A Tough Road Ahead for Rove  —  Karl Rove, the top White House political strategist, is coming off the worst election defeat of his career to face a daunting task: saving the president's agenda with a Congress not only controlled by Democrats, but also filled with Republican members resentful …

Rupe is in soup with troops  —  O'Reilly rips Murdoch, book, show  —  Fox News firebrand Bill O'Reilly threatened yesterday to whack Rupert Murdoch in the wallet for promoting O.J. Simpson's how-I-murdered-my-wife book.  —  Vowing to boycott any company that advertises on Fox's …

Unlike Clinton, Bush Sees Hanoi in Bit of a Hurry  —  President Bush likes speed golf and speed tourism — this is the man who did the treasures of Red Square in less than 20 minutes — but here in the lake-studded capital of a nation desperately eager to connect with America, he set a record.

Chertoff says U.S. threatened by international law  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Bush administration official on Friday said the European Union, the United Nations and other international entities increasingly are using international law to challenge U.S. powers to reject treaties and protect itself from attack.

Dick Cheney at the Federalist Society last night — translated  —  (updated below)  —  Vice President Dick Cheney and the Federalist Society got together last night and shared some hearty laughs about the administration's ongoing eavesdropping on American citizens, inside the U.S. …

Web 'fuelling crisis in politics'  —  Tony Blair's outgoing chief strategy adviser fears the internet could be fuelling a "crisis" in the relationship between politicians and voters.  —  Matthew Taylor - who stressed he was speaking as a "citizen" not a government spokesman - said the web could be "fantastic" for democracy.

S. Korea won't back Bush on inspections  —  HANOI, Vietnam — President Bush, trying to stiffen global resolve to confront North Korea, failed to win South Korea's support Saturday for intercepting ships suspected of carrying supplies for the communist regime's nuclear weapons program.

Dutch set to ban burka in public after election  —  A BAN on wearing the burka in public in the Netherlands moved a step closer yesterday, just five days before voters go to the polls in elections that had not until now focused on issues of race and immigration.

Democrats Split on How Far to Go With Ethics Law  —  Left and right: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Center: David Scull for The New York Times  —  After railing for months against Congressional corruption under Republican rule, Democrats on Capitol Hill are divided on how far their proposed ethics overhaul should go.

Ruling: Classes divided by race  —  At Preston Hollow, principal tried to appease affluent parents, halt white flight, judge says  —  For years, it was an open secret at North Dallas' Preston Hollow Elementary School: Even though the school was overwhelmingly Hispanic and black …

BLOGS, CAMPAIGNS AND THE 2006 ELECTION  —  Lost in the schadenfreude over the Lamont loss to Lieberman is the fact that the blogosphere — specifically, the Leftosphere — was spectacularly effective during the 2006 campaign.  Time Magazine observes...  It would be incorrect to premise …

No Grunting, They Said, and He Was at the Gym  —  Albert Argibay, a bodybuilder and a state correction officer, was at a Planet Fitness gym with 500 pounds of weight on his shoulders one afternoon this month when the club manager walked over and told him it was time to leave.

Our Ali  —  . Yesterday, I received an Email from a friend citing a very touching obituary for a young Iraqi boy by the name of Ali who died of leukemia in his family's self imposed exile in Jordan.  It was written by one of his teachers and published in Al Rai newspaper.

Party Shift May Make Warming a Hill Priority  —  Dramatic changes in congressional oversight of environmental issues may pump new life into efforts to fight global warming, activist groups and lawmakers said yesterday.  —  Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) announced his intention to become …

Political meat & veg  —  The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr. was interviewed by GQ recently, and among other things, he said: … (I liked the jokes, too.)  —  I got this via Lambert via Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, both of whom are faunching to see Al run and see hope that he would accept a draft.

THIS TIME THE DREAM'S ON ME  —  I jumped the gun in celebrating the annivesary Johnny Mercer's birth earlier this week in "Accentuate the postive."  Today is the day, and the number of songs for which he is known to have written the lyrics, according to Philip Furia's biography of Mercer …