfast in the Face of Criticism  —  For a man still climbing out of the rubble, Karl Rove seemed in his usual unflappable mood.  He roamed around his windowless West Wing office decorated with four Abraham Lincoln portraits, joking with his staff, stuffing copies of "The Iliad" …

Iran TV broadcasts 'US ship spy plane footage'  —  Iran's Arabic language television station broadcast footage it claimed showed a US aircraft carrier cruising in Gulf waters it said was taken by an unmanned Iranian drone.  —  The brief minute-long film, which was shown …

China sub secretly stalked U.S. fleet  —  A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.  —  The surprise encounter highlights …

Baghdad's morgues so full, bodies being turned away  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Baghdad's morgues are full.  —  With no space to store bodies, some victims of the sectarian slaughter are not being kept for relatives to claim, but photographed, numbered and quickly interred in government cemeteries.

True Blue Populists  —  Senator George Allen of Virginia is understandably shocked and despondent.  Just a year ago, a National Review cover story declared that his "down-home persona" made him "quite possibly the next president of the United States."  Instead, his political career seems over.

Video: The Simpsons salute the lazy and uneducated  —  Another morale-booster from Groening and company.  How pitiful is it that Cracked magazine did a funnier job of lampooning John Kerry than the Simpsons did with the U.S. military?  —  With good episodes increasingly hard to come by …

The realists take charge in Washington  —  Editor's note: The following is a summary of this week's Time magazine cover story.  —  (Time.com ) — This was a big deal.  Certainly, it was the end of George W. Bush's radical experiment in partisan governance.

An Uneasy Alliance  —  AMID all the post-election bliss evident within the constellation of bloggers and online Democratic activists known as the "netroots" last week, there was a note of anger and disappointment.  Ned Lamont, the antiwar Connecticut businessman who defeated Senator Joseph …

Fresh Off the Farm in Montana, a Senator-to-Be  —  "He's a small farmer from the homestead,'' a friend says of Jon Tester. "  That's absolutely who he is.  When he joins the United States Senate in January, big Jon Tester — who is just under 300 pounds in his boots …