Welcome Political Cover  —  When President Bush insisted that the Iraq Study Group would not provide cover for the White House to chart a "graceful exit" of American troops, he was missing the whole point.  The much-anticipated report from the bipartisan panel is precisely about political cover.

Our Pearl Harbor  —  On Dec. 7, 1941 - 65 years ago this week - pilots from a Japanese carrier force bombed Pearl Harbor.  They killed 2,403 Americans, most of them service personnel, while destroying much of the American fleet and air forces stationed in Hawaii.

What Rumsfeld's Critics Don't Get  —  Many Iraq war supporters greeted the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with a sigh of relief, if not a quiet cheer.  —  Neoconservatives like the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol and war historian Frederick Kagan began clamoring …

Justice Grover Versus Justice Oscar  —  SCALIA AND BREYER SELL VERY DIFFERENT CONSTITUTIONAL WORLDVIEWS.  —  If judicial confirmation hearings in the Senate were one-tenth as illuminating as last night's debate between Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer at the Capitol Hilton …

Mixed reaction to Cheney's daughter's pregnancy … WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative leaders voiced dismay Wednesday at news that Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney, is pregnant, while a gay-rights group said the vice president faces "a lifetime of sleepless nights" …

What we should and should not do: An Authoritative Voice...  After watching the Iraq Survey Group press conference today I am a firm believer that all politicians are idiots.  Okay well not all of them but they all have a problem understanding reality.  If any politician is reading …

Postcampaign Lobbying Thrives  —  Democrats Are Fêted  —  Ahead of Push  —  For Stricter Ethics Rules  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats may be promising a clampdown on lobbyist freebies once they take control of Congress.  But ahead of that push, party leaders are collecting lobbyists' checks …

'I'll flee the country as soon as the US leaves'  —  The Iraqi sergeant has dodged bullets from the al-Mahdi Army and traded fire with Sunni insurgents.  —  Yet in his years with the Iraqi Army he has learnt one simple lesson: once the US military pulls back in Iraq, he should leave the country if he wants to survive.

Hillary's too vane to be president  —  It didn't matter much that Sen. Clinton is a fickle leader — until Obama came along.  —  WHILE THE country is urgently engaged in finding a way out of the quagmire in Iraq, Hillary Rodham Clinton is busy holding private dinners for key Democrats …

Trusts Busted  —  The seamy underside of asbestos litigation.  —  Harry Kananian died in the year 2000 of mesothelioma—a cancer almost always caused by asbestos.  But the legacy that may survive him is the role he is posthumously playing in exposing evidence of asbestos litigation fraud.

SPECIAL TO PJM: Iran Supreme Leader Hospitalized.  Condition Grave.  —  Three days ago, Iran's dictator, Supreme Leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei, was rushed to the vast medical facility traditionally known as "Vanak" hospital (it now has an Arabic name that means "the 12th Imam Hospital") …