Intelligence Chief Is Shifted to Deputy State Dept. Post  —  John D. Negroponte, whom President Bush installed less than two years ago as the first director of national intelligence, will soon leave his post to become the State Department's second-ranking official, administration officials said Wednesday.

In Padilla Wiretaps, Murky View of 'Jihad' Case  —  In 1997, as the government listened in on their phone call, Adham Hassoun, a computer programmer in Broward County, Fla., proposed a road trip to Jose Padilla, a low-wage worker there.  The excursion to Tampa would be his treat, Mr. Hassoun said …

SHEEHAN, IRAQ WAR PROTESTERS BREAK UP HOUSE DEMOCRATS' PRESS CONFERENCE  —  Jan. 3: Peace activist Cindy Sheehan speaks on Capitol Hill.  —  WASHINGTON — Iraq war protesters broke up a press conference by House Democrats on Wednesday with chants to bring American troops home from Iraq.

Lieberman Party Now in Hands of Critic  —  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The party Sen. Joe Lieberman created to mount his independent re-election campaign has been seized by one of his critics, and the secretary of state's office said Wednesday that it won't challenge the takeover.

Rehnquist FBI File Sheds New Light on Drug Dependence, Confirmation Battles  —  The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's Senate confirmation battles in 1971 and 1986 were more intense and political than previously known, according to a newly released FBI file that also offers dramatic …

U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting  —  A laboratory that has tested most of the nation's electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.

Bush Signals Budget Accord  —  President Bush promised yesterday to produce a plan to balance the federal budget in five years and challenged lawmakers to slash their special pet projects in half next year, embracing priorities of the new Democratic leadership that will assume control of Congress today.

The Right Minimum Wage  —  A federal minimum wage is an idea whose time came in 1938, when public confidence in markets was at a nadir and the federal government's confidence in itself was at an apogee.  This, in spite of the fact that with 19 percent unemployment and the economy contracting …

A Moment of Savagery - Now a New Hope?  —  If you're looking for a blogger to feel some pity for Saddam Hussein because his executioners were primitive and rude, you've come to the wrong place.  Punch up the Daily Kos and you'll find countless diarists eager to express some sympathy for this particular devil.

We May be Biased Toward Hawks, but We've Become Doves  —  Pinker's brief contribution to the Edge's year-end treat gives a cheerful & progresive sense of proportion.  While acknowledging our historical tendency toward cruelty and barbarism, he describes a world more dovish.

This Is Your Brain on Drugs, Dad  —  WHEN releasing last week's Monitoring the Future survey on drug use, John P. Walters, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, boasted that "broad" declines in teenage drug use promise "enormous beneficial consequences not only for our children now …

What the Rudy Memo Missed  —  The Guiliani leak may be the least of his problems.  —  Rudy Giuliani is back on the front pages of the New York City tabloids, thanks to a juicy scandal straight out of junior high.  There's the misplaced binder (The New York Daily News published …

Have something to say?  I don't care  —  Don't bother sending anything to that e-mail address below — because I don't care.  —  DON'T E-MAIL me.  —  That address on the bottom of this column?  That is the pathetic, confused death knell of the once-proud newspaper industry, and I want nothing to do with it.

The Democratic Party: A Vast Sleeper Cell  —  Fortunately for liberals, the Iraqis executed Saddam Hussein the exact same week that former President Ford died, so it didn't seem strange that Nancy Pelosi's flag was at half-staff.  Also, Saddam's death made it less of a snub when Harry Reid skipped Ford's funeral.

Belarus hits Russia with oil tax  —  Belarus has imposed big taxes on Russian oil pumped through its pipelines to customers in Europe.  —  The move comes three days after Belarus reluctantly agreed to demands by the Russian state energy giant, Gazprom, to a doubling of gas prices.